To win Big Ten West, Gophers need Iowa to lose twice

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Greder:

After being in pole position, Gophers will likely now need the first-place Hawkeyes to lose at least two of their final three games for Minnesota to win the Big Ten West division.

www.twincities.com

To win Big Ten West, Gophers need Iowa to lose twice

Minnesota fell behind first-place Iowa on Saturday with three games to go.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
 

We don’t deserve to win the West. The losses to Northwestern and Illinois hurt so much because they were wins, essentially all tied up and put to bed. And a series of player mistakes, multiplied by weird (passive?) coaching decisions at the end (like not blitzing the new QB who came in on 4 and 11), meant, IMHO, that we gave both victories away. Here is the difference between PJ and Bielema: If it was 4th and 11 with the game on the line (under 2:00 minutes left), the Gophers—needing a TD not just a FG—were backed up deep in their own territory, and AK8 left the game hurt, meaning Cole Kramer comes in cold, without warming up, I believe Bielema would have blitzed maybe two guys—six man rush. He would force the new, cold QB to react quickly under intense pressure. And Bielema probably would have won the game right then and there on that play.
 
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I’d be satisfied if we go 1-2 and the one win is Wisconsin. And of course win the bowl game.. there is no reason to not go 2-1 in the regular season tho. I just don’t have high expectations.
 

I said at the beginning of the year 5-4 in conference was a success.
Should already be there, damnit
 

Or one more Iowa loss and we miraculously win out. We can do this!

Uhh... we'll need some help with tOSU game though. First, we need Gopherhole to fly someone over to the tOSU vs MSU game to record tOSU's signs. We can pay for the glasses and have them standing on the MSU sideline. Nobody there will notice as nobody knows who will be on next year's staff anyway. Any other ideas?
 


Gophergrandpa said:
We don’t deserve to win the West. The losses to Northwestern and Illinois hurt so much because they were wins, essentially all tied up and put to bed. And a series of player mistakes, multiplied by weird (passive?) coaching decisions at the end (like not blitzing the new QB who came in on 4 and 11), meant, IMHO, that we gave both victories away. Here is the difference between PJ and Bielema: If it was 4th and 11 with the game on the line (under 2:00 minutes left), the Gophers—needing a TD not just a FG—were backed up deep in their own territory, and AK8 left the game hurt, meaning Cole Kramer comes in cold, without warming up, I believe Bielema would have blitzed maybe two guys—six man rush. He would force the new, cold QB to react quickly under intense pressure. And Bielema probably would have won the game right then and there on that play.
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Go back a few plays and the Gophers had the ball near mid-field with 3rd and one. 3rd and one with little time left and a game-sealing first down 36 inches away and two downs to get there. Most teams would run a quick QB sneak and then take their time to snap the next play with a new set of downs. We run a slow handoff to a good but deliberate, patient RB who gets stuffed for a short loss. Now it's 4th and three or so. Punt. Ball game. People here criticize that type of play-calling as "conservative." I call it not understanding the importance of being in possession of the ball.
 

If we go 2-1 we need Iowa to lose twice and Nebraska to lose once.
 

Nobody deserves to win the west. I can’t remember a year of ugly like this, top to bottom.
 






It won't happen, just like in 2019, the division was there for the taking and we defecate the bed. With how bad the West is and the table being set early Saturday, opportunity once again blown.
 

So sad when it is flat out gift wrapped for you and you blow a game to a conference bottom feeder twice in one season. Just a tough pill to swallow after being in this similar position feels like almost every season.
 



I say let Iowa win the west, get destroyed 100-0 in the Big championship game then also get destroyed in their Jan 1 bowl game. Meanwhile we get a nice bowl game with a manageable opponent for our team, get more practice development and come out much healthier. Not settling for mediocrity here but just don’t see the point of looking like an absolute garbage team against opponents we know are much better than us right now. Take the next step when we are ready to take that next step and know who we are right now.
 

CentralGopher said:
I say let Iowa win the west, get destroyed 100-0 in the Big championship game then also get destroyed in their Jan 1 bowl game. Meanwhile we get a nice bowl game with a manageable opponent for our team, get more practice development and come out much healthier. Not settling for mediocrity here but just don’t see the point of looking like an absolute garbage team against opponents we know are much better than us right now. Take the next step when we are ready to take that next step and know who we are right now.
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I mean yes, watching them get destroyed would be fine. But to not want to make a championship game just because you think you'll get beat bad is weird. It won't happen, but if you asked me do you want a west title and BT champ game appearance or not, of course I take yes, even if I know we will get killed.
Plus this is the last year of the East/West so not sure when we'd ever have a chance again at a championship game here...
 

