SOUND OFF!! Post-Game Thread: Gophers Crush Northwestern, Improve to 7-3.

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A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I’m just worried we’re not seeing much on offense standing out.

Defense got guys there for the future. Offense, just not seeing players of the future.
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Yeah I'm worried about the transition our O-Line will have and how it effects our play calling.

Our offense HEAVILY relies on Mo yards after contact and a dominant O-line, when that's gone were probably not going to be able to have these slow burning drives. I have a feeling the playbook will (at least should) look a lot different next year.
 

What was that game plan? The game plan for AK being shoved into duty the second half of last week was better than this week with an entire week of prep? So many times NU was playing their safeties within 5-10 yards of the LOS. They needed to take some deep shots, even if they weren’t successful. AK was certainly a bit off today, but that game plan did him no favors. They run so much that setting up the play action should be very easy.

I understand PJ likes to only do the bare minimum that secures a win. But you have a guy that could use some reps and having him hand off to MO over and over and over again isn’t going to help him grow as a QB. The program is more than a series of one week championship games.
 

GopherTakes said:
Yeah I'm worried about the transition our O-Line will have and how it effects our play calling.

Our offense HEAVILY relies on Mo yards after contact and a dominant O-line, when that's gone were probably not going to be able to have these slow burning drives. I have a feeling the playbook will (at least should) look a lot different next year.
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And next year’s gauntlet of a schedule doesn’t give a lot of time to get good.
 

forever a gopher said:
What was that game plan? The game plan for AK being shoved into duty the second half of last week was better than this week with an entire week of prep? So many times NU was playing their safeties within 5-10 yards of the LOS. They needed to take some deep shots, even if they weren’t successful. AK was certainly a bit off today, but that game plan did him no favors. They run so much that setting up the play action should be very easy.

I understand PJ likes to only do the bare minimum that secures a win. But you have a guy that could use some reps and having him hand off to MO over and over and over again isn’t going to help him grow as a QB. The program is more than a series of one week championship games.
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lol....31-3 win and we still have people complaining about how we played.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Joyner has been standing out more and more each week. He just seems to have a knack for getting into the backfield and disrupting the play. With him and Striggow back next year we could have a very strong pair of DE.

Lindenberg seems to be getting better and better as well. Can easily see him holding down the MLB spot after Mariano moves on.
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I forgot about Striggow being out the rest of the year. That stinks.
 



kg21 said:
I have a nephew who goes to the U and attends the football games. He says the atmosphere with the other kids is fun, but it's boring as hell to watch run, run, run. These games are boring as shit for the most part.

but a win is a win!
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And on a serious note, this brand of offense does not attract dynamic recruits.
 






As a few others already said, Joyner was impressive against a LT that apparently "NFL scouts love".

Noticeably quicker than some of the other DEs.
 

USAF said:
Nice win. Ground em down.

We'll need better QB play against the Iowegians.
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Exactly, nice win and we did just grind them down. However, with that front four and set of linebackers at Iowa today's game plan won't work. If the QB can't execute the RPO or some play action then Iowa is going to grind us down if we can't get them out of the box. I hope Kirk can create a little majic within a week or next Saturday will be a long day.
 




99Gopher said:
Exactly, nice win and we did just grind them down. However, with that front four and set of linebackers at Iowa today's game plan won't work. If the QB can't execute the RPO or some play action then Iowa is going to grind us down if we can't get them out of the box. I hope Kirk can create a little majic within a week or next Saturday will be a long day.
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Iowa will be very tough against the run, and we can't pass - a problem that goes back to Leidner days. MN a good running team, good defense which keeps them in some games, but a weak passing game in an unimaginative offense.
 

forever a gopher said:
What was that game plan? The game plan for AK being shoved into duty the second half of last week was better than this week with an entire week of prep? So many times NU was playing their safeties within 5-10 yards of the LOS. They needed to take some deep shots, even if they weren’t successful. AK was certainly a bit off today, but that game plan did him no favors. They run so much that setting up the play action should be very easy.

