Souhan: Worst offensive performance since Spergon Wynn

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Thank God the Strib let a baseball guy write a column on football. I'm sure, despite the fact that the offense was terrible today, that it'll be full of accurate assessments. A wonderful read for all those sentenced by the court to read the Star Tribune.
 

Can someone cut and paste into thread? I don't want to give that d-bag any website hits
 

I wrote two Sunday columns, one on Brad Childress' contract extension and one on Tim Brewster's mismanaging of the Gophers' offense.

What's interesting is that I was more optimistic about Brewster than Childress when they first arrived in the Twin Cities. Brewster was full of it, but he was an obsessive recruiter who immediately reached out to Minnesota high school coaches. Childress just seemed overwhelmed by the job in his first season.

While Childress has improved dramatically at just about every facet of the job, Brewster today is an even worse football coach than the guy who went 1-11. This team has a mixture of good, solid Glen Mason recruits and Brewster's supposedly strong recruiting classes, and yet the offense has regressed to the point where the defense might have a better chance of scoring.

The Gophers have gone eight consecutive quarters without an offensive touchdown. Adam Weber is a mess. There is no running game. And the coaching staff does not seem capable of taking advantage of the immense talents of MarQuies Gray.

So we wander downstairs for the press conference today, and it made me realize just what a waste of time those usually are. After losses, Brewster appears incapable of thought, and his players seem to have been instructed to repeat a few key phrases.

The defensive players have to be livid. They dominated the game and yet lost by 12 points.

Brewster seems to think his incredible resume as a head coach should protect him from inquiries. I'm not sure he can think on his feet well enough to offer a thoughtful answer to any but the most obsequious questions.

What would be wrong with saying, ``Man, we have to fix our offense if we want to be a good team.''

Why does angrily stating things that are obviously not true seem like a good idea to this guy?

I'm not much of a sentimentalist, but I did feel sorry for the defensive players on Saturday. Especially those who signed on with Glen Mason and now have to watch Brewster's offense destroy their chances of a good season.
 

GophBen said:
Thank God the Strib let a baseball guy write a column on football. I'm sure, despite the fact that the offense was terrible today, that it'll be full of accurate assessments. A wonderful read for all those sentenced by the court to read the Star Tribune.
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I appreciate your concern over a baseball guy writing an article on football, but which parts would you dispute?
 


childress

Childress improved dramatically...

Yeah, Jared Allen, Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin and Brett Favre...yeah, Brad did get a lot smarter. Its his x's and o's that have really changed this year. Give me a break.

We are 8-1 and with Jackson we would be what, 6-3 tops probably 5-4.
 

I think the Vikings' schedule has been , and will be, a major element to their success. I can't believe a defending division champ got such an easy path. Everything breaks in their favor, and anything but 14-2 is a major disappointment.
 

anybody who criticizes Brew and Weber is an idiot
 

I guess that makes 99% of the fans idiots. Or maybe just you.
 



The Gophers just don't have the personnel for the two offenses of the Brew era; Weber wasn't quick enough for the spread and hasn't the arm for an NFL-type offense (plus no power runners, either). Someone like Holtz might have tried to build an option offense around Gray, but who knows if that would work, given the O-line's problems. Gray is more like Pryor - better runner than passer. The offense the last three games is the worst since Gutekunst. Defense, though, has improved and kept us in every game but one (Ohio State).
 

Nine said:
Childress improved dramatically...

Yeah, Jared Allen, Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin and Brett Favre...yeah, Brad did get a lot smarter. Its his x's and o's that have really changed this year. Give me a break.

We are 8-1 and with Jackson we would be what, 6-3 tops probably 5-4.
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Childress was also the reason we acquired Jared Allen, Percy Harvin, and Brett Favre. Plus, anyone who argues that Childress has not improved as both a coach an leader is not paying attention.
 

sonnygarcia said:
I wrote two Sunday columns, one on Brad Childress' contract extension and one on Tim Brewster's mismanaging of the Gophers' offense.

What's interesting is that I was more optimistic about Brewster than Childress when they first arrived in the Twin Cities. Brewster was full of it, but he was an obsessive recruiter who immediately reached out to Minnesota high school coaches. Childress just seemed overwhelmed by the job in his first season.

While Childress has improved dramatically at just about every facet of the job, Brewster today is an even worse football coach than the guy who went 1-11. This team has a mixture of good, solid Glen Mason recruits and Brewster's supposedly strong recruiting classes, and yet the offense has regressed to the point where the defense might have a better chance of scoring.

The Gophers have gone eight consecutive quarters without an offensive touchdown. Adam Weber is a mess. There is no running game. And the coaching staff does not seem capable of taking advantage of the immense talents of MarQuies Gray.

