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husker70

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When The Final Score is Posted on The TCF Scoreboard

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Minnesota 17 Vistors 23

Air Force will control the game. The multiple offense of the Gophers will continue to sputter. There will be no late game heroics, rather the game will end with whimper. Air Force will rush the ball 59 times, for over 300 yards, and will control the clock as well. The only highlight of the game for the Gophers will be a Stoudemier return. But it won't be enough.
The Gophers will begin pounding the rock, but abandon it in favor of the passing game. It will only excelerate Air Force scoring. As three and outs, and a pick give them a short field.
 

After one game, there are still questions about this squad. My main concern; the OL and the offense in general, is still very real and I don't expect much production from the offense. It could be that we, once again, have to rely on Weber to carry the team. That is a lot to ask of him, even though he has two seasons under his belt with very little support other than Decker.

So we need to depend on a solid D and good execution on the kicking game. I have more confidence in the kicking game from what I saw against SU. The DL did not perform up to the hype Brewster has laid on them and we all know about the DE. This could be the year of the LB with Campbell, Lawrence and Triplett poised to carry the load.

The DT's need to take away the first option. It must start there as that should be our strength. If we fail in that aspect, AF will run all over us. I hope the DE's and LB's assigned to the QB get his attention and right off the get go. We need precise execution from our D with no lapses in play.

This is a very tough game to call.

Gophers 20-AFA 30
 


With the Gopher's still having many unknown's and not having seen this Air Force team play I will say 38-24 Gophers. AFA will give up a lot of yards through the air. Yes, I am a homer, but it keeps me going.:D
 

Well, I see the negative people sure got up early this morning...

I think our front seven matches up well with a team that just wants to run the ball. Our offense will rebound against a much less athletic and smaller defense, but the game will close as Air Force is still a solid squad.

Minnesota 24 Visitors 13
 


Minnesota - 27 Air Force - 20

Go Gophers!!
 

dlw4gophers...wouldn't expect ya any other way!

dlw4gophers said:
With the Gopher's still having many unknown's and not having seen this Air Force team play I will say 38-24 Gophers. AFA will give up a lot of yards through the air. Yes, I am a homer, but it keeps me going.:D
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Hurray for the homers! I'll go with 31-24 Gophers.
 

I would take a stab at trying to predict the score but how does that old saying go, "that's why they play".
 

GopherHomer

I hate to say it but Bayfield and Husker arent negative people. More like realists. If anything Husker is too positive in his predictions over the years. When he picks the gophers to lose it is scary.
One thing though---they both are Pound The Rock advocates and therefore favor the type of offense Air Force runs and could be steered in their direction because of that. I just hope they are steered incorrectly in that direction and are-----wrong *wink*.
 



Mark Twain said/wrote: 'There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.'


'Right about now...funk soul bruva' ...Gophs beat AFA on Sat.
 


D will step up under the lights and energy. The O will do just enough to stay on the field long enough to give the D breathers.

Gophers pull away late as AFA tries to pass as the clock winds down. Nobody's gonna rob our Bank.

Gophers 37 AFA 16
 

Gophers 31 Airforce 14 Our "D" will shine and Brandon Green, Stoudamire, and o' course Decker all come up big!
 



Undue Pessimism and some AFA-Nich. St. stats

It seems to me that too many on this board have jumped quickly to an assumption that based on AFA's performance last week, their style of play, and our own tendency to too easily remember some of our past Gopher defensive breakdowns, that our Gophers have little chance on Saturday. I think this ignores a couple of realities. First, our own game trend last Saturday that resulted in defensive IMPROVEMENT from half to half (!), offensive improvement (especially in the last 20 minutes), and actual facts of Air Force's win over Nicholls State.

Last Saturday, AFA scored 11 times - 10 touchdowns and 1 field goal, missing 1 extra point for a total of 72 points. They totalled 576 yards on offense. They punted 3 times, for a total of 14 offensive drives (actually, one of these was a NSU fumble return for TD). This is an average drive of 41 yards. Including the fumble return, 4 of the scoring drives began in NSU territory, and 2 others began at the AFA 49 yard line. 2 more began at the AFA 36 and 37 yard lines, meaning 8 of the 11 scoring drives were aided immensely by field position advantage.

