The offense has to play a lot better

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John Galt said:
If this team had Trevor Siemian at QB and a really good WR, I'd buy my tickets to Pasadena today...
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You think the Gophers would be one of the four best teams in the nation with Siemian and a good WR?
 

beavergopher said:
It shouldn't unless you never watch any team other than the Goph's. The fly sweep:

Gets more touches for the best athlete on the offense, D Jones.
Forces the D to defend the perimeter. See the Nebraska game last year. It helps open up the inside running game. A low risk way diversify the run game. Up the gut is not going to cut it the rest of the year unless we are doing something else to put stress on the D.
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So, gee, do you think these coaches forgot that they could run this play? Thanks for reminding them. Or maybe different players, different defense, different stage of the season means it wasn't a play that had much chance for success yesterday? This staff is very consistent in their philosophy. Generally, they'll call the safe play even if it means no or little gain over the flashier play that might gain a lot or might also cause a big loss or a turnover. They don't mind shortening the game figuring turnovers and special teams will be enough of an advantage.

Ya, it would be nice if the offense is better. It has improved as others have noted. Fully expect it to keep improving. They have the plays; I'll trust them to know better when to use them than the offensive savants on GH.
 

MinneStoa said:
You think the Gophers would be one of the four best teams in the nation with Siemian and a good WR?
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On this topic, isn't it kind of sad that the one year we finally get ourselves into contention for the B1G Championship that we won't be able to go to the rose bowl? Or is a similar bowl just as good to people?
 

afurry91 said:
On this topic, isn't it kind of sad that the one year we finally get ourselves into contention for the B1G Championship that we won't be able to go to the rose bowl? Or is a similar bowl just as good to people?
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I've been thinking the same thing. Whenever it happens (win the conference), our luck will be that it will be a year that the Rose Bowl will be part of the playoffs and we won't be in the top 4.
 



I actually thought our offense played decent against a tough defense. It's silly to look at stats in a vacuum.

I've been a critic of Leidner's game early in the season, but he played legitimately well today. He played against a good defense and he was really efficient passing the ball (66% and 10 yards/pass). He also ran the ball well.

It would have been nice if we could have gotten a bit more out of our running game, but Northwestern has a good football team too. They just beat Penn State and Wisconsin. We didn't catch a good team on an off day, we caught a good team that played well and still won.

As far as playcalling, it's tough when you are a team like ours. If a jet sweep doesn't work and we're stuck in a 2nd and 14, which really puts us behind the 8 ball.

Our offense wasn't dynamic today, but it was solid.
 

for all the people who complain about play-calling:
If the Offensive Coordinator calls play "x", and a guard slips and misses his block, was it a bad play-call?
If the OC calls play "Y" and the other team switches their coverage, and the QB throws an INT, was it a bad play-call?

It's about execution. And, it's about the QB being able to recognize what the D is doing and audible to something different. FWIW, on Sid's show today, Leidner said he audibles "about 30% of the time."
 

John Galt said:
If this team had Trevor Siemian at QB and a really good WR, I'd buy my tickets to Pasadena today...
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If you had Trevor you'd still find something to complain about. Something along the lines of "He's never willing to take off and run when he has a lane and he never throws the ball successfully deep downfield to open receivers."
 

Indi1006 said:
Limegrover just isn't a very good play caller. He does have his moments and I thought for the most part yesterday he was pretty good. Our offense many times just won't be as aesthetically pleasing but I don't have a huge beef about yesterday. Our running attack was just average versus what it is most days good or Outstanding and we still win a game that was very fun to watch.
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I honestly think he hasn't has the confidence in Mitch until now to throw some greater difficulty passes like the deep outs he threw yesterday. If Leidner has the protection and shows the timing he had yesterday with Jones/IF/et al from this point on I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by how the play calling becomes much less predictable.
 



Our whole team needs to improve and I think they will, which is a signature of JK programs. They've been doing this a while. Win games, make progress, get better, win games....that's the cycle. And, I'm sure they're not taking Purdue for granted. Me either.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
You should spend more time on the OT Board. When you are wrong over there fewer people know about it. When you post on the Football Board your ignorance is on display fore many more posters. Trevor Siemian is a redshirt senior and leidner is a redshirt sophomore. Siemian's QB Rating for his sophomore year was 115.8. Leidner's rating is currently 117.8. Does anyone doubt that it will be over 120 after the Purdue and Illinois games?
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I don't know if I'd banish John Galt to the OT board, but I agree with you that Siemian is a below average QB. Decent touch passer, but no skills other than that. My mantra yesterday was to make Siemian beat us and he didn't. I think Jackson is a better true RB than Mark, so Siemian has plenty of help. Fitzgerald and company have changed the offense around more than a bit, as the running ability of the QB that was present with Basanez, Persa, Kafka, and Colter just isn't there with Siemian.

As for Mitch, he's taking steps forward. Nice to see him look to receivers other than Williams after the interception. I think a big key going forward is going to be whether or not the other receivers are going to take a step forward.
 

Our offense will improve greatly the next 2 weeks. Purdue and Illinois cannot stop anybody.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 




We're turning into what Iowa has been under Ferentz. The last two weeks we've been very balanced with run and pass and continue to play defense. The only beef I had was we had 1-2, 3rd and about 4 yds where we passed the ball. One was in potential two down territory. Would have liked to see a run on 3rd and the potential play action if needed on 4th. On the bright side Mitch is getting better at the read option, but I've noticed to many timing issues on the fake jet sweep. One yesterday the fake was to the air as the WR was no where near Mitch.
 

This thread worries me. If people are unhappy today as fans, you truly may not ever be satisfied and may want to find another hobby to fill your time with.

The offense is fine. Anyone who will only be happy with us winning in a Baylor v TCU shootout type of game may want to just unfriend us for the remainder of time-we are a ball control-field position-tough defensive team. That NW crew is a good defense, and we scored more than PSU and Wisco combined against them.

Leidner, our sophmore QB who throws to 3 sophmore WRs and a sophmore TE averaged over 10 yards per attempt in the game on 67% completion. Only 2 B1G qbs have 10+ YPA this year and they of course benefit from most of their games being NonCon to this point. The passing game has been exactly what we need the past two games and is getting more efficient and more diverse by the week. Calm down. Beat Purdue.


Also, am I the only one who saw us throw into the end zone on 3rd down in the red zone? That was not a conservative play call and even with the hindsight of knowing it didn't work I love it. We're getting more confident and we hopefully have a couple of weeks to gain even more confidence. Remember to have fun.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
We're turning into what Iowa has been under Ferentz. The last two weeks we've been very balanced with run and pass and continue to play defense. The only beef I had was we had 1-2, 3rd and about 4 yds where we passed the ball. One was in potential two down territory. Would have liked to see a run on 3rd and the potential play action if needed on 4th. On the bright side Mitch is getting better at the read option, but I've noticed to many timing issues on the fake jet sweep. One yesterday the fake was to the air as the WR was no where near Mitch.
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I think he's been decent at the read option for a while- had a lot of good runs last year. This year I got the sense the coaching staff had put handcuffs on him as far as being able to utilize the run part of the option. I think he's now got the freedom to truly take advantage of the "option" of keeping the ball.
 

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