The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[mcrow]

The run defense was good for 3 quarters. Most of UNLV's rushing yards came in the 4th quarter and OT.

They had given up almost 80 yards already going into the 4th quarter............so not so much.

 

[Winnipegopher]

My thoughts:

The good:
-We won a game that we could have lost. The last few years have been largely the opposite.
Wells looked very, very good. I think we will regret burning his redshirt last year to play on the kick-off team. He stood out there last year too.
-Gray's play in fourth quarter and overtime.
-Kirkwood, Barker, Rabe

The bad:
-Gray threw a lot of bad balls towards open receivers. Hopefully that is out of his system. To be fair, Barker seemed to be the only one who altered his routes to go after the ball.
-The play calling. WTF with not trying to score a TD to go up 17-10? I think the coaches thought they would win easily and didn't want to show their full offense. Almost backfired and they had to bring some creativity to OT. Note they had Gray running more in the fourth quarter.
-I have a sneaking suspicion that UNLV is an awful D. If we have trouble scoring against them it could be a long year.

The ugly
-Gopherhole game day thread. The hatred of Gray was intense and calls for benching him came as soon as the early pick. Honestly an angry bunch of idiots on the thread. Worth looking at if you have time to kill.

Final synopsis:
An ugly, somewhat lucky win over UNLV is infinitely better than a loss to New Mexico State, South Dakota State or North Dakota State.

On to New Hampshire.

 

[upnorthkid]

They had given up almost 80 yards already going into the 4th quarter............so not so much.

80 yards given up is bad?? i'd take them being on pace to only give up 120 yards (to a team that was trying to pound the ball all game) any day of the week.

 

[mcrow]

80 yards given up is bad?? i'd take them being on pace to only give up 120 yards (to a team that was trying to pound the ball all game) any day of the week.

80 yards in 3 quarters isn't "incredible" as described. It's mediocre at best considering you are playing bottom feeder team from a mid major conference. If the Gophers play run defense like this in the B1G it will be 200+ yards rushing against the Badgers, Huskers Michigan St. and Michigan.

 

[upnorthkid]

80 yards in 3 quarters isn't "incredible" as described. It's mediocre at best considering you are playing bottom feeder team from a mid major conference. If the Gophers play run defense like this in the B1G it will be 200+ yards rushing against the Badgers, Huskers Michigan St. and Michigan.

his comment said it was good. which is what i was taking your quote from. the discouraging factor in the run defense is that we knew it was coming and our sr lbs couldn't stop it still. Perhaps a case of the defensive ends especially and the dts somewhat thinking they wanted to get a sack every play and not doing what was best for the team?

 

[Gopherprof]

The above poster is absolutely correct that the contain by the DEs wasn't there because they were constantly playing upfield. If they were told to do this, fine, but I remember one play especially where Amafuela was well into the backfield when a RB ran right by him.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Every play we had should have been a touchdown but we had poor execution! I can do it too! We played bad and if I see another 3rd and short with a 250lb qb in a shot gun formation I'm going to just cut ties with the football program. Get under center and push the pile and get a first down. Our game calling was terrible because we didnt trust our qb

I agree with the under center thing on short yardage situations. Doesn't make sense to me. But as for the game calling, I don't know how you can say that when we threw the ball downfield a ton. Someone who doesn't trust their QB, throws a bunch of dump offs and screens. We didn't do that because we didn't have to. Players were open downfield all night, we just didn't connect. We averaged nearly 16 yards a completion last night too, by the way.

As for everything else, I agree with a lot of what's been said.
Good:
Kirkwood looks faster and could have a big year.
I think our receivers will be just fine. We've got some fast guys.
For the most part, our defense looks to be a lot better. Certainly we are much faster. Nice to see a consistent pass rush.

Bad:
I agree with those who said Rallis didn't play well. I'd like to see more of Beal.
I thought we got away from the running game a little too much in the 2nd half. We had a lot of success in the 1st half, then kinda got a way from it.

Ugly:
Gray's accuracy. I hope he just had a bad night. Like others have said, he connects on just a few of them, and we probably win pretty big.
Penalties. Yikes!
Special Teams were terrible as well. Seriously, can't we find a punter who can consistently put it out there 40 yards with good hang time?

It was ugly, but I think we have some things to build upon. We made a bunch of mistakes, yet still won. I'll take it. We dominated yardage wise pretty much all night. I think it was something like 399-185 towards the end of regulation. Let's move on to New Hampshire.

 

[GophersInIowa]

80 yards in 3 quarters isn't "incredible" as described. It's mediocre at best considering you are playing bottom feeder team from a mid major conference. If the Gophers play run defense like this in the B1G it will be 200+ yards rushing against the Badgers, Huskers Michigan St. and Michigan.

I just did a quick look and my calculations through three quarters is 18 rushes for 66 yards (not including the two sacks) for an average of 3.7 yards a carry. That's pretty good.

