Post Game Reaction Thread: Illini Beat Gophers

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GO4INLALALAND said:
Does anyone really care about Iowa or Wisconsin? After this shit show, those games could be blood baths. I feel like this let all the air out of this season. I’m dejected.
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We just saw a version of Iowa and Wisconsin. If our offensive line lets it run down their leg, we will be lucky to score 3, which won’t be enough.
 

I know the defense played better after the first two drives but I’m not giving them a pass either. WHY play with two high safeties for the first two series when EVERYONE and their mother knows Illinois is going to run downhill?? Illinois’ defense wasted not a single play rolling man zero or man free coverage from snap one and just burying the running game. This isn’t high school football where you can run right into a loaded box because you are just better than your opponent.

And I think my high school‘s wing-t passing game is more complex AND more efficient than what the Gophers are attempting to run.
 

60's Guy said:
Fire Sanford. Name Simon THE guy. If there isn't a dramatic change in the next four games, you know you need someone new next year. Simon will be happy to return to WR coaching if he was given a chance and laid an egg.

I'd say it is a great time to make a change since Simon has been co-coaching the offense the last two years. It'd be a bit different if a coach not as involved in the offense stepped in.
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Definitely a lot harder to see the improvements. Could probably stop bleeding. But who is going to come in and work with QBs? Not saying what we have here as QB coach is good. If PJ fires Sanford. He needs to ask his old friend to come and do some heavy lifting. Kirk will be able to calm TM down. But is PJ humble enough to do it? Thats the tricky part abt Offense side of the ball. If your OC is acting as QB coach it is just harder. Not saying Matt can't do. But it is too much for a person. There was continuity when Simon called Auburn game. Now it is broken machine.
 

Pete smith said:
I am far more disappointed with todays result than I was after the BC joke.
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Not me, BG was much worse for me. Illinois is a reasonable, improving conference opponent who won 2 weeks ago at Penn State.

It's an ugly loss and exposes some serious flaws, but BG is a far worse team to lose to.
 




Rickman55 said:
Fleck on KFAN post game: moved the ball at times, but didn’t finish. Mentioned the missed field goal about 5 times. Everything is ahead of us.
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I'm just happy it wasn't CAB's fault this time.
 






GoodasGold said:
The Good news is that PJ now has a home. 🙂
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So now we don’t have to worry when our fans say the kinds of things some of them say when ever the team the coach is totally in charge of looses a game.
Is it the fault of the head coach…some assistant coach who has to kow tow to the head coach…the players??? Or, every last one of the people who are what we fans refer to as the program?

Buyers’ remorse?
I’d just say there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

Get the boys ready to head south of the border, coaches. Get them picked up off their duffs, dusted off and their pride restored so they are ready to beat the stinking hawkeye next Saturday!
 

caliGopher said:
It isn't. The only difference is a special teams unit that is terrible.
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It is incredulous to say this is as gopher fan, our current and previous coaching team has better Defence than Offense. Just plain mind-boggling. It is much harder for a team like Gopher to have better D than O. But it seems to be the case with both Kill/Clay and PJ. If the team cant take advantage of it right now, when? Rossi won't be here forever. He will get noticed sooner than later for a bigger gig.
 
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Fun fact: if our place kicker was average, we would have lost 14-10, same as to Bowling Green. Fitting. Not sure that our offensive woes can be laid solely at the feet of PJ and the OC. Maybe we have a solid but plodding offense that has a very low ceiling because of personnel, an offense is not effective when playing from behind. So, we need to do what IL did to us: Get ahead early and let our defense decide the outcome. We just can’t come out and play that flat in the first half; we don’t have the playmakers to play comeback ball.
 


Very disappointed. Even angry. I'm still fine with the extension. Gotta have a short memory now.

Don't let defense off the hook either. They got gashed first 2 drives and then Illinois took foot off the pedal and played it safe. Nobody came ready including the crowd.

I've been to my share of clunkers. This too shall pass.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
Very disappointed. Even angry. I'm still fine with the extension. Gotta have a short memory now.

Don't let defense off the hook either. They got gashed first 2 drives and then Illinois took foot off the pedal and played it safe. Nobody came ready including the crowd.

I've been to my share of clunkers. This too shall pass.
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Concur Coach Bielema did let off the gas once it was clear the Gopher O was not ready for prime time today. His defense had our number and looked very good.

Still not going to be too hard on our D for this one. Even with the impulse power offense being fielded by Chief Illiniwek the D could have faultered and didn't.

On the crowd I know you weren't talking about the Billds...:p But yes, they were more like being at a polo match than a certainly winnable B1G game.
 

