***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA AT PURDUE IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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I caught the final few minutes on my phone while at BlackStack. Was fairly interesting.

Did Kramer somehow stay in bounds on that run towards the sideline? I had poor service but I thought he went OOB
 

kg21 said:
I'd rather have seen them throw it at least once. Especially on 3rd down. Purdue had all the time in the world to go down and score even after we run it. They walked down the field with ease until the Nubin pick. Purdue had all day to score before the pick.

Have Kramer look for the pass, and if someone isn't wide open, then he pulls it down and simply runs it. We still get the field goal and the clock keeps running.
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Kramer is still getting his feet wet (pun intended). During the year, I’ll bet you see Kramer hand off to Williams from this set—causing defenses to think a bit more. And when the other team least expects it, you’ll see Kramer throw to Kieft or BSF out of this set. All good things in time.
 


Gophergrandpa said:
Kramer is still getting his feet wet (pun intended). During the year, I’ll bet you see Kramer hand off to Williams from this set—causing defenses to think a bit more. And when the other team least expects it, you’ll see Kramer throw to Kieft or BSF out of this set. All good things in time.
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One of Kramer's runs had some OL movement to create an advantage with blockers, Purdue looked like they had a LB watching Kramer, the OL made their blocks, obliterated the LB.

Not so sure passing is part of the plan but we will see.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Kramer is still getting his feet wet (pun intended). During the year, I’ll bet you see Kramer hand off to Williams from this set—causing defenses to think a bit more. And when the other team least expects it, you’ll see Kramer throw to Kieft or BSF out of this set. All good things in time.
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Completely agree with your post. I just don't comprehend why it is always Williams back there. If its a 1 or 2 yard to go, maybe I understand getting bigger backs in the game. Otherwise, I'd rather see Potts/Irving
 


ForecastingAWin said:
Completely agree with your post. I just don't comprehend why it is always Williams back there. If its a 1 or 2 yard to go, maybe I understand getting bigger backs in the game. Otherwise, I'd rather see Potts/Irving
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Williams is the best blocker of the 3. Only thing I can think of.
 


ForecastingAWin said:
Could be. Hope not, otherwise teams are going to key Kramer allllll day on that formation.
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I mean, it's not like we're making any secret about it. Most likely will be a Kramer run. Williams isn't a slouch as a runner so if they want to mix it up they can.
 

Word said:
I mean, it's not like we're making any secret about it. Most likely will be a Kramer run. Williams isn't a slouch as a runner so if they want to mix it up they can.
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Fair point, he isn't a slouch. I just prefer my best players/rbs on the field in crunch situations, which is when we deploy the 'cat (3rd/4th and short, running out the clock, etc.). Just my 2 cents tho
 





You just won't see the wildcat QB hand it off very often. The main reason you run it is to out number the defenders in the box and you lose that if you hand it off.

Williams is in there because he's a good blocker, think of him like a FB on that play and Kramer is just a tailback getting the ball snapped to him.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I caught the final few minutes on my phone while at BlackStack. Was fairly interesting.

Did Kramer somehow stay in bounds on that run towards the sideline? I had poor service but I thought he went OOB
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Yeah, he did. His momentum stopped prior to being pushed out. Purdue had to call a TO.

The announcers missed it.
 




Word said:
There are lots of highly successful coaches that preach the 1-0 thing.
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I don't care if he preaches it to the team, it's still lame to use as a deflection in an interview.
 

ForecastingAWin said:
Completely agree with your post. I just don't comprehend why it is always Williams back there. If its a 1 or 2 yard to go, maybe I understand getting bigger backs in the game. Otherwise, I'd rather see Potts/Irving
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Potts might have been nicked up. If Kramer is going to run, I’d rather have Williams (215lbs) lead blocking instead of Irving (185lbs).
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Potts might have been nicked up. If Kramer is going to run, I’d rather have Williams (215lbs) ahead of him that Irving (185lbs).
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Yea, I'm seeing the possible bad news on Potts unfortunately :( And I do understand the concept of having a big back out there as another blocker if its qbUTM out of that formation every time.

That said, even Seth Green handed the ball off occasionally, and we didn't have a 3rd/4th string running back or a fullback in there with him.

I see both sides, but I'd rather have Potts (if healthy) or Irving be out there as another threat to run the ball. I'm no offensive coordinator however. Appreciate the dialog!
 

ForecastingAWin said:
Yea, I'm seeing the possible bad news on Potts unfortunately :( And I do understand the concept of having a big back out there as another blocker if its qbUTM out of that formation every time.

That said, even Seth Green handed the ball off occasionally, and we didn't have a 3rd/4th string running back or a fullback in there with him.

I see both sides, but I'd rather have Potts (if healthy) or Irving be out there as another threat to run the ball. I'm no offensive coordinator however. Appreciate the dialog!
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If Ibrahim was healthy he would hand it off.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, he did. His momentum stopped prior to being pushed out. Purdue had to call a TO.

