Playing to avoid a blowout

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EG#9

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This seemed to be the gameplan today and it was painful to watch. You know it's bad when the play by play announcer is almost mocking the Gophers use of the same unsuccessful running play over and over again. I didn't think it would be possible to feel bored watching the Gophers play USC, but that certainly was how I felt at times today.
 

EG#9 said:
This seemed to be the gameplan today and it was painful to watch. You know it's bad when the play by play announcer is almost mocking the Gophers use of the same unsuccessful running play over and over again. I didn't think it would be possible to feel bored watching the Gophers play USC, but that certainly was how I felt at times today.
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What was more painful, is when USC repeatedly stacked the box and we didn't go to the play action. It's like we didn't have a play ready that would make them pay for overplaying the run.
 

Brewster knows he is gone. He wanted the clock to run and avoid turnovers and quick three and outs. He knew if he tried to get in a track meet they would have scored 50 +. The object was to not get embarrased again rather than playing to win.
 

I couldn't disagree with you more. The gameplan was working halfway through the 3rd quarter. One play, the KO return, was a huge turning point of the game.
 

It's like Brewster wanted to take as much time off the clock & keep USC's Offense off the field no matter how dumb our Playcalling looked...
 


thailleagle said:
It's like Brewster wanted to take as much time off the clock & keep USC's Offense off the field no matter how dumb our Playcalling looked...
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After last week, do you blame them for wanting to keep our defense off the field as much as possible?
 

There's no question they did this today. It may not have been a bad strategy early, but there's no excuse for punting near midfield down 3 scores with 7 minutes left. That was playing to avoid a blow-out if I've ever seen it. It was indefensible.
 

howeda7 said:
There's no question they did this today. It may not have been a bad strategy early, but there's no excuse for punting near midfield down 3 scores with 7 minutes left. That was playing to avoid a blow-out if I've ever seen it. It was indefensible.
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I think that's about a 50-50 call, meaning half the coaches would have punted, and half would have gone for it. Weren't we at our 40 or something like that? It would have been a no brainer if we would have been at their 40.
 

I thought Brew coaces ok today - just didnt have the horses to get it done.
 



howeda7 said:
There's no question they did this today. It may not have been a bad strategy early, but there's no excuse for punting near midfield down 3 scores with 7 minutes left. That was playing to avoid a blow-out if I've ever seen it. It was indefensible.
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I would have liked to see them go for it there as well.
 

That style of football had us a lead in the 3rd quarter. He was obviously trying to shorten the game, but that is a good strategy in a game like today. We didn't get it done, but if USC doesn't return that kick, it's a different game.
 

but if USC doesn't return that kick, it's a different game.
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They scored 19 more points after that. Yes the special teams was awful, but we scored 7 points in the second half until the late TD with no time left.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
That style of football had us a lead in the 3rd quarter. He was obviously trying to shorten the game, but that is a good strategy in a game like today. We didn't get it done, but if USC doesn't return that kick, it's a different game.
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The face mask penalty on Jew Jew killed us also.
 



gopherweirdo said:
They scored 19 more points after that. Yes the special teams was awful, but we scored 7 points in the second half until the late TD with no time left.
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13 more after that play...

Hard to say concerning the game plan, but that return really did knock the wind out of everyone. The facemask penalty was one of those "you know the game is over when..." moments. There was still a chance until that. Kiffin finally figured out his run game was the way to get it done.

Kinda thought Kiffin's going for 2 all the time was an attempt to slap the face of U football for thinking they belonged on the field with them though. I am glad the defense did not allow any of them.
 

gopherweirdo said:
They scored 19 more points after that. Yes the special teams was awful, but we scored 7 points in the second half until the late TD with no time left.
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Don't underestimate momentum. I'm not saying we win if they don't return that kick, but there's not doubt that one play totally shifted the momentum to their favor.
 

I agree we played not to get blown out. I could tell on our first running play when they totally blew up the play that we would have trouble running the ball. I thought we had some success on our first touchdown drive when we starting throwing more, but then we went back to a run first offense.

The thing about this game is that our defense actually played quite well in the first half. We should have gotten a lead in the first half because you had to know that eventually USC would hit a few home runs because they have superior speed at the skill positions.

It's true that we were in the game in the early part of the 4th quarter, but I thought it was in large part to the fact that our defense played well and USC made a number of mistakes, including a very conservative offensive game plan and key defensive penalties that allowed us to continue drives and take additional time off the clock.

