I am surprised at the venom about this loss from some of the posters on this board who have been around a long time. This program has been a NON-FACTOR for my entire life and expecting that to change in year one under PJ Fleck is unfair. Michigan is currently 4-2 in conference play and I think we'd all agree that they are a good bet to finish the season with a winning conference record? Right? Right. Starting with the year 2000, the Gophers have exactly SEVEN wins over teams that finished the season above .500 in conference play.
Mason (3): Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan
Brewster (1): Northwestern
Kill (2): Nebraska, Nebraska
Claeys(1): Northwestern
None of those teams finished better than 5-3 in conference play, none of those teams finished in the top 3 in the conference. It is truly amazing how consistent Gopher football is: If a team is really good, Minnesota ALWAYS loses, If a team is slightly above average in conference play, Minnesota almost ALWAYS loses.
I gave the Gophers no chance in this game, but I gave Iowa no chance against Ohio State and look what happened there. I guess my biggest criticism of the staff in this game is that knowing we were out-manned, they should have been more aggressive in certain spots. Example: 3rd and 2 at Michigan 47 to start the game...Give your OC 2 plays to make a first down instead of punting on 4th down. Another Example: Down 20-7 in the 2nd Quarter and facing 3rd and 18 you run the ball with Phillip Howard...Take a shot down the field and hope for a catch or a PI. If you were going to win the game, you were going to have to take some low % plays and make them work. Instead, I felt like the staff coached to try to keep the game respectable and not lose by 50.
Two other things Offensively I didn't like:
1. The continued use of the Wildcat with Rodney Smith: This didn't work, they weren't fooled...run almost anything else
2. The overuse of Rodney Smith on jet action: I believe it was in the 3rd Q where we had a series where Rodney ran jet action at full speed on like 3 straight plays. On one of those plays, he actually ran full speed from one slot to the other...then Demry motioned him back the other way full speed. I don't understand gassing the guy out like that as I believe he was actually handed the ball on 1 or 2 of those plays as well.
Someone else really nailed their post on the Gophers deficiencies talent wise:
The biggest issue overall on offense (and has been the biggest issue overall for over a decade) is that the line is not physical enough to move anyone which would allow sustained success between the tackles. We've tried to be a heavy run team for years now, and still haven't figured out a way to run the ball between the tackles against conference opposition. The RB's are solid, but they aren't special. When you point to your solid RB's as the best part of your offense, you are in trouble. The WR corp still has no one to threaten a defense vertically and make plays outside the hashes and it's certainly up to debate if we have had a QB who could actually complete a vertical pass. If you can't threaten a defense vertically, how do you soften the box to allow for a weaker Oline to hopefully generate some push? You can't...one of these issues has to be fixed.
The biggest issue overall on defense is that we are neither stout enough against the run or explosive enough against the pass in our front 4. Again this has been an issue more often than not for Minnesota. We can't get a consistent pass rush by rushing just four, which suggests that we have big, physical guys playing DL that should be a force against the run...but that's not the case. We usually have a relatively undersized front 4 that is simply not very good. The secondary is banged up and much like the WR position lacks long speed. The Michigan backs ran away from our DB's, Shannon Brooks gets caught from behind by Purdue DB's, Tyler Johnson by Iowa DB's, and Eric Carter couldn't out run a Purdue LB. Have to find a way to add speed on both sides of the ball.