AFA was 8 of 15 on third downs - a very average number considering the score, but they were 3 of 3 on 4th downs. Again, field position made 4 down conversions attempts possible.

Nicholls St. had 15 possessions, starting outside of its own 30 only twice, and four times ending with fumbles. NSU got into AFA territory only 3 times - turning the ball over on downs at the AFA 36, fumbling at the AFA 49, and missing a late field goal.

So, this wasn't much of a match. AFA clearly is no slouch, and the Gophers have no reason to think they will have an easy time, but I think there is a lot of reason for optimism. Perhaps it's just been too easy for us to expect the worst over these past many years, eh? GO GOPHERS!
 

kirmlabs said:
It seems to me that too many on this board have jumped quickly to an assumption that based on AFA's performance last week, their style of play, and our own tendency to too easily remember some of our past Gopher defensive breakdowns, that our Gophers have little chance on Saturday. I think this ignores a couple of realities. First, our own game trend last Saturday that resulted in defensive IMPROVEMENT from half to half (!), offensive improvement (especially in the last 20 minutes), and actual facts of Air Force's win over Nicholls State.

Last Saturday, AFA scored 11 times - 10 touchdowns and 1 field goal, missing 1 extra point for a total of 72 points. They totalled 576 yards on offense. They punted 3 times, for a total of 14 offensive drives (actually, one of these was a NSU fumble return for TD). This is an average drive of 41 yards. Including the fumble return, 4 of the scoring drives began in NSU territory, and 2 others began at the AFA 49 yard line. 2 more began at the AFA 36 and 37 yard lines, meaning 8 of the 11 scoring drives were aided immensely by field position advantage.

AFA was 8 of 15 on third downs - a very average number considering the score, but they were 3 of 3 on 4th downs. Again, field position made 4 down conversions attempts possible.

Nicholls St. had 15 possessions, starting outside of its own 30 only twice, and four times ending with fumbles. NSU got into AFA territory only 3 times - turning the ball over on downs at the AFA 36, fumbling at the AFA 49, and missing a late field goal.

So, this wasn't much of a match. AFA clearly is no slouch, and the Gophers have no reason to think they will have an easy time, but I think there is a lot of reason for optimism. Perhaps it's just been too easy for us to expect the worst over these past many years, eh? GO GOPHERS!
Click to expand...

For me, it has less to do with Air Force, and more to do with the Gophers. Last week's game was painful to watch, and as others have said, most of the same problems from last year exist. Our defense continues to get better, but our offense is awful. Just awful. Thank God for Eric Decker, because we would've had about 200 yards total offense without him.

I'll be at the game, cheering our Gophers on, as excited for the new stadium as anybody. I'm expecting us to lose, and will be pleasantly surprised if we win.
 

Just like BGSU in 2008

Remeber this...coming off a disappointing win (if there is such a thing) in the opener and playing a trendy pick who is coming off a nice week 1 win. What happened? We housed BGSU, and I'm thinking history repeats itself in 2009. How many predicted the beat down of BGSU last year? We were a 4 pt. dog, so even the experts had it wrong!

GOPHERS 38 AF 17

We look much better on offense against an overmatched D, and force a couple of big turnovers that swing the game our way. Go Gophs!!:clap:
 

In 2001, we destroyed I-AA Murray State 66-10. We finished the season 4-7 that year. I know Air Force won big against a poor I-AA opponent, but you can't take too much from that one way or another.
 


Dear idiots who posted us to lose:

Go away. I don't like you.

We are Vegas favorites and they know more than you do. Quit your crying, whining, and pessimism.

Gophers 27
AFA OVERRATED FOOLS WHO BEAT A HORRIBLE TEAM WITH A GIMMICKY OFFENSE 14
 


It won't be close

The Gophers are bigger and faster than AF. AF will have a very hard time running against our defense - one of the better, if not the best defense, I have seen in 30 years. The O will wear down the AF defense and be totally dominating in the second half.

Gophers 35
Air Force 7

... But it won't be that close. Brew will give a lot of guys playing time and won't want to run up the score on his friend.
 

diefirma said:
The Gophers are bigger and faster than AF.
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For the 8 millionth time, of course they are! Every service academy has size and weight restrictions, so they always have the smallest rosters in D-IA! Posting this over and over again doesn't make it any more right!

