Things people are discounting and/or ignoring:

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dpodoll68

dpodoll68

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1. UNLV, while they are not a good Division I-A team, is still one of the 200 best football teams on the planet out of thousands and thousands.

2. All other things being equal, it is far more dificult to win on the road than at home. This is statistically inarguable.

3. It was our first game of the year with a team playing far more freshmen and sophomores than the average Division I-A team, and far, far more than the average Big Ten team.

4. MarQueis Gray was inconsistent. MarQueis Gray made some throws that were horrible even by jr. high QB standards. MarQueis Gray often looked sluggish and slow compared to his usual self. In spite of all of these things, he STILL had a game that was respectable AT MINIMUM.

5. Our offense moved the ball at will and stalled out at clutch times.

6. Our defense stopped the ball frequently and yielded important plays at clutch times in the Minnesota tradition.

7. Oh yeah...WE WON THE DAMN BALL GAME!!!

Please add yours to the list.
 

Our punting "sucked" We need to clean that up or during the B10 it will come back to bite us big time!
 

dpodoll68 said:
1. UNLV, while they are not a good Division I-A team, is still one of the 200 best football teams on the planet out of thousands and thousands.
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I agree with your general sentiment, but I'm not sure what to take from this. I've never considered comparing Minnesota to a D-III or high school football team. This is a multi-million dollar operation, so I don't really care if we're better than Wisconsin-Whitewater.
 

Mental mistakes on games plays and penalties will likely lose us a close game or two sometime this season if they are not addressed.
 

Beats the hell out of watching SDSU, NDSU and New Mexico St. run a damn track meet on our own field. The D is obviously improved.
 



Gopherprof said:
I agree with your general sentiment, but I'm not sure what to take from this. I've never considered comparing Minnesota to a D-III or high school football team. This is a multi-million dollar operation, so I don't really care if we're better than Wisconsin-Whitewater.
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Some people want to pretend that UNLV is Eden Prairie HS and that we should pound them accordingly. I'm asking people to keep things in perspective.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Some people want to pretend that UNLV is Eden Prairie HS and that we should pound them accordingly. I'm asking people to keep things in perspective.
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While UNLV would certainly be a very good FCS team they are a very poor FBS team and a team from one of the best conferences in the country should be able to put them away. UNLV will probably not win more than 3-4 games on a weak schedule this year. The level of talent isn't even remotely close to what we'll see come B1G schedule. It's not NCAA FBS VS Eden Prairie but more like Hutchinson vs Mound-Westonka, Hutch should pound MW pretty good if they're any good.

Hopefully this is just a case of the Gophers having their biggest meltdown of the season in game 1.
 

Perhaps this was a case of a bad team seeing this game as it's only chance at an upset this year and played up to it's opponents level or at least got the opponent to play down to theirs. Who knows. We'll just have to see how the season plays out.
 



mcrow said:
While UNLV would certainly be a very good FCS team they are a very poor FBS team and a team from one of the best conferences in the country should be able to put them away. UNLV will probably not win more than 3-4 games on a weak schedule this year. The level of talent isn't even remotely close to what we'll see come B1G schedule. It's not NCAA FBS VS Eden Prairie but more like Hutchinson vs Mound-Westonka, Hutch should pound MW pretty good if they're any good.

Hopefully this is just a case of the Gophers having their biggest meltdown of the season in game 1.
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No meltdown, they won the game.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Some people want to pretend that UNLV is Eden Prairie HS and that we should pound them accordingly. I'm asking people to keep things in perspective.
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No disrespect, but comparing FBS teams to high school teams doesn't add perspective; it distorts it. We are an FBS school; we should be comparing ourselves to other FBS teams. I get your point that UNLV isn't THAT bad in the relative scheme of ALL of football, but that's about as hollow of praise as I can imagine.
 

CentralGopher said:
Perhaps this was a case of a bad team seeing this game as it's only chance at an upset this year and played up to it's opponents level or at least got the opponent to play down to theirs. Who knows. We'll just have to see how the season plays out.
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UNLV played up but the Gophers played down as well. I'd say they met in the middle.
 



Gopherprof said:
No disrespect, but comparing FBS teams to high school teams doesn't add perspective; it distorts it. We are an FBS school; we should be comparing ourselves to other FBS teams.
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I think you're missing his point. He's trying to get people to do what you're saying, he just has a poor way of saying it.
 

