OHIO STATE POST GAME THREAD - THOUGHTS

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PMWinSTP said:
No reason this team can't rip off five wins starting Saturday in Lincoln. Better game plan from the staff. A few more wrinkles on offense and defense looked better, especially at the line of scrimmage. Still some lingering in game management issues...including those wasted time outs.

Zack's second INT was actually right on the money...threw it right where WR ended up but the safety made a very good play. Could argue he didn't look off the safety on that one. He's getting better each game.

If Gophs minimize the T/Os (and get a few), I see an 8-3 Gophs team with a lot of momentum going into Madison.
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Huh? The WR was wide open until the ball came down. It was the opposite of throwing someone open, it was a bad throw.
 

Oregon Gopher said:
You're a complete a$$hat- why do bother coming on this board? You don't support the school, the players or anything connected with this state. Go root for UCLA.


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In all seriousness, I apologize for calling you a loser. It was completely uncalled for and you are right, I am an a$$hat for calling you that. I hope you can accept my apology.
 
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GO4INLALALAND said:
In all seriousness, I apologize for call you a loser. It was completely uncalled for and you are right, I am an a$$hat for calling you that. I hope you can accept my apology.
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Damn, a GopherHole Bro Hug. What a day !
 


Spoofin said:
Fair enough. I hope you are right. I would argue he has over-thrown a large percentage of those long balls and that the biggest concern is the “air he puts under” those long balls - but he can improve with age/strength for sure. I really like ZA5, but I don’t share your optimism that he will start connecting on those anytime soon.


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He's missed some long balls no question, but I also put it on the receivers for some of the misses as he is throwing to a spot in many cases. It is funny that some are saying he floats the ball too much on long throws and some are saying his long throws are too flat. Fleck thinks he can make those throws otherwise they'd stop calling those plays.
 


PMWinSTP said:
He's missed some long balls no question, but I also put it on the receivers for some of the misses as he is throwing to a spot in many cases. It is funny that some are saying he floats the ball too much on long throws and some are saying his long throws are too flat. Fleck thinks he can make those throws otherwise they'd stop calling those plays.
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You've GOT to believe that arm strength will improve... think back on yourself, the differences between age 18 and 20....
 

GO4INLALALAND said:
In all seriousness, I apologize for calling you a loser. It was completely uncalled for and you are right, I am an a$$hat for calling you that. I hope you can accept my apology.
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No worries- accepted


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PMWinSTP said:
He's missed some long balls no question, but I also put it on the receivers for some of the misses as he is throwing to a spot in many cases. It is funny that some are saying he floats the ball too much on long throws and some are saying his long throws are too flat. Fleck thinks he can make those throws otherwise they'd stop calling those plays.
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He floats them high and oftentimes short (which has fortuitously led to several PIs) , but beyond that is the obvious issue with throwing into coverage and locking on early on pretty much every other throw. PJ needs to beat those habits out of him soon. Shock collar? (We are training a very stubborn and energetic GSD right now...)
 

Pompous Elitist said:
He floats them high and oftentimes short (which has fortuitously led to several PIs) , but beyond that is the obvious issue with throwing into coverage and locking on early on pretty much every other throw. PJ needs to beat those habits out of him soon. Shock collar? (We are training a very stubborn and energetic GSD right now...)
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He's been short, he's been long, and right on the money with the long throws. OL has more often than not given him no time to either move through progressions or set and throw.

Watched four games yesterday and the better parts of three so far today and guess what, QBs are under and over throwing WRs in those games too. He has a pretty big potential upside IMHO and has made improvements over the course of these six games. As I mentioned before, Fleck must have confidence in him throwing long because they keep calling those pass plays. If that's not the case, then you have to question the play calling.
 



Yeah, he has upside but simply saying where someone is at today. He should be able to settle in better with the protection change.
 

Our secondary coaching/coverage calling is not good. On one particular play OSU was in trips (all 3 outside the hash), and we had one defender outside the hash. WTH? Also, cover 2 from the 25?????? 3 easy holes mid-range sideline and oh yeah....right down the middle....4th quarter TD. oops.
 

PMWinSTP said:
He's been short, he's been long, and right on the money with the long throws. OL has more often than not given him no time to either move through progressions or set and throw.
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I like Zach but let's be real- the next time I see him move through his progressions will be the first time. Not atypical for a true frosh but it is something he needs a lot of instruction on.


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Oregon Gopher said:
I like Zach but let's be real- the next time I see him move through his progressions will be the first time. Not atypical for a true frosh but it is something he needs a lot of instruction on.


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You are saying he has not in six games, not so. Is it an area he needs to improve? Yes. Has he had many opportunities to show he can in games? No.
 



Who would have thunk that Zack would have better pass protection vs OSU than be NMSU?
We have heard that Zack throws the long ball well in practice. Early games he was too long on almost all and now he is mostly short. Would love to see him improve over the next six games.
 

PMWinSTP said:
He's missed some long balls no question, but I also put it on the receivers for some of the misses as he is throwing to a spot in many cases. <b>It is funny that some are saying he floats the ball too much on long throws and some are saying his long throws are too flat. </b>Fleck thinks he can make those throws otherwise they'd stop calling those plays.
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Not sure I have seen the opposing view - he floats his long passes. I’m not ripping him, he is 18 and his arm strength will improve. I am just stating a current issue that limits or potential now and needs to improve a lot if he is going to be our QB for years to come. I disagree that his 2nd INT was a good pass. He floated it so badly the Safety was able to come all the way over from the center of the field to pick it. TJ was open and it would have been a TD if ZA5 had more zip on his long ball. Heck, even PJ commented in the presser on how he floated that one. It is what it is. Nothing we can do about it in ‘18 I suspect.


