What does beating Iowa mean for PJ Fleck and the Gophers?

[Dakota2]

I think there are two layers to the NW loss.

1) the first is allowing a comeback of that magnitude. It happens and like you said, first time in Fleck’s tenure we’ve had that type of loss. It sucks, but it is what it is.

2) The NW game is not an outlier. It seems yearly we lose to an opponent that we are heavy favorites against. I don’t remember the point spreads of the games, but Bowling Green, Maryland a few years ago, Purdue last year. I know we were 20 point favorites in the NW and BG games - my memory sucks but I want to say we were close to 30 point favorites vs BG. To me it isn’t the loss to NW. it is the trend of losing to teams you in theory are far superior to.

I’m not saying fire him, but I can at least understand the people that are saying it. It not an emotional or dramatic reaction to one loss. It’s a culmination of Flecks style. It wins a lot of games but at the same time, it keeps a lot of games close and in close games anything can happen.

Most fans don’t want to fire him. They want him to get better.

 

[Word]

I think there are two layers to the NW loss.

1) the first is allowing a comeback of that magnitude. It happens and like you said, first time in Fleck’s tenure we’ve had that type of loss. It sucks, but it is what it is.

2) The NW game is not an outlier. It seems yearly we lose to an opponent that we are heavy favorites against. I don’t remember the point spreads of the games, but Bowling Green, Maryland a few years ago, Purdue last year. I know we were 20 point favorites in the NW and BG games - my memory sucks but I want to say we were close to 30 point favorites vs BG. To me it isn’t the loss to NW. it is the trend of losing to teams you in theory are far superior to.

I’m not saying fire him, but I can at least understand the people that are saying it. It not an emotional or dramatic reaction to one loss. It’s a culmination of Flecks style. It wins a lot of games but at the same time, it keeps a lot of games close and in close games anything can happen.

You're counting last year's loss to Big Ten West Champ Purdue as a horrible loss? It sucks how we lost but that was a very good Purdue team.

 

[btowngopher]

I think there are two layers to the NW loss.

1) the first is allowing a comeback of that magnitude. It happens and like you said, first time in Fleck’s tenure we’ve had that type of loss. It sucks, but it is what it is.

2) The NW game is not an outlier. It seems yearly we lose to an opponent that we are heavy favorites against. I don’t remember the point spreads of the games, but Bowling Green, Maryland a few years ago, Purdue last year. I know we were 20 point favorites in the NW and BG games - my memory sucks but I want to say we were close to 30 point favorites vs BG. To me it isn’t the loss to NW. it is the trend of losing to teams you in theory are far superior to.

I’m not saying fire him, but I can at least understand the people that are saying it. It not an emotional or dramatic reaction to one loss. It’s a culmination of Flecks style. It wins a lot of games but at the same time, it keeps a lot of games close and in close games anything can happen.

No we don’t. It’s happened twice, NW and BG.

 

[MNfootballfan]

You’re probably right on that!

I understand your point. My feeling is if he had not made the invalid signal and simply picked it up with the intent of returning it, our guys would have played it the same way and made the tackle. No big play involved.

The illegal and meaningless return happened because of confusion on our side. That is the precise reason the rule is in place.

 

[Jack jones]

Good post. I would only point out the invalid fair catch had nothing to do with Iowa losing more than we won. It was a dead play the instant he touched the ball. Had no bearing on the outcome.

Plus Iowa has 1:47 on the clock, plus timeouts, to move the ball 30 yds. for a field goal. Didn’t do it, didn’t deserve to win.