Sid's Scoops Blog: How will Nebraska respond to humiliating loss?

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Sid:

Analyzing the Minnesota-Nebraska game coming up this Saturday, it’s tough to figure out how the two teams will react to what happened to them in their previous games.

Nebraska suffered one of the worst defeats in their history, 59-24 at Wisconsin on Saturday, something that was not expected. Earlier this season, Wisconsin was having quarterback problems. But they have found a quarterback in Joel Stave, although against Nebraska only threw for 46 yards.

Melvin Gordon ran for an NCAA-record 408 yards for the Badgers who, as usual, have a great ground game.

So the question is can Minnesota, which lost a one-touchdown margin game to Ohio State, bounce back against the Cornhuskers? And can David Cobb duplicate, to a point, the rushing totals of one Melvin Gordon against Wisconsin?

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/282946031.html

Go Gophers!!
 

Cobb does not have to even come close to duplicating Gordon's numbers. Cobb has to be Cobb and our defense is better than Wisconsin's. This is the first game of the last three that I think we win.
 

DougMN said:
Cobb does not have to even come close to duplicating Gordon's numbers. Cobb has to be Cobb and our defense is better than Wisconsin's. This is the first game of the last three that I think we win.
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Agree that Cobb just has to be Cobb and Gophers should win this game. It would be a let down if they didn't, particularly with how easily Wisconsin beat them last week. If we don't win and Wisconsin wins, I believe they clinch the West, too. got to win on Saturday to keep hope alive.

Not sure I agree that our D is better than Wisconsin's. Close, but they have been strong all year. I think both teams struggle to score against each other though, and the Gophers will come out with a W in the end at Wisconsin.
 

DC Gopher said:
I think both teams struggle to score against each other though, and the Gophers will come out with a W in the end at Wisconsin.
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Like the optimism but I'll believe that when I see it. Wisconsin hasn't struggled much to score this year other than the game against Northwestern where their quarterback threw four interceptions. The was the current quarterback's first start and he has thrown only one interception since. The only other games where Wisconsin scored under 30 points were in non-conference (a loss against LSU and a win against South Florida). As for their defense, ranking 3rd in the country in fewest points allowed per game pretty much speaks for itself. I have little hope for a win at Wisconsin; I just hope the Gophers can keep it close.

This weekend is a different matter. The Gophers are within striking distance of Nebraska even if it is an away game. The Huskers should be focused and ornery after last weekend. I just hope the Gophers can match them in both. We handled them pretty well last year so that should at least give the team some confidence that they can win.
 

DC Gopher said:
Agree that Cobb just has to be Cobb and Gophers should win this game. It would be a let down if they didn't, particularly with how easily Wisconsin beat them last week. If we don't win and Wisconsin wins, I believe they clinch the West, too. got to win on Saturday to keep hope alive.

Not sure I agree that our D is better than Wisconsin's. Close, but they have been strong all year. I think both teams struggle to score against each other though, and the Gophers will come out with a W in the end at Wisconsin.
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You do realize that we are double digit underdogs and this would be the biggest upset of the year for us, right?
 


Huskers will bounce back and take it out on the Gophers. Top seniors there in last game with 90,000 crowd to bid them goodbye. Temps about 40. Will be a very tough game for Gophers. Ditto Wisconsin.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Huskers will bounce back and take it out on the Gophers. Top seniors there in last game with 90,000 crowd to bid them goodbye. Temps about 40. Will be a very tough game for Gophers. Ditto Wisconsin.
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This. Fans need to learn that the transitive property just doesn't apply in college football. Just because Wisconsin blew out Nebraska doesn't mean we'll win on Saturday. At the same time, if we lose to Nebraska, that doesn't mean we can't beat Wisconsin. Every week is different. Nebraska has talent, will be at home, and will likely be very motivated. It'll be a tough game.
 

Nebraska is going to give us everything they have got. As stated it is senior day, and the Huskers are too good of a team to let a loss to Wisconsin derail them completely. There is a reason they win 9-10 games every year and a reason we are double digit under dogs. Plus if Bo doesn't beat us, his seat is going to get a lot hotter than it already is, and he has to know that.
 

Winning on the road in the Big Ten is never easy, and going into Nebraska and Wisconsin, back-to-back weeks is an even taller order, regardless of what happened to either team the previous week. All I expect is for the Gophers to play hard and not let things steamroll on them.
 



My guess is that a completely different Nebraska team will show up Saturday for the reasons stated above. I also remember that when I was in high school the schedule allowed our coaches to see one of our later season opponents play an early season game (they played on a Saturday night IIRC). So when that late season game came around the coaches told us that this opponent did not cover passes thrown in the flat for crap. So we tried one in the first series. They were all over it and every other one we threw the rest of the game. Apparently the opposing coaches also noticed that they needed work on defending that type of pass, and they did. Although, improving a team's run defense at the D1 level in one week will not be easy, I'm sure that Nebraska will be working on it, and it will improve, probably both in terms of scheme and intensity. Go Gophers!
 