CentralGopher said:
I say let Iowa win the west, get destroyed 100-0 in the Big championship game then also get destroyed in their Jan 1 bowl game. Meanwhile we get a nice bowl game with a manageable opponent for our team, get more practice development and come out much healthier. Not settling for mediocrity here but just don’t see the point of looking like an absolute garbage team against opponents we know are much better than us right now. Take the next step when we are ready to take that next step and know who we are right now.
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No chance Iowa wins, but with their defense they will likely make it somewhat competitive with a
19-7 type loss
 

Go Gophs said:
I mean yes, watching them get destroyed would be fine. But to not want to make a championship game just because you think you'll get beat bad is weird. It won't happen, but if you asked me do you want a west title and BT champ game appearance or not, of course I take yes, even if I know we will get killed.
Plus this is the last year of the East/West so not sure when we'd ever have a chance again at a championship game here...
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I get where you’re coming from and while I’d like to win the west as well we literally get nothing out of it other than looking like we don’t belong. I don’t believe it helps us recruit either. Locally it probably helps a little but recruiting from other states will not be better seeing us lose badly.
 



Could see them losing two.

Quite frankly though, at this point, I’m ready to cede the beating in Indy to Iowa. Go for it.


If we had won the ILL game, I’d feel different.


But now, all I want is a win over Purdue , don’t get too banged up against OSU, keep the axe, go to the Music City bowl and beat some half-ass SEC team.

Call it a year, move on
 

Looking at the schedules and standings this morning I still think the Gophers are headed to Indianapolis.

Very plausible scenario of 5 teams ending the season at 5-4 with Minnesota winning the tiebreaker.
 

StudentSectionMenace said:
Last year was also pretty ugly lol. 7-5 Purdue snuck into the Big Ten Championship
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Purdue was 8-4 for the regular season last year. Yes, their championship appearance was futile (although they kept it very competitive for a half) but their Citrus Bowl appearance against LSU was much worse (7-63).
 

Mulligan said:
I really don't care about winning the West. It would be a totally meaningless "accomplishment." Beating Wisconsin is all I want.
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It really is. I think some people view this as the Super Bowl of the Big Ten but this game isn't like that. To get to the Super Bowl, you have to beat multiple playoff teams so you've actually demonstrated something to get there. To win the Big Ten West, you have to end up with a better conference record than the other mediocre teams in your division. Nobody has much respect for the Big Ten West champion and the champions have earned that disrespect by losing every year and usually by at least two scores. All the game does is add another loss to your record and frequently it's a humiliating one.
 

LesBolstad said:
No chance Iowa wins, but with their defense they will likely make it somewhat competitive with a
19-7 type loss
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They will give up 40 to Michigan or OSU for the simple fact that they will go 3 and out continuously and they will turn it over.

Penn State put 33 on them for this exact reason.
 

LesBolstad said:
No chance Iowa wins, but with their defense they will likely make it somewhat competitive with a
19-7 type loss
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I kind of doubt it. With the exception of Penn State, Iowa has played an easy schedule this season. They lost 0-31 to Penn State and that was before playing without their Michigan transfers at QB and TE. Iowa really isn't all that difficult to move the ball against this season. Big Ten West teams mostly have mediocre offenses so they're afraid to make mistakes against Iowa that result in scores and short fields that they lack the firepower to overcome. Both Michigan and Ohio State have the offenses to overcome that and to more aggressively challenge Iowa's defense. Iowa lost to Michigan 3-41 in its last championship game.
 

And knowing Iowa through my relative —they will be very happy to win the west and get their tails kicked in the championship —just as long as they win the west title.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
We don’t deserve to win the West. The losses to Northwestern and Illinois hurt so much because they were wins, essentially all tied up and put to bed. And a series of player mistakes, multiplied by weird (passive?) coaching decisions at the end (like not blitzing the new QB who came in on 4 and 11), meant, IMHO, that we gave both victories away. Here is the difference between PJ and Bielema: If it was 4th and 11 with the game on the line (under 2:00 minutes left), the Gophers—needing a TD not just a FG—were backed up deep in their own territory, and AK8 left the game hurt, meaning Cole Kramer comes in cold, without warming up, I believe Bielema would have blitzed maybe two guys—six man rush. He would force the new, cold QB to react quickly under intense pressure. And Bielema probably would have won the game right then and there on that play.
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Bielema's team gave up 18 4th quarter points to lose a game against Wisconsin two weeks ago. He's not immune to a meltdown loss himself.
 

LesBolstad said:
No chance Iowa wins, but with their defense they will likely make it somewhat competitive with a
19-7 type loss
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Hmmm... The only time they played someone with any semblance of an offense they got hammered. Penn St. 31 - Iowa 0.

Edit. Sorry, I didn't see the earlier posts that said pretty much the same thing.
Carry on.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Nobody deserves to win the west. I can’t remember a year of ugly like this, top to bottom.
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Since the East/West split started in 2014, the most lopsided seasons were 2017 and last year, when the East won 13 of 21 crossover games. This year the East is 11-5 against the West; if they win 3 of the 5 remaining crossover games, this year will be the most lopsided. The West is the home team for four of those games, FWIW.

Overall, the East is 101-83 against the West, outside of the championship games. tOSU is 24-2 against the West by itself. If you disregard games involving the Buckeyes, the West has a slight advantage over the East.
 

But we’re talking about West teams losing to West teams too. Iowa barely beats NW, who beat Minn, who beat Iowa but lost to ILL, who lost to Wisc, who lost to Indiana.

It’s just trashy all around.

I think Purdue is the only one really without a shot?
 

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