Post Game Reaction Thread: Illini Beat Gophers

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Pardon me if it was discussed elsewhere -- but what purpose does Ruschmeyer switching to 48 for this game have.
 

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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I don't think he "let off the gas". Remember....they basically ran down the field for a TD on their second TD without having to put the ball in the air. Not like they went conservative after that.
 

What I'd like to know is.....why wasn't Wright on the field (very much) until the end of the game. It's pretty obvious that he's our best receiver next to CAB. So why are we running Jackson and MSB out there as #1 and #2 when CAB is out? Think Boyd was even in with those guys on three WR sets.
 




We are not horrible, but the belief that we are any better than that second tier of Big10 West teams is gone.

Mandel was right, we are right there with Illinois and Purdue, maybe sometimes a little better, maybe a little worse.
 

fmlizard said:
Basically a repeat of the Bowling Green game:
  • Awful protection breakdowns
  • Very little push from the OL
  • QB holding the ball too long
  • WRs not getting open
  • CrAB gets hurt (though he wasn't getting open anyway)
  • No meaningful offensive adjustments
  • Abandoned a scheme that was working (Kramer)
  • Poor kicking
  • Similar score
  • Defense played well enough to win
...right down to the orange pants
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Great summation; in addition to lack of misdirection and wierd routes, predictable tendencies mentioned by others I’d add no sense of urgency/running out the clock down two TDs. That doesn’t seem wise. There are 40 seconds on the play clock, guys. Draining the clock down to < 10 sec in the second half when behind multiple scores leaves zero room for error in 4th quarter. We did finally see a bit of increased tempo today late in the game but it was too little too late.

The evidence has been clear all season and particularly after Bowling Green. The offense has inexplicable clunkers where they seemingly cannot move the ball even when the talent differential is massive. Inability to plan? Adjust? Prepare? Even if one were to concede it’s the players not executing well, that’s also on the coaches. This is not a young team. The players are Big Ten-level talented. What are they doing in practice? We’ve all witnessed poorly coached teams, whether it’s our kids elementary school games or semi-pro football.

The OC has to go. The meat of our schedule is still to come. It is far past time.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
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.
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Uh, the defense gave up 14 points, right? Pretty sure that should win you the game. Don't forget that on the first score Illinois started at midfield thanks to a Morgan interception. The defense was great, all things considered.

And assigning any blame to a crowd subjected to that clunker strikes me as odd.
 



stocker08 said:
What I'd like to know is.....why wasn't Wright on the field (very much) until the end of the game. It's pretty obvious that he's our best receiver next to CAB. So why are we running Jackson and MSB out there as #1 and #2 when CAB is out? Think Boyd was even in with those guys on three WR sets.
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Has to be a discipline/culture thing.
 

O
Six to Eight said:
Uh, the defense gave up 14 points, right? Pretty sure that should win you the game. Don't forget that on the first score Illinois started at midfield thanks to a Morgan interception. The defense was great, all things considered.

And assigning any blame to a crowd subjected to that clunker strikes me as odd.
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The defense also gave the offense back to back short fields to end the 1sr half. Not that it did any good.
 

Pathetic effort by the whole team and coaches. They can't deal with prosperity...#20 ranking and coach extension causes them to lose their minds. When you lose to Bowling Green, you should know that every game has to be your Super Bowl.
 

noamfromm said:
Pardon me if it was discussed elsewhere -- but what purpose does Ruschmeyer switching to 48 for this game have.
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Then he won't have to report to the referees each time he is eligible for a pass reception.
 




stocker08 said:
Hope it was worth it. When he was finally on the field in the fourth quarter....he made an immediate impact.
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He’s a stud difference-maker, for sure. I hope they get on the same wavelength soon.
 

DCinOK said:
Pathetic effort by the whole team and coaches. They can't deal with prosperity...#20 ranking and coach extension causes them to lose their minds. When you lose to Bowling Green, you should know that every game has to be your Super Bowl.
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It WAS the Super Bowl. It was the Illinois Championship Week®. Now it's the new championship week.
 


Pompous Elitist said:
He’s a stud difference-maker, for sure. I hope they get on the same wavelength soon.
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I'd love to know why he wasn't on the field most of the day. Why wasn't our best receiver playing on a day where we put up six points and lost to a mediocre Illinois team at home?

