[POST GAME THREAD] Minnesota defeats Georgia Southern 35-32

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GSUsTALON said:
Here is the problem. GSU has gotten a lot better since their first 2 games and you did not expect that. Especially from a 2nd string QB & a defense that has underperformed.

GSU is just now catching up on both sides of the ball. There was no way the Gophers coaches could have known that! They were looking at old film!
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Must have been scheming for ghosts. We should stop scheduling out of conference against the paranormal.
 

Kudos to your team for pulling out a gritty win. We are something like 6/37 on 3rd downs this year.

GS - 4.7 ypp
Minn - 4.8 ypp

Neither team could really get the ball moving but you converted 1st downs when you needed to.

Looks like our safety play may be an Achilles heel all season which was expected because we graduated two seniors from that position last year.

Your fanbase seems pretty divided right now. Here's my totally unbiased opinion. You're not that good, right now. (Neither are we at the moment but we still might win our conference.)

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ToastyGS said:
Kudos to your team for pulling out a gritty win. We are something like 6/37 on 3rd downs this year.

GS - 4.7 ypp
Minn - 4.8 ypp

Neither team could really get the ball moving but you converted 1st downs when you needed to.

Looks like our safety play may be an Achilles heel all season which was expected because we graduated two seniors from that position last year.

Your fanbase seems pretty divided right now. Here's my totally unbiased opinion. You're not that good, right now. (Neither are we at the moment but we still might win our conference.)

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Umm thanks
 

RolGnav said:
Look... we got a lot of talent but don't know how to use them. Don't say we gifted them scores, they earned those scores. They won the line of scrimmage... stopped our run, and gave our OL hell. I wouldn't say they out played us, but we definitely are playing vanilla offense. Our winning late just goes to prove that we have talent at WR, but would just rather RUTM. Someone please tell Morgan to learn how to keep the ball too sometimes, or when he's on the run and out of the pocket, throw it out of bounds!
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Coaching and non-defensive units gifted them 28 points then.
 


salzie said:
Umm thanks
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I wasnt giving you a compliment. You guys sound exactly like we did in 2016 when we started 3-0. They were 3 very ugly wins and half our fanbase thought we'd be fine the other half were calling for the coaches head... we finished the season 5-7. Luckily for you guys the big10 looks to be struggling as a whole so you may be ok.

Just giving it to you straight.

As far as gifting us scores. I'll give you guys the blocked FG. But the fumble six was all just beating your OL. They are huge, but they are slow and dont handle stunts well.



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MennoSota said:
GSU ain't no Army.
So far the Gophers have played 3 mediocre to below mediocre games and barely won. At this moment it is hard to visualize more than 3 wins in the B1G for the Gophers.
The upside is that no Gopher fan should go into the B1G season with over expectations.
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These are good teams we beat:
Georgia Southern was 10-3 last year with a bowl win
Fresno was 12-2 (lost to Minnesota) last year with a bowl win over Arizona St., ending the year ranked in the top 25
South Dakota St. was 10-3 losing to eventual FCS champion in two of those loses

While we should be able to beat these teams (BTW, we did) these are not badly coached losing teams. They have winning cultures.
Today Michigan St. lost to Arizona St. (the team Fresno beat in their bowl game), Maryland lost to Temple, Illinois lost to Eastern Michigan, and Purdue lost earlier to Nevada. As of right now there are three B1G teams which are 3-0, Ohio St., Penn St. and Minnesota.
 






Great comeback, but it would have been unnecessary if we hadn't given them the ball on our own 35 in the first half in one the of the worst calls of many years. The Gophers then gave them two more TDs on the blocked field goal and the fumble-run. Bad stuff. What worries me most about the Gophers is that Morgan and his magic receivers have to win the games. Our between-the-tackles run game has been more or less stuffed three straight games; we never throw to tight ends and rarely to running backs; we have no misdirection, no imagination in our running game. The best you can say for it is that it eats up the clock, but the huge time advantage didn't do us much good as we needed a miracle finish to pull this one out. New offensive coordinator?
 






