Great Plains Gopher
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Great game plan; potential All-American bateman has 4 catches in regulation.
If this is our starting defense how bad are the backups?
Guys Fleck couldn't shut up about over the past year: Nubin, Wiley, Willis, Gordon IV. Not real optimistic on his talent evaluation.That's exactly what I'm wondering. I was saying if they score 21 points on you in the 1st quarter, how do you not try the subs? Unless they are even worse which is hard to imagine...
Guys Fleck couldn't shut up about over the past year: Nubin, Wiley, Willis, Gordon IV. Not real optimistic on his talent evaluation.
Mafe is the only playmaker on D....Incredible after 4 years.Right? We've been fed nothing but praise and positive affirmation that these guys could step up. I don't see a single player on D that I would even give All Big 10 honorable mention to at this point. Try someone else. Lindenburg, Sori Marin, and Aune are too slow to play in the Big 10. Of all the guys you listed, not one has impressed, not one.
Granted, you have to have a good offense these days but last year's defense would have locked the game down and you can afford to play it a little more conservative because they aren't going to give up the big play and the only way they are getting scored on is a long, time-consuming drive. This years defense is very different. You can't afford to play it like this with a defense that will melt down like this. Fleck should know this. I did not think our defense would be this badThat old adage that defense wins championships just doesn't hold up anymore. I'm an old fart, so it took me awhile to figure this out, but the days of 10-9 games are long gone; now games end up with both teams scoring more points than that per quarter. Defense still matters, but trying to run out the clock for a whole quarter isn't the way to win in today's game. The spread concepts, fast pace, and officiating all favor offenses.
Guys Fleck couldn't shut up about over the past year: Nubin, Wiley, Willis, Gordon IV. Not real optimistic on his talent evaluation.
Northwestern scored 1 fewer point against Maryland than Minnesota didThat old adage that defense wins championships just doesn't hold up anymore. I'm an old fart, so it took me awhile to figure this out, but the days of 10-9 games are long gone; now games end up with both teams scoring more points than that per quarter. Defense still matters, but trying to run out the clock for a whole quarter isn't the way to win in today's game. The spread concepts, fast pace, and officiating all favor offenses.
Bolded: What we're doing is not working. I'd be fine trying something radical.The tackling angles were bad all game, and we do a very poor job up front of hand fighting and letting the offensive line man handle the front four. If your gonna spin don't turn you back and get completely taken out of the play by being pushed sideways. Mafe is all over the place and running out of his gaps way too much. He is very fast but he is taking himself out of plays by not keeping the ball in front of him. As a defense we are playing way to fricken passive and scared because of the lack of success. Defense has to be played forward, not standing flat footed and not attacking the football. We have people constantly running themselves out of position and taking bad angles to the ball from the side. Tackling better should be on everyone's mind.
Safety's are drifting and not doing a job of staying over the top. I feel bad for # 55 he is trying so damn hard to cover up for so many mistakes and he lacks quickness a little bit. That guy plays his rear end off, I want him on my team every time.
Rush is not a stand up defensive end like Coughlin was, he doesn't have the knack for it, this is stupid to be playing him that close to the line. Play a four man or a three man front and let the linebackers actually fit and attack up front instead of getting swallowed up at the line of scrimmage. Tired of all of these out of the gate and explosive plays because of stupid mistakes, and not being able to plug up the line of scrimmage. Gophers have to tackle better, it is a tough season when your not really prepared to play with a full training camp and get the extra games. I hope people get over the cream puff crap and realize that non-conference games are important for the competition and getting people used to playing together.
I see far too good of athletes and way better football players on the field than the execution and what is happening. I don't like the labels and what is happening, about sucking, they should expect more of themselves on defense. The old defenses used to stiffen up and cause turnovers, and tackle like they were kicking some butt and rallied to the ball. I sure hope they can get better because it is a dang shame that they are giving up so many yards and points.
Do you really want him to stop building a program the way he wants to build a program?Mo spilled his guts out on the field as well as the OL. The D, well..........the O bailed them out. Then PJ and his overpaid football guru's stepped in and miserably failed the team.
I don't blame Walker. He never should have been in that position.
No more RTB and culture BS PJ. How about doing your and your staff job their jobs managing football games.
11 haphazardly placed traffic cones might even be betterBolded: What we're doing is not working. I'd be fine trying something radical.
Put our three biggest, strongest war daddy's down in a 30 front, and play four backers with some space. Rush and Mafe on the edges, MSM and Lindenberg in the middle.
Why not? Can't be worse.
Astute take. Hard to argue anything here. Kudos.The tackling angles were bad all game, and we do a very poor job up front of hand fighting and letting the offensive line man handle the front four. If your gonna spin don't turn you back and get completely taken out of the play by being pushed sideways. Mafe is all over the place and running out of his gaps way too much. He is very fast but he is taking himself out of plays by not keeping the ball in front of him. As a defense we are playing way to fricken passive and scared because of the lack of success. Defense has to be played forward, not standing flat footed and not attacking the football. We have people constantly running themselves out of position and taking bad angles to the ball from the side. Tackling better should be on everyone's mind.
Safety's are drifting and not doing a job of staying over the top. I feel bad for # 55 he is trying so damn hard to cover up for so many mistakes and he lacks quickness a little bit. That guy plays his rear end off, I want him on my team every time.
