Post Game Thread: Gophers Suffer Disappointing Homecoming Loss to Purdue


Big difference from last week to this week other than the running game was last week receivers caught every contested ball. This week they didn't catch one. Regressing to the mean.
Umm, turnovers?
 


I’m not defending the call here, it was stupid to go for it, but the officials did miss an offsides call on Purdue there too. One of their DL jumped early.
That officiating crew is far and away the worst in the BT year in and year out. Don’t get how they keep bringing them back. They can’t even spot the ball correctly. How about the face mask call on Purdue and the guy was grabbing his jersey. I hate when I see that crew because I know they’ll be multiple terrible calls.
 

Now that I’m more emotionally stable…

We played without our best player.

We had some fluky, awfully timed mistakes (the end zone pick, the missed FG, a couple dropped would be picks).

Purdue is probably better than advertised (especially their D), plus Spoilermaker game.

We didn’t lose by that much.

Iowa and Wisconsin also lost.

Defense was strong for much of the game.

In sum: we played like garbage for the first time this season and lost a close game to a conference foe. We play that game again with Mo, and I think the result flips. The B1G west is still wide open and we have a chance to win it.
Purdue’s D got trashed by FAU.
 


Potts lack of explosiveness was really disturbing.

...and dancing into tackles instead of hitting the hole hard. I think that's why we saw Williams more in the second half. Mo has the ability to make gapping D-lineman pay. Pott's does not. Williams a bit better but not like Mo.
 

Here’s the play watch the DT.

Saw that live that Purdue jumped in Neutral zone. Like I said every time I see this head referee and his crew, involved in a Gopher game I get a pit in my stomach pre game. His crew never calls s favorable game for the Gophers.
 

Next elite Gopher receiver?
 

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...and dancing into tackles instead of hitting the hole hard. I think that's why we saw Williams more in the second half. Mo has the ability to make gapping D-lineman pay. Pott's does not. Williams a bit better but not like Mo.
I thought we pulled the plug on Potts early. He had a rough start but his upside is higher than Williams’ probably not a game changer either way.
 



All refs and replay booths hate Gopher sports. I learned that on the basketball board.. Oh and most announcing crews like the other team better.. sideline reporters are 50-50
 

I thought we pulled the plug on Potts early. He had a rough start but his upside is higher than Williams’ probably not a game changer either way.

I think the play calling needs to change with Pott's et al in the game and not Mo. Pott's seems better suited to outside zone, but they kept running the same inside zone they run with Mo. Not sure if that would have changed anything.
 

Honestly, had we tied it up earlier before half time, we'd just curl up and hope the time runs out and end up losing again. This was a Coaching issue today. I am not saying we played a good game at all, but you can not tell me that we played to win after tying it. I have no idea what we were playing to do after we tied it. It's not like we were leading? Yet we went into "Let's run the time out" and hope our defense holds up mode.
You are 100% correct and this has been a Fleck trademark in big games since he arrived. When the game gets close, he goes conservative and plays not to lose every time. This program will never truly reach the next level until Fleck figures out how to win when trailing and facing adversity in-game. If the Gophers don’t win the first half, the game is usually over. Not a sustainable path to success in major college football.
 

They played like they were as good as all the positive press they'd been getting and all they had to do was show up to win. The upcoming Illinois game is now even more important. Win that and stay focused and it could still be a magical year. We cannot afford to take a sh*t down our leg like this again.

They didn't play as if they were reading their clippings. Maybe they played as if they needed to have Ibrahim "show up to win"? While Purdue played much better than they had played without O'Connell.

Morgan played badly. It should have also reminded us that while we rightly focus on his receivers dropping passes, we ignore the "interceptions" that he throws that are dropped by the other team. At least two of them today.

Why?

Because when he's pressured he's been coached to not take off and run but to wait for his guy to clear. Rather than take a sack, he'll throw the ball into coverage and hope for the best. Hubris can nail a QB too.
 





An interesting and frightening stat they showed on the TV coverage: In the last 29 games in which the Gophers have fallen 10+ points behind, they are 0-29.
 

All refs and replay booths hate Gopher sports. I learned that on the basketball board.. Oh and most announcing crews like the other team better.. sideline reporters are 50-50
Dude that head referee and crew is worst in Big 10. Go to other boards, I don't know his name but I know his voice and face from TV watching Big 10 football games. If the conference actually graded film, this crew would not grade well and be gone. I would not hire that group to officiate a HS game. It's not just Gophers, that crew blows. Had less to do with Gophers S'ing to bed and playing poorly. Tanner Morgan doesn't handle blitz pressure well. OSU, BG, Illinois,now Purdue,shoot the gaps, by a simple shift, Oline never hardly adjusted happy feet and forced throws. Morgan has a bit of a hero complex, he is not talented enough to force plays and win games on his own. It was about a really poor game plan and overall play by the Gophers. Play and prepare poorly and you will lose games, pretty simple.
 

You are 100% correct and this has been a Fleck trademark in big games since he arrived. When the game gets close, he goes conservative and plays not to lose every time. This program will never truly reach the next level until Fleck figures out how to win when trailing and facing adversity in-game. If the Gophers don’t win the first half, the game is usually over. Not a sustainable path to success in major college football.
Post of the day!
 