Great Plains Gopher said:
Great comeback, but it would have been unnecessary if we hadn't given them the ball on our own 35 in the first half in one the of the worst calls of many years. The Gophers then gave them two more TDs on the blocked field goal and the fumble-run. Bad stuff. What worries me most about the Gophers is that Morgan and his magic receivers have to win the games. Our between-the-tackles run game has been more or less stuffed three straight games; we never throw to tight ends and rarely to running backs; we have no misdirection, no imagination in our running game. The best you can say for it is that it eats up the clock, but the huge time advantage didn't do us much good as we needed a miracle finish to pull this one out. New offensive coordinator?
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That call was the worst since the pick 6 against Purdue late in the 1st half in 2016.
 

CoMn said:
These are good teams we beat:
Georgia Southern was 10-3 last year with a bowl win
Fresno was 12-2 (lost to Minnesota) last year with a bowl win over Arizona St., ending the year ranked in the top 25
South Dakota St. was 10-3 losing to eventual FCS champion in two of those loses

While we should be able to beat these teams (BTW, we did) these are not badly coached losing teams. They have winning cultures.
Today Michigan St. lost to Arizona St. (the team Fresno beat in their bowl game), Maryland lost to Temple, Illinois lost to Eastern Michigan, and Purdue lost earlier to Nevada. As of right now there are three B1G teams which are 3-0, Ohio St., Penn St. and Minnesota.
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That was last year's teams.
My point is that we have been mediocre so far this season. We will need to be much, much better if we don't want another 6-6 season.
 

MrC said:
Most agree, there is no such thing as a “moral victory.”

So what was this?

An “immoral victory?”
An “amoral victory?
A “moral loss?”
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A win to forget. Check that “three wins to forget”.
 

The offensive line clearly had an awful game, but I think it’s important to evaluate the run blocking and the pass blocking independently.

The run blocking or complete lack thereof is my biggest concern as we head into conference play. For three straight games we have generated absolutely no push both running to the right and the left against fairly pedestrian opponents. The play calling has been unimaginative and this offensive line unit is nowhere near good enough to bully opponents when the play call is predictable. Dunlap and Faalele in particular have been disappointing.

From I pass blocking perspective I think the offensive line is getting a bad wrap. They provided some clean pockets in the first three quarters and, while inconsistent at times, did an OK job. Not great, but OK.

In the fourth quarter GSU brought 5 or 6 guys on virtually every play, and to me the struggles of the passing game in the 4th is not on the offensive line — it’s 100% on the coaching staff.

At one point GSU blitzed on 5+ straight plays and we didn’t run a single screen. We also called a lot of long-developing plays, putting Morgan in a tough spot.

On the final drive once we adjusted to some quick-hitting routes we began to see some success, and that adjustment came far slower than it should have.

The defense played well, so unless the offensive line improves drastically I think we could be looking at a lot of 24ish - 10ish losses in big ten play.


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We really need to stop talking about their scores like they were "gifted".

The TD before the half, I'll give you that. The MN staff and the official wrapped that one up for GSU.

The other three? Nope.

The first INT was good play by their DB who picked up one of our biggest tendencies and weakness - throwing the slant on that PA/RPO. We do it all of the time, it's a good play, Morgan made a mistake but the player made a nice play.

The blocked FG was not a gift. The player (who had a great game in general) made a play. He beat our man, blocked a FG and their returner made a really nice play cutting it across the field. How was that a gift? We certainly would not have called that a gift if AW or CC made that play.

The sack and return was not a gift. He beat our OL and made a play.

Now - - these return TDS and short fields are the reason why the stats look to favor us so much. The game was pretty evenly played, I think we were slightly better (mistakes aside), but it wasn't like we were kicking their ass. The discrepancy in stats is misleading, it's because of the returns.

To sum up my thoughts - puke. Our running game was dreadful after Wiley went down. We couldn't block, we couldn't read the openings when they were there, and our QB refused to keep the ball, either by choice or call. It was a really ugly game.
 