You guys are all debbie downers to the core. All I see here are people already making excuses for a loss like its inevitable. Yes its tough to win on the road, yes Nebraska and Wisconsin are 2 of the 3 best teams in our conference. But hey, we are that other best team and we have a good chance to win both these games. Our players sure as hell believe they can and so should we! Lets get pumped! The team keeps getting better and better under Kill and right now we have no reason to believe we won't improve over last year and win these games. LET'S GO!
 

So many pundits talk out of both sides of their mouth on the Gophers. Sometimes in the same sentence they praise us and discount us. My "eye test" says we're among the best teams in the B1G, which means we're capable of going on the road and winning against the upper tier. We have more talent than we're given credit for, mostly because our players were recruited because they were coachable and motivated. It's time for a 3-game winning streak to finally earn the respect we deserve.
 

bottlebass said:
You guys are all debbie downers to the core. All I see here are people already making excuses for a loss like its inevitable. Yes its tough to win on the road, yes Nebraska and Wisconsin are 2 of the 3 best teams in our conference. But hey, we are that other best team and we have a good chance to win both these games. Our players sure as hell believe they can and so should we! Lets get pumped! The team keeps getting better and better under Kill and right now we have no reason to believe we won't improve over last year and win these games. LET'S GO!
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The Debbie Downers (as you call them) are just trying to reign in the people that seem to think we are going to waltz into Lincoln and do to Nebraska what Wisconsin just did to them. I don't see people in this or other threads saying we can't win but the simple reality is that it is going to be very difficult and take a great team effort to get it done because it is never easy to go into a place like Lincoln and get a victory.

There is a reason we are a double digit underdog again. This doesn't mean we can't win the game but it does mean we are going to have to play mistake free and more then likely get up on them early. I have a feeling we will see Nebraska's best shot but if we can weather the storm early anything can happen.

As a fan I am cautiously optimistic about our chances on Saturday but unlike the Illinois game I won't be shocked if we lose because we are going up against a very good team on the road.
 



MNVCGUY said:
The Debbie Downers (as you call them) are just trying to reign in the people that seem to think we are going to waltz into Lincoln and do to Nebraska what Wisconsin just did to them. I don't see people in this or other threads saying we can't win but the simple reality is that it is going to be very difficult and take a great team effort to get it done because it is never easy to go into a place like Lincoln and get a victory.

There is a reason we are a double digit underdog again. This doesn't mean we can't win the game but it does mean we are going to have to play mistake free and more then likely get up on them early. I have a feeling we will see Nebraska's best shot but if we can weather the storm early anything can happen.

As a fan I am cautiously optimistic about our chances on Saturday but unlike the Illinois game I won't be shocked if we lose because we are going up against a very good team on the road.
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Exactly right. I'm generally very optimistic about the Gophers, but I've tempered it for the reasons stated above.

Honestly, I'd feel a lot better about this game if Nebraska had taken Wisconsin to the woodshed in a reverse of outcomes. Pride and senior day on the line (not to mention Nebraska still has a chance to win the division if they win out and we get by Wisconsin), make it very difficult for me to believe Nebraska won't come hard with their best effort.
 

Folks forget how the Gophers responded after getting embarrassed by IL. I'd be shocked if NE didn't come out motivated and sharp. I think we can still play with them if we play well, but even JK said he would rather they be coming off a win than off of what happened.
 

Abdullah won't be 100% by this weekend. He might even be worse than vs WI if he aggravated his MCL or his mentality is affected by the bad wheel.

Armstrong is not a great throwing QB. He's had a pretty rough season. We will need to contain him better than we did Barrett. I'm sure the LBs will be better this week.

Gregory suffered an injury at the end of the third qtr last week. Turned ankle. He may or may not be 100%.

The gophers are motivated and ready to knock heads against a team they beat up on last year. I think we can beat them straight up. No miracle required, as with an Ohio State. This is a very winnable game. Get up early and the crowd will turn on Pelini.
 

Can our Oline manhandle Nebraska again this year? In last year's win vs Nebraska, the run game opened and Nelson started to hit fullbacks and tight ends with simple pass routes. Can Leidner do the same this year. Last year Martinez started strong, but then was rattled by a couple of big hits, one which caused him to be reinjured. Like Pompous Elitist said, Armstrong will not kill us with short passing, but he could cause lots of damage running the ball.
 

For those that think we SHOULD go in and win, think about it like this: Nebraska views our victory last year, much like we view our loss at Illinois this year. Do you think we'll be confident/motivated to beat Illinois next year? It's pretty analogous.
 

Man, nice opportunity. Go into Lincoln at the end of the year like this with a chance at the division crown! Players and coaches really have to love this scenario. This is what it's all about.
 

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