So we wander downstairs for the press conference today, and it made me realize just what a waste of time those usually are. After losses, Brewster appears incapable of thought, and his players seem to have been instructed to repeat a few key phrases.

The defensive players have to be livid. They dominated the game and yet lost by 12 points.

Brewster seems to think his incredible resume as a head coach should protect him from inquiries. I'm not sure he can think on his feet well enough to offer a thoughtful answer to any but the most obsequious questions.

What would be wrong with saying, ``Man, we have to fix our offense if we want to be a good team.''

Why does angrily stating things that are obviously not true seem like a good idea to this guy?

I'm not much of a sentimentalist, but I did feel sorry for the defensive players on Saturday. Especially those who signed on with Glen Mason and now have to watch Brewster's offense destroy their chances of a good season.
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I can not disagree with a single thing that Souhan said and actually I thought it was right on
the money although as a Gopher fan, it is painful to read. The part that hurt the most was
where Souhan stated that Brewster seems to be a worse coach now than when he went
1-11. I do not know if that is even possible, but I know that the offense is certainly no better.
Somewhere, Glen Mason is probably laughing at all this.........
 

Hack Sportswriter said:
I'm not much of a sentimentalist, but I did feel sorry for the defensive players on Saturday. Especially those who signed on with Glen Mason and now have to watch Brewster's offense destroy their chances of a good season.
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Yeah, those players who were swayed to come to the elite Minnesota program with those pair of six-win seasons and a seven-win season in Mason's final three years, now have to deal with the agony of....a seven-win season and a six-win season over the last two years with Brewster.
 



Jike Spingleton said:
Yeah, those players who were swayed to come to the elite Minnesota program with those pair of six-win seasons and a seven-win season in Mason's final three years, now have to deal with the agony of....a seven-win season and a six-win season over the last two years with Brewster.
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Well, to be fair the part that you quoted stated that it destroyed the defensive players chance
at a GOOD season (because the offensive players played so poorly.)

If the offense had been up to par with Mason's average offense after his first two seasons,
they would have beaten Illinois and most certainly would have beaten Iowa today and would
have kept them in almost every other game. Make no mistake, our offense REALLY let the
defense down this year and hung them out to dry time and time again.

Again, I think that was a good article by Souhan. He is a lot angrier than I am though. I guess
I was that mad after LAST week - this week I am just kind of down and searching for answers.
I didn't watch a single minute of football the rest of the day.
 

Gold Rush said:
Well, to be fair the part that you quoted stated that it destroyed the defensive players chance
at a GOOD season (because the offensive players played so poorly.)
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That he would even evoke Mason's name in reference to "good" seasons, after all the complaining about Mason not being able to get over the hump, and then to suggest that the last two years aren't on par when, in fact, they're almost identical....seems like quite a lapse in logic to me.

But, with the fire-breathers taking over for the time being, I'll just have to get used to that, I suppose.
 

What a jack-ss! Harvin, Peterson, and Loadholt had no choice but to play for the Vikings; otherwise, no NFL for them! Those are the rules, Souhan - you play for the franchise that drafts you or you don't play! Favre asked for 25 MM reasons to come back; Childress & Wilf came up with it. Seriously, they bought the talent to engender support for the stadium.
 

go4gopher said:
What a jack-ss! Harvin, Peterson, and Loadholt had no choice but to play for the Vikings; otherwise, no NFL for them! Those are the rules, Souhan - you play for the franchise that drafts you or you don't play! Favre asked for 25 MM reasons to come back; Childress & Wilf came up with it. Seriously, they bought the talent to engender support for the stadium.
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Little more complex than just buying talent. If it wasn't the Redskins wouldn't be so abysmal.
 

CP Gopher said:
I think the Vikings' schedule has been , and will be, a major element to their success. I can't believe a defending division champ got such an easy path. Everything breaks in their favor, and anything but 14-2 is a major disappointment.[/QUOTE]

Really? 13-3 would be a major disappointment? Hardly.

There's a good chance that 14-2 still won't be good enough for home field advantage thru the NFC playoffs because New Orleans has an excellent chance to finish 14-2 or better with the tie-breaker with the Vikes still in doubt.

So you're telling me that the difference between 13-3 and 14-2 is so dramatic that to the point where it's OK to call it a "major disappointment" even though both records may result in the same first round bye without home field advantage throughout the playoffs? Heck, 12-4 will probably still give the Vikes the same postseason position compared to 13-3 or 14-2. If the Vikes enter the final 2 weeks of the regular season with their playoff position already locked down (can't lose 1st round bye but can't catch the Saints), the wise thing would be to rest players for parts of the games and keep it conservative in playcalling. That would also result in a record worse than 14-2 and it would hardly be considered a "major disappointment."

Want to reconsider your "major disappointment" comment?
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