By the way, this hasn't stopped Navy and Air Force from beating several quality opponents (many much better than this Gophers team) over the past few seasons. I guarantee Ohio St. is much bigger and faster than Navy, but that didn't stop them from being a 2-pt conversion away from overtime.

We may defeat Air Force, we may lose to Air Force, but it will have absolutely nothing to do with size and speed.
 

The best way to beat the Gophers: Make safeties Kim Royston and Kyle Theret cover someone. Air Force doesn't present a challenge in that department. The Gophers have their best set of LBs in some time. Campbell, Lawrence, Triplett, & Cooper play well as the Gophers win 24-17. That prediction based on Brewster's words that Stommes, Sherels, and Bennett are expected to play...In my mind, there's a noticeable drop-off from Stommes to Alford.
 

Doogie said:
The best way to beat the Gophers: Make safeties Kim Royston and Kyle Theret cover someone. Air Force doesn't present a challenge in that department. The Gophers have their best set of LBs in some time. Campbell, Lawrence, Triplett, & Cooper play well as the Gophers win 24-17. That prediction based on Brewster's words that Stommes, Sherels, and Bennett are expected to play...In my mind, there's a noticeable drop-off from Stommes to Alford.
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IMO there is a noticeable drop-off from Bennett to Eskridge too.
 

We have an awesome line and linebackers. All they can do is run.

This won't even be close.
 

Husker Don't

The best part about this game is that we can load up against the run, which plays more to our strength on D. They only passed 7 times last week, if I'm remembering right.

On the defensive side, we shouldn't see the tentativeness or disarray that at times we saw in the first half against the 'Cuse. We should have a better game plan (wink wink - Cosgrove) because we know what is coming.

I'm seeing a tough early struggle until we entirely overmatch AFA and take them out back to the woodshed and give them a lesson they so richly deserve!
 

The line at -3 is STUPID. We are going to do straight work on them.

It's my 2nd largest bet of the weekend, and I don't put my hard earned cash on the Gophers just because I'm a homer.

Biggest bet is USC -6.5 (bought a half a point)
 

gophertree said:
Remeber this...coming off a disappointing win (if there is such a thing) in the opener and playing a trendy pick who is coming off a nice week 1 win. What happened? We housed BGSU, and I'm thinking history repeats itself in 2009. How many predicted the beat down of BGSU last year? We were a 4 pt. dog, so even the experts had it wrong!

GOPHERS 38 AF 17

We look much better on offense against an overmatched D, and force a couple of big turnovers that swing the game our way. Go Gophs!!:clap:
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I keep thinking regarding this game. Everyone is gouging at their wrists and reaching for the big bottle of sleeping pills because the Gophers didn't steamroll Syracuse last week. Bowling Green came on the road right after a stinky performance for an unimpressive win the game before. I will continue to say that I wouldn't be surprised if the Gophers lose to a very good Air Force team but my official prediction is very close to gophertree's. I do think they will surprise everyone and have a much easier time with AF than is widely predicted.

Air Force will say the right things but looking at film they won't come up with much to 'fix' in their game for this week. Meanwhile the Gophers have a lot of things to fix and they just might do it.
 

Look, its week two, and I don't know how this match-up is going to play out, really.

I do know these things:

1) The biggest improvement a team makes is almost always between weeks 1 and 2

2) The AFA is not phased by size and speed differentials. They have no concern for it.
They get it every single week- expect when they play Army and Navy. They are
trained to defeat larger and faster opponents.

3) the key for the Gophers is to stay disciplined and keep to their assignments on
defense. I cannot overstate that enough, and I know Coach is doing that also. If
they become undisciplined, AF will move the ball and control the clock.
 

dpodoll68 said:
For the 8 millionth time, of course they are! Every service academy has size and weight restrictions, so they always have the smallest rosters in D-IA! Posting this over and over again doesn't make it any more right!
Click to expand...

First you say that it's true that we are bigger and faster than AF, then you say it isn't right. Which is it?

Would you rather be bigger and faster or smaller and slower? Being bigger and faster of course doesn't guarantee victory. Size and speed are not the only factor, but it is a factor.
 

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