When do you bench Tanner?

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This game was supposed to be the easiest of their remaining 4 games. Morgan has just average talent which should have been enough to win this game but it wasn’t.
 

samloupete said:
This game was supposed to be the easiest of their remaining 4 games. Morgan has just average talent which should have been enough to win this game but it wasn’t.
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Morgan is an elite game manager. Which is fine when you have nfl backs and wideouts. Right now the team is playing with zero nfl skill guys and Morgan isn’t good enough to throw guys open
 

LakevilleBro said:
My dream is that (someday) the Gophers can get a mobile QB. Tanner is a statue back there, and being a Senior, he should not be throwing so many poorly thrown balls. Even some of the completions were not thrown well.
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You don't have to be mobile to step up and avoid a pass rush while still delivering a dime downfield.
 




fmlizard said:
I guess the question is how good the next men up are. We're not even sure who the backup QB is, let alone if he could move the team better.

I think the Gophers could have won today if they went with Cole Kramer package the entire 2nd half, or at least the large majority of it.

I don't think any of us have any idea if there's a better passing QB on the roster. Benching the QB should only be done if it's a path to getting better, not to showing outrage.
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I don't know, man. We've seen Annexstad throw quite a bit. Heck, in the very limited action we've seen Clark (2019 spring game and 2019 vs Maryland) throw some beauties. Perhaps Fleck feels some obligation to stick with Tanner. We don't even know if any other QB gets practice reps during the week. Hoping that changes this week!
 

Some guy said:
None of his wideouts are open. And he doesn’t throw it to covered guys.

I don’t think the scheme did him any favors
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There were wide outs that were open, there were times that Tanner panicked, and bailed out to the side of the filed with no routes available. Illinois blitzed at the proper moments, and we didn't have the backs or tight ends positioned to pick the free blitzer's up. One thing is clear to me that Illinois put a lot of film study into what the Gophers do well by holding the football and hogging time of possession. They knew if they could stop that and drain the clock themselves and play bully ball like the Gophers they had the game in hand. There was no point in today's game that the Gophers ever felt like they would actually win after that interception on the first possession on the tipped ball, Not super confident that this staff can game plan like that and prepare this team to beat opponents with better overall talent. like others have said the Gophers were low energy coming out of the tunnel even. Great weather day for a November game and the Gophers should have been ready. That was a disappointing loss, plain and simple. But it is 1 loss.
 








SanDiegoGopherFan said:
I think youre correct sadly.

its shocking that PJ wont value performance over loyalty.

just 1 drive even. Let tanner get out of his head
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That is exactly what I was saying when they came out of the half. Give him one series. If he can't get his shit together, give another QB a shot, at least to let Tanner reset, calm down and gather himself.

A guy sitting behind me said this was the first time he ever saw Morgan play. When I told him he was a 5th year senior and this is his 4th year starting, he about fell over. The thing he noticed is he doesn't do progressions very well. He locks in on his primary target. If that guy isn't open "enough", only then does he start his progressions. Then the happy feet come next. By then the line is 4 to 5 seconds into their blocks, which is an eternity. He ends up getting sacked or flushed out not because the line isn't holding, but rather because he is holding the ball too damn long.

They were stacking 7 to 8 in the box ALL GAME. They had 1 safety deep most of the time. They were daring us to throw the ball. The middle of the field 10 to 15 yards past the line of scrimmage was there all game.

It was clear by the 2nd quarter he was rattled. Rattled Tanner is indecisive and often late on throws. He has a tendency to throw short on intermediate to long routes, but then will inexplicably overthrow on others. Receivers were open, if he trusted his arm and hit them in stride. The last interception - Spann-Ford had the linebacker or nickel guy beat and was behind the safety a good 3 to 4 yards. He threw it 7-8 yards short, right to the Illinois guy. Spann-Ford put his hands up in the WTF formation. He gets that ball where it is supposed to be, it very likely goes for a TD.

In the first half, we had a nice drive going with Kramer running the wildcat. He even hit a pass or two out of it. We ripped through midfield and were around the 30. Clearly had the defense on their heels. Then inexplicably we took Kramer out, replaced him with Tanner. Three plays later, it was 4th and 2, and we get stuffed trying to run the damn ball on a handoff out of the pistol/shotgun. If you are going to do that, put Kramer in with LeCaptain as the RB. At least make the defense deal with some bigger beef. It probably gets you the 2 yards and then some you need.

