Official Post-game Thread: Badgers 20, Gophers 7

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Last year 13-38…this year 7-20….next year…?
 

Defense played as well as they could. Put in some tough spots because of the mistakes by the offense. What is puzzling is the inability of the DBs to turn their heads around when the ball is in the air.

This team is still a long way off of being able to win this type of game. Thought the moment too big for some of the younger players on offense.

As others have pointed out some more playmakers needed in the WR position and I would say in the secondary also.
 

Sid Hartman said:
If you are going to run that play you win it on 3rd down...like you said against a fundamentally sound defense you can't expect to make a 7yard run after the catch to get first down on 4th down
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So the third point on your initial post is based solely on one play?
 

How many times this year have they been held to < 200 yards rushing this year?

Quite an accomplishment.
 


Sid Hartman said:
If you are going to run that play you win it on 3rd down...like you said against a fundamentally sound defense you can't expect to make a 7yard run after the catch to get first down on 4th down
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I thought that play did not work because one of the best linebackers in the country read and and played it to perfection, not because it was a bad call.
 

The gophs lost 3 turnovers to the badgers 1 and were still in it in the 4th quarter. No way I would have believed the gophs would do that well. IMO quite impressive. I believe the badgers are a very good team.
 


I don't have a beef with Nelson, overall. The miss on the ball to Maxx though was inexcusable. Our receivers need to make more plays for Nelson he delivered some good balls in tough conditions. I'm also not worried so much about our receivers over time they will be fine. Today not so much. I'm tired of Hageman being on the field 1/3 of the time. He can create turnovers like crazy and it's an opportunity lost when he's not in there.
 



QB play and WRs. That was the difference today. We'l retool next year, and will more experienced. The future looks promising. I tip my hats off to all the seniors who went through the trials and tribulations of the Brewster Era.
 


nasa35 said:
Great take. I will say the wisconsin O-line could have been called for holding on almost every play and the by in large the refs looked the other way, WAY TOO much on obvious calls.
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Correct. Wisky was holding on a lot of plays that were not called.

Our offense was the reason we lost, however.
 

I don't remember ever being prouder of a Gopher defense. Can anyone think of a time that the Minnesota D played this well against this good of an offense in this big of a game? Penn State '99 maybe?

Phillip Nelson played really badly. He made a couple very bad decisions and threw a few balls that were mind-boggling to me in how inaccurate they were. That being said, his receivers made good plays on the ball exactly three times in about ten fifty-fifty passes, so it's not all on him. Our run game was decent, considering the opponent (Cobb is over 1000, I believe), but we simply did not make the plays in the passing game that were there to make.
 



Didn't James White have over 100 yards at half? I think 104, 105, something like that. Finished with 125 for the game. That doesn't happen often.
 

BarnBurner said:
Correct. Wisky was holding on a lot of plays that were not called.

Our offense was the reason we lost, however.
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It appeared to me that there were a lot of interference calls that should have gone against the Badgers that were not called. Some of them blatant. Finally on our last drive a couple were called but if I was a Badger defensive back i would have kept on doing it since they were not calling it.

Our defense was great but those 2 end zone interference calls against us were tough to watch. I don't think either pass would have caught and the first one especially was not catch-able.
 

Atl Gopher said:
It appeared to me that there were a lot of interference calls that should have gone against the Badgers that were not called. Some of them blatant. Finally on our last drive a couple were called but if I was a Badger defensive back i would have kept on doing it since they were not calling it.

Our defense was great but those 2 end zone interference calls against us were tough to watch. I don't think either pass would have caught and the first one especially was not catch-able.
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When we learn to turn our heads, then we'll have an argument. Refs are going to call interference on physical plays when the DB doesn't look for the ball most of the time, regardless.
 

Indi1006 said:
I don't have a beef with Nelson, overall. The miss on the ball to Maxx though was inexcusable. Our receivers need to make more plays for Nelson he delivered some good balls in tough conditions. I'm also not worried so much about our receivers over time they will be fine. Today not so much. I'm tired of Hageman being on the field 1/3 of the time. He can create turnovers like crazy and it's an opportunity lost when he's not in there.
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I could not imagine trying to throw a football accurately as cold as it was. I want back in the dome; (not really). I wonder if a heated field would generate enough heat to not just keep the field from freezing but also heat hands and bodies to some degree?
 

Nelson is exposed when he has to pass. He doesnt throw a good ball and he doesnt have
a strong arm. Must have a good running game, so he can dump to tight ends and backs.

We had end zone view day today. Receivers were open. Passes hung and were often off
target.
 

Better team (with the best player) won but ... Williams holds onto a pass first half. No penalty on us when it looked like it should have been called on Borland, and we were put into long yardage where Nelson fumbled. Then the awful miss on a wide open Williams towards the end. The Gophers would still have had to make some plays, but, damn, it could have been really tense at the end. We're just not there yet.
 

thailleagle said:
Not a completely discouraging loss... our Defense held a very good Wiscy Offense to 20 points which is the lowest they've been held this Season...