Rush is not a stand up defensive end like Coughlin was, he doesn't have the knack for it, this is stupid to be playing him that close to the line. Play a four man or a three man front and let the linebackers actually fit and attack up front instead of getting swallowed up at the line of scrimmage. Tired of all of these out of the gate and explosive plays because of stupid mistakes, and not being able to plug up the line of scrimmage. Gophers have to tackle better, it is a tough season when your not really prepared to play with a full training camp and get the extra games. I hope people get over the cream puff crap and realize that non-conference games are important for the competition and getting people used to playing together.
I see far too good of athletes and way better football players on the field than the execution and what is happening. I don't like the labels and what is happening, about sucking, they should expect more of themselves on defense. The old defenses used to stiffen up and cause turnovers, and tackle like they were kicking some butt and rallied to the ball. I sure hope they can get better because it is a dang shame that they are giving up so many yards and points.
No team speed on defense. The linebackers are painfully slow and it was obviousThe tackling angles were bad all game, and we do a very poor job up front of hand fighting and letting the offensive line man handle the front four. If your gonna spin don't turn you back and get completely taken out of the play by being pushed sideways. Mafe is all over the place and running out of his gaps way too much. He is very fast but he is taking himself out of plays by not keeping the ball in front of him. As a defense we are playing way to fricken passive and scared because of the lack of success. Defense has to be played forward, not standing flat footed and not attacking the football. We have people constantly running themselves out of position and taking bad angles to the ball from the side. Tackling better should be on everyone's mind.
Safety's are drifting and not doing a job of staying over the top. I feel bad for # 55 he is trying so damn hard to cover up for so many mistakes and he lacks quickness a little bit. That guy plays his rear end off, I want him on my team every time.
Rush is not a stand up defensive end like Coughlin was, he doesn't have the knack for it, this is stupid to be playing him that close to the line. Play a four man or a three man front and let the linebackers actually fit and attack up front instead of getting swallowed up at the line of scrimmage. Tired of all of these out of the gate and explosive plays because of stupid mistakes, and not being able to plug up the line of scrimmage. Gophers have to tackle better, it is a tough season when your not really prepared to play with a full training camp and get the extra games. I hope people get over the cream puff crap and realize that non-conference games are important for the competition and getting people used to playing together.
I see far too good of athletes and way better football players on the field than the execution and what is happening. I don't like the labels and what is happening, about sucking, they should expect more of themselves on defense. The old defenses used to stiffen up and cause turnovers, and tackle like they were kicking some butt and rallied to the ball. I sure hope they can get better because it is a dang shame that they are giving up so many yards and points.
Kamal Martin, Coughlin, Winfield, Murray and others looked pretty good pretty early in their careers. Only Coughlin highly recruited. Also found some JC players that were good right away - Wilson, Campbell, Boddy-Calhoun. The previous staff knew how to identify defensive talent, had specific types of players they looked for. Fleck seems to be able to do that on offense, jury definitely out on defense. Some of those recruits should be better than they are now.Northwestern scored 1 fewer point against Maryland than Minnesota did
Matching masks?Fleck leaves himself open to criticism because of his need to make everything about him.
Who else wears a face mask that matches his jacket?
What other BIG coach makes a display of racing down the side line when the quarter ends?
That goes on and on.
This team in Fleck's fourth year is made up of his recruits.
He has a few really good offensive players but no one shines on defense and #24 is going to be worn out by the end of the season because he seems to have no back ups.
Fleck would be better served by laying low for a while and trying to keep this team from a complete collapse.
When you have lost Dunlop, Faalele and Smith, you won't have the strong ball control approach from last year until you truly replace those guys. I don't see it happening this season. As far as the defense, I felt sorry for the players in the 4th quarter. While we miss last years seniors on defense, I wonder if I underestimated the senior leadership. I wonder if Rossi got too much credit.- I thought Maryland was a very low IQ football team and there is no excuse for losing to that team. They took stupid penalties, fumbled near the end zone and were just not a smart team. You have to take advantage of those mistakes.
- The Gopher playcalling on offense was very poor in the 2nd half. I am pretty sure they adapted to "Ibrahim up the middle" you need to change it up, especially on first downs. When they got the lead, they ran an extremely vanilla, conservative offense and they paid for it.
- Going for 2 at the end would have been the right call due to our special teams and defensive problems.
- The defense is even worse than I thought - we are in big trouble if they don't make some changes and get their mojo back.
- I was POSITIVE the Gophers weren't covering 20.5 points. I was going to drive down to Iowa and bet as much as I could get away with from my wife (5000.00) but I was tired after work and didn't feel like driving all the way down there. The Gophers won't see that soft of a line the rest of the year. So I am even more ticked off about that than anything.
- This one is on Fleck. This isn't "year zero" anymore This is year 4 and you have to have a way better defense than that.
Not throwing to Bateman was not the issue or difference maker in this game, obviously. CAB more than made up for it. Good thing for the offense...two established receiving options to go along with Mo on the ground.Great game plan; potential All-American bateman has 4 catches in regulation.
The affinity for Wiley needs to stop at this point. He shouldn't get any PT.Wiley
How many did MD score on Northwestern?Northwestern scored 1 fewer point against Maryland than Minnesota did