Though I know one of the reasons

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calminnfan

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people are going to give is time of possession, but if the Gophers could figure out how to stop them on 3rd down, the defense might not be in the game quite so long.
 


UpnorthGo4 said:
Get a clue. Our defense in NOT the problem!!!
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You get a clue. The defense gave up how many first downs on 3rd and long.

I was not trying to say the defense was the problem, just simply that they gave up a number of 3rd down conversions, especially 4rd and long, so that played a part in their spending a whole lot of time on the field as well.

The bend but not break mentality has some success, and the offense was putrid today, but still, a few stops might have given them a little rest instead of continually letting Penn State march down the field. Rarely did Penn State start out with good field position.
 

Defense is gassed....offense doesn't give them a break

Our defense has held up so far this year despite being on the field all game long. Our offense SUCKS. We can not sustain a drive to save our life.
 

PlymouthGopherFan said:
Our defense has held up so far this year despite being on the field all game long. Our offense SUCKS. We can not sustain a drive to save our life.
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My basic point was that they were giving up 3rd and long conversions even early in the game and that had a big part in keeping them on the field.
 


To put the game outcome on the D...

is irrational.

No doubt more 3rd down stops increase the chance that we'd get more than 0 points...

but fact is we've got significant problems on O.

One of those years (again) I guess.

Go Gophers! Beat the Buckeyes!
 

The defense gave up 20 points to a ranked opponent on the road.

The offense scored ZERO points and barely broke 100 yards TOTAL OFFENSE.

Not hard to figure out where the problem is...
 

BilldGopher said:
is irrational.

No doubt more 3rd down stops increase the chance that we'd get more than 0 points...

but fact is we've got significant problems on O.

One of those years (again) I guess.

Go Gophers! Beat the Buckeyes!
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Not trying to say that either...other than one series, the offense was about as pathetic as it could be. No argument. The loss is on the offense...

I was just trying to point out that it would have helped if the Defense would have not given up so many 3rd and long conversions. Even if they would have given the offense another three and out, at least they could have gotten some time off the field (4 plays anyway)
 

calminnfan said:
I was just trying to point out that it would have helped if the Defense would have not given up so many 3rd and long conversions. Even if they would have given the offense another three and out, at least they could have gotten some time off the field (4 plays anyway)
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Why not point out that the Special Teams should've returned a kick? The defense should've forced some turnovers? The RB's should've broke a hole? etc, etc.

The weakest link is usually the noted culprit, and today it was the offense.
 



Zone coverage vs. Man

Cosgrove's defense seems to be a bend but not break style. I personally think you need great safeties to play this style...someone that can anticipate and make a pick or break up a pass.

It would have been a different game if our offense scores once in the first half. PSU had no pressure to score...it would have been fun to see if Clark could make those plays if the score was tied in the second half.
 

The defense was more of a problem than the offense, but the D gave up many chances to look GREAT. Calminnfan is right about third and long. We were better off at third-and-two than we were at third-and-twelve. No pass rush, no secondary. They were great two thirds of the time and lousy one third of the time. That's not good enough.
 

While it cannot be argued that the offense was certainly the weak link today, I am not sure the defense can be totally absolved of blame.

The 3rd down defense was terrible, 3rd and 7 or longer should rarely be converted, yet it is continually converted on the Gophers (Purdue did it a few times early last week too).

I am not convinced that PSU wouldn't have scored more on our defense if they felt any need to do so. It's kind of like the Vikings with TJack at QB. Offenses would be conservative against the Vikings because they didn't want to give them a turnover...they knew TJack couldn't beat them.
 

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