BarnBurner said:
No meltdown, they won the game.
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No that was clearly a meltdown. Since when does winning automatically disqualify a game from being a meltdown? They managed to cool the reactors and pull it off, but there was a fukashima moment in that game.
 


It will be interesting to see what the Rebels do against Northern Arizona which I believe is being played in Flagstaff.
 

I was very disappointed in Gray's missed throws, but equally disappointed in a 5th yr senior taking his eyes off a punt, a shanked punt, guys jumping offsides on offense. Why would a lineman jump offsides?? I just don't understand it. Don't they listen to the count? What could be an explanation? This should never happen.
 

Sure we won & that's what counts. You can't fault fans for coming to their local fan board & voicing concerns over some of the things we saw last night though.

Gray must play better moving forward or we won't win many games. Last year his inability to pass the ball effectively allowed teams to stack the box & shut down our running game. Last night looked like more of the same. I'm not suggesting we bench him or move him to WR (Crazy talk!), but we've been hearing how he's just about to turn the corner as a QB now for years now. First it was the NCAA's fault, then it was Brewster's fault, then it was the multiple offenses he'd had to learn, then it was his OL's fault, then his WR's fault....at some point I want to see consistent results instead of excuses.

Not mentioned yet but he also looked slower & more sluggish running the ball. Still mobile for a big man, turned nothing into something a few times but at 255lbs he looked more like Big Ben than RG3 or Denard Robinson. I never had the feeling that he might take one all the way like I used to get.

As you said the bottom line is we won & now he's got all season to shine, fingers crossed.
 

I would add another thing to the post dpodoll68.

8.) Is everybody forgetting that we weren't all that much better last year than UNLV was? We both lost to Wisconsin by a similar margin, both had similar records, and both had horrific defenses. I think everybody was reading too much into all the positives throughout the spring. I'm sure our team has improved leaps and bounds from last year, but why does everybody think UNLV hasn't improved the same amount?
 

Nort73 said:
I would add another thing to the post dpodoll68.

8.) Is everybody forgetting that we weren't all that much better last year than UNLV was? We both lost to Wisconsin by a similar margin, both had similar records, and both had horrific defenses. I think everybody was reading too much into all the positives throughout the spring. I'm sure our team has improved leaps and bounds from last year, but why does everybody think UNLV hasn't improved the same amount?
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Could be right but that remains to be seen. However, we probably got them at their worst given it was the first start for a first year QB, I'm sure that kid will only get better at the season goes on.
 

Gopherprof said:
We are an FBS school; we should be comparing ourselves to other FBS teams.
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UNLV is one of those other FBS teams, correct? So we agree!

We are both stating that UNLV is worthy of respect and is not the pushover that some would like to believe (no Division I-A school is), but we are just coming at it from different angles.
 

mcrow said:
a team from one of the best conferences in the country should be able to put them away
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You keep using that word, "should". You are free to do whatever you want, of course, but life will be far less frustrating for you (ESPECIALLY as a Gopher fan) if you take things as they are, and not how you want them to be. If you expect Minnesota in the year 2012 to dispatch teams from lower-level conferences with ease, just because we are in the Big Ten and they are not, you will end up disappointed far more often than not. Boise St., for example, is also in the Mountain West. Care to guess how much they'd beat us by at their house? 30? 40? Conference affiliation is increasingly devoid of meaning. Alabama isn't good because they're in the SEC, the SEC is good because Alabama (among others) is in it. Ohio doesn't suck because they're in the MAC, Ohio is good despite most of the other teams in the MAC sucking. You're certainly not alone; many people erroneously assume Michigan St. is going to pound Boise St., and Alabama is going to pound Michigan. If those things do happen, it won't be because the Big Ten is better than the Mountain West and the SEC is better than the Big Ten. Rather, they will happen because MSU is better than Boise and 'bama is better than Michigan. Things "should" (there's that word again) be easier for teams in the power conferences than those who aren't, but it's self-evident that making things easier is no guarantee of success.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Some people want to pretend that UNLV is Eden Prairie HS and that we should pound them accordingly. I'm asking people to keep things in perspective.
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We have always (choke, cough) enjoyed your pearls of wisdom.
 

dpodoll68 said:
UNLV is one of those other FBS teams, correct? So we agree!