Defense played VERY good... Offense wasn't terrible but we had too many missed opportunities.

Bottom Line I think we're such a better team then what we field sometimes & today seemed like a game we could've won with a few bounces. Kinda felt like watching the Iowa game.

For a team that was supposed to blow us out & have so much more talent then us they looked very average & our Defense played very well. A few kinks to work out on the Offense but overall not disappointed with today's loss...
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I disagree. The offense was terrible. Dropped passes and overall ineptitude. They mustered zero touchdowns and didn't even sniff the red zone. That, in my book, constitutes terrible. HOWEVER, the defense was strong and held the nation's best RB combo in check as much as possible. They played inspired right away before predictably falling back only to hold strong in the fourth. This one sucks, because Wisky is light years ahead of this program, but we're moving forward.
 

Some takes are funny.

1. Nelson struggled some, but he is a sophomore and had no WRs playing today with over 8 catches entering the game.

2. Limegrover was not the issue. Silly take. He was a genius and then today forgot how to coach? Come on.

3. Fumbles. All three we lost hurt us. Can't turn it over 3 times and beat WI.

Like it or not, WI is just a better team. We are going in the right direction tho. I wouldn't be surprised to see us win next week if we can just clean up the turnovers.
 

Spoofin said:
Some takes are funny.

1. Nelson struggled some, but he is a sophomore and had no WRs playing today with over 8 catches entering the game.

2. Limegrover was not the issue. Silly take. He was a genius and then today forgot how to coach? Come on.

3. Fumbles. All three we lost hurt us. Can't turn it over 3 times and beat WI.

Like it or not, WI is just a better team. We are going in the right direction tho. I wouldn't be surprised to see us win next week if we can just clean up the turnovers.
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Agreed - even mentioned that in a previous post, but what surprised me today was how small the gap has gotten between the two.
 

Russell Wilson ‏@DangeRussWilson 1h
Is it even really a "Battle" for the Axe anymore? #OnWisconsin @BadgerFootball
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Yikes
 

If we hadn't turned the ball over 3 times today, we would've won. The game wasn't a complete disaster, which I'm happy about.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
 

Defense was lights out today. They finished a -13 (and single handidly beat the spread). If the offense could have mustered 2 tds, we'd have won. Offense was obviously overmatched. It is clear at this point that Nelson is a fairly average QB, who does many things ok but nothing well. Our receivers are either young or unimpressive. And Cobb didn't help us at all today either. Claeys has taken a bunch of players that no one besides Western Michigan wanted and turned them into a really special unit. Limegrover has taken a group of player equally unwanted and made them Big Ten average. We are in deep need of playmakers on this team. Until that happens, 8 wins will likely be a ceiling. We competed, which is what I hoped to see today and I still think we had a great year. I'd expect pretty much the same game next week although Michigan St isn't quite as good on offense (as Wisky) and yet much better on defense.
 

I thought our defense gave a pretty heroic effort. They not only held a powerful Wisconsin team to 20 points, despite the three turnovers they had to contend with. The defense also outscored our offense. Factor in the pic-six, our defense only was net -13 points. The fact that our offense couldn't score 13 (or, even once) was pretty miserable. There was a lot of talk on this thread about the receivers, other than Dos Equis (who is one of my favorite players but had a horrible game), I didn't think any of them played that badly. Nelson missing the wide open Maxx on fourth down was a horrendous mistake, college quarterbacks should hit that throw 10 out of 10 times. I thought the receivers actually got good separation, and they dropped a couple, but the problem from my vantage point was that Nelson was underthrowing them. There were quite a few plays where the receiver had a step on the defender, but the play got broken up when they had to come back on the ball. Phil has had a great season for us (Iowa game is the exception), but I thought he played pretty bad today.
 

Spoofin said:
Some takes are funny.

1. Nelson struggled some, but he is a sophomore and had no WRs playing today with over 8 catches entering the game.

2. Limegrover was not the issue. Silly take. He was a genius and then today forgot how to coach? Come on.

3. Fumbles. All three we lost hurt us. Can't turn it over 3 times and beat WI.

Like it or not, WI is just a better team. We are going in the right direction tho. I wouldn't be surprised to see us win next week if we can just clean up the turnovers.
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I like Limegrover but his offense scored zero points today in the biggest game of the year at home against our arch rival with 2 weeks to prepare. So yes he was an issue today, the MAIN issue.
 

Indi1006 said:
Limegrover and Claeys were fine today. Our kids didn't make enough plays.
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*

This!

BTW Did TV Show #97 throwing a haymaker at a Gopher player behind the play about 1:45 to 2 minutes before half?
 

Nelson is exposed when he has to pass. He doesnt throw a good ball and he doesnt have
a strong arm. Must have a good running game, so he can dump to tight ends and backs.

We had end zone view day today. Receivers were open. Passes hung and were often off
target.
 

- We have nothing to hang our heads about.

- Turnovers killed us.

- Not saying it's the reason we lost, but some very questionable calls.

- D played well.

- Not a great game for Nelson, but getting better.

- What a difference a good coaching staff makes. We have one.
 

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