What grade would you give the Gophers defense following the OT loss at Maryland?

What grade would you give the Gophers defense following the OT loss at Maryland?

  • A

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • B

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • C

    Votes: 3 2.9%

  • D

    Votes: 13 12.5%

  • F

    Votes: 87 83.7%
  • Total voters
    104
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What grade would you give the Gophers defense following the OT loss at Maryland?
 


Against Michigan they were in some tough spots due to special teams and the offense.

Is the defense really 35 points (regulation) worse than Northwestern? Yes. Yes they are.
 






I don't think I have seen a Gopher D so often out of position, use bad angles and do such a horrible job of containment. I realize the team speed is lacking but...............

So these guys are all the vaunted PJ recruits that everyone here was so hyped about. ZZZZZZZZZZZ
 




Bayfieldgopher said:
I don't think I have seen a Gopher D so often out of position, use bad angles and do such a horrible job of containment. I realize the team speed is lacking but...............

So these guys are all the vaunted PJ recruits that everyone here was so hyped about. ZZZZZZZZZZZ
Click to expand...
What is very surprising to me is that the LB's that seemed to be good recruits (Brown, Gordon, Burns), aren't on the field and the lesser recruits; Aune, Rush, Lindenberg are and I'm truly wondering why after 2 games.

I really can't remember seeing a defense that is not only out of position most of the time, but they just don't have the footspeed to get themselves back into position to make a play. I'm at a loss for an explanation of what I'm seeing, it's absolutely that putrid!!!

We've taken a leap (or 3)... backwards!
 

Please. Is this even necessary?
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
Against Michigan they were in some tough spots due to special teams and the offense.

Is the defense really 35 points (regulation) worse than Northwestern? Yes. Yes they are.
Click to expand...
The only two short-fields that mattered for Michigan were the failed fake punt and the long KO return. Those were tough. The first two poor punts just led to Michigan missing FG attempts.

This game ... yikes. We make Tua's brother look like a Heisman winner. Maybe he is.

I have not watched the NW game. Maybe something just clicked for him, against us. Probably a combination of factors.


But at the end of the day, our defense is making opposing offenses look really good, it seems.



So, I went with D, because I'm afraid it could still be worse.
 




Methinks this D is why PJ, in my opinion, seemed okay with the B1G’s earlier decision to cancel the season - the off year was sort of a gift to him...one more year to get ready, but then it was like, “oh, crap...we gotta put these guys in the lineup now”.
 



F

Even if our defense isn't as talented as we thought they'd be.....they were constantly out of position. And the angles they took to cut off ball carriers were horrendous.
 

Flashbacks of Rob Smith days... seems Linebackers and Safeties are out of position, take bad angles, and are slow. Giving up multiple 50+ yard plays every week... can't win with that especially when the new Offensive game play calling seems to be a step or two back from last year's.
 

Lower case "d" seems most appropriate. I bumped then up from F due to the 2 turnovers, that at least put them into position to build the 17 lead.
 


It'd be one thing if we just lacked star players, but our defense looks soft and out of shape. Does anybody know if Gage Keys has logged any snaps? I assume not, but at this point...what's to lose? He has to be better at chasing a QB than the slow plodders we're putting out there right now. I can picture 4-5 plays already this year where the Gophers could have had likely sacks/QB contains if they had any modicum of decent footspeed. Our guys run like they all have hamstring injuries. Blows my mind.
 

RolGnav said:
Flashbacks of Rob Smith days... seems Linebackers and Safeties are out of position, take bad angles, and are slow. Giving up multiple 50+ yard plays every week... can't win with that especially when the new Offensive game play calling seems to be a step or two back from last year's.
Click to expand...
Being out of position and taking bad angles a lot, along with over pursuing and not containing the edges, makes them look slow. Correcting those will help enough to win games like the last two.

To me 55 has been the biggest repeat offender of all of these...but it is happening all over the defense.
 

GH Staff, how about a poll on grading the coaching staff through two games?

Edit: NM...it's there I just had to scroll down a looong way to find it. :)
 
Last edited:
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I have seen a lot of comparisons to worse than Wacker era and Salem era defenses. While the points and statistics may say this because of the level of play, the type of athlete and talent does not. This team is not slow, or weak, the biggest problem with the defense right now is the structural way the players are fitting up front and lack of team play. I don't like playing three corners especially playing a corner at linebacker, or a linebacker #8 Rush in Coughlin's old spot at right defensive end. The alignment up front between the linebackers and the front four is off and is impacting the ability of the defense to make plays. This is more about overpursuit, and bad angles, being out of position, too much freelancing than lack of athletes or ability to make plays. They have to find a combination that can play together and execute the defensive calls. #9 and # 34 are really good athletes but they are not maintaining gap integrity against the run. The defensive tackles are getting upright,playing too tall, turned backwards, and being pushed out of the play a lot. Too much woe as me and thinking here we go again. This team really needs to break down film and watch what they are doing wrong. It is more about that than it is lack of talent or athletic ability.
 

I'm amazed by the amount of times #55 and #45 take themselves out of the play. It's astonishing that those are our best 2 backers. I'll give Lindenburg a pass because he's a freshmen but MSM played last year, and looks slow and lost. Add this to #32 and #18 getting handled inside and #8, #34, and #9 losing their contain on the outside. I'm not even going to talk about the secondary spots as Durr is the only player on the whole defense that shows some effort. Oh and if you want a laugh watch #21 try to run guys down when there's a jail break. At this point there should be a line change and I hope there are 7 new starters next week. Sapp left 1 week to early.
 

So far, Gophers may have the worst defense in the BT. Michigan blows them out, then loses to Mich. St. which was upset by Rutgers. MD loses 43-3 or so, then puts up nearly 700 yards on Gophers. Will we win one game this year?
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
So far, Gophers may have the worst defense in the BT. Michigan blows them out, then loses to Mich. St. which was upset by Rutgers. MD loses 43-3 or so, then puts up nearly 700 yards on Gophers. Will we win one game this year?
Click to expand...
Illinois
 

If we really were recruiting better athletes the opponents wouldn’t be running by us.
We haven’t seemed to miss many tackles because we are rarely in position to make them.
Hopefully, our new recruits see an opportunity to play versus fleeing to a team faring
better.
 


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