We are both stating that UNLV is worthy of respect and is not the pushover that some would like to believe (no Division I-A school is), but we are just coming at it from different angles.
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If you're a coach you have to look at UNLV and other low end FBS programs that way. However, any team that's even mediocre in the SEC and Big Ten should soundly beat UNLV....period. All I'm saying is that if this game is how they will play this year they will not win 6 games, no way. If the Gophers play to potential they should be UNLV by 20.
 

It wasn't like Minnesota was a 4 TD favorite in this game. Minnesota overall better than UNLV but at this point not a whole lot better when playing bunch of inexperienced and younger players.
 

dpodoll68 said:
You keep using that word, "should". You are free to do whatever you want, of course, but life will be far less frustrating for you (ESPECIALLY as a Gopher fan) if you take things as they are, and not how you want them to be. If you expect Minnesota in the year 2012 to dispatch teams from lower-level conferences with ease, just because we are in the Big Ten and they are not, you will end up disappointed far more often than not. Boise St., for example, is also in the Mountain West. Care to guess how much they'd beat us by at their house? 30? 40? Conference affiliation is increasingly devoid of meaning. Alabama isn't good because they're in the SEC, the SEC is good because Alabama (among others) is in it. Ohio doesn't suck because they're in the MAC, Ohio is good despite most of the other teams in the MAC sucking. You're certainly not alone; many people erroneously assume Michigan St. is going to pound Boise St., and Alabama is going to pound Michigan. If those things do happen, it won't be because the Big Ten is better than the Mountain West and the SEC is better than the Big Ten. Rather, they will happen because MSU is better than Boise and 'bama is better than Michigan. Things "should" (there's that word again) be easier for teams in the power conferences than those who aren't, but it's self-evident that making things easier is no guarantee of success.
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Should is a good word. It means that the average Big Ten team IS much better than the avarage Mountain West team. Thus, the average B1G bottom feeder should be much better than theirs. No doubt Boise St. would be a decent team in the B1G and in their better years may have won the B1G but one team does not make a conference.

IF the Gophers can win 6 games then beating UNLV soundly is what you'd expect. Maybe UNLV is better than I think, but I don't think so.
 

Nort73 NAILED it!

To add to dpodoll's #1, news flash people.. We aren't a very good football team. We haven't been relevant in 9 years, and haven't had a great season in over 50. That said, stop acting like we should bury other low quality FBS teams like we are OSU/Alabama/LSU. WE ARE A LOW QUALITY FBS TEAM. Just because we happen to be in the B1G, doesn't mean we'll smash our non-conference foes like Wisky has done recently. Stop being some idiot Gopher 'fans' that expect us to miraculously play like we had Marooney and Barber lining up in the backfield again. Watched the game at Sensor's with my uncle and I had my fill of his griping about how we should be 'blowing out this team' instead of being up by 4 points at half. I couldn't wait for him to leave at halftime. Then I got to listen to the drunks rant and whine about the WIN our team just pulled out, they were complaining about how 'we beat a team that we should have'. Uhh.. ok?

The above is why I had very tempered expectations for the UNLV game. I'm very happy with our win. I don't care if the B1G fanbases think it was 'ugly'. Come late December, all that matters will be the 'W'.
 

mcrow said:
Should is a good word. It means that the average Big Ten team IS much better than the avarage Mountain West team. Thus, the average B1G bottom feeder should be much better than theirs. No doubt Boise St. would be a decent team in the B1G and in their better years may have won the B1G but one team does not make a conference.

IF the Gophers can win 6 games then beating UNLV soundly is what you'd expect. Maybe UNLV is better than I think, but I don't think so.
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Or maybe UNLV played above their typical level hoping for an upset at home? And the Gophers played down because of nerves or something
 

mcrow said:
Should is a good word. It means that the average Big Ten team IS much better than the avarage Mountain West team. Thus, the average B1G bottom feeder should be much better than theirs. No doubt Boise St. would be a decent team in the B1G and in their better years may have won the B1G but one team does not make a conference.

IF the Gophers can win 6 games then beating UNLV soundly is what you'd expect. Maybe UNLV is better than I think, but I don't think so.
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There goes dpo's point.. RIGHT past your head.

Dude, get the conference affiliations out of your argument. They mean absolutely NOTHING. The difference between the teams in the middle of the FBS pack and the bottom of the FBS pack isn't much.
 

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