 

[e.bigelow]

Good:
Derrick Wells - Kid was flying all over the place. Made a great tackle on 2nd and 6 I believe? Two huge picks as well when they were needed.
Defense in general - I thought they played quite well during regulation. A few 3 and outs were nice to see. Outside of OT playing with the short field everytime, I thought they looked good.
AJ Barker - Recievers in general - Made some bigs plays and there were no dropped passes that I can recall

The Bad:
Gray - Gray's accuracy during regulation was terrible. It is unacceptable to miss that many open recievers during a game. I could accept 1 or 2, but he missed 5-6 I would say.
Play Calling - Was good for most of the game, but short yardage calls were very questionable, I thought. And, the 3 straight running plays in the red zone? Gotta mix in the play action down there.

The Ugly:
PENALTIES - Flags, Flags, Flags. I understand it was the 1st game, but so many of those were discipline penalties.
3rd Down - I am beginning to wonder if we will ever be good on 3rd down. It seemed like we were 1/1,000,000 on 3rd down last night. AND the stupid false start penalties on 3rd and short. That is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be corrected immediately.

Ok, I'm off my ledge now and calmed down. Let's improve and move on to beat New Hampshire! Go Gophers.

 

[scools12]

Most impressed with the pass rush. Against what was suppose to be an inferior opponent even though Gophers were only favored by 8-10 points I thought the pass rush was soild and appeared to have a lot of speed off the edge.

WRs looked ike they could get separation deep. Might be some good speed there. We will see when they play more skilled DBs.

OL did not look good.

Lots of inexperience and young guys playing and they did get the win. Hopefully the undiscplined play is cleaned up as guys play more.

 

[Die Hard GGF]

Good: 1) they won on the road 2) their overall team speed 3) secondary 4) the INT by Wells in 4th quarter was as a result of Carter #23 making a great play on #81 5) receivers 6) individually Wells,Rabe,Kirkwood and Barker Bad:1) O line should have dominated, really had trouble with the D line slants of UNLV 2) play calling but it probably would fall under so-so, I really think the coaches want them to do what they do.....well without adding on until the Big Ten season 3) rush defense, it's been a subject more than once here but there were times Hageman was getting doubled teamed and pushed 5-10 yards back because of standing straight up Ugly: 1) Gray's composure for the first 3+ quarters, I'm sure the coaches work with him but he absolutely needs to put some "air" under the ball on long throws, I thought short to intermediate were ok 3) containment on defense 4)lack of discipline, penalties. It's a young team led by really a sophomore at QB when comes to experience and Let's learn from a win and move on to New Hampshire!!!!!

 

[Replacement Gopher]

One thing to add to the UGLY category: Never taking a shot at the endzone in the 4th quarter after Wells INT. We had the ball on the 12 yard line and go Run, Run, Run...FG. I think you have to give Gray at least one run pass option there! Other than that I loved what Limegrover and Co. were doing, the plays were there, we just weren't executing.

The way Q was throwiing the ball at that time, I wouldn't have either.

 

[Wouldn't You like to Know]

the INT by Wells in 4th quarter was as a result of Carter #23 making a great play on #81

I'm pretty sure that was Baltazar blanketing #81

Hageman was getting doubled teamed and pushed 5-10 yards back because of standing straight up Ugly:

Very noticeable at the beginning of the game but he got better as the game progressed IMO

Overall Guys and Gals we are 1-0

We did a lot of good things especially on D i.e. the secondary played great, we tackled well and put good pressure on the QB but with a young team comes mental mistakes. They can correct a lot of the bad things i.e. penalties but it was encouraging thatwe didn't give up a lot of big plays if any!! We didn't make many either, but there were chances for us not them. We will capitalize on those chances going forward but at least they were there to be had!! That much is encouraging.

Clean up the mental errors and settle down our QB and we will be Bowling Baby!!!

 

[GophersInIowa]

Most impressed with the pass rush. Against what was suppose to be an inferior opponent even though Gophers were only favored by 8-10 points I thought the pass rush was soild and appeared to have a lot of speed off the edge.

WRs looked ike they could get separation deep. Might be some good speed there. We will see when they play more skilled DBs.

OL did not look good.

Lots of inexperience and young guys playing and they did get the win. Hopefully the undiscplined play is cleaned up as guys play more.

I thought they were solid for the most part. Gray had a lot of time to throw.

 

[paulser21]

Here's an ugly for your.

At one point, I believe in the 3rd quarter, Gray avoided heavy pressure and began scrambling to his left. He had a wide open field ahead of him, except for one UNLV DT. The DT took a very good angle and made the tackle.

One man in open field. Gray has to be able to avoid him (especially a defensive lineman).

 

[station19]

Here's an ugly for your.

At one point, I believe in the 3rd quarter, Gray avoided heavy pressure and began scrambling to his left. He had a wide open field ahead of him, except for one UNLV DT. The DT took a very good angle and made the tackle.

One man in open field. Gray has to be able to avoid him (especially a defensive lineman).

Gray is slower with the extra weight. Doogie and Ruesse said as much.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Gray is slower with the extra weight. Doogie and Ruesse said as much.