PJ really needs to take stock of his OC and needs to be man enough to sit Tanner for a series or two when he is clearly in his head, rattled and making poor throws/decisions. The defense held Illinois to 250'ish yards of offense and 14 points. They got off to a rocky start with two early scores, but Rossi adjusted and Illinois didn't attempt a FG let alone score again after.

The remaining 3 opponents are going to sell out to stop the run and dare Tanner Morgan to beat them passing. He is good enough to manage a game when he can play off of the run and mix in 15 - 20 passes a game. He is not good enough this year to win a game with his legs and arm throwing 30 or more times a game.
 



SonjayLarrick said:
I don't know, man. We've seen Annexstad throw quite a bit. Heck, in the very limited action we've seen Clark (2019 spring game and 2019 vs Maryland) throw some beauties. Perhaps Fleck feels some obligation to stick with Tanner. We don't even know if any other QB gets practice reps during the week. Hoping that changes this week!
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Some guy said:
None of his wideouts are open. And he doesn’t throw it to covered guys.

I don’t think the scheme did him any favors
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Part of me thinks the routes, in general, take too damn long to develop. It seems like for whatever reason, open for Tanner means a guy with a 3 to 4 yard cushion vs. a 1 to 2 step advantage. He gets happy feet, throws late and/or shanks the pass altogether.
 
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gopherdudepart2 said:
There were wide outs that were open, there were times that Tanner panicked, and bailed out to the side of the filed with no routes available. Illinois blitzed at the proper moments, and we didn't have the backs or tight ends positioned to pick the free blitzer's up. One thing is clear to me that Illinois put a lot of film study into what the Gophers do well by holding the football and hogging time of possession. They knew if they could stop that and drain the clock themselves and play bully ball like the Gophers they had the game in hand. There was no point in today's game that the Gophers ever felt like they would actually win after that interception on the first possession on the tipped ball, Not super confident that this staff can game plan like that and prepare this team to beat opponents with better overall talent. like others have said the Gophers were low energy coming out of the tunnel even. Great weather day for a November game and the Gophers should have been ready. That was a disappointing loss, plain and simple. But it is 1 loss.
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I am going to strongly disagree that guys were open. A guy breaking open for a split second 4.5 seconds into a drop when he is the 3-4th progression isn’t open

People complain we don’t run slants anymore. We ran slants all day today and they couldn’t get seperation.

today was a recruiting and/or depth loss at the wideout position
 

bsce97 said:
Part of me thinks the routes, in general, take too damn long to develop. The corners were in man, but weren't playing super aggressively and were off the ball. It seems like for whatever reason, open for Tanner means a guy with a 3 to 4 yard cushion vs. a 1 to 2 step advantage. He gets happy feet, throws late and/or shanks the pass altogether.
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Yeah. Nothing 5 step. Nothing 3 step. All slowwwwww play action with 2-3 guys in the route. Wasn’t working. Was hoping we adjusted at half. We didn’t.
Hopefully we have a better plan for Iowa
 

Tanner doesn’t look right. He’s not playing well, but he hasn’t had any favors from his protection or scheme. I’m in the camp the coaches have ruined him. I’m in the camp of get rid of the OC, not the QB. Three big games coming up.
 

Posted in another thread that maybe losing all these upper class RBs was finally catching up.

Another poster noted that Thomas missed a couple of key blocks that might have given Tanner a little more time. That probably goes for the kid receivers too when they are on the field.

Seems like our Achilles heel is certain rush schemes...certainly the case today as well as the BG game.

For most of the passing attempts Tanner did not have a pocket to stand in. He at least didn't get blindsided today in the pocket because he was mostly running for dear life.

Not a big offensive mind but I guess the RPO from 2019 was really tied to Tyler and Rashod as others have noted. Fun while it lasted.
 

Wally said:
Look at Oklahoma. Bench your preseason Heisman favorite. That's some balls.
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Well... Not quite so ballsy when you realize that the guy you're replacing Rattler with is a 5* quarterback that had graded out at .9969
 

No. You play the guy who gives you your best chance to win. I doubt that plugging in ZA at this point is going to fix the problems with the leaky pass protection and the predictable play calling.

I still trust Morgan. But he needs an O-line that doesn't allow rushers straight through. He needs a coordinator that isn't going to put him in third and long on a regular basis. He needs receivers that can create separation.

