Studwell55: I will NOT doubt you again!

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FireDaveLee

FireDaveLee

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Last week, during prediction thread, everyone was talking about 20+ point wins. You simply offered with a "I just hope we win the game" line.

I admit that I may have got suckered into public perception. I'll admit that I didn't know anything about New Mexico State other than where they're located, that Dewayne Walker is their head coach, and that they gave up a lot of points to Ohio and everyone else last year. I wasn't expecting a 59-0 thrashing of Temple, but figured a 2 TD win would be in the cards. I think sometimes you generally have a Reusse-type look at things and that there sometimes is a bright side to be seen, but I respect your take and will always take into account your thoughts.

Going forward, the TWO biggest (there are many, but these two stand out) concerns that I see are 1) the offensive line play & 2) the defensive line play, both in the run game and pass rush. Do you think this can get fixed? Can it at least improve? There are other concerns (Gray's passing after his first read is covered, the LB's I thought looked slow, the secondary, the drops, the lack of a big time RB, the FG game), but I feel without the two mentioned improving, there's no short term hope.

Also, how would you compare this loss to others? Particularly, '07 Florida Atlantic & '10 South Dakota (I actually don't throw in NDSU in 2007 in there; they were as, if not more, talented than the 2007 Gophers).
 

Studwell55 has always played on a even playing field concerning the Gophers. Many of us forget past history of the the games where the Gophers have tanked it. "55" doesn't. I didn't post it and respond to Husker's score prediction, but I had pretty much had the same mindset as "55" Until we have stability on all elements of the football program I will never go into a game where I feel this is a " no brainer" win
 

Once again I proved that you should always check my predictions and bet the opposite.

I've been doing this Gopher fan thing for over 50 years, no use stopping now.
 

FireDaveLee said:
Going forward, the TWO biggest (there are many, but these two stand out) concerns that I see are 1) the offensive line play & 2) the defensive line play, both in the run game and pass rush. Do you think this can get fixed? Can it at least improve? ).
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IMHO, the offensive line can improve as they can increase knowledge of their assignments, etc. The pass rush of the d-line will not improve without changes in personnel (Maybe putting Lamonte in there on 3rd downs will help). The guys who are in there now are fighting like hell to get to the QB. Unfortunately, they are not fast enough to get off their blocks. There is no coaching cure for that.
 

I cringed when people started to predict the game's outcome. I never think it is a good thing to do. I'm sure Iowa thought they were going to crush Iowa State and that didn't happen and I'm sure their board is eating crow.
 


#2Gopher said:
I cringed when people started to predict the game's outcome. I never think it is a good thing to do. I'm sure Iowa thought they were going to crush Iowa State and that didn't happen and I'm sure their board is eating crow.
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Respectfully, that's not even in the same ballpark, though. Iowa St. is a respectable team who went to a bowl game (and beat us) 2 years ago, and were a 1-pt OT loss to Nebraska from going to a bowl again last year. Plus, Iowa St. was the home team.

New Mexico St. is a terrible, terrible, terrible team that was playing 1,400 miles from home in unfamiliar territory. As of 3 days ago, they had NEVER beaten a Big Ten team, are still 50+ years separated from their most recent bowl appearance, and haven't won a conference title since 1978. They are, almost certainly, THE worst DI-A program, overall, in the country. They lost last year, at Kansas, by a score of 42-16. Kansas was one of the worst teams in the BCS last year, and they still won by almost 4 TDs. Just in case you didn't catch it the first time, I'll repeat it again - New Mexico St. now has ONE Big Ten victory in their entire history. Iowa St. has beaten Iowa many, many times, and will no doubt do so again, possibly as early as next season.

We can discuss the reasons why we lost, and make corrections to make sure it doesn't happen again in the future, but there is absolutely zero excuse for losing this game. At all. In fact, I'm fairly convinced we could've trotted out a lineup comprised exclusively of our true freshmen and we still should've won. I will never be convinced that this was anything other than a colossal failure of a loss. It was easily among the worst 2-3 losses in the entire history of our program, and that's saying something considering that we have 475 of them.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Respectfully, that's not even in the same ballpark, though. Iowa St. is a respectable team who went to a bowl game (and beat us) 2 years ago, and were a 1-pt OT loss to Nebraska from going to a bowl again last year. Plus, Iowa St. was the home team.

New Mexico St. is a terrible, terrible, terrible team that was playing 1,400 miles from home in unfamiliar territory. As of 3 days ago, they had NEVER beaten a Big Ten team, are still 50+ years separated from their most recent bowl appearance, and haven't won a conference title since 1978. They are, almost certainly, THE worst DI-A program, overall, in the country. They lost last year, at Kansas, by a score of 42-16. Kansas was one of the worst teams in the BCS last year, and they still won by almost 4 TDs. Just in case you didn't catch it the first time, I'll repeat it again - New Mexico St. now has ONE Big Ten victory in their entire history. Iowa St. has beaten Iowa many, many times, and will no doubt do so again, possibly as early as next season.