The team has now put up two mega stinkers at humpinton bank stadium this year.
 

MNVCGUY said:
D struggled early but absolutely played well enough to give us a chance to win.

Offense and Special Teams were brutal. Tons of blame will be thrown at Morgan, and he deserves some of it, but this one starts with the guys up front. They played really well during the 4 game win streak, they played like garbage today.
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It would be nice to get an honest evaluation on WTF happened to turn our offense into dogshit. Tell me the offensive line all got food poisoning or Tanner had the flu or they did this that we didn't adjust for. I feel like we game planned for playing our game regardless of what the opponent did or had to counter.
 

fmlizard said:
Basically a repeat of the Bowling Green game:
  • Awful protection breakdowns
  • Very little push from the OL
  • QB holding the ball too long
  • WRs not getting open
  • CrAB gets hurt (though he wasn't getting open anyway)
  • No meaningful offensive adjustments
  • Abandoned a scheme that was working (Kramer)
  • Poor kicking
  • Similar score
  • Defense played well enough to win
...right down to the orange pants
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You have to hand it to Bert Bielema. His coaching staff studied the BGSU tapes in great detail on how to aggressively attack the Gopher's weaknesses. Whatever game plan Sanford Jr put in is crap. Bring Kirk Ciarrocca back. Offer him whatever he wants event access to a private jet to go see his family.
 

howeda7 said:
No refunds. You can choose 2 free basketball tickets or a coupon for $2 off a frozen pizza.
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Savoy pizza will be personally delivered to you by PJ Fleck.
 


OK - I deliberately held off coming on here until now. These are my thoughts.

- I watched all the people coming out of the game today and it was much the same as the crowd after the Bowling Green game. Kind of quiet, but not really angry. I guess not very shocked but maybe that's a good thing. I hope the team and coaches are as angry as I am, anyways.

- It was like watching the Bowling Green game all over again. They went in there expecting to win against a very motivated team. Same vanilla game plan with no adjustments until very late when they hurried the tempo (and scored.) They deserved to lose because the defense showed up late and the offense again didn't show up at all.

- This one is easy. Whoever called the offensive plays should be relieved of play calling the rest of the season. You can't keep running the same basic vanilla predictable plays over and over again. Example, first down you have got to run, second and third and short is a run, only on 3rd and long is a pass about 30 yards down the field. If I and other Gopherholers can see these tendencies you can be damn sure the defensive coordinators making several hundred thousand dollars a year or more sure know what is coming, too.

- I think a very disturbing fact is QB Morgan is regressing the last couple years and I wonder if Fleck or the other coaches even know what the cause is. If they do, I wish they would fix it but maybe he just doesn't have it anymore. His passing was just awful today.

- This offense just stunk today which I thought was impossible going into the season. We will never have an OL this experienced maybe ever and I thought Morgan would at least be as good as he was in 2019. We did get a bad break with the RB's getting hurt, but there is no excuse what happened today. None.

- This one is on the offense, but it's also on the coaches, too. Bielema did an excellent job having his team ready for this one and our coaches were not ready and seemed incapable of making necessary adjustments. The Gopher Offensive coaching staff gets a flat out F for this.

- How does the team respond? Hopefully they will get good and angry and say they are a lot better than this. They have responded well in the past when their backs are against the wall. Amazingly enough, they can still win the Big Ten West and play in the Big Ten championship if they can beat Iowa and Wisconsin. One thing for sure, they will need to play a whole lot better than they did, especially on offense if they want to even have a chance.
 


noamfromm said:
Pardon me if it was discussed elsewhere -- but what purpose does Ruschmeyer switching to 48 for this game have.
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only a guess, but it could be so that he can line up as an extra TE or FB without having to report to the officials as an eligible receiver. basically gives them more flexibility in where he can line up.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
only a guess, but it could be so that he can line up as an extra TE or FB without having to report to the officials as an eligible receiver. basically gives them more flexibility in where he can line up.
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this is correct.
 

#48 Ruschmeyer had some really costly penalties today that stalled out drives. Not a good game by that young man today.
 



btowngopher said:
Yeah I’d rather he blame the coaches, specifically Sanford and himself.
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IIRC, he blamed the defensive showing on himself the day before he fired Robb Smith.
 

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