The Gophers might win the West someday, but they likely will never again have a 2 game lead with 3 games to play. They likely will never be 9-0 with only a home game against Wisconsin looming as a potential roadblock to a perfect season. The Gophers were overwhelming favorites to win the West and head to Pasadena 3 weeks ago. Since that time they've lost to both rivals (when do we stop calling either of these games "rivalry" games? when was the last time the Gophers had the Axe and the Pig? how frequently have they had neither over the last 3 decades?) and in doing so lost the perfect season, the Rose Bowl, and the B1G West.
I was pretty shocked by the "it's ok" reaction some had to losing to Iowa a couple of weeks ago as if this exact nightmare end to the season didn't become very real with the poor performance in Iowa City.
Two things bother me most about the last 3 weeks:
1. A feeling that we weren't aggressive enough: Against Iowa, we had the early decision to try a long field goal instead of trying to convert a 4th and medium, then a decision to punt from a similar place on the field, and finally a decision to kick the field goal before half with 4 seconds to go instead of try for the touchdown. You can argue the merits of all of these decisions, but they certainly were not the aggressive approach. Against Wisconsin, we had the timeout followed by running the generic Seth Green play on 3rd and 2 and then the decision to punt on 4th and 2, then down 10 in the 3rd quarter we had the decision to run the ball on 3rd and 10 from the 22 yard line, finally we had the run play to end the 3rd quarter on 1st and goal from the 6 followed by another basic running play on 2nd and goal from the 4 to open the 4th. Again, any one of these plays can be defended in a vacuum, but we didn't go for it. To think that that we had all these short yardage plays in two critical games and NEVER brought the pass out of the Wildcat out of mothballs is especially disappointing. It felt like we were saving some plays all year for these critical situations...and then we never used them.
2. Dominated in the trenches: The Gophers offensive line really started struggling to end the Penn State game which played a big role in the near collapse (along with some conservative playcalling like above). Against Iowa and Wisconsin, we couldn't establish any sort of running game which put the rest of the offense in a bind. On defense, their Olines got the better of our Dlines which allowed them to be less predictable. Our defense for the better part of the year was try to get to 3rd down and then take a chance with a blitz to get off the field. We couldn't stop 3rd or 4th and short when it mattered on defense and we often didn't even try to convert on offense. This team got (mostly) great WR and QB play as well as good to great secondary play all year. It wasn't enough to overcome the deficiencies on the line in two of the three big games down the stretch. I tend to lean to this being more about size/strength/talent than effort, but that is almost more concerning when you try to project future contention for the Gophers.
It's great that the offensive line is coming back intact, but is there enough talent there to really make a jump? On the defensive line, we lose arguably our best pass rusher (Coughlin) and most consistent interior player (Renner). With tackling also being an issue, it's concerning to likely be losing Winfield in addition to Martin who were our best back 7 players when it came to actually getting a ball carrier on the ground.
This year was a great step forward for the program under PJ Fleck, but it also was a huge missed opportunity. We will either look back at this year as the turning point for the program or look back at these last 2 rivalry games regretfully for a long, long time.
I was pretty shocked by the "it's ok" reaction some had to losing to Iowa a couple of weeks ago as if this exact nightmare end to the season didn't become very real with the poor performance in Iowa City.
Two things bother me most about the last 3 weeks:
1. A feeling that we weren't aggressive enough: Against Iowa, we had the early decision to try a long field goal instead of trying to convert a 4th and medium, then a decision to punt from a similar place on the field, and finally a decision to kick the field goal before half with 4 seconds to go instead of try for the touchdown. You can argue the merits of all of these decisions, but they certainly were not the aggressive approach. Against Wisconsin, we had the timeout followed by running the generic Seth Green play on 3rd and 2 and then the decision to punt on 4th and 2, then down 10 in the 3rd quarter we had the decision to run the ball on 3rd and 10 from the 22 yard line, finally we had the run play to end the 3rd quarter on 1st and goal from the 6 followed by another basic running play on 2nd and goal from the 4 to open the 4th. Again, any one of these plays can be defended in a vacuum, but we didn't go for it. To think that that we had all these short yardage plays in two critical games and NEVER brought the pass out of the Wildcat out of mothballs is especially disappointing. It felt like we were saving some plays all year for these critical situations...and then we never used them.
2. Dominated in the trenches: The Gophers offensive line really started struggling to end the Penn State game which played a big role in the near collapse (along with some conservative playcalling like above). Against Iowa and Wisconsin, we couldn't establish any sort of running game which put the rest of the offense in a bind. On defense, their Olines got the better of our Dlines which allowed them to be less predictable. Our defense for the better part of the year was try to get to 3rd down and then take a chance with a blitz to get off the field. We couldn't stop 3rd or 4th and short when it mattered on defense and we often didn't even try to convert on offense. This team got (mostly) great WR and QB play as well as good to great secondary play all year. It wasn't enough to overcome the deficiencies on the line in two of the three big games down the stretch. I tend to lean to this being more about size/strength/talent than effort, but that is almost more concerning when you try to project future contention for the Gophers.
It's great that the offensive line is coming back intact, but is there enough talent there to really make a jump? On the defensive line, we lose arguably our best pass rusher (Coughlin) and most consistent interior player (Renner). With tackling also being an issue, it's concerning to likely be losing Winfield in addition to Martin who were our best back 7 players when it came to actually getting a ball carrier on the ground.
This year was a great step forward for the program under PJ Fleck, but it also was a huge missed opportunity. We will either look back at this year as the turning point for the program or look back at these last 2 rivalry games regretfully for a long, long time.