If Reusse was commenting on the places with the best sausage gravy in Minneapolis, I'd listen. Gopher football? Eh. . .i'd sooner listen to the homeless man handing out bibles in front of the Seville.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

The Gray debate is going to be a recurring debate with any QB that we have.

He missed some guys, obviously. But he also made some throws. A lot of throws to guys like Barker, Engel, DCT were good reads by Gray and hit them in stride. Some of them weren't the most difficult throws, but I don't remember anyone making a spectaculor catch (except Barker along on the sidelines).

As far as Stoud . . . the dropped punt stunk, but he was playing well tonight other than that play. He was key in the final INT by Wells. He really did a nice job covering whoever lined up across from him. He has the most difficult duty of anyone on our defense and his play was largely why UNLV did next to nothing the entire game. His dropped punt stunk (didn't we try the experiment with him on PR years ago with similar results?) His play on defense was impressive.

I do agree, Rallis looked lost tonight. Cooper was ok and the other LB (whether it was Reeves, Hill, etc) didn't make an impact.

 

[Sportsfan24]

I thought the defense, specificly the d-line and secondary played great.

The offense? If teams are going to play 8 and 9 man fronts, fall down in coverage, blow coverage assignments and you STILL can't make them pay? We should all go and give the o-coord a big ole hug.....I'm sure he needs it....assumming he isn't locked up for assaulting someone

 

[GopherInPittsburgh]

I thought the defense, specificly the d-line and secondary played great.

The offense? If teams are going to play 8 and 9 man fronts, fall down in coverage, blow coverage assignments and you STILL can't make them pay? We should all go and give the o-coord a big ole hug.....I'm sure he needs it....assumming he isn't locked up for assaulting someone

He did have quite a facepalm going on after one of the misses.

 

[nc2mn]

I think we've pretty much nailed the good, bad and ugly. Let's remember, it is only the first game and much will change as the season progresses (for the better if my faith in Kill pans out) and that this is a game we surely would have lost in the last couple of years...

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

The way Q was throwiing the ball at that time, I wouldn't have either.

Huh?

Are you out of your mind. He was absolutely torching UNLV "at that time".

Post 3rd Quarter stats ; 7-10 140 yards 2 TDs.

We didn't run it because we didn't have to not because of the way Gray was playing. Did you watch the OT?

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I thought the defense, specificly the d-line and secondary played great.

The offense? If teams are going to play 8 and 9 man fronts, fall down in coverage, blow coverage assignments and you STILL can't make them pay? We should all go and give the o-coord a big ole hug.....I'm sure he needs it....assumming he isn't locked up for assaulting someone

Yeah, I agree.

You probably have better insight than anyone on this but were you surprised at just how good Wells played? I know it's easier with a pass rush and on a team that was generally stopping the run (until the end).

 

[mcrow]

I thought the defense, specificly the d-line and secondary played great.

The offense? If teams are going to play 8 and 9 man fronts, fall down in coverage, blow coverage assignments and you STILL can't make them pay? We should all go and give the o-coord a big ole hug.....I'm sure he needs it....assumming he isn't locked up for assaulting someone

Winner winner chicken dinner.

 

[John Galt]

So giving up 150+ rushing yards to a team like UNLV is "incredible"? Pass defense as a whole may have been good but it's easy to look good against a team on the level on UNLV with a first year starting QB in there.

Did you watch us play at home against New Mexico St. and NDSU last year? A Gopher defense that gives up 13 points in regulation, 10 of which were due to Gray's interception and Stoudemire's fumble, was incredible. If Gray was an average passer the first 3 quarters, the Gophers win this game by 20.

 

[patrick08]

Good: we won
Bad: Play by some seniors
Ugly: penalties and special teams

 

[Sportsfan24]

Yeah, I agree.

You probably have better insight than anyone on this but were you surprised at just how good Wells played? I know it's easier with a pass rush and on a team that was generally stopping the run (until the end).

Surprised? No, not at all. That was a very bad team with an 18 year old freshmen playing in his first game they played and Wells is a legitimate D1 Big Ten player. What will be interesting is how he plays once future NFL players start showing up on the schedule. So far he is off to a great/awesome start.

 

[Unregistered User]

I just did a quick look and my calculations through three quarters is 18 rushes for 66 yards (not including the two sacks) for an average of 3.7 yards a carry. That's pretty good.

Works out to be @106 yards per game, which would place UNLV's rushing attack 108th in the nation last year, and would place Minnesota's rush defense #13 in the nation last year.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Works out to be @106 yards per game, which would place UNLV's rushing attack 108th in the nation last year, and would place Minnesota's rush defense #13 in the nation last year.

And, again, that wasn't including the sacks, which would usually get included. I just took them out to give us a good idea of the true rushing defense numbers.

 

[Tully55]

GOOD.....We won.

Bad........Should have been a blowout. Dumb mistakes/Poor execution(missed FG, missed wide open receivers).

Ugly.......I lost $100 giving up 9 points.