The Good, The Bad and The ugly

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ncgo4

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The Good: Our offense. We found our quarterback. Mitch Leidner showed a level of accuracy we haven't seen in years. He showed a decisiveness that's been missing. Was he perfect? No, but the fumble and interception aside, it was the best QB performance against a really good team in a while. We found a couple of receivers. Williams and Wolitarsky looked very good. We found an offensive coordinator ...maybe. Limegrover looked at time like a light was on.

The Bad: Our defense. The front seven don't seem capable of putting pressure on anyone. The secondary is just very, very bad.

The Ugly: Claeys sitting up in the booth while pretending to be the acting HC. If Kill is going to miss game time, and we probably should accept that he will, then whoever is his replacement needs to get his arse on the sideline and take charge. Whoever is going to assume Claey's role needs to get up in the booth. If we don't have people ready to move up at all levels then all the talk about the 150 years of coaching continuity of this staff is just bull sh*t. I don't think it is, so act like a organization that is prepared for the inevitable.
 

13 points is not good. I'm glad Leidner played well enough to erase any doubt that he's the better option than Nelson at this point (why Nelson started against Iowa I still have no idea), but he turned the ball over twice, the running game still only averaged 3.3 yards per carry, and we didn't score nearly enough to win a game in the Big Ten.
 

The game we played at Illinois in Brewster's third year was really impressive.

We have not played a game nearly that good in Kill's tenure.

I'm just saying.

It's not as if every Brewster game were clownish.
 

Studwell55 said:
The game we played at Illinois in Brewster's third year was really impressive.

We have not played a game nearly that good in Kill's tenure.

I'm just saying.

It's not as if every Brewster game were clownish.
Click to expand...

True on Brewster.

Yesterday's game showed a well coached team playing a team with a coaching staff just happy to be not getting blown-out in the 3rd qtr.. We were out coached badly yesterday in other words. Not sure if Kill being there would have changed that or not?
 

When a team is outmatched and overpowered by a better team, usually the better team wins.
 


tikited said:
True on Brewster.

Yesterday's game showed a well coached team playing a team with a coaching staff just happy to be not getting blown-out in the 3rd qtr.. We were out coached badly yesterday in other words. Not sure if Kill being there would have changed that or not?
Click to expand...

When we elected not to go for it on 4th and 10, I felt like we were trading our last (admittedly very slim) chance at coming back and tying the game up in order to try to keep the score close. Then, we failed to even do that. So I felt like our coaches traded our last hope at a win for nothing. I really hope to not see that kind of cowardly call again.

As for "the good", 13 points for the offense does not make them good. Leidner played well enough to show that he is better than Nelson (why coaches with a full training camp to observe both quarterbacks failed to see that before now is beyond me).

The secondary looked horrendous. Three man rush needs to stop. Our secondary isn't good enough to cover receivers if the QB has time, even if we are dropping 8 men into coverage.

Another real problem was LB play. If we are going to take a defender out of the rest of the play to spy on the QB to make sure he doesn't scramble for a first down, then that LB really needs to make sure the QB doesn't scramble for a first down.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
As for "the good", 13 points for the offense does not make them good. Leidner played well enough to show that he is better than Nelson (why coaches with a full training camp to observe both quarterbacks failed to see that before now is beyond me).
Click to expand...

I watch only televised games but the difference that stands out in games is Leidner is playing to make something happen while Nelson appears to play not to make mistakes. That distinction is likely not real evident in practices playing against the scout team where both are likely equally aggressive. Confidence makes a world of difference. Not sure if that was evident after camp but after the San Jose game it was pretty clear to me.
 


bleedsmaroonandgold said:
When we elected not to go for it on 4th and 10, I felt like we were trading our last (admittedly very slim) chance at coming back and tying the game up in order to try to keep the score close. Then, we failed to even do that. So I felt like our coaches traded our last hope at a win for nothing. I really hope to not see that kind of cowardly call again.
Click to expand...

Better get used to it. Last year we were down 28-10 against Michigan with 5:17 left in the 4th quarter. With the ball on the 2 yard line, we elected to kick the field goal.

http://espn.go.com/ncf/recap?id=323080135
 



Studwell55 said:
The game we played at Illinois in Brewster's third year was really impressive.

We have not played a game nearly that good in Kill's tenure.

I'm just saying.

It's not as if every Brewster game were clownish.
Click to expand...

Did you watch the Purdue game last year?
 