We can discuss the reasons why we lost, and make corrections to make sure it doesn't happen again in the future, but there is absolutely zero excuse for losing this game. At all. In fact, I'm fairly convinced we could've trotted out a lineup comprised exclusively of our true freshmen and we still should've won. I will never be convinced that this was anything other than a colossal failure of a loss. It was easily among the worst 2-3 losses in the entire history of our program, and that's saying something considering that we have 475 of them.
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We did not score enough god damned points.
 

This changes everything: now I have to assume somebody reads what I post?

Okay, I have to go lecture in 5 minutes but here is the short version why I was worried:

USC made us defend very little of the field. Anybody viewing the game film--say, New Mexico State--would've been perplexed by USC not stretching the playing space. This is always the first thing I look for: how much space are you making us defend? how much space are we making them defend?

New Mexico, I presume, saw that immediately and had a game plan centering on moving the ball around. Bizarrely, we had new players in the defensive backfield who were not forced into playing in space against USC. How does USC not make our safeties turn their hips for an entire half? If I'm NMSU I have a game plan that involves a safety with the initials SS having to make decisions.

Having said that, let me offer one other thought. I honestly believe that we're not as bad as Saturday indicated. I'm genuinely convinced that the single most important play of the game was Gray's errant pass in the endzone in the first quarter. I say if that goes on the scoreboard, we win by two scores. After that our guys tightened up....
 





FireDaveLee said:
Last week, during prediction thread, everyone was talking about 20+ point wins. You simply offered with a "I just hope we win the game" line.

I admit that I may have got suckered into public perception. I'll admit that I didn't know anything about New Mexico State other than where they're located, that Dewayne Walker is their head coach, and that they gave up a lot of points to Ohio and everyone else last year. I wasn't expecting a 59-0 thrashing of Temple, but figured a 2 TD win would be in the cards. I think sometimes you generally have a Reusse-type look at things and that there sometimes is a bright side to be seen, but I respect your take and will always take into account your thoughts.

Going forward, the TWO biggest (there are many, but these two stand out) concerns that I see are 1) the offensive line play & 2) the defensive line play, both in the run game and pass rush. Do you think this can get fixed? Can it at least improve? There are other concerns (Gray's passing after his first read is covered, the LB's I thought looked slow, the secondary, the drops, the lack of a big time RB, the FG game), but I feel without the two mentioned improving, there's no short term hope.

Also, how would you compare this loss to others? Particularly, '07 Florida Atlantic & '10 South Dakota (I actually don't throw in NDSU in 2007 in there; they were as, if not more, talented than the 2007 Gophers).
Click to expand...

He's not the only one who was a little cautious with his prediction:

"Everyone seems to want to anoint this Gopher team as some type of shoe in for a bowl game because of a gritty and commendable second half effort against USC. The Gophers had nothing to lose against the Trojans and it showed. Now the pressure is on. They're at home against an inferior team. They get to hear all week how good they are from friends and family. That can be dangerous. With that said, I think Minnesota will win, but it will be much closer than people think. Don't forget, there are plenty of players on this team that lost to South Dakota last season. Be happy Gopher fans, but be careful."
-Neutral, 9/4/2011, 10:54 pm

"I don't feel as confident as many of you about the next game. From the USC game we can see that the Gophers have a strong run defense but a not so great pass defense. NMSU relies on the pass and will not run as much. I'll be happy with a win, and I do expect one - I just don't think it will be the complete blowout that everyone thinks."
-mattw1067

However, you'll always have people like Stan the Caddy:

"47-10 Minnesota"
 

Studwell55 said:
This changes everything: now I have to assume somebody reads what I post?
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Now maybe more will finally see how badly we miss Eskridge. I can remember you-me-Costa writing about how the running game is going to suffer big time after Eskridge left. Sadly, we seem to be correct so far. I'm not saying Eskridge would get 1000 yards, but he would have gotten that one yard.
 




Eskridge left after spring ball. He isn't injured. He quit. We miss Jew jew party more than Eskridge but I don't really want either back considering they QUIT.
 

Winnipegopher said:
Eskridge left after spring ball. He isn't injured. He quit. We miss Jew jew party more than Eskridge but I don't really want either back considering they QUIT.
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I'm pretty sure Eskridge left due to family reasons or something, I don't believe he just quit on the team.
 

Eskeridge left to support his kid and make money, not to just quit

That and he wanted to still play football. Jew Jew party Edwards left so he could make money, and smoke dope all of the time
Edwards he quit on his teamates, and he quit on himself more than he quit on the new coaches. He took the easy way out and peed away a future in football all to wave a few dollars around and smoke pot.
 

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