We should also talk about how bad that last timeout by PJ Fleck was. Hopefully once he decompresses he will understand how bad game management it is.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
We really need to stop talking about their scores like they were "gifted".

The TD before the half, I'll give you that. The MN staff and the official wrapped that one up for GSU.

The other three? Nope.

The first INT was good play by their DB who picked up one of our biggest tendencies and weakness - throwing the slant on that PA/RPO. We do it all of the time, it's a good play, Morgan made a mistake but the player made a nice play.

The blocked FG was not a gift. The player (who had a great game in general) made a play. He beat our man, blocked a FG and their returner made a really nice play cutting it across the field. How was that a gift? We certainly would not have called that a gift if AW or CC made that play.

The sack and return was not a gift. He beat our OL and made a play.

Now - - these return TDS and short fields are the reason why the stats look to favor us so much. The game was pretty evenly played, I think we were slightly better (mistakes aside), but it wasn't like we were kicking their ass. The discrepancy in stats is misleading, it's because of the returns.

To sum up my thoughts - puke. Our running game was dreadful after Wiley went down. We couldn't block, we couldn't read the openings when they were there, and our QB refused to keep the ball, either by choice or call. It was a really ugly game.
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I think you underestimated GSU from the first 2 game films. If GSUs defense scores thats on your offense.
 

ToastyGS said:
I wasnt giving you a compliment. You guys sound exactly like we did in 2016 when we started 3-0. They were 3 very ugly wins and half our fanbase thought we'd be fine the other half were calling for the coaches head... we finished the season 5-7. Luckily for you guys the big10 looks to be struggling as a whole so you may be ok.

Just giving it to you straight.

As far as gifting us scores. I'll give you guys the blocked FG. But the fumble six was all just beating your OL. They are huge, but they are slow and dont handle stunts well.
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You're exactly right. The O Line is too slow and GSU's D Line earned that fumble return TD. Very impressed by the visitors today. They came here to win.
 

POST GAME NOTE
From GopherSports

Sept. 14, 2019
TCF Bank Stadium (Minneapolis, Minn.)
Minnesota 35, Georgia Southern 32
TEAM / SERIES NOTES
• Today’s game was the first meeting with Georgia Southern. Minnesota is 11-0 all-time against current members of the Sun
Belt Conference, but today’s game was the first against a Sun Belt foe since defeating both Troy, 48-7, and Louisiana-Lafayette
(now Louisiana), 48-14, during 2003.
• Minnesota won its 18th consecutive nonconference game, a streak which leads the nation. The Gophers are 21-1 in their
past 22 nonconference home games and have won 12 straight nonconference games at TCF Bank Stadium.
• P.J. Fleck’s third-year mark at Minnesota is 15-13 and seventh-year career mark stands at 45-35. The Gophers are 6-1 over
the past seven games.
• Minnesota won the opening coin toss and deferred. GSU received the opening kickoff and defended the west end zone.
• The kickoff temperature was 71 degrees and mostly cloudy, which tied the 11th-warmest in TCF Bank Stadium history.
• The Gophers wore Maroon helmets, Maroon jerseys and Gold pants.
• This afternoon’s attendance was 41,021. Through two home games, Minnesota is averaging 45,067 per game.
• Minnesota’s 73-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Morgan to Tyler Johnson was the Gophers’ longest passing TD since
Morgan connected with Rashod Bateman for an 86-yarder at Illinois on Nov. 3, 2018.
• Minnesota has six scoring drives this season that have taken at least 10 plays and have chewed up more than five minutes
on the clock. Last season, the Gophers had 18 scoring drives of more than 10 plays, but just 14 of those drives used more than
five minutes.
• Minnesota had just four penalties for 45 yards, while Georgia Southern was penalized 10 times for 64 yards. The Gophers
have committed just 14 penalties in three games.
• Minnesota won the time of possession battle, holding the ball for 37:55 to 22:05 for the Eagles.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
• Tanner Morgan completed 19-of-31 passes for 289 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Both the completions
total and the passing TDs tie career-highs. The passing yardage total is the second-highest in Morgan’s career.
• Tyler Johnson had 10 catches for a season-high 140 yards and three touchdowns, his third career three-TD game and sixth
time with multiple TDs. Johnson is the first Minnesota player to have three games with three receiving scores. Since the start
of the 2018 season, Johnson leads the nation with five multiple-TD games.
• Johnson now has 144 career receptions for 2,226 yards and 23 touchdowns. He’s now fifth at Minnesota for career
receptions, sixth for receiving yards, and fourth for receiving TDs. Johnson’s 10 career 100-yard receiving games ranks third
all-time and he is tied for sixth with receptions in 26 consecutive games.
• Rodney Smith had 11 carries for 57 yards (5.2 ypc). Smith’s 705 career rushing attempts ranks third at Minnesota, while his
3,169 career rushing yards ranks sixth. Smith also jumped to fourth in career all-purpose yards, now with 4,368. He passed
both Chris Darkins (4,347) and Thomas Hamner (4,363) on the list.
• Rashod Bateman had three catches for 52 yards, extending his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 16 (every game
of his career). Bateman leads the Gophers with 289 receiving yards this season and is second on the team with 15 catches and
two TDs.
• Cam Wiley made his collegiate debut, rushing 11 times for 32 yards.
• Seth Green scored on a four-yard rush, his second touchdown this season and 10th since the start of 2018.
• Bryce Williams rushed 14 times for 23 yards and scored his first touchdown of the season (fifth career).
• Antoine Winfield Jr. forced his first career fumble, and Braelen Oliver came up with his first career fumble recovery on the
play. Winfield tied for the team lead with six total tackles (five solo).
• Thomas Barber had five tackles (four solo) and recovered his sixth career fumble, which is tied for eighth all-time and just
two shy of tying the school record.
• Carter Coughlin tied for the team lead with six tackles (four solo), while also forcing a fumble.
• Jacob Herbers punted three times for a 46.0 yard average, with a long punt of 51 yards and one punt inside the 20.
 


Got home from a college game this afternoon and didn't listen to the radio all the way home because I recorded the game and wanted to watch it like it was live.
I even added an extra 30 minutes to the recording to make sure I got to see the whole thing. The first half flew by, but the second did not and the F-ing
recording stopped with 34 seconds left, when we were on the 1 yard line. I was already swearing at the TV for all the boneheaded things the Gophers were
doing and when that happened I almost smashed my DVR!!
Haven't read the postgame thoughts yet, but here are mine.
Clock management/use of Time outs continues to be a problem. Three years in and it was as maddening as ever today.
Good thing we have depth at RB, although Bryce had a tough time with blitz pick up.
OL continues to struggle, but they are not helped out by the awful play calling either. Waiting until 10 seconds are left on the play clock and having Tanner running up to the OL to tell them the play, then get back to his spot and take the snap to then hand it off to a RB going basically up the middle, just doesn't work as the defense gets off the ball very well since theres no time to hard count them. Suck it up and just run a play once please without having to D**k around with trying to get the perfect play call in from the sideline at the last moment. You would think with that approach we would have way more explosive runs and or throws.
On the last play I saw, Tanner spiked it to stop the clock. Not sure why the GSU staff didn't challenge that as he threw the ball backwards, which would make it a lateral. Clock would still run and Bryce recovered on the 10.

3 and 0 does look really nice though!
 
