BleedGopher
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per Sid:
No doubt Tracy Claeys went back to his office to view film of the Gophers’ 31-24 victory over Colorado State on Saturday, and the coach found that two defensive plays probably saved his team from at least overtime and potentially a loss, because the Gophers were unable to stop the visitors’ running game all day.
With less than four minutes to play and the ball at the 50-yard line, junior defensive lineman Steven Richardson made another big play in the Rams backfield, tackling running back Dalyn Dawkins for a 4-yard loss. Then Adekunle Ayinde made a deflection on a fourth-and-5 pass to give the Gophers the ball back with 1 minute, 50 seconds left, enabling them to run out the clock.
Claeys said that he was happy to leave TCF Bank Stadium with a victory but that the defense is far from where it needs to be to start Big Ten play next week.
“We’re grabbing a little bit and some injuries and things, but right before the half [the defense] saved us on the turnover, where Mitch [Leidner] threw the interception right before the half and was able to keep them from scoring any points,” Claeys said. “At the end, I mean really defensively, the [running] back hurt us. The passing game with the running back — we have to find a way to fix that. The screens hurt us and that one series there. The other thing was we can’t let them run for that many yards.
“Right now people are two-way going us a little bit, running and passing. We have to find a way where it’s a one-way go. We’re playing good enough to slow people down a little bit, but we’re not where we need to be going into the Big Ten.”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-defense-having-trouble-stopping-the-run/394705131/
Go Gophers!!
No doubt Tracy Claeys went back to his office to view film of the Gophers’ 31-24 victory over Colorado State on Saturday, and the coach found that two defensive plays probably saved his team from at least overtime and potentially a loss, because the Gophers were unable to stop the visitors’ running game all day.
With less than four minutes to play and the ball at the 50-yard line, junior defensive lineman Steven Richardson made another big play in the Rams backfield, tackling running back Dalyn Dawkins for a 4-yard loss. Then Adekunle Ayinde made a deflection on a fourth-and-5 pass to give the Gophers the ball back with 1 minute, 50 seconds left, enabling them to run out the clock.
Claeys said that he was happy to leave TCF Bank Stadium with a victory but that the defense is far from where it needs to be to start Big Ten play next week.
“We’re grabbing a little bit and some injuries and things, but right before the half [the defense] saved us on the turnover, where Mitch [Leidner] threw the interception right before the half and was able to keep them from scoring any points,” Claeys said. “At the end, I mean really defensively, the [running] back hurt us. The passing game with the running back — we have to find a way to fix that. The screens hurt us and that one series there. The other thing was we can’t let them run for that many yards.
“Right now people are two-way going us a little bit, running and passing. We have to find a way where it’s a one-way go. We’re playing good enough to slow people down a little bit, but we’re not where we need to be going into the Big Ten.”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-defense-having-trouble-stopping-the-run/394705131/
Go Gophers!!