OHIO STATE POST GAME THREAD - THOUGHTS

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Just finished watching the recording...

Honestly, this game was harder to watch than both Iowa and Maryland. The Gophers actually had a shot. Many shots. And they blew it every single time. Feels like the same crap. I've seen the Gophers beat one Top 25 team since I started watching. Felt very possible today. The game shifted after that TJ fumble.

But, oh well I guess. Back to hoping.
 

A few thoughts:

ZA's deep ball is ugly, he had too many balls batted down too. He's certainly leaving the door open for Jacob Clark and Cole Kramer to come in and push him for playing time next year.

Daniel Faalele really helped solidify the OL, I was impressed. I can't wait to see him and Curtis Dunlap on the same OL (later this season?).

Mohamed Ibrahim keeps impressing me too, he's got great balance and a nice low center of gravity.

That 4th down 'first down' call and subsequent TD pass by OSU was a killer.

Carter Coughlin was beating his guy like a drum all game.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
We lost because we made mistakes they didn't. I am not going to get excited because we only lost by less than we might have. 0-3 big ten is unacceptable. Need to get it together soon. Fortunately, we have an 0-6 team coming to town next week
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I hope not. I am going to Nebraska next weekend.


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So did Nebraska have a Moral victory losing by three to Northwestern? Just asking.
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
Terrell Smith, #4...where the heck was he? Did I miss something? Hurt? Suspended? He would have helped on that #14 from tOSU, he is a good receiver.
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He was out with an injury, so was OJ Smith.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
I would say a "moral victory" is a game with a completely unexpected outcome. the Gopher - OSU game was a good showing, but I would not put it in the moral victory category because of all the mistakes the Gophers made. To me, a moral victory is more of a game where you do everything right, but just come up a little short against a superior opponent - like you take the #1 rated team in the state to OT before losing. A game where you can really feel good about how you played, despite the outcome. Today, the Gophers had too many self-inflicted wounds for it to be a moral victory.

There is a difference between a "moral victory," and a team taking a step forward. The Gophers took a step forward today in some areas, but it's not a moral victory from my point of view.
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Fair enough. I would counter that both the defensive line and offensive line played light years better than I expected. I don’t think anyone’s going to ever feel “good” about losing but today feels much better than Maryland.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
I would say a "moral victory" is a game with a completely unexpected outcome. the Gopher - OSU game was a good showing, but I would not put it in the moral victory category because of all the mistakes the Gophers made. To me, a moral victory is more of a game where you do everything right, but just come up a little short against a superior opponent - like you take the #1 rated team in the state to OT before losing. A game where you can really feel good about how you played, despite the outcome. Today, the Gophers had too many self-inflicted wounds for it to be a moral victory.

There is a difference between a "moral victory," and a team taking a step forward. The Gophers took a step forward today in some areas, but it's not a moral victory from my point of view.
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So like a moral* victory? [emoji41]


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The Gophers played respectable today. The wounds were self-inflicted.

Faalele is a difference maker stabilizing the O-Line.

Lots of learning even in a game they lost.

Annexstad needs to stay away from momentum busting deep balls until he has better command of his long balls and not telegraph his passes.

You cannot afford to make a mistake against a talent laden elite team like Ohio State.

They are due for a B1G win. There are winnable games left on the schedule:

At Nebraska
Indiana
At Illinois
Purdue
Northwestern
At Wisconsin.

If it is a single B1G win, please make it be the last game of the season against Wiscy. That will be a sweet finish to the season. But, I am optimistic they will finish strong in spite of injuries.
 
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mkAz said:
A few thoughts:

ZA's deep ball is ugly, he had too many balls batted down too. He's certainly leaving the door open for Jacob Clark and Cole Kramer to come in and push him for playing time next year.

Daniel Faalele really helped solidify the OL, I was impressed. I can't wait to see him and Curtis Dunlap on the same OL (later this season?).

Mohamed Ibrahim keeps impressing me too, he's got great balance and a nice low center of gravity.

That 4th down 'first down' call and subsequent TD pass by OSU was a killer.

Carter Coughlin was beating his guy like a drum all game.
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Not going to beat many teams giving up 600 yards. Tired of Smith’s soft zone with the safeties14 to 16 off. That’s means are defensive front are playing 9 against 11. Certainly wasn’t a moral victory. Not sure Huff or Shaenalt should see the field.
Anyone else getting sick of ZacA doing the double peak to the bench and drawing the clock down to 4or 5 seconds? Simplify the offense if requires a double peak. Maybe it’s time for Morgan. Maybe he won’t stare at his receiver.
 