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GFBfan said:
Got home from a college game this afternoon and didn't listen to the radio all the way home because I recorded the game and wanted to watch it like it was live.
I even added an extra 30 minutes to the recording to make sure I got to see the whole thing. The first half flew by, but the second did not and the F-ing
recording stopped with 34 seconds left, when we were on the 1 yard line. I was already swearing at the TV for all the boneheaded things the Gophers were
doing and when that happened I almost smashed my DVR!!
Haven't read the postgame thoughts yet, but here are mine.
Clock management/use of Time outs continues to be a problem. Three years in and it was as maddening as ever today.
Good thing we have depth at RB, although Bryce had a tough time with blitz pick up.
OL continues to struggle, but they are not helped out by the awful play calling either. Waiting until 10 seconds are left on the play clock and having Tanner running up to the OL to tell them the play, then get back to his spot and take the snap to then hand it off to a RB going basically up the middle, just doesn't work as the defense gets off the ball very well since theres no time to hard count them. Suck it up and just run a play once please without having to D**k around with trying to get the perfect play call in from the sideline at the last moment. You would think with that approach we would have way more explosive runs and or throws.
On the last play I saw, Tanner spiked it to stop the clock. Not sure why the GSU staff didn't challenge that as he threw the ball backwards, which would make it a lateral. Clock would still run and Bryce recovered on the 10.

3 and 0 does look really nice though!
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Play never happened, GSU called TO
 

GSUsTALON said:
Here is the problem. GSU has gotten a lot better since their first 2 games and you did not expect that. Especially from a 2nd string QB & a defense that has underperformed.

GSU is just now catching up on both sides of the ball. There was no way the Gophers coaches could have known that! They were looking at old film!
Click to expand...

Talon, I really hope there is some truth in what you’re saying. As I was sitting there at the game late 4th quarter, I said to my friend: “wow, this really shows how far we are from a team like LSU that blew this team out.”
 

Hollinsanity said:
The offensive line clearly had an awful game, but I think it’s important to evaluate the run blocking and the pass blocking independently.

The run blocking or complete lack thereof is my biggest concern as we head into conference play. For three straight games we have generated absolutely no push both running to the right and the left against fairly pedestrian opponents. The play calling has been unimaginative and this offensive line unit is nowhere near good enough to bully opponents when the play call is predictable. Dunlap and Faalele in particular have been disappointing.

From I pass blocking perspective I think the offensive line is getting a bad wrap. They provided some clean pockets in the first three quarters and, while inconsistent at times, did an OK job. Not great, but OK.

In the fourth quarter GSU brought 5 or 6 guys on virtually every play, and to me the struggles of the passing game in the 4th is not on the offensive line — it’s 100% on the coaching staff.

At one point GSU blitzed on 5+ straight plays and we didn’t run a single screen. We also called a lot of long-developing plays, putting Morgan in a tough spot.

On the final drive once we adjusted to some quick-hitting routes we began to see some success, and that adjustment came far slower than it should have.

The defense played well, so unless the offensive line improves drastically I think we could be looking at a lot of 24ish - 10ish losses in big ten play.


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Ok the bolded part particularly bothered me. Didn't we in year one run a TON of WR screen plays out of trips formation? It was 5-7 yards almost every time then you also have the traditional screen with the RB, or how about put the TE in a flat and where is this mysterious BSF that is such a freak athletically? Oh, he can't block as well as the others. Well guess what coaches I see all the damn time TE's that can't block that are used in a hybrid receiver role to make plays. Lots of plays! Lets get over ourselves and use players that have talent and modify things to play up to some of their talents. Hopefully these coaches can figure it out.
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
Ok the bolded part particularly bothered me. Didn't we in year one run a TON of WR screen plays out of trips formation? It was 5-7 yards almost every time then you also have the traditional screen with the RB, or how about put the TE in a flat and where is this mysterious BSF that is such a freak athletically? Oh, he can't block as well as the others. Well guess what coaches I see all the damn time TE's that can't block that are used in a hybrid receiver role to make plays. Lots of plays! Lets get over ourselves and use players that have talent and modify things to play up to some of their talents. Hopefully these coaches can figure it out.
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That was year zero. Technically, it never happened.
 

MrC said:
Most agree, there is no such thing as a “moral victory.”

So what was this?

An “immoral victory?”
An “amoral victory?
A “moral loss?”
Click to expand...

I think it was a "morel" victory. after watching the game, it makes you want to hide in a dark basement and pretend you're a mushroom.
 

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