zman
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That’s funny.
***OFFICIAL PURDUE AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!!***
- Thread starter Stan
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That’s funny.
Great Plains Gopher
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Huge win - no doubt about it.
MNVCGUY
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I mean it was ok i guess....nothing too exciting....
Word
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short ornery norwegian
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And again, the world is not black and white. It is possible to be thrilled the Gophers won today - and to still be upset about the performance against Illinois. When a team's performance changes that abruptly from week to week, it's fair to ask why.
Could Robb Smith have been that big of a detriment to the defense? And if he was, then it's fair to question why the change was not made sooner. This may not be fair - but imagine the entire season being re-played with the Gopher defense we saw today. I think a lot of people would feel differently about the season in general and Fleck in particular. So, Fleck deserves credit for making the change. But it's still fair to question why Smith was hired in the 1st place, and why Fleck kept Smith around as long as he did.
Of course - I will admit that hindsight is always 20/20. It's easy to look at the way the Gophers played today, and conclude that they should have dumped Smith sooner.
Could Robb Smith have been that big of a detriment to the defense? And if he was, then it's fair to question why the change was not made sooner. This may not be fair - but imagine the entire season being re-played with the Gopher defense we saw today. I think a lot of people would feel differently about the season in general and Fleck in particular. So, Fleck deserves credit for making the change. But it's still fair to question why Smith was hired in the 1st place, and why Fleck kept Smith around as long as he did.
Of course - I will admit that hindsight is always 20/20. It's easy to look at the way the Gophers played today, and conclude that they should have dumped Smith sooner.
MNVCGUY
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I find it hard to believe that anyone, including the members of the football staff itself, saw that game coming. If the defense is able to put up similar performances against Northwestern and Wisconsin it will definitely be fair to wonder why Smith was not let go of sooner. But as you say, hindsight is 20/20.
It was 100% the players not being able to run what we had been trying to run against spread offenses.
We played more zone today than the Maryland, nebraska, and Illinois games combined
GophersInIowa
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That was fun. Proud of the way the defense responded. They looked so much more aggressive today.
Vandy
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Heard a Carter Coughlin interview on my drive to the game... D wanted to play fast and simple, trust your teammates to handle their assignments so that you could concentrate on your individual tasks... no worries about covering for mistakes of others. This is exactly how they played and it worked to a T.
hungan1
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Holy Crushmush! The one game that I didn't watch, and the Gophers pull an upset!
Was Robb Smith over strategizing the defensive scheme hat he lost focus on the players' strengths and over complicated the defense?
Rossi is auditioning for his chance to be the Defensive Coordinator in the next two games.
Was Robb Smith over strategizing the defensive scheme hat he lost focus on the players' strengths and over complicated the defense?
Rossi is auditioning for his chance to be the Defensive Coordinator in the next two games.
Oregon Gopher
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Really? I didn't get the impression they played tons of zone. I'll have to watch the replay.
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MGGopher
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They did...and it was so very smart. I look forward to a more thorough breakdown from people with the time to do that, but from my first look it allowed our LB's to play more aggressively as they didn't have man cover responsibilities on TEs and RBs. It allowed our safeties to play downhill and get into the box. It allowed more creative blitz packages (we brought a safety a couple times and also tons of looping on the DL).
You might remember a play that Nebraska ran against us 3 times in short yardage situations where they motioned a WR all the way across the formation...we were in man, so of course the trailing defender couldn't keep up with the WR and Neb hit him each time for a 5+ yard gain. Illinois did this a couple times as well. Purdue ran this same concept twice, but we were in zone and simply "bumped" the coverage responsibilities over to the strong side rather than trailing the WR all the way. He was the first look on the route, but was covered in the flat each time so Blough had to go elsewhere with the ball. A simple example, but something that was infuriating me the past few weeks.
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Great what Rossi did yesterday but I hope we aim a lot higher than him in our DC search.
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