Postgame Observations

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Bob_Loblaw said:
He played terrible last week and deserved some criticism but he was great today. They left a lot of points on the board with dropped passes and inopportune penalties, but Morgan was good today.
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Some criticism is fine, it was a poor game, but wanting him removed as the starter was and is silly.
 

Gold Rush said:
No -- Dylan Wright had to go to a funeral for a high school teammate who was killed in Utah. So --- he is ok physically anyways but we should get him back at full strength for Nebraska.
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I believe the former teammate is is half brother …
 


btowngopher said:
Some criticism is fine, it was a poor game, but wanting him removed as the starter was and is silly.
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I would be fine with giving ZA5 a start and seeing how it works out. I know they see them both in practice, but this isn't Leider vs Nelson as two sophomores. Tanner hasn't been elite anyway.
 

denguegopher said:
I hated those Wacker teams that would gain 500 yards and lose by 21.
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I dunno about that... Granted, nobody was happy with the W-L records, but those were some exciting games. In 1993, Tim Schade threw for 478 yards against #17 Penn State (and lost.) Scott Eckers threw for just over 400 yards against Purdue in that same season and the Gophers won 59-56

Wacker had some good quarterbacks. Tim Schade was pretty good... and Scott Eckers could have been, but wasn't able to put it together. Then Cory Sauter came at the end of the Wacker years.
 


Otis said:
Bailed out by two turnovers and statistically dominated, people get fired for wins like that.
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bailed-out? So any team that gets a few turnovers and wins...is 'bailed-out'? What makes you happy? Obviously winning a game isn't good enough for you. Geezus.
 

Wally said:
They are setting up a big Kramer pass against Iowa.
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I would actually bet on it. I watched him for several years at EP. Kid is a winner. He can toss the ball, doubtless.
 


Was finally able to watch the game. Wasn’t able to watch it live, had to follow it on my phone.

- It was good to see the deep throws. Gotta connect on a few more.
- Did we just abandon the RPO?
- Walley will be good, but he got abused a bit today.
- Smith allowed a few longer receptions but his coverage was really good. Glad to see him playing well.
- Great to see the DL get after it.
- Gibbens plays better each week.
- The rule of being down as soon as a QB starts a slide instead of when their knee touches down is bizarre to me. When a player starts their slide can be so subjective.
- I like the Kramer wildcat, and I like that he hands the ball of once in awhile. That’s the one thing I didn’t like about Green. Seemed like he never handed the ball off.

Never gonna apologize for a conference road win regardless of how ugly it was.
 



GophersInIowa said:
Was finally able to watch the game. Wasn’t able to watch it live, had to follow it on my phone.

- It was good to see the deep throws. Gotta connect on a few more.
- Did we just abandon the RPO?
- Walley will be good, but he got abused a bit today.
- Smith allowed a few longer receptions but his coverage was really good. Glad to see him playing well.
- Great to see the DL get after it.
- Gibbens plays better each week.
- The rule of being down as soon as a QB starts a slide instead of when their knee touches down is bizarre to me. When a player starts their slide can be so subjective.
- I like the Kramer wildcat, and I like that he hands the ball of once in awhile. That’s the one thing I didn’t like about Green. Seemed like he never handed the ball off.

Never gonna apologize for a conference road win regardless of how ugly it was.
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All good points, I'll only comment on a couple;

Walley got beat a few times but I did think he came back and made some really good plays; certainly enough to show the talent that is there.

Gibbens; coming into the season, he's the player/newcomer I was quietly the most excited about making an impact. Regardless of being at a lower level/division, he's just played too much football to not have the instincts to be a difference-maker in the middle of the defense. He's playing really good football right now
 

Hard to gauge this team - is Purdue really bad? Or not so bad? Is Ohio State overrated so that our good showing is also overrated? The Bowling Green and second half against Miami were truly awful - hard to argue with that. But can we hang in there with Wisconsin, Nebraska, even Maryland or Indiana (all of them had bad losses)? It's a puzzlement.
 

noamfromm said:
I would be fine with giving ZA5 a start and seeing how it works out. I know they see them both in practice, but this isn't Leider vs Nelson as two sophomores. Tanner hasn't been elite anyway.
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Really? Thought Tanner looked much better today with his throws, hanging in against pressure and some good decisions on when to scramble; if CAB catches those 2 drops his stat line would have been next level. We got 2 weeks to get healthy and get ready for Nebby to make our push to the Western Title. Also keep in mind that he recently lost his Dad at a young age and who he was very close to - list mine 5 years ago who I wasnt as close to at age 50 and it knocked the stuffing out of me for a while.

Tanner’s best ball is in front of him and not in the rear view.
 
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We were also wondering where the RPO went.

It seems as though we throw the ball deep or not at all. Unless it is 3rd and 20, then we throw a screen.
 