Leidner has earned the right to be the starter for the time being. That said, I think it's a little early to be writing off Nelson. If in fact he has been playing tentative, this may be a good thing for him to see that he needs to go out and just play. He needs to earn back the right to start. Hopefully Leidner makes that extremely difficult for him. I wonder if Leidner's high school experience of playing in the Lake Conference versus Nelson's of playing in the Big 9 gives Leidner an edge at this level.
 

Agreed about a bad secondary, but you have to know we have 4 DB's now injured. Need a better pass rush to help these guys out. Hageman over hyped????
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
When we elected not to go for it on 4th and 10, I felt like we were trading our last (admittedly very slim) chance at coming back and tying the game up in order to try to keep the score close. Then, we failed to even do that. So I felt like our coaches traded our last hope at a win for nothing. I really hope to not see that kind of cowardly call again.

As for "the good", 13 points for the offense does not make them good. Leidner played well enough to show that he is better than Nelson (why coaches with a full training camp to observe both quarterbacks failed to see that before now is beyond me).

The secondary looked horrendous. Three man rush needs to stop. Our secondary isn't good enough to cover receivers if the QB has time, even if we are dropping 8 men into coverage.

Another real problem was LB play. If we are going to take a defender out of the rest of the play to spy on the QB to make sure he doesn't scramble for a first down, then that LB really needs to make sure the QB doesn't scramble for a first down.
Click to expand...

To be fair, the best secondary in the country will struggle if the QB doesn't see any pressure and can just sit in the pocket all day long.
 



raindog said:
I watch only televised games but the difference that stands out in games is Leidner is playing to make something happen while Nelson appears to play not to make mistakes. That distinction is likely not real evident in practices playing against the scout team where both are likely equally aggressive. Confidence makes a world of difference. Not sure if that was evident after camp but after the San Jose game it was pretty clear to me.
Click to expand...

Very true. Leidner makes things happen - he's a dynamic out there. Practice is one thing, games another. He lights up in games. If he doesn't get hurt from running so much (like Q), he could become a top notch B10 QB. I remember how much progress Ak made from sophomore to senior: led the nation in pass efficiency 2003.
 


If Kill decides to step down or comes to a mutual agreement with Teague, I wouldn't expect either of the Gophers' coordinators to be legitimate candidates for the permanent job. Neither strike me as Big Ten head coaching material.
 



RodentRampage said:
Who claimed the game as was a moral victory?
Click to expand...

After a loss you are required to say it's the worst loss ever, we'll never win another game, and the coaches are all chicken crap.
Anything less is claiming a moral victory or settling for mediocrity.
 

RodentRampage said:
Who claimed the game as was a moral victory?
Click to expand...

Officially? Dunno. But a lot of Gopherholers seem pretty giddy about hanging in there (their words, not mine) for 3 quarters.
 

RodentRampage said:
Who claimed the game as was a moral victory?
Click to expand...

Check the countless threads of posters happy we "played close for 3 quarters" yet forgetting this is the same Michigan team that almost lost to Akron at home & a win-less UConn on the road...
 

The play calling was brutal - need to take some shots on ist down to loosen up the defense! Engel and Williams were open for long passes a number of times but we run up the middle - need to loosen up the d by mixing it up- watch Ohio state and nortHwestern you don't know if run or pass !
 

Leidner looked pretty good, but I don't think we should be writing Nelson off just yet. I won't hold the Iowa game against him. He was obviously not healthy enough to be the starter, and I'll put that on the coaches. He looked tentative, which isn't a surprise considering we went away from the game plan we had been running the previous four weeks, and our most reliable receiving threat in Williams was playing FB. We have to start Leidner next game but I wouldn't mind seeing them both out there at various times in the game.

Edit: Should make it clear I don't want to see them on the field at the same time. They should both see the field though.
 

thailleagle said:
Check the countless threads of posters happy we "played close for 3 quarters" yet forgetting this is the same Michigan team that almost lost to Akron at home & a win-less UConn on the road...
Click to expand...

No one's "happy" with the loss, but there is a difference between a moral victory and simply being insufficiently miserable.
 


If anyone actually thinks a 42-13 loss is a 'moral victory', they really have some sh!tty expectations. Wow.
 


Sadly, despite a good showing from a couple players on offense (Leidner looked great), I can't say that it is "good" as long as limegrover is here.
 

tikited said:
True on Brewster.

Yesterday's game showed a well coached team playing a team with a coaching staff just happy to be not getting blown-out in the 3rd qtr.. We were out coached badly yesterday in other words. Not sure if Kill being there would have changed that or not?
Click to expand...

You couldn't have been watching the Gophers.
 


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