Gopher 461 said:
What the hell do you do going into Kinnick with the West still on the line?
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The Gophers have zero shot of beating Iowa, that is pretty obvious. Ferentz as boring as he is has Fleck's number to a T. The Gophers offensive line were pushed around, and Illinois flat out outplayed, out hustled and out physical'd the Gophers. We have even more poor QB play than Iowa and cannot run the football against a team like Iowa. They should have watched Bielema's film at Wisconsin, the power I running right at the weakest defensive end, and the cut backs. They the Illini did everything just like what he used to run at Wisconsin and this should have been expected, even the Peters QB runs. The Illini were the most physical team. This is what is disappointing about the Gophers, when it is time to do something different at home they always crap to bed, history repeats itself over and over again. You could see from the moment they ran out of the Tunnel today that the Gophers had zero energy and Illinois was fired up and ready to play. The Gophers did not come ready to play today.
 
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Gophergrandpa said:
Fun fact: if our place kicker was average, we would have lost 14-10, same as to Bowling Green. Fitting. Not sure that our offensive woes can be laid solely at the feet of PJ and the OC. Maybe we have a solid but plodding offense that has a very low ceiling because of personnel, an offense is not effective when playing from behind. So, we need to do what IL did to us: Get ahead early and let our defense decide the outcome. We just can’t come out and play that flat in the first half; we don’t have the playmakers to play comeback ball.
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That's really not a fun fact............
 


Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out their going to a bowl game.
 

Bad loss, but life goes on.
Could be worse. We could be Nebraska.

Iowa game should still be fun.
Fleck needs to show another "response".

What will the Gophers "response" be?

Still a fun season and other top 25 teams are losing today as well. It's what makes college football great.
 


fmlizard said:
Not me, BG was much worse for me. Illinois is a reasonable, improving conference opponent who won 2 weeks ago at Penn State.

It's an ugly loss and exposes some serious flaws, but BG is a far worse team to lose to.
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Yeah, I get that people are bummed but there is no comparison between losing to Illinois and losing to Bowling Green.
 


the Gophers have simply failed to show up in two of the 9 games this year.

that is 22.2% of the games where the team hasn't shown up.

A lot of that is on the players, but a lot is also on the coaches who coach the players, and on the head coach whose whole thing is supposed to be about motivation.

Sadly, Fleck will never bench Morgan. Gopher fans are stuck with Morgan until he finally runs out of eligibility. Morgan is not terrible, but he is limited. the previous OC, I believe, understood how to put Morgan in a system that makes use of his talents and hides or minimizes his deficiencies. The current OC either does not know how to do that, or he doesn't think it's necessary. and we can see the results.

And for this to happen the week that Fleck signs his contract extension makes for some truly horse-bleep optics. We may not see Coyle show his face in public again until Daylight Saving Time returns next Spring.
 

I left at halftime. Just saw that Illinois I had the extra effort and intensity. We played like we expected to win without any urgency. That kind of effort gets us smoked by Iowa and Wisconsin. You know they are just waiting for us again. I think it is a long season and there is only so many times you can get the boys fired up. When you don't have that intensity you get beat.that's how I look at today's game.

Finally I don't think we really have any skill players on offense. We have some nice players but highly skilled players - nope. We need a talent upgrade at qb, rb, and receiver.
 

Fleck loves talking about culture, to me there are two very distinct cultures between Fleck's coaching style and Bielema's coaching style. Say what you want about BB, but the guy is a coach and he is going to coach this team to some good wins. He has won 2 Big Ten road games against ranked opponents in his first season. That's some good coaching, I don't care who the opponent was. I'd kill to have had that our first year with Fleck.

Meanwhile, Fleck is not a coach. He is a rah rah guy and if his assistants can't do it, there is no way Fleck can coach his way out. BB made some stinging comments about his team this season and it appears that his team responded by playing hard. Illinois really seemed to have a hard edge to i today.

Ill is no longer going to be a walkover program like it was under Lovie. Ill could very likely be a Loss more than a win.

I don't like BB, but I like his coaching style and the toughness his B10 teams have had.
 

BoatRacer said:
Definitely a lot harder to see the improvements. Could probably stop bleeding. But who is going to come in and work with QBs? Not saying what we have here as QB coach is good. If PJ fires Sanford. He needs to ask his old friend to come and do some heavy lifting. Kirk will be able to calm TM down. But is PJ humble enough to do it? Thats the tricky part abt Offense side of the ball. If your OC is acting as QB coach it is just harder. Not saying Matt can't do. But it is too much for a person. There was continuity when Simon called Auburn game. Now it is broken machine.
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It's extremely typical for the OC to also be the QB coach at the NCAA level.
 

I wish that there was a time during the week where Fleck takes some intelligent Gopher Hole questions such as, "Why not pull Morgan when things go bad," "Does Simon call the plays? Who dictates that?" Why not more screen plays etc.?"
 

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