Gopher_In_NYC said:
Really? Thought Tanner looked much better today with his throws, hanging in against pressure and some good decisions on when to scramble; if CAB catches those 2 drops his stat line would have been next level. We got 2 weeks to get healthy and get ready for Nebby to make our push to the Western Title. Also best in mind that he recently lost his Dad at a young age and who he was very close to - list mine 5 years ago who I wasnt as close to at age 50 and it knocked the stuffing out of me for a while.

Tanner’s best ball is in front of him and not in the rear view.
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Exactly! Two bad drops by CAB on perfectly-thrown deep passes. The entire stat line would have looked different if he catches those.
 

Has Cody Lindenberg gotten much play this year? I don't recall seeing him much and figured he'd get called upon when Sori-Marin went down yesterday. Maybe he is backup to Jack Gibbens??
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Really? Thought Tanner looked much better today with his throws, hanging in against pressure and some good decisions on when to scramble; if CAB catches those 2 drops his stat line would have been next level. We got 2 weeks to get healthy and get ready for Nebby to make our push to the Western Title. Also keep in mind that he recently lost his Dad at a young age and who he was very close to - list mine 5 years ago who I wasnt as close to at age 50 and it knocked the stuffing out of me for a while.

Tanner’s best ball is in front of him and not in the rear view.
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Tanner was elite running mainly RPO with two All B1G receivers in '19. Saying his best ball is in front of him is just narrative to me. His performance has left me wondering what someone else could do in his stead.
 

noamfromm said:
Tanner was elite running mainly RPO with two All B1G receivers in '19. Saying his best ball is in front of him is just narrative to me. His performance has left me wondering what someone else could do in his stead.
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Valid points.
My counter is that he ends up being honorable mention All- Conference since he doesn’t have those two-stud WRs to target any more - if this comes to fruition, I win the argument, if not the u do. Deal?
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Hard to gauge this team - is Purdue really bad? Or not so bad? Is Ohio State overrated so that our good showing is also overrated? The Bowling Green and second half against Miami were truly awful - hard to argue with that. But can we hang in there with Wisconsin, Nebraska, even Maryland or Indiana (all of them had bad losses)? It's a puzzlement.
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Impossible to say with certainty, but I think we have enough data to say Minnesota is an above-average B1G team. Most games moving forward will be close, so stock up on pepto. I shudder to say this, but they're starting to remind me of those 8-4 Iowa teams we've seen so often. They're winning with defense and STs and trying to grind it out on offense with the running game and play action pass with non-descript skill position players. When the offense isn't clicking, they win ugly or lose. There's zero margin for error as demonstrated yesterday by a close win with a +2 TO margin while being statistically dominated.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Valid points.
My counter is that he ends up being honorable mention All- Conference since he doesn’t have those two-stud WRs to target any more - if this comes to fruition, I win the argument, if not the u do. Deal?
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Honorable mention means he is seen as the fourth best qb? I'd take the other side -- but the argument isn't where he's ranked among other QBs, merely is ZA5 better in this system (or equal)
 

MGGopher said:
Impossible to say with certainty, but I think we have enough data to say Minnesota is an above-average B1G team. Most games moving forward will be close, so stock up on pepto. I shudder to say this, but they're starting to remind me of those 8-4 Iowa teams we've seen so often. They're winning with defense and STs and trying to grind it out on offense with the running game and play action pass with non-descript skill position players. When the offense isn't clicking, they win ugly or lose. There's zero margin for error as demonstrated yesterday by a close win with a +2 TO margin while being statistically dominated.
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To have zero turnovers on offense, playing on the road, as underdogs, under those wet conditions is extremely impressive.

As for Purdue's turnovers, can we give the Gopher defense a little credit for them?

Purdue was 3-1 with their only loss a competitive one to a ranked team. They were off to an excellent start and were riding high.

Well done, Gophers.
 

Vandy said:
Last Gopher drive ending with the FG (which meant nothing more than
a little field position...)

One more 1st down, or TD you ice the game.

You bring Cole Kramer into the game on 1st and 10 to run the Wildcat, letting a good defensive line know within 95% certainty what the play will be. THREE times in a row!

THAT was lunacy.

Yeah, I know we won, but you are just asking for lightning to strike and end up in OT.

That 3 play set cements my opinion of our OC.
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What I’m about to say doesn’t excuse Sanford at all. However, if you ask me, anyone who’s watched a second of our film knows that we’re running it 95% of that time in that situation if Tanner is in. At least Kramer provided a second running option since Sanford will never give Tanner a designed run.

