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STPGopher

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Many teams have a terrible game. The real question is how will this team respond. This is gut check week. I wonder if the staff won't just shred the film and just say let's focus on Purdue. Okay, we know that they won't, but from the lowlights I saw, little is to be gained.

Since this team wasn't in the running for an NC, this game could be proven irrelevant. Everything else is in front of this team including a bowl game and a stretch goal of a West division title. Hopefully the team can regroup and move forward.
 

You're absolutely right. Don't judge the team solely on this game. Let's see how they respond. Especially the coaching staff since this one was on them.
 

GridironGus said:
You're absolutely right. Don't judge the team solely on this game. Let's see how they respond. Especially the coaching staff since this one was on them.
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How about judging them by the body of work this season? Colorado game was dominant but we have 2 let downs vs. mid-majors and the prior year was nothing to write home about. Confidence in Fleck is based on 2019 - and the more you look at that team - the more you see a lot of individual talent that probably bailed the coaches out of a lot of trouble. The regression in Morgan over the last 2 years has been startling. If PJ wants to get faith back in his coaching ability, he need to get Morgan's head screwed on right by putting him into a position where he can succeed. If our QB plays remains this erratic and Morgan is not pulled, I don't have a lot of faith in PJ getting it done next year with all new talent.
 

STPGopher said:
Many teams have a terrible game. The real question is how will this team respond. This is gut check week. I wonder if the staff won't just shred the film and just say let's focus on Purdue. Okay, we know that they won't, but from the lowlights I saw, little is to be gained.

Since this team wasn't in the running for an NC, this game could be proven irrelevant. Everything else is in front of this team including a bowl game and a stretch goal of a West division title. Hopefully the team can regroup and move forward.
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I agree with your points except for little to be gained from film.

This needs to be solved in the film room, because that's the #1 place where the game was lost on Saturday. The Gophers were exposed strategically yesterday in a way that other teams will copy and deploy with superior talent to what Bowling Green probably had.

If the staff actually tells the team that they lost because they weren't fired up enough and to RTB and focus on Purdue without a long look at how they got outfoxed...then everyone should be fired.
 

STPGopher said:
Many teams have a terrible game. The real question is how will this team respond. This is gut check week. I wonder if the staff won't just shred the film and just say let's focus on Purdue. Okay, we know that they won't, but from the lowlights I saw, little is to be gained.

Since this team wasn't in the running for an NC, this game could be proven irrelevant. Everything else is in front of this team including a bowl game and a stretch goal of a West division title. Hopefully the team can regroup and move forward.
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NC as in National Championship? I would love to be able to say that just one time in my Gopher fandom lifetime.
 


PJ has had this vanilla game plan against teams we should beat in the non conference since he got here. He lucked out big time THREE times in 2019 to make that incredible season. He was due to be bit bad. This is a strain on his resume.

My hope is that next year and beyond he learns and we plan like we're playing Ohio St every week regardless of the conference the team is from.
 

tmvander said:
PJ has had this vanilla game plan against teams we should beat in the non conference since he got here. He lucked out big time THREE times in 2019 to make that incredible season. He was due to be bit bad. This is a strain on his resume.

My hope is that next year and beyond he learns and we plan like we're playing Ohio St every week regardless of the conference the team is from.
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This. That is how good teams do it. You NEVER game plan to do just enough to win … because you actually have no idea how much in any game you will need to win. You always game plan to score as much as you reasonably can; if you take your foot off the accelerator, you do it in the 4th Q out of respect for a team that fought hard but is overmatched. You never game plan to play a whole game in first or second gear only … because you might get stuck in that gear.

I can’t believe the offensive play calling in the BG game was the actual game plan. Maybe something is going on with Tanner—perhaps he isn’t the best fit for this year’s plodding, uni-dimensional, run centric offensive game plans (with no TJ or Bateman); or maybe he has lost confidence, IDK—but we have attempted very few passes since the OSU game.

If we are going to abandon the passing game even against low ranking non-P5 teams, maybe we need a QB who is a real running threat to open up the running lanes a bit more for Potts & Co. And if we don’t have WRs that can get open, or our “vertical” passing game for whatever reason isn’t going to materialize this year, then we have to use TEs and RB passes and screens to keep defenses at least half honest. These shorter passes are essentially part of a running game package, and keep defenses from overloading too much against the RBs.
 
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STPGopher said:
Many teams have a terrible game. The real question is how will this team respond. This is gut check week. I wonder if the staff won't just shred the film and just say let's focus on Purdue. Okay, we know that they won't, but from the lowlights I saw, little is to be gained.

Since this team wasn't in the running for an NC, this game could be proven irrelevant. Everything else is in front of this team including a bowl game and a stretch goal of a West division title. Hopefully the team can regroup and move forward.
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How dare you be rational sire!!

