Who, When, Where, What, and How can the Gophers figure out how to beat Wis.

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Studwell55 said:
We are weak up front on defense. There's no two ways about it.

We'll need to win turnovers, special teams, penalties, and time of possession.

We'll also need some luck.
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Timely turnovers can make any game winnable. Not Wisconsin's MO, but it will be ultra important. And it likely won't be interceptions, so solid tackling and stripping will be needed.
 

game will come down to the Gophers front 7. Either they get run over, and Wisky runs for 300+ and wins handily, or our Front 7 has their game of the year, and the game becomes very winnable for the Gophers
 

Sparlimb said:
Timely turnovers can make any game winnable. Not Wisconsin's MO, but it will be ultra important. And it likely won't be interceptions, so solid tackling and stripping will be needed.
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why no picks? stave has thrown 8 this year and that's even with their run game dominating people
 

Dream scenario? Out 'Wisconsin' Wisconsin. Win every snap at the LOS and pound the rock on offense. Win every snap at the LOS and get our front 7 to have great movement to the ball on defense.

Most likely scenario? Make Stave beat us. Saw someone post on Twitter, which is funny but also accurate: Force Stave in a 'kneel the ball' