[POST GAME THREAD] - Minnesota defeats SDSU 28-21

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Well there is no preseason to shake off the rust in college. SDSU is a good team and better than some B1G teams, at least Illinois and Rutgers. Knew it wasn’t going to be a blowout, but still a bit too close for comfort. A W is a W. Not going to be easy next week either. Keep Rowing!!!
 

It’s fine. They got their reality check out of the way early, and still won the game. Several games like this one take place every year. Bad P5 teams manage to lose them, good teams figure out a way to win.

I view it sort of like an NFL preseason game that counts in the standings. They now have lots of tape to evaluate, and I expect changes will be made with both lines. Maybe they’ll move Andres to LT, like they did in the bowl game.


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O line sucked
D line sucked
coaching sucked
game plan sucked
special teams sucked
linebackers sucked
RBs ok
QB ok
DB ok
WR - huge catch
1-0
 

A nonymous said:
I would have liked to see the Gophers play a little more aggressively on defense earlier in the game. They allowed that QB to get too comfortable and settle in well. SDSU executed their offense nicely for the most part and you could tell the Gophers were unable to key in and disrupt what the Rabbits were doing.

Offensively, you could tell the game plan was just to blow them away with size in the trenches however the quickness of SDSUs defensive front really caused problems. The Gophers did not do much to make the Rabbits pay for bringing extra men into the box. One thing I don’t understand is why the Gophers want to run between the tackles but keep their lineman with such narrow splits. I think going forward they will show a more aggressive and varied offensive game plan.

Overall not a very inspiring game. SDSU appeared well coached and if not for a few self-inflicted blunders they may have walked out of TCF stadium with a victory. Difficult to evaluate these non conference games as coaching staffs do treat these games somewhat like NFL preseason - evaluate players, execute a simple game plan, work out the kinks, avoid injuries. Still you would like to see some better halftime adjustments and not get completely out coached in the second half for the most part. This Gophers team still has some growing up to do.


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SDSU's small/quick D-line was running circles around our large O-line in the open field. Tighter splits help nullify that.
 

Negatives:

Outplayed in every aspect except points on turnovers. Out-coached in every way I can think of. Very bad performance.

Positives:

We won. I guess I would rather win and play poorly than lose and play well, so there is that.

Question: Are we really as bad as we looked?


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Curious how long SDSU game planned for this matchup? All off-season? They were sharp except for the turnovers.

And yes, the ball is the program.
 

So strange that the only difference between the offense tonight and the offense against Georgia Tech is Jared Weyler. Gives me hope that things will get better...thought it was ridiculous we didn’t use Seth Green more, or Spann Ford at all. We got playmakers on the outside, and Kirk needs to get them the ball.
 

Bordergopher said:
Negatives:

Outplayed in every aspect except points on turnovers. Out-coached in every way I can think of. Very bad performance.

Positives:

We won. I guess I would rather win and play poorly than lose and play well, so there is that.

Question: Are we really as bad as we looked?


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Obviously we won't know the answer to that question for a few weeks but my gut is that the answer is going to be no we are not as bad as we looked in week 1.

People get hung up on the FCS label but SDSU was a solid opponent (similar to playing a team like NDSU). They were able to hang around early and when that happens a team like that becomes super dangerous. Lots of work to do on both sides of the ball but that is almost always the case coming out of the first game. How we come out against Fresno will tell us a lot about how this season is going to go.

Way too early to panic.
 

How in the world could they not use Ford, as athletic as he is, to throw him the ball?
 



Both lines were absolutely manhandled for the most part.
Edge containment was a problem for the D.
Pass rush for 90% of the game was nowhere to be found.
Special teams?
Offensive line didn't do much for Rodney. He did run well....

Nicest thing I can say is that I hope that either SDSU is that good, or we got very lucky and need to consider this a huge wake up call.
 


It was a tough game, teams like SDSU, always play up, and Gophers always seem to come out flat and a little uninspired against teams in these games. I was at game probably a little to critical at times because of frustration about wanting Gophers to play better and be a little more explosive. SDSU has good team but we kind of knew that going in. Dline really struggled to contain, set edge of defense, and rally to the ball. SDSU ran a lot of misdirection and natural pick plays so they schemed up the Gophers defense really well. I thought they were doing a better job of calling plays. 'm just happy the Gophers won, I thought SDSU out played us and gave better effort and fight at times. Seemed like Coughlin got dinged up or already had gimpy leg, as did Dunlop got cheap shotted late. Turnovers stalled out both teams drives. Let's not schedule these local FCS games anymore, just cause people in this state will rip in to and castigate Gophers. No win situation, you stomp them, they are dumb creampuff, you struggle you see your team get ripped and tore a new one. Gophers did play hard and looked really good at times, good playmakers and got beat on some plays others. Congrats to the jackrabbit they played the Gophers tough. It was actually a draining game and a relief to see the boys pull out the win. Hey play better next week, and feel better next week. The W counts the same as all the others. Go Gophers!

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I have nothing positive to say outside of Bateman. This was not a good first showing and it has me worried.


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Hats off to the SDSU coaches and players. They planned and played a hell of a game.

Coal in the stocking for the MN coaches. That was bad. Real bad. From big down decisions to having guys mentally prepared. Kudos to pulling the game out when it was brass tacks time.

Good:
Rodney Smith ran hard even though he doesn’t look quite 100%
Bateman is elite
Durr is 100% and was a difference maker
Winfield and MDT came through when it mattered

Decent
Morgan had a decent game. No more no less. A bad throw early, then pretty good. Ran for his life all game and sacrificed his body for a huge conversion.


Bad:
Howden looks like he doesn’t like contact and that back ran away from him.
TJ 50/50 hands showed up

Ugly
Lines, backers, coaches, effort, energy, kickers, coverage team

Onward and upward. I was hopeful MN was past games like this but clearly they have a lot to work on before Big Ten play gets started.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Hats off to the SDSU coaches and players. They planned and played a hell of a game.

Coal in the stocking for the MN coaches. That was bad. Real bad. From big down decisions to having guys mentally prepared. Kudos to pulling the game out when it was brass tacks time.

Good:
Rodney Smith ran hard even though he doesn’t look quite 100%
Bateman is elite
Durr is 100% and was a difference maker
Winfield and MDT came through when it mattered

Decent
Morgan had a decent game. No more no less. A bad throw early, then pretty good. Ran for his life all game and sacrificed his body for a huge conversion.


Bad:
Howden looks like he doesn’t like contact and that back ran away from him.
TJ 50/50 hands showed up

Ugly
Lines, backers, coaches, effort, energy, kickers, coverage team

Onward and upward. I was hopeful MN was past games like this but clearly they have a lot to work on before Big Ten play gets started.
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I agree. That said, I'd rather have ugly wins than moral victories any day.
 

Perspective- South Dakota is a state of 882,000 people. Total. NDSU often comes in and grabs some of the best players in the state. Nebraska, Iowa, and Iowa State do as well. SDSU has to compete with USD for all of the non FBS kids. Walk-ons? Maybe a few. But Augustana and Sioux Falls get their share of SD kids as well. They have a tiny recruiting budget compared to a school like Minnesota. They find kids in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and a little pipeline to Arizona. Yet, they had the ball under two with under two minutes left and a chance to tie or take the lead against the Gophers of Minnesota of the Big Ten. Amazing.
 

The Gophers won, I'm happy. There are concerns, yes, of course, but I'm going to be happy tonight. The Gophers could have played better, but they did stiffen up when they had to.

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It was an ugly win but it was still a win. I'd prefer to play a solid team in week 1 than bring in a bad team to crush where you don't learn anything from the game.

Line play on both sides was horrible. I have more confidence in the offensive line but the defensive line was concerning. They need to find a way to get pressure on the QB and stop the outside run or it's going to be a long season.

The offense frequently had little change on 3rd down. They'd waste the first two downs with incomplete passes or runs for minimal gains and then get stuck on 3rd and medium to long.

Special teams was rough. Poor kick coverage and the missed extra point hurt. At one point it seemed like the extra point could have decided the game. The Gophers don't have many games where they should win by a bunch. Special teams blunders could be the difference in most games this season and they're going to need to play better if they want to win games.

In the long run this could be a very nice game to have played. It counts as a win and gives the team confidence and experience being successful in close games. It exposed quite a few weaknesses early enough to do something about them. Better to have a game like this now than with 3 games left in the season.
 

What’s up with Martin? Whatever it is, he’s hurting his team. Time to grow up, because we’re going to need him.


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The year Michigan LOST to Appy St they still came within a game of winning the B1G. I'll be happy to take the win and move on.
 

Win and move on. Lines sucked, offensive line plus TE (Paulson had some truly awful sequences) were missing guys on every play and really were unprepared for stunts. Offensive play calling was bizarre to not get the ball to RB and TJ in space and it really hamstrung the offense to get trying to pound it up the middle in 8 man shifting boxes (makes me think o line was struggling with assignments with defensive players wheeling into and out of box). TM shook off a rough interception to make some plays. Defensive line was abysmal all game. Next to zero pressure, multiple holding penalties, very little penetration. They were the weakest group to me. Linebackers struggled in pet due to them not making anything happen but looked a step slow themselves. The secondary will be fine. Wish they’d press them a little more as we seem to have the athletes to run with guys in the secondary finally. Kicking game was awful in all aspects. Very flat performance partly due to execution, partly due to gameplan. Can’t happen again next week or we’ll be 1-1. But hey we won this one and that’s what’ll matter at the end of the day
 

South Dakota state played like it was thier super bowl and the gophers played like they were playing, well, a fcs team. The contrast of schemes was telling. SDU ran stunts and crowded the box on D and had lots of misdirection and a open play book on offense. UM ran vanilla everything , thinking they could just impose their will. They finally blitzed some on defense after SDU came out strong on offense the second half. They were not aggressive getting upfield on the d line until the end of the game. The offense made enough plays to win. They will play better in coming weeks when they have a opponent they take more seriously -
 


scools12 said:
It looked like the first game of the year for a still young offense.

Defense has a lot more experience. Didn’t play great but made a couple plays in the end to get the win.

JackRabbits are a really good FCS team. <b>The Gophers only being 2 TD favorite shows it wasn’t going to be easy. </b>


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You don’t follow betting lines very closely, do you?


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PitinoFan said:
What’s up with Martin? Whatever it is, he’s hurting his team. Time to grow up, because we’re going to need him.


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I’m hoping it is a carryover from last year. I have recently hear PJ really praise him. Hopefully because you are right - we need him.


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Minnesota finished 2018 with a hard edge and a confident team. That team last night had lost it physical edge and it’s confidence was gone after SDSU got rolling. Coaching staff needs to goto work, they were not at all prepared on defense.

SDSU is a typical Missouri Valley team, but they are usually not as physical as what you get from UNI, Youngstown, Illinois State and NDSU. They do have a more veteran D this year, but MN made them look very physical.
 
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SPEGOPHER said:
Outside of the horrendous line play, four big points of concern for me: <b>(1) CC45 clearly has an ankle injury of some sort; </b>(2) the next wave of LBs (Rush, Sori-M, Oliver) really seemed to struggle; (3) Our kicker looks like he has a range of about 30 yards; and (4) kick return coverage was absolutely brutal.

Tonight was very sobering, but I think this team will improve. Also will say SDSU looked like a lower mid tier big ten team, which is better than I anticipated.
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I’ve been searching for info on this. Not sure how much he even played in the 2nd half. I didn’t see him in the 4th.

I know he had a hamstring injury during camp that limited him. Those can be tricky to kick.


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Spoofin said:
I’ve been searching for info on this. Not sure how much he even played in the 2nd half. I didn’t see him in the 4th.

I know he had a hamstring injury during camp that limited him. Those can be tricky to kick.


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He did play the last two plays so that's a good sign at least.
 

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