The Good, The Bad, & the Ugly

[Too Long in the Wasteland]

GOOD -

Weber - He got a lot of critics to STFU (myself included). His best performance of the season, if not his career. Weber (and Brewster) showed why he should still be the starter.

The WR's - They stepped up for Decker. A few drops (that one by Stoudemire was inexcusable) but losing Decker was a non-factor last night

Playing with emotion - My MSU alum brother and a buddy of his flew in for the game. We agreed that whichever team started out hot would probably win, given that both teams were coming off of losses. Beginning the game with a 14 point lead was huge. Credit MSU with fighting back, though.

The Crowd - As another thread points out, the TCF rocked in the fourth quarter. Getting on the refs definitely got them to control the BS penalties they were calling on us.

Defense - There were some breakdowns, but they stiffened up when they had to. Our run D was solid

OL - Run blocking could have been better (although the Spartans do have good run D), but by and large Weber had time to throw. Aside from all the false starts (why don't we just have every play go on "1"?) they were solid

THE BAD -

Our Penalties - This is probably my biggest issue with Brewster's coaching ability. A well coached team should not be flagged 15+ times. A few of the penalties were crap, but a lot of them weren't. False starts and holding calls cost us at least 10 points on drives where we moved ourselves out of FG range (I'm counting that holding call on the pass play down to the 3 yard line as a lost TD).

Giving up big plays - Two 80+ TD's to the same guy almost cost us the game. We also had a breakdown on pass coverage on a long TD.

Pass Rush - Or the lack thereof. We really miss WVS. It amazed me that we chased Cousins around all night, but I don't think we had a single sack.

Managing Gray - As I mentioned before, Weber demonstrated why he's still the starting QB. But the playcalling on the plays where Gray was in there was dimwitted. Every time #5 was under center MSU had about 9 guys in the box, cause they knew it was going to be a running play. Granted Gray went oh for 2 throwing, but let him throw a screen pass or even a safe play action to loosen up the D. Also, not once did Fisch/Brewster give Gray two plays in a row to try and get some rhythm going.

THE UGLY

The officiating - Quite possibly the worst officiated game I've ever seen. Those back to back personal fouls were both crap. The refs should never be the dominant factor in any game. I felt like Ed Hightower was working a football game. The only mitigating factor is that they did a crappy job of calling BS penalties on MSU as well. After watching the crooked reffing in the Iowa/Indiana game I'm really dreading our trip to Iowa City. It seems like Delaney has made up his mind he wants the cornbirds playing in a National championship game.

Empty Seats - Yeah, it was announced as a sellout, but there were an awful lot of empty seats in the 2nd deck of the student section. Was it apathy, woosiness on the cold, or competition with Halloween? None of these is a valid excuse.

Sloppiness - Both teams played some bad football overall. And some of the playcalling by both teams was almost comical (more so by Dantonio). Needless to say, this game isn't going to be appearing on the "Classic Big Ten Games" segment of the BTN in years future.

Lack of Killer Instinct - We had several opportunities to put the game away, but kept letting MSU back into it. Between giving up big plays or killing ourselves with penalties we left the door open. The fact that we had to come back to win this game is sad, given how we started with MSU essentially spotting us two TD's

The Win - It was an ugly win, but that's better than a moral victory in a loss. Most of us will take it. And just imagine how ugly this board would be if we had pissed this game down our leg. Most would agree, though, that if we play this sloppy vs. IL next week we probably won't be so lucky

 

[awag777]

The officiating - Quite possibly the worst officiated game I've ever seen. Those back to back personal fouls were both crap. The refs should never be the dominant factor in any game. I felt like Ed Hightower was working a football game.

Empty Seats - Yeah, it was announced as a sellout, but there were an awful lot of empty seats in the 2nd deck of the student section. Was it apathy, woosiness on the cold, or competition with Halloween? None of these is a valid excuse.

loooool @ the Ed Hightower reference. Good call. Last night was the longest sustained set of boos (and deservedly so) an officiating crew has ever received. Six or seven straight plays of nothing but boos. It was great, and I agree with what others have said, it definitely was not a coincidence that things evened out after the near riot that ensued after those personal fouls.

Several of my friends who left early left on account of Halloween. Not excusable, but it's gonna happen. One of the biggest party nights of the year on campus, I was actually surprised the turnout was as good as it was.

 

[awag777]

Also, another 2 cents, the only thing I was dissatisfied with as far as our offense goes (aside from the penalties) was the use of Gray. If you're going to put Gray in the game and give him snaps, let him air it out. All but two passes were draw plays to the RB or a couple QB draws. And one of the two passes was a rollout. Let the kid step up in the pocket and throw it. I understand him as a decoy, but that ploy ends pretty quickly after they pick up the pattern and just stack nine in the box every time Gray comes in.

 

[the accomplice]

+1 on the Eddie Hightower comment

The other 'Ugly' was the tailgating - pathetic on the part of our home crowd. Don't be afraid to take the party outside people. We're Minnesotans for god's sake.

 

[GoAUpher]

+1 on the Eddie Hightower comment

The other 'Ugly' was the tailgating - pathetic on the part of our home crowd. Don't be afraid to take the party outside people. We're Minnesotans for god's sake.

There isn't a tailgating culture yet. That's going to take time.

 

[Gophers4Life]

THE UGLY

Empty Seats - Yeah, it was announced as a sellout, but there were an awful lot of empty seats in the 2nd deck of the student section. Was it apathy, woosiness on the cold, or competition with Halloween? None of these is a valid excuse.

1. Halloween: quite a few students made the annual trip to Madison for the weekend. Others were partying and the late game cut into their plans.
2. Team Performance: there isn't the tradition with students (yet) to get them to come out when we aren't a top 25 team.
3. Cold: again with the tradition...people aren't used to being out in the cold. They have grown up at the dome.

 

[ButchNashGuy]

1. Halloween: quite a few students made the annual trip to Madison for the weekend. Others were partying and the late game cut into their plans.
2. Team Performance: there isn't the tradition with students (yet) to get them to come out when we aren't a top 25 team.
3. Cold: again with the tradition...people aren't used to being out in the cold. They have grown up at the dome.

1.) Yes, not a student but that has happened in the past.
2.) Yes, HUGE issue
3.) I dont think so imo.

 

[Gopherprof]

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of YPP (yards per play) when Gray is in the game versus Weber. Obviously there is an issue with the fact that they aren't letting him throw, which you would think would effect the running game in general, but maybe the added responsibility of watching Gray allows them to free up a bit.

As per the letting him throw, they clearly aren't comfortable doing that, right or not. But again, that begs the question of why you put him in at all unless there is an unseen benefit for the running game, forcing the defense to prep for 2 QBs, etc.