Again, not a defense of Sanford. But if we’re guaranteed to run the ball regardless because of his uncreative playcalling, might as well add a tiny wrinkle.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
See, I'm not sure if you didn't see a pretty close version to the 2019 Morgan today. If you add those two drops to his numbers (and they were EASY balls), his numbers are looking really good today. I can't think of any bad throws that he made, I can't think of any scenario where he held onto the ball too long. He probably should have been 10-18 240 yards and 2 TDs. That's a pretty good stat line in these conditions against that defense.
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Morgan was good. OL gave him time. But we will not see a 2019 Morgan in a Sanford offense which is limited to half a dozen plays and doesn't use short route slants and screens.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Hard to gauge this team - is Purdue really bad? Or not so bad? Is Ohio State overrated so that our good showing is also overrated? The Bowling Green and second half against Miami were truly awful - hard to argue with that. But can we hang in there with Wisconsin, Nebraska, even Maryland or Indiana (all of them had bad losses)? It's a puzzlement.
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The puzzle is not about talent. Purdue is not bad and Ohio State is very good. Gophers have talent to be quite good.

Our limitation so far (the puzzle) is coaching schemes. Defense corrects, adjusts, and improves. Rossi is a solid coach. Offense improved yesterday through better execution but game plan and play selection remain at high school level. Sanford is not adequate and will continue to limit overall team success.
 

Otis said:
Bailed out by two turnovers and statistically dominated, people get fired for wins like that.
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Total yards can be deceiving.

Yards per play: Purdue 5.2, Minnesota 6.0 (if you don't count victory formation)
Minnesota special teams>> Purdue
turnovers +2, both caused by defense

The Gophers flat-out earned the win.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Was finally able to watch the game. Wasn’t able to watch it live, had to follow it on my phone.

- It was good to see the deep throws. Gotta connect on a few more.
- Did we just abandon the RPO?
- Walley will be good, but he got abused a bit today.
- Smith allowed a few longer receptions but his coverage was really good. Glad to see him playing well.
- Great to see the DL get after it.
- Gibbens plays better each week.
- The rule of being down as soon as a QB starts a slide instead of when their knee touches down is bizarre to me. When a player starts their slide can be so subjective.
- I like the Kramer wildcat, and I like that he hands the ball of once in awhile. That’s the one thing I didn’t like about Green. Seemed like he never handed the ball off.

Never gonna apologize for a conference road win regardless of how ugly it was.
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Gibbens play stood out to me too. Promising and needed.
 


Slippery balls. Hands.
Arm and leg, redeemed. Gibbens
B1G wins. Suck it, Jeff
 

Replacement Gopher said:
We were also wondering where the RPO went.

It seems as though we throw the ball deep or not at all. Unless it is 3rd and 20, then we throw a screen.
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I'm probably not gonna going back and watch games to corroborate (a.k.a. possibly talking out my ass), but I think teams are getting better at defending Morgan's bread-and-butter slant RPO by parking LBs and/or safeties in the slant passing lanes and forcing Morgan to throw to the sidelines or deep. Plus, defenders have had success by stacking the box and successfully blitzing off that which forces the Gophs to go with heavy packages which then limits the offense to 2-receiver sets thus limiting pass route options. I think this is why we've seen more TE catches this year.

Side note to this, the Gophs may be doing more heavy packages because that's where they have a lot of talent with less talent at RB with Mo out. Mo could get his own yards against stacked boxes without extra lineman where the current young RBs do not. We're not going to see the 2019 offense this year. This year's team has not had that level of WR/RB skill on the field, but arguably has better talent in the O-line and TE for pass catching. It's taking some time for the coaching staff to find that groove with the current talent.
 

GopherPete said:
Has Cody Lindenberg gotten much play this year? I don't recall seeing him much and figured he'd get called upon when Sori-Marin went down yesterday. Maybe he is backup to Jack Gibbens??
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Was on the tunnel team for the BG game. Lindenberg was not dressed. Came out with the team, and didn’t see any noticeable injury but was not dressed.
 

FormerFatOL said:
I'm probably not gonna going back and watch games to corroborate (a.k.a. possibly talking out my ass), but I think teams are getting better at defending Morgan's bread-and-butter slant RPO by parking LBs and/or safeties in the slant passing lanes and forcing Morgan to throw to the sidelines or deep. Plus, defenders have had success by stacking the box and successfully blitzing off that which forces the Gophs to go with heavy packages which then limits the offense to 2-receiver sets thus limiting pass route options. I think this is why we've seen more TE catches this year.

Side note to this, the Gophs may be doing more heavy packages because that's where they have a lot of talent with less talent at RB with Mo out. Mo could get his own yards against stacked boxes without extra lineman where the current young RBs do not. We're not going to see the 2019 offense this year. This year's team has not had that level of WR/RB skill on the field, but arguably has better talent in the O-line and TE for pass catching. It's taking some time for the coaching staff to find that groove with the current talent.
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I haven't analyzed things at all, but it seems that this year we are doing a more straight drop back passes by Tanner--which isn't an RPO and doesn't draw the LBs toward the LOS to defend a running gap. Harder to run quick slants out of a straight drop back pass because LBs have dropped back and are in the way. I know we are supposedly an RPO offense, but I think I've seen Tanner do more straight drop backs this year. But, like I said, this is a vague impression I've gotten watching games without any true analysis. Gophers are definitely running more heavy packages this year, which also limits WR routes. Probably based on this year's personnel strengths.
 

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