Pete smith said:
Not going to beat many teams giving up 600 yards. Tired of Smith’s soft zone with the safeties14 to 16 off. That’s means are defensive front are playing 9 against 11. Certainly wasn’t a moral victory. Not sure Huff or Shaenalt should see the field.
Anyone else getting sick of ZacA doing the double peak to the bench and drawing the clock down to 4or 5 seconds? Simplify the offense if requires a double peak. Maybe it’s time for Morgan. Maybe he won’t stare at his receiver.
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Well that is certainly the worst take of the day.
 

Pete smith said:
Not going to beat many teams giving up 600 yards. Tired of Smith’s soft zone with the safeties14 to 16 off. That’s means are defensive front are playing 9 against 11. Certainly wasn’t a moral victory. Not sure Huff or Shaenalt should see the field.
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Fair point about the soft coverage schemes but who might I ask should play back there instead? We’re basically rolling 2nd and 3rd choice guys in the secondary especially after Durr got tossed.
 



We had a lot of bad breaks:
The 4th down play where OSU was given a first down was definitely not a first down.
The punt by them caught on the 1
They had aa first down play in which the left tackle moved early and was not called.
Johnson's fumble might have been overruled.
It seemed they caught all the breaks.

That was Gus Johnson's worse game ever announcing. Neither of those morons noticed thaat Zack was NOT leaving the game when Seth came in. Also they didn't notice our unbalanced line at times. They had a terrible spotter working a national game. What the hell?????
 


Proud of the whole team today. Players and coaches!

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gopherdudepart2 said:
That QB Haskins has a bright NFL future, he hit some tight difficult throws, and they have Olympic level speed in to spots at WR. That wheel route he threw to tight end was 3rd read but opened up.

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Agree with everything you said but those individuals are the biggest reasons that OSU outplayed us. If we even had just Haskins we'd be a whole lot better team.
 

I think OSU defensively in the secondary had more talent than we had on the field.

I think we all know ZA's deep ball hasn't been good, but I think the coaching staff wants to keep throwing deep to make defenses respect it.

At some point, Bateman will start winning more of those balls if thrown slightly better.

This is the first year I've seen fans complain about throwing a deep ball too often.

What surprised me about the game was our running game being able to get yardage.
 

My thoughts

Good:
-the defense came to play. They had better athletes than us across the board and our DL owned to LOS
-punt coverage was good
-Carter Couglin is an absolute gamer. Owned his guy (who was getting away with false starts) all game. Was fun to watch
-Ibrahim has some great shiftiness. Lacks top end speed but finds his holes
-the OL did a great job being more steady today; Faalele is absolutely the real deal
-ZA throwing that dig route was great (when he was on)
-The LB play was pretty stellar all day long
-the coaches gave the kids a chance to win with the scheme and play call. Just didn't make enough plays/shot ourselves in the foot too much
-the wildcat looked good again when utilized

Bad
-ZA was very erratic today, even on his shorter throws he sailed some
-Shenault got lost more times than I can count in coverage

Ugly
-ZA throwing the deep ball; he just doesn't quite have it yet on how to throw the ball down the field. Either is lofting it too much (pick thrown late) or just wildly inaccurate (pick thrown early). Coaches can't really take it out of the gameplan to throw it deep (you have to have some vertical routes on many passing plays to pull the safties out) but my level of concern in calling those plays is pretty high
-Carp kicking was not pretty today. Looked like he was in his own head on the 2nd one
-the officiating. not a good look for the zebras today. Numerous bad calls, plays not reviewed, etc.
-the last drive of the game. WTF was that PJ? You're down 2 scores. Try make something happen. That was really the one thing that left me bitter about today. Play to try come back and win the game. Fight til the end (when you have a shot within reason, not Schiano style of diving at dudes knees while they're kneeling to end a game)
 

Minuses:

ZA had another bad game. Granted, a freshman.
Turnovers. See above.
Shenault took at least one bad angle
While it might seem odd to criticize the defense after they played pretty well most of the game considering the opposition, I was frustrated we didn’t pressure Haskins on that third and thirteen at the end of the game. The book on him is pressure in his face forces bad throws. We needed a stop/no points given up on that drive.
We did give up over 500 yards. Didn’t feel like it.
Carpenter. Woof.
The officials. Burn.

