Time of Possession and Special Teams?

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STPGopher

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Will time of possession and Special Teams be the keys to the game? I am guessing that we will want to squeeze the life out of the clock and play solid conservative special teams flipping the field and cleanly fielding returns.

My guess is that the goal is to make this a grind it out slugfest.

Thoughts?
 

STPGopher said:
Will time of possession and Special Teams be the keys to the game? I am guessing that we will want to squeeze the life out of the clock and play solid conservative special teams flipping the field and cleanly fielding returns.

My guess is that the goal is to make this a grind it out slugfest.

Thoughts?
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I was hoping that Drew's performance against Buffalo would help take Fleck's boot off of Harbaugh and the offense, but I believe you're right - we'll go with the Fleck-special game plan - you know the one that helped us lose to bang up opponsents like Bowling Green, Purdue several times, and Rutger's over the past few years. (not saying we'll lose, but this is the mentality that has held Fleck back in what his teams COULD do).

Why not come in with a game plan to actually win vs. playing not to lose, and hoping we'll prevail?

I expect this game to be the boring kind of "let's put them to sleep, and hope it works" that doesn't leverage the talent on the field, and hurts us when bowls are selecting. It's not like we need to protect our defense. I believe they can handle more than Fleck wants them to, but our stats might not be quite as attention-grabbing.

I was hoping that Drew's performance against Buffalo would help take Fleck's boot off of Harbaugh and the offense, but I believe you're right.
 

caliGopher said:
I was hoping that Drew's performance against Buffalo would help take Fleck's boot off of Harbaugh and the offense, but I believe you're right - we'll go with the Fleck-special game plan - you know the one that helped us lose to bang up opponsents like Bowling Green, Purdue several times, and Rutger's over the past few years. (not saying we'll lose, but this is the mentality that has held Fleck back in what his teams COULD do).

Why not come in with a game plan to actually win vs. playing not to lose, and hoping we'll prevail?

I expect this game to be the boring kind of "let's put them to sleep, and hope it works" that doesn't leverage the talent on the field, and hurts us when bowls are selecting. It's not like we need to protect our defense. I believe they can handle more than Fleck wants them to, but our stats might not be quite as attention-grabbing.

I was hoping that Drew's performance against Buffalo would help take Fleck's boot off of Harbaugh and the offense, but I believe you're right.
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Coming up with fake scenarios to get mad about days before the game even occurs. Keep it coming gopher fans!
 

caliGopher said:
I was hoping that Drew's performance against Buffalo would help take Fleck's boot off of Harbaugh and the offense, but I believe you're right - we'll go with the Fleck-special game plan - you know the one that helped us lose to bang up opponsents like Bowling Green, Purdue several times, and Rutger's over the past few years. (not saying we'll lose, but this is the mentality that has held Fleck back in what his teams COULD do).

Why not come in with a game plan to actually win vs. playing not to lose, and hoping we'll prevail?

I expect this game to be the boring kind of "let's put them to sleep, and hope it works" that doesn't leverage the talent on the field, and hurts us when bowls are selecting. It's not like we need to protect our defense. I believe they can handle more than Fleck wants them to, but our stats might not be quite as attention-grabbing.

I was hoping that Drew's performance against Buffalo would help take Fleck's boot off of Harbaugh and the offense, but I believe you're right.
Click to expand...
If and it's a big if we can score first, this approach can and does work. You are basically forcing the opponent to press/ make mistakes. It's a form of Tressel ball. I think this is a wish because I think the team wants to keep things under wraps till BigTen play.
 



STPGopher said:
If and it's a big if we can score first, this approach can and does work. You are basically forcing the opponent to press/ make mistakes. It's a form of Tressel ball. I think this is a wish because I think the team wants to keep things under wraps till BigTen play.
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I understand the approach, and it can make sense in certain situations, I agree.

It's also the leading cause of bad losses.

James Franklin uses the same approach that helped us beat them in 2019 and almost beat them last year. Lloyd Carr got fired for refusing to go away from it and losing games they shouldn't have based on his refusal to adapt when things weren't going their way, although the talent Michigan had was significantly greater than most of their opponents.

Not saying this is just a Fleck thing. With the talent we have, I would love to see us go away from the approach as the default.
 

caliGopher said:
I understand the approach, and it can make sense in certain situations, I agree.

It's also the leading cause of bad losses.

James Franklin uses the same approach that helped us beat them in 2019 and almost beat them last year. Lloyd Carr got fired for refusing to go away from it and losing games they shouldn't have based on his refusal to adapt when things weren't going their way, although the talent Michigan had was significantly greater than most of their opponents.

Not saying this is just a Fleck thing. With the talent we have, I would love to see us go away from the approach as the default.
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Good points. I think we mostly agree. I think that the team has matured to the point where we can open it up sometimes. Just guessing that the coach would prefer not to have to just yet.
 


STPGopher said:
Ugh. It came down to special teams play. Just did not see two boneheaded plays like that occurring. Lack of discipline killed our chance.
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Fielding a punt inside your 10 yard line is a mental error - the muff was a kid trying too hard to do something to spark the team. The coaches are putting too much on this guy. I think we can guess the way the rest of this season will play out - BUT - I think if Koi and Lindsey can stick around for 1-2 more years, we could have something really special. Need to get competent coaching around this talent.
 



csom_1991 said:
Fielding a punt inside your 10 yard line is a mental error - the muff was a kid trying too hard to do something to spark the team. The coaches are putting too much on this guy. I think we can guess the way the rest of this season will play out - BUT - I think if Koi and Lindsey can stick around for 1-2 more years, we could have something really special. Need to get competent coaching around this talent.
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For me, mental errors can be a way of lacking discipline. Going against a fielding rule is also seen (by me) as such. Hopefully, only make a play if it's there to be had or it is true desperation time.

Mentally, the team needs to move on to Rutgers.
 

We were on the wrong end of the field position game most of the time. That is why we had so many punt reception mishaps and misfortunes. Beside Koi’s inexplicable fair catch at the two, there was his muff of a bouncing punt at the eight, and the punt that hit inside the five and had “English,” kicking sideways going out at the two. All these situations go back to the field position battle that we lost so thoroughly.
 

caliGopher said:
I was hoping that Drew's performance against Buffalo would help take Fleck's boot off of Harbaugh and the offense, but I believe you're right - we'll go with the Fleck-special game plan - you know the one that helped us lose to bang up opponsents like Bowling Green, Purdue several times, and Rutger's over the past few years. (not saying we'll lose, but this is the mentality that has held Fleck back in what his teams COULD do).
Click to expand...

I'm assuming by "Drew" you mean "Drake." I also get frustrated by the coaches handcuffing the QBs. I think they did that less with Max last year because they seemed to become fairly confident that he would make the right plays.

Drake threw an interception in the first half and that always seems to throw Fleck into a tizzy of concern. During the 3rd quarter of last night's game, it appeared that Fleck's usual grind-it-out strategy was wearing down the Cal defense and paying off but it didn't last.

As far as Drake, I think we may have overestimated him a bit at this point in his career (just like Koi). He's pretty good for a redshirt freshman but the true freshman on the other side was better. At this point, I would guess that he finishes the season as a slightly below average Big Ten QB. That's still good for a freshman.
 

Lost in all the mistakes and occasional oddball play calls on the gopher side were the facts that Lemeke had a breakout game and our RB committee played pretty well, esp. Ijeboi. We could well have won. We were outcoached (probably should have pressured the Cal QB with blitzes snd 5 men lines ). And our STs play continues to be an anchor … or worse.
 




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