Good gosh man, a team that played superlative ball the week prior and laid an egg because they were (possibly/likely) overlooking an inferior opponent and believed the press clippings cannot be forgiven and proved a chance to atone.

A coach whose players seemingly/rarely get in trouble, excel academically and in the community and lead us to the best season any of us (none 65-70 years olds) have ever witnessed two seasons ago and is the best coach we've had her since Lispin Louie; obviously cannot coach and is nothing more than a self-promoting narcistic carpetbagger who should pack his boat/oar and goofy sayings forthwith and depart to USC!! How dare he not be elite and have an off week - who does he think he is, he sure as heck ain't Nick Sabin - opps, there's only one of them right?

Does thou wear a Red Badger or Yellow Hawkeye next to thine chest, instead of a Maroon Gopher? I want the truth!!!!
 
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The West is still in front of them. The West looked awful yesterday and I think every game is winnable if the team can figure out how to throw a forward pass, which they seem to magically figure out against non-MAC teams.

I can't for the life of me understand completely ditching some of last weeks plays that worked but maybe PJ will learn after an embarrassing loss.
 




tmvander said:
My hope is that next year and beyond he learns and we plan like we're playing Ohio St every week regardless of the conference the team is from.
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The fact that he doesn’t plan for every game like it’s Ohio State is a real problem. How could a coach, any coach, not go out there game in and game out and give 110% IN YOUR GAMEPLAN to defeat your foe? He should want to beat Bowling Green or anyone else by as much as he can. That’s when you get subs into games for experience to help improve your teams’s depth. But for some reason this doesn’t seem to matter with Fleck. He appears to design his game plans against lesser foes to simply win by a field goal, I assume to try and not give anything away offensively to opponents. This is absurd. Georgia, Alabama and others don’t do this. Why does PJ? Georgia could have beat Vandy yesterday with Fleck’s exact game plan of RUTM. They didn’t do it. Georgia still threw the ball 26 times yesterday enroute to sprinting out to a 35-0 first quarter lead.
I said in another post that I love PJ the man, the motivator and the recruiter, but I’m starting to loathe PJ the head coach.
 

While this loss is particularly bad, some pretty good teams/programs have had setbacks like this on a pretty routine basis, and come back to reach new highs. Sometimes even within the same year.

In the just the last 10 years Iowa has lost to Central Michigan, Northern Illinois and North Dakota State. In that stretch Iowa played in a CCG and nearly made the CFP. And it looks like Iowa could have a similar season this year.

Over the last 8 seasons, Pat Fitzgerald is 2-3 against the MAC. Northwestern is 0-3 against Duke in the last 5 years. Yet, he’s won the division twice in the last 3 seasons; and has won 9+ games in three of the last six.
 

Goldmember said:
While this loss is particularly bad, some pretty good teams/programs have had setbacks like this on a pretty routine basis, and come back to reach new highs. Sometimes even within the same year.

In the just the last 10 years Iowa has lost to Central Michigan, Northern Illinois and North Dakota State. In that stretch Iowa played in a CCG and nearly made the CFP. And it looks like Iowa could have a similar season this year.

Over the last 8 seasons, Pat Fitzgerald is 2-3 against the MAC. Northwestern is 0-3 against Duke in the last 5 years. Yet, he’s won the division twice in the last 3 seasons; and has won 9+ games in three of the last six.
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There are major problems with the offense and special teams right now.....They need to be addressed....Saying it was a bad game and moving on does not fix that.
 




Goldmember said:
While this loss is particularly bad, some pretty good teams/programs have had setbacks like this on a pretty routine basis, and come back to reach new highs. Sometimes even within the same year.

In the just the last 10 years Iowa has lost to Central Michigan, Northern Illinois and North Dakota State. In that stretch Iowa played in a CCG and nearly made the CFP. And it looks like Iowa could have a similar season this year.

Over the last 8 seasons, Pat Fitzgerald is 2-3 against the MAC. Northwestern is 0-3 against Duke in the last 5 years. Yet, he’s won the division twice in the last 3 seasons; and has won 9+ games in three of the last six.
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I am fine losing a random game to a MAC program if we were consistently beating rivals and appearing in championship games.

But this program does not do that, and it finds ways to lose games it should win.

I don’t know man - I agree that there are still winnable games and other teams also have setbacks, but the Gophers program has failed to build on momentum at pivotal times and it is severely deflating to the fan base. And our rivals just keep smashing us.

We were such heavy favorites coming off an important P5 dominating win, and with a programmatic issue of building on success, that this loss is much more severe than those mentioned above.

I will hope for rivalry wins and positional growth over the B1G season.
 

GopherGangsta said:
There are major problems with the offense and special teams right now.....They need to be addressed....Saying it was a bad game and moving on does not fix that.
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Oh I agree. It’s not about just “moving on” or ignoring it.
 

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