Plus:
Coughlin. Wow.
The middle of the defense demolished the offensive line on a 4th and short. I jumped out of my seat.
Mohammmed Ibrahim had a great game.
The offensive line opened holes all day. I think big Daniel gave up a sack but other than that looked good.
Barber moved well
Durr played well considering the competition
Held OSU to 30 points. That’s good.
Entertainment value was high. This was fun and took me back to the Kill teams. Too bad we fell short.
Team played hard
Run defense was really for a second straight week.



.
 
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Face The Facts said:
This is the first year I've seen fans complain about throwing a deep ball too often.
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Actually, that isn’t accurate. I and many others on here would complain about the long ball under Kill. It seemed like it was either a short throw to the flat or a long ball to wr on third down that was typically incomplete. I complained a lot (hard to believe, I know) about Kill not implementing 7-10 yard routes.


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GO4INLALALAND said:
Actually, that isn’t accurate. I and many others on here would complain about the long ball under Kill. It seemed like it was either a short throw to the flat or a long ball to wr on third down that was typically incomplete. I complained a lot (hard to believe, I know) about Kill not implementing 7-10 yard routes.


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Yeah, IIRC it was a combination of mediocre receivers, oftentimes throwing only on third and long, and Leidner having *cough* issues getting it down the field accurately.

These receivers now will make a lot of QBs look good. I just can’t decide if ZA has “it” yet. He’s ok to good on the middle of the field throws, but his decision making, accuracy and velocity is suspect going beyond 20 yards.
 

For 6 years under Kill and Claeys, fans b!tched incessantly that we didn’t throw it down the field and take some chances.

Now we do and throw a few INTs, and people are outraged and begging for RUTM.

I for one like it. It’s opening up the short yardage passes and running game. Plus I think Zack will start to connect on them.
 

It'll be interesting to see how the running back position looks next year. Same with who will be under center, ZA does some things well, but I am curious if Clark or Kramer can challenge in the off season. That last pick if he just looks off a bit to keep the safety honest that's a touchdown has Tyler Johnson clearly beat the CB. Let's see if we can build off that, OSU may not have been up for us, but we still hung into the end, unlike IU last week. Guessing Nebraska will be up for next week at home, a desperate team looking to win with 90k fans on there side, but if we get up for it like today we can start turning this season around towards a bowl birth

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John Galt said:
For 6 years under Kill and Claeys, fans b!tched incessantly that we didn’t throw it down the field and take some chances.

Now we do and throw a few INTs, and people are outraged and begging for RUTM.

I for one like it. It’s opening up the short yardage passes and running game. Plus I think Zack will start to connect on them.
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We threw it downfield on play action quite often under Kill/Claeys. It was the short to intermediate that was missing. We didn’t throw much to the middle of the field.
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
Speaking of turnovers, anyone else think that Tyler Johnson should have made a better effort on the last one in the endzone? It looked like he had a shot at it and he started watching the guy, just watching the guy. Not attacking the ball and not trying to make a play on the man if nothing else to prevent him from picking it. I love TJ but that was something I think you could have had a better effort on.
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Agreed. From every angle, it seemed that was a catchable ball, and he held up and let the other guy come in and snatch it. I'm guessing that with a little more experience, we'll see him go up and make that play.

There have been several comments about the long-ball interceptions. Guys, I think we have to conclude that the coaching staff is encouraging these "jump ball" situations. I think they're confident our receivers are capable of making those plays. They might be right, but I'm getting a little sick of groaning instead of jumping out of my chair. In other words, if we don't start reeling some of those in, knock it off.

In his post-game comments on the radio, Fleck seemed to fault the receivers for those interceptions, rather than ZA. I didn't see the first one, so I can't comment on that one.

The only problem I have with ZA is his eyes. It's obvious that the way he locks in on receivers was hurting him with D backs. Now it's killing him with D lineman who are getting in the lane and knocking the passes down. That has to stop immediately. He could probably add 10 points to his completion percentage if he could get the ball past the line.

JTG
 

Like most head coaches he will defend his hand picked QB. The ratio of deep passes to interceptions is astonishingly high in Big Ten play.
 

Just re watched the game highlights.... lots of very well executed plays by MN.

Why did we not run the option pitch at all again after it worked so nicely the one time in the first quarter?

Man, that bad spot that gave OSU the 4th down conversion was a killer.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Like most head coaches he will defend his hand picked QB. The ratio of deep passes to interceptions is astonishingly high in Big Ten play.
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In the long run going deep will be good for this team and the WRs can win 50/50s. There have simply been a few that went the wrong way last couple games against good defenses. I would rather ZA heave it up than take bad sacks.
 

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