The announcers missed it.
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The announcers were preoccupied by the cheerleaders diving into the muck, but the official on the Minnesota sideline stopped the clock when Kramer went out of bounds. I think Purdue took the timeout to prevent the clock from starting once it was marked back ready for play since there were over two minutes left.
 

UST82Gopher said:
My only issue is that Kramer HAS to stay in bounds - he can't be trying for extra yards and get pushed out to stop the clock.
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With Purdue calling the timeout there, I'm not sure the refs called him out of bounds. He might have been ruled forward progress stopped in bounds (forced out by the defense). The announcers didn't do a good job filling us in on that.

edit add: 2nd Degree Gopher above is probably right with the 2:00 minute issue. I was thinking there was less time left.
 
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Word said:
Williams is the best blocker of the 3. Only thing I can think of.
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Williams is probably also the best straight forward power back of the remainder. Potts and Irving tend to dance too much and go down quickly in thick traffic...at least my speculation.
 


2nd Degree Gopher said:
The announcers were preoccupied by the cheerleaders diving into the muck, but the official on the Minnesota sideline stopped the clock when Kramer went out of bounds. I think Purdue took the timeout to prevent the clock from starting once it was marked back ready for play since there were over two minutes left.
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Thanks!
 



noamfromm said:
I like that Walley is getting picked on -- good practice for him to develop (I hope)
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I think you are right. He looks like the guy that will come back and be an all conference player.
 

I don't want to lose track of the fact that this was a B1G road win over a team that is not a complete dumpster fire, so coming out with said win is a victory no matter how it was accomplished.

That said, if I had know this game would have been played in that weather I would have expected the Gophers to win convincingly. I am a bit concerned that Purdue could have that much success throwing the ball in those conditions...and they also ran it better against Minnesota than they have most opponents. The 4th and 5 stop by the Gophers would have been a conversion with a better throw and it looked like Purdue had the game tying TD on the play before the Nubin pick if the QB threw a better ball. Of course, the end result was the Gophers D getting two takeaways and limiting the Boilermakers to 13 points and you'll take that every time. I am just not sure that defensive effort against a better opponent or simply in better conditions would look very impressive.

On offense, I was ready to praise Tanner Morgan for the type of gutty performance you hope a veteran QB can have when things aren't exactly going right. Then he started his slide early and it was all down hill from there. I don't even blame him for the slide, but it might have rattled him? From that point on he was 2-6 for 3 yards and one of those completions was a give up play on 3rd down that actually lost 6 yards.

In the run game, we rushed 35 times for just 3.6 yards a carry. The week prior, Illinois ran 42 for 4.2 yards a carry against this defense. Former Gopher OL Derek Burns suggested on Twitter (and I am interested to hear his thoughts on the podcast) that Purdue was always bringing extra guys in to the box and that has been a recurring theme this season. We're showing we're not willing to throw in advantageous situations, so teams are just selling out to stop the run. Consider me very skeptical that we've fixed anything offensively.

Coaching. I am worried that this game will affirm PJ's beliefs in an ultra conservative game plan. We had a couple situations that would have made a lot more sense to go for a 4th and short than it did against Bowling Green...and we punted. On our last drive of the game, the 3rd and 3(?) Potts run that resulted in a first down he was contacted 3 yards prior to the sticks...it's a great effort to get the first down, but I have zero confidence that results in a first down against Iowa or Wisconsin (I could be wrong). Then you have the 3rd and 5 call. This was egregious. Purdue had 10 guys in the box and a clear one on one with CAB on the perimeter. There was simply no way we were going to get 5 yards running up the middle with Cole Kramer there. If you are that risk averse...why not just kneel on the ball? I am being sarcastic here but you take away the chances of a fumble or a hold and minimize the chances of a false start. We ended up giving them the ball back with 1:46 and a chance to tie the game...which came way too close to happening. If we don't trust Tanner to put him out there and take a chance to put the game away at the end...that's a problem. If we don't have a WR we trust to be able to win a pure one on one like that...that's a problem. Also, what happened to being the least penalized team in the country? Some huge penalites again on Saturday. On the flip side, huge credit to Fleck and his staff for having the team ready/willing to grind for a win for all 4 quarters in an ugly game. At 2-2 and coming off a horrible loss, there are teams that would let go of the rope at some point in a game like that where just one (lack of) effort play could have changed the outcome.

Special teams were fantastic (not something said often) and won this game for us. Some huge punts by Crawford and it's so nice having Dragan force touchbacks regularly. If Purdue's offense didn't have exclusively long fields all day, they put up a lot more points.

Nebraska after the bye seems enormous to me. I would love to see some significant changes to the play calling and offensive philosophy in general during the bye when teams usually work on themselves.
 

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