I understand PJ likes to only do the bare minimum that secures a win. But you have a guy that could use some reps and having him hand off to MO over and over and over again isn’t going to help him grow as a QB. The program is more than a series of one week championship games.
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We started out passing on early downs, we went three and out first 2 drives.
 





salzie said:
We started out passing on early downs, we went three and out first 2 drives.
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It’s a lot more than just pass vs. run. But if we’re going to look at it that simplistically, the pass/run ratio was 18%/82% yesterday. That works against a JV team like Northwestern, but won’t against IA or WI. The point I’m making is AK has very little in-game reps. Playing NU is a great time to practice the things you’ll ultimately need him to do later in the year/next year. Playing a team like that is like playing with your training wheels on. You practice riding your bike with your training wheels on like you were riding without them, so when you take them off, you are already adept at it.

Those plays you reference were also before the safeties were crowding the line of scrimmage. I was watching the safeties pre-snap a good chunk of the game, and they were not playing the pass at all after the first few drives. They could have at least attempted some middle to deep passes, and gotten very favorable coverages, which in turn increases the chances of completed passes.

There are things that they did with him against Nebby that for some reason were largely absent this week- designed QB runs (the vast majority of his runs were designed passes), bootlegs to get him out of the pocket, screens/jet sweeps, etc. Do any of these things help you put up more than the 31 points against NU that they did yesterday? Maybe not. But there’s nothing wrong with giving your young QB real game reps doing these things, either.

edit: my math was very bad. Run % was actually 82%.
 
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forever a gopher said:
It’s a lot more than just pass vs. run. But if we’re going to look at it that simplistically, the pass/run ratio was 18%/72% yesterday. That works against a JV team like Northwestern, but won’t against IA or WI. The point I’m making is AK has very little in-game reps. Playing NU is a great time to practice the things you’ll ultimately need him to do later in the year/next year. Playing a team like that is like playing with your training wheels on. You practice riding your bike with your training wheels on like you were riding without them, so when you take them off, you are already adept at it.

Those plays you reference were also before the safeties were crowding the line of scrimmage. I was watching the safeties pre-snap a good chunk of the game, and they were not playing the pass at all after the first few drives. They could have at least attempted some middle to deep passes, and gotten very favorable coverages, which in turn increases the chances of completed passes.

There are things that they did with him against Nebby that for some reason were largely absent this week- designed runs (the vast majority of his runs were designed passes), bootlegs to get him out of the pocket, screens/jet sweeps, etc. Do any of these things help you put up more than the 31 points against NU that they did yesterday? Maybe not. But there’s nothing wrong with giving your young QB real game reps doing these things, either.
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The only way nw was going to win were gopher turnovers. Passing game wasn't working, running game was.
 


salzie said:
The only way nw was going to win were gopher turnovers. Passing game wasn't working, running game was.
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Your statement is 100% accurate. But sometimes there is a bigger picture than just beating NU 31-3. Sometimes you need to set yourself up better to beat your next two opponents. Their approach yesterday didn’t do that.

But your point of “running game wasn’t working, passing game was”, works both ways. Often times the running game isn’t working because they’re running into 8/9 man boxes, but they keep banging their head against a wall trying to make it work. They refuse to abandon it. I would argue they should do the same with the pass. Everybody always thinks that when somebody complains about the run/pass ratio that the person is suggesting they become a Mike Leach offense. Rather, how about we try to mirror the middle 80% of FBS football and just run a reasonably balanced offense. Don’t abandon the pass because your first 5 attempts weren’t great.

Before the season, PJ claimed they were going to be more balanced this year, because he realized after last year being too run-heavy hurt them. Well, they are currently at 68% running plays for the season. It’s gotta be pretty hard to recruit credible WRs when you have that rate of runs in multiple seasons.
 
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Don't mean to bump this thread but there was a personal foul call on Gophs in the 4th quarter where it looked like the officials gave NW close to 25 yards. Have not gone back to look at the recording of the game, but everyone around me (including me) thought they started the walk off a good 8 yards further than where the player was downed. Anyboby else remember it?
 



PMWinSTP said:
Don't mean to bump this thread but there was a personal foul call on Gophs in the 4th quarter where it looked like the officials gave NW close to 25 yards. Have not gone back to look at the recording of the game, but everyone around me (including me) thought they started the walk off a good 8 yards further than where the player was downed. Anyboby else remember it?
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I could try checking the DVR. Any idea if it was early/middle/late?
 

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