Update | PJ Fleck and the Gophers are 2-2 in their last four games when trailing at half.

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MplsGopher said:
SchoolOpponentCmpAttPctYdsTDIntRateAttYdsAvgTD
Minnesota@PurdueW91850.016910147.2362.00
MinnesotaNebraskaW202483.320922167.33-8-2.70
MinnesotaMarylandW81266.712500154.2155.00
Minnesota@NorthwesternW121770.613401125.03299.71
MinnesotaIllinoisL152853.61800293.310-17-1.71
Minnesota@IowaL143046.718310108.93-21-7.00
Minnesota@IndianaW142070.019620185.3284.00
MinnesotaWisconsinW111668.819911181.45-11-2.20


Easy to see what correlates pretty well with L vs W.
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Yep. Including Bowling Green would have added to your case as well.

When we have good passing efficiency, we are a dangerous team for the substantial majority FBS opponents. When we have bad passing efficiency, we can lose to all sorts of teams.
 

cjbfbp said:
Yep. Including Bowling Green would have added to your case as well.

When we have good passing efficiency, we are a dangerous team for the substantial majority FBS opponents. When we have bad passing efficiency, we can lose to all sorts of teams.
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But what broke that efficiency??

Every single team we played knew we were going to try to run the ball, and (should've been) selling out to stop the run.


Was Tanner just off on those days? Was Sanford calling the wrong plays? Something else, a mixture, or what?


Don't think we're going to get a clear answer to that next year ... because it's going to be Morgan + Sanford, again.
 


Quite clearly to me: Bert knew exactly what needed to be done, to befuddle us ... and they did it.

Still boggles my mind that the rest of the teams we've played didn't just copy that to a T.
 


MplsGopher said:
Quite clearly to me: Bert knew exactly what needed to be done, to befuddle us ... and they did it.

Still boggles my mind that the rest of the teams we've played didn't just copy that to a T.
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Crazy thought, maybe our coaches figured out how to counter what Illinois was able to exploit so that it didn't happen again.
 

MplsGopher said:
Quite clearly to me: Bert knew exactly what needed to be done, to befuddle us ... and they did it.

Still boggles my mind that the rest of the teams we've played didn't just copy that to a T.
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Most teams have a standard defense they run and aren't going to risk putting players in unfamiliar territory. Teams that went to a 6 front and came off the edges hard caused issues. The toss play came after the Illinois game. The Gophers found a solution to what Bowling Green and Illinois did. We also used the play against WI.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Crazy thought, maybe our coaches figured out how to counter what Illinois was able to exploit so that it didn't happen again.
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Seems odd they couldn't figure it out in-game.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Most teams have a standard defense they run and aren't going to risk putting players in unfamiliar territory. Teams that went to a 6 front and came off the edges hard caused issues. The toss play came after the Illinois game. The Gophers found a solution to what Bowling Green and Illinois did. We also used the play against WI.
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We used that play against Iowa, more likely because we saw some other team use it against Iowa's defense well. That's my wild guess. And it worked so well, they kept in for a few times per game.

I don't think we ran it against any team more than 5-6 times a game? Could be wrong
 


MplsGopher said:
Was Tanner just off on those days? Was Sanford calling the wrong plays? Something else, a mixture, or what?


Don't think we're going to get a clear answer to that next year ... because it's going to be Morgan + Sanford, again.
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Some blame also goes to the receivers who had difficulties getting separation and making catches at times. You could also throw in Fleck at times because we never know exactly how much is Sanford and how much is Fleck. I will say that the combination of Fleck and Sanford were pretty decent for the last three games. The overall offensive game plan was pretty good against Iowa but execution and decisions at some moments resulted in a heartbreaker. The defense also bears some responsibility for giving up some big plays at the worst times.

You're right, we'll never know for sure who was the primary source of problems. I guess we'll just have to hope that things work themselves out. I'm not completely sold on the idea that Sanford must go. We laid two rotten eggs this season but the rest of the season the offense mostly went well or well enough.
 



 

MplsGopher said:
Seems odd they couldn't figure it out in-game.
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Right, because it is much easier to fix things in real time than it is by studying the game film after the fact. I have no doubt they tried to address things in game but there is only so much you can do in that environment.
 


Kinda weird how the narrative of these things work.

Wisc had a lead, but generally ... Gophers were dominant outside a tipped ball.

It's a win while trailing at the half... but not like they had to throw out the playbook and come back.

Personally I was pretty optimistic at the half, as much as if we had the lead.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Kinda weird how the narrative of these things work.

Wisc had a lead, but generally ... Gophers were dominant outside a tipped ball.

It's a win while trailing at the half... but not like they had to throw out the playbook and come back.

Personally I was pretty optimistic at the half, as much as if we had the lead.
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Yeah, it was a weird game for me. I felt pretty good the whole game and then got really confident after the Walley pick. I think my confidence came from the fact that Mertz was actually making tough throws early in the game and I just kept thinking that there is no way he can keep that up.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, it was a weird game for me. I felt pretty good the whole game and then got really confident after the Walley pick. I think my confidence came from the fact that Mertz was actually making tough throws early in the game and I just kept thinking that there is no way he can keep that up.
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I felt good as long as Allen didn't bust a long one. You see it all the time, a guy is kept in check, then busts one and it completely changes things.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Right, because it is much easier to fix things in real time than it is by studying the game film after the fact. I have no doubt they tried to address things in game but there is only so much you can do in that environment.
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It all depends on how simple the fix was. Sometimes, indeed you could argue that great times often do it, you can make adjustments in-game that have great effect.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I felt good as long as Allen didn't bust a long one. You see it all the time, a guy is kept in check, then busts one and it completely changes things.
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It wasn't in the bag but he was so bottled up they could barely justify keeping trying.

"We're going to make Mertz throw and Wisc is going to do it." is a good place to be.
 

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