Anyone else think it was odd that USC went to a run first offense for most of the game despite the fact that South Dakota totally torched our pass defense last week? They're coaching was perhaps even worse than ours on offense.

Overall, we are a long ways away from being a top team in the big ten, let alone a national contender. But the defense was much, much better this week. After last week I thought we wouldn't even compete on the road against teams like Illinois and Purdue and Michigan State. But I now think we've got a chance in our games against the second tier big ten teams. And we could possibly beat Wisconsin who struggled this week and maybe even shock a team like Penn State at home.
 

What's more realistic? That the Gophers coaching staff honestly felt they could beat USC at the line of scrimmage (even when it hadn't worked half-way through the third quarter), or they were playing not to get blown out?

And answer me this, but when USC calls 3 timeouts to force you to run a play, why don't you say, "OK, game on. On 4th down we're chucking it down field."

Yeah, I get the downside, but in order to beat a team that is better than you at some point you are going to have to take some risks. The Gopher didn't take a single high risk today. That's playing to not get blown out. End of story.
 

Mark Dantonio showed Coach Brewster tonight how you play to win the game. I would've rather seen the Gophers lose by 30 taking chances to win the game than losing like they did by 11 taking no chances. It doesn't matter if you lose by 3 points or 30 points, it still counts as one loss in the loss column. You can't be afraid to win!
 

I'm telling you...that NW game took the balls out of Brew's pants, lol...

He used to take some heavy risks before that...
 

tato2001 said:
What's more realistic? That the Gophers coaching staff honestly felt they could beat USC at the line of scrimmage (even when it hadn't worked half-way through the third quarter), or they were playing not to get blown out?

And answer me this, but when USC calls 3 timeouts to force you to run a play, why don't you say, "OK, game on. On 4th down we're chucking it down field."

Yeah, I get the downside, but in order to beat a team that is better than you at some point you are going to have to take some risks. The Gopher didn't take a single high risk today. That's playing to not get blown out. End of story.
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Let me get this straight. You watched the University of South Dakota put up nearly 450 yards of total offense against the Gopher defense a week ago. So facing the University of Southern Cal, you wanted Adam Weber to air it out 40-50 times and outduel Matt Barkley.

Ignoring the fact that the Gopher game plan led to a 14-13 lead with less than six minutes to play in the third quarter, let's get into a track meet with the Trojans!
 

It was a good game plan and it was working, although USC clearly and repeatedly made critical mistakes which helped us significantly. Like others, my frustration was with the lack of creativity and their unwillingness to use more misdirection. For example, we ran a play at least three times where Weber hands off and then, after the handoff, fakes a pitchout. A 13 year old knows that for plays like that to be effective you have to fake the handoff and pitch it out a few times too, so that the defense has to eventually guess which play your going to run. This is truly elementary.

It appears as if the Gopher coaches are just not that bright. They had enough talent to put more points on the board while still maintaining the game plan. I'm sure lack of execution or defensive disruption caused problems. But, again, our coaches aren't as smart as they should be.
 


I have no problem with the gameplan. I can't get some fans.. They piss and moan about our crappy coach because he can't seem to make up his mind and stick with an identity for our team over the course of his 4 years. And when he finally sticks to his guns about it ('smash mouth' football), the same fans whine at how piss poor it is. I loved today's game plan because we didn't need to get in a shootout with USC.. Our best chance was to control the clock.

I think it was during a few drives in the 3rd quarter when we'd run it up the middle on 1st and 2nd downs, and convert on 3rd downs.. Multiple times. Almost like clockwork. It was a thing of beauty. Now, weren't consistent with that, but there was a stretch where we were.

I have to say what 'killed' us was the kick off return-TD and the face mask on Barkley.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I couldn't disagree with you more. The gameplan was working halfway through the 3rd quarter. One play, the KO return, was a huge turning point of the game.
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+1

Correct gameplan when you are totally overmatched. We were overmatched. Anyone who fails to recognize this has their head in the sand.
 

I think those barking for more aggressive play calling have short memories. You forget that the momentum shift in the Cal game last year came from a Weber interception in GOPHER territory on FIRST down.
 

Do you guys even pay attention?? Hello!!

The game plan has been and will be boring ball control run, run, run. Get used to it. We did exactly what Brew and Horton have been saying we were going to do. We couldn't go wide because they were faster than us. So the middle is all that's left if you're going to pound the rock.

Not my favorite style of play but hardly a surprise.
 

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