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Spoofin said:
This moral victory vs no moral victories debate is silly. It is just how you choose to phrase it. Nobody on here thinks yesterday was perfect or any type of big accomplishment. However, it is hard to deny we looked better than in previous weeks and no one should apologize for appreciating improvement. Forget the score and look just at the play on both lines of scrimmage yesterday and tell me one shouldn’t be encouraged by that. Who would have predicted that? Pleasantly surprised. Doesn’t mean I was skipping through the house after the game either.


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Well said. It’s amazing how some people (especially in the twitter world) don’t understand this. Someone says something positive and they get a bunch of responses like “moral victories are for losers”.
 


Spoofin said:
Not sure I have seen the opposing view - he floats his long passes. I’m not ripping him, he is 18 and his arm strength will improve. I am just stating a current issue that limits or potential now and needs to improve a lot if he is going to be our QB for years to come. I disagree that his 2nd INT was a good pass. He floated it so badly the Safety was able to come all the way over from the center of the field to pick it. TJ was open and it would have been a TD if ZA5 had more zip on his long ball. Heck, even PJ commented in the presser on how he floated that one. It is what it is. Nothing we can do about it in ‘18 I suspect.


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Comment was made several times after Iowa...long throws were too flat. Rwatched both INTs multiple times, TJ was running full speed on that 2nd INT and would have caught it in stride. Bateman was also running full speed on the first INT. Floating would imply WRs would have needed to slow up to catch. You can certainly question whether it was the right decision to throw those passes, but both would have been caught in stride by the WRs.
 

Is it possible that ZA was asked to throw the long balls because eventually when things start clicking that it actually will become a real threat? This is part of the learning through failure? Unfortunately, at least in the Maryland and Iowa games ZA was trying to avoid getting killed.

Inserting Faalele seem to stabilize the Offensive Line. We shall see how well it works in the Nebraska game. They need to do something to give ZA better protection, and to help with run blocking. They have to increase TOP to keep the defense from being tired in the second half.

Even though there are a few miscues, blocking seen to appear much better in the tOSU game.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Comment was made several times after Iowa...long throws were too flat. Rwatched both INTs multiple times, TJ was running full speed on that 2nd INT and would have caught it in stride. Bateman was also running full speed on the first INT. Floating would imply WRs would have needed to slow up to catch. You can certainly question whether it was the right decision to throw those passes, but both would have been caught in stride by the WRs.
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“Would have been caught in stride - if not intercepted” doesn’t meet my criteria for a good pass.


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As far as improving arm strength, I don't know. Yes, younger players can get stronger with maturity and weight work, but if physical strength was all you needed, then Faalele would be the QB.

playing QB is more than arm strength. It involves timing, intelligence, instincts, and keeping cool under pressure. And, the issue of "touch." Mitch Leidner had a fairly strong arm - in fact, one could argue that the deep ball was his best throw - but he didn't have touch. And I'm not sure that is something that can be taught. It's one of those feel things - like throwing a good curve ball in baseball - you either have it or you don't. If it could be taught, everyone would have it.

Annexstad does a good job with the short and intermediate routes. He does not throw a good deep ball, IMHO. Can he learn - maybe. Will he learn - who knows.
But, there is no guarantee that he will get better with age and strength training. If he does, great. But, if he doesn't, then the Gophers will need a back-up plan. That's why you ideally recruit a QB every year. It's like life insurance - you may not need it, but if you do need it, you better have it.
 

Finally watched the game back on DVR. Don't know whether to be maddened we didn't finish or proud of how hard the Gophers fought. We won the line of scrimmage for the most part and ran at will against Ohio State. Can't recall the last time that happened.

Front 7 on defense was outstanding. Haskins faced pressure most of the day.

Annexstad has got to do a better job of looking off the safety on his deep throws. It's the cause of both interceptions, but especially the second one. Johnson probably has a touchdown if ZA takes an extra second move the safety over. So many close opportunities for big scores. Ibrahim was one leg tackle away from a long running TD, same for Bateman on one of the slants.

Tyler Johnson had a huge day, but that fumble in the first half was a killer. You're driving to potentially take a 21-10 lead. Finish that drive, and you never know what happens with the way the defense played.

It was great to see the offensive line get a push and open up holes for the run game. They also did a good job protecting Annexstad for the most part, and the flea flicker was a thing of beauty. Not often you get a tight end with nobody within 30 yards.

Hard not to be optimistic heading to Nebraska, but there will be nothing easy about that game. Nothing.
 

My biggest take away from this game is that we can compete. We are close to the tipping point, IMO. We had the lead twice against F***ing #3 ranked Ohio State AT Ohio State. And we had the possibility of a 2 possession lead had it not been for the TJ fumble!

But, our team still is young is some key places (QB youth was very apparent in this game IMO). We still made some key mistakes that lost us the game. But the fact that we weren't completely blown out was more than I expected from this game.

We'll see if they can clean up some of the mistakes, and keep playing at this caliber, for the rest of the season. Regardless, the next 2 or 3 years could be exciting.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Well said. It’s amazing how some people (especially in the twitter world) don’t understand this. Someone says something positive and they get a bunch of responses like “moral victories are for losers”.
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Stop liking things that I don't like.... < insert label here >
 


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