This isn't meant to absolve Tanner of today's game. He left wide open receivers untargeted. Seems to have been shaken early and never really gotten over that. Again....that's not all on him. His pass protection sucked. But he never regained his composure. He was on the run early and often.

He needs to be much better these last few games. But you are kidding yourself if he's getting benched.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
It isn't just O-line play, Tanner locks in on one receiver and than doesn't come off the route this year until it is too late. This game was just like Bowling Green early, offense seems to be rolling and Tanner get's one turnover off a tipped ball and then he doesn't seem to let it go until it is too late. This was almost as bad as the Bowling Green game for Offensive performance. Tanner Morgan is starting to regress to Mitch Leidner like plateau. Well at least Mitch led a Minnesota win against Iowa, this is something Tanner Morgan will never accomplish iin 4 and 1/2 seasons.
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Morgan got help from that QB throwing guru before the 2019 game. Whatever happened to that. IMHO, Tanner's mind is preoccupied. He is not the TM that we are accustomed to. He needs to sit down and clear the cobwebs.

I agree with those that said if the Gopher are serious about contending, a QB change might do some good for the sake of the team. PJ Fleck is in a tough spot. But, we all know he eats difficult conversations for breakfast. It's time to have that.

The whole team starting with the Offensive Line look awful.
 

It looks like Illinois studied the BGSU game in great detail. Now, we can bet Iowa, Indiana, and Wiscy will be studying the BGSU and Illinois game tapes.

The Gophers will be facing the top two defenses in the B1G West. They are in trouble if Sanford and Sons can't come up with an imaginative game scheme.

Right now, the 5th place Spot in the B1G West is reserved for the Gophers.
 


Ferentz pulls Petras. Backup QB leads Suckeyes on two straight TD drives.
Sigh.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Ferentz pulls Petras. Backup QB leads Suckeyes on two straight TD drives.
Sigh.
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I know that head coaches can change QB's like you said here Ferentz changed QB's and the whole complexion of this football game has changed. It's pretty sad that the Fans can see there are on going issue's with the starting QB and it is not just other players fault, or talent levels that he is struggling, Like has already been said PJ Fleck will ride or die with Tanner Morgan, even until the bitter end. He has already said that Morgan is like a son to him so when it comes to any kind of criticism or complaints about Tanner's play coach Fleck isn't going to listen to it or pay attention to it. It doesn't take a great football mind to tell today that the O-line was getting beat, the running backs were missing blocks, and Morgan had that panicked run ever where and shuffle backwards look. Doesn't seem to be coincidence that he plays his best games on the road and his worst football games at home. I can think we can all agree that Tanner Morgan has been really inconsistent this season. I do wish that he finishes well and has better success, just not sure it will happen. Maybe he can call that 2019 QB guru up again and get some help.
 
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Pj will ride Morgan till the end. I am a big Fleck-ite, but though he claims to eat difficult conversations for breakfast, I don’t see that. Benching Tanner for even a series would take balls, but PJ is unwilling to do it. We can debate until the cows come home whether it’s the OC, Tanner, or the OL (at times). But whatever the source, Tanner is broken. They have had three games against inferior opponents where the offense looked basically useless. What is the harm in throwing Annexstad (or whomever the no.2 is) out there in the 3rd quarter today for a series or 2? Maybe it lights a fire under the offense. Worst case scenario is they look as shitty as they already did today. Putting another QB out there for a bit doesn’t mean you have to permanently stick with him.
 

Some guy said:
Double problem:

1) guys can’t get open
2) Morgan holds the ball too long and doesn’t give them a chance
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Plenty of open players today Morgan dose that look at one receiver because that’s what the playbook says
 

Morgan is playing like the MAC QB he was recruited to be. is not accurate, constantly throws behind his targets, not a very strong arm and if he doesn't get rid of the ball in 2-3 seconds, he bails out of the pocket whether or not there is any pressure. They really need to put Zach in for a series or two and see what he can do

Losing 2 games at home to double digit underdogs while only allowing 14 points in each game should signify that the O needs a jump start
 

Why not pull Morgan in these situations and give Annexstad a try? in 2018, in 7 games, he hit at 52%. 1277 yards, and 9 TDs to 7 interceptions; Morgan in 9 games, hit at 58%, 1400 yards, and 9 TDs to 6 interceptions. Not a huge difference. A QB off the bench often fires up a team - we've all seen that many times. Instead, Morgan and the Gopher sink into quicksand. Six points against Illinois! As usual, the defense played well enough to win. The offense was on Nyquil PM.
 

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