An interesting and frightening stat they showed on the TV coverage: In the last 29 games in which the Gophers have fallen 10+ points behind, they are 0-29.
Because conservative play calling can't bring you back, and when you're behind by 10+ you are forced to throw into 8 man windows... not a position to put Morgan, who is a game manager and can't do anything extra ordinary to bring you back.
 


...and dancing into tackles instead of hitting the hole hard. I think that's why we saw Williams more in the second half. Mo has the ability to make gapping D-lineman pay. Pott's does not. Williams a bit better but not like Mo.
but that’s the key. The Gophers knew that a combination of throwing the ball along with Mo would be tough to stop due to MSU having a questionable pass D and mixed it well against MSU to great success. Today, against a team with a similarly questionable pass D they seemed to almost completely abandon that strategy in what seemed more like a return to Jerry Kill or Sanford ball, and that withOUT Mo. Instead of mixing things up with a plan to dominate the opposing D and score, the entire gameplan seemed to be to assume they had a 30 point lead and rutm, rutm, pass…but without the stud RB to do so. I. Just. Don’t. Get. What. They. Thought. They. Were. Doing. Today.
 

but that’s the key. The Gophers knew that a combination of throwing the ball along with Mo would be tough to stop due to MSU having a questionable pass D and mixed it well against MSU to great success. Today, against a team with a similarly questionable pass D they seemed to almost completely abandon that strategy in what seemed more like a return to Jerry Kill or Sanford ball, and that withOUT Mo. Instead of mixing things up with a plan to dominate the opposing D and score, the entire gameplan seemed to be to assume they had a 30 point lead and rutm, rutm, pass…but without the stud RB to do so. I. Just. Don’t. Get. What. They. Thought. They. Were. Doing. Today.
This. The ball was there outside all day: it’s what Purdue had dared teams to do ALL YEAR. We were too afraid to tempt it and it bit us directly in the ass. Margin for error is gone kids. Season isn’t over but anything but winning the west and the season will still feel like a failure and that’s on PJ through and through
 

but that’s the key. The Gophers knew that a combination of throwing the ball along with Mo would be tough to stop due to MSU having a questionable pass D and mixed it well against MSU to great success. Today, against a team with a similarly questionable pass D they seemed to almost completely abandon that strategy in what seemed more like a return to Jerry Kill or Sanford ball, and that withOUT Mo. Instead of mixing things up with a plan to dominate the opposing D and score, the entire gameplan seemed to be to assume they had a 30 point lead and rutm, rutm, pass…but without the stud RB to do so. I. Just. Don’t. Get. What. They. Thought. They. Were. Doing. Today.
How many drives did they RUTM, RUTM, Pass. I think you are overstating how often they did this.
 

I don’t even know where to start…
How about last week with giving Mo his 23rd carry in blowout game and then not having him in the big ten opener.
How about pulling a move from the Bowling Green and going for it in your own territory to give a struggling offense 3 points.
How about running the clock down to 5 seconds and running the ball up the middle once we tied the game up.

These things never change - over use of players, idiotic 4th down decision making, and an odd worship of time of possession.
What analytics would tell you to go for it on Fourth Down on the opponent's end? Lessons have not been learned from Bowling Green.

Purdue out-schemed the Gophers. On a different day, it may be a different outcome.
 

How many drives did they RUTM, RUTM, Pass. I think you are overstating how often they did this.
you are right. instead of abbreviating the problem with the awful offensive gameplan by describing it this way, i should have written a few pages detailing the failed scheme on every drive. bottom line: they started almost every failed possession with a run that wasn’t working and almost all of them with a runner (potts) who wasn’t executing.
 

Because conservative play calling can't bring you back, and when you're behind by 10+ you are forced to throw into 8 man windows... not a position to put Morgan, who is a game manager and can't do anything extra ordinary to bring you back.
2 has a low ceiling; always has. I would much rather have had 8 out there playing today in the second half with his escapability and arm strength. Hell if we’re gonna lose let’s go down with our most athletic and potentially game changing players on the field. We still trot a few too many unathletic kids in key spots to be able to overcome lackluster days like today against a quality opponent. Fleck would rather lose though then to make a change at quarterback to see if we could get a spark.
 


So is MO actually injured or just didn't get enough practice in this week?
PJF said in his post game interview he was close but the trainers recommended he not play. He said with the bye week he should be good to go. He suffered an ankle injury in the MSU game.
 

What analytics would tell you to go for it on Fourth Down on the opponent's end? Lessons have not been learned from Bowling Green.

Purdue out-schemed the Gophers. On a different day, it may be a different outcome.
PJF said in his post game he would go for it again in that situation because " you have to be able to get a first down on 4th n 2 ". Not when your star RB is not playing and you have been getting steam rolled @ the LOS !
 

It was a perfect weather day for football and the crowd was excellent ! I have not seen the student section that full in a long time. Then the team comes out flat, no Mo, conservative play calling and dropped passes and INT 's. The striking thing was that Purdue dominated the LOS on both sides of the ball. Of course we missed Mo but the rushing game was a bust. Tanner struggled and he was off just enough on some key plays that resulted in punts. They did not execute well on either side of the ball with Purdue playing pitch and catch down the field. I was so excited to go to this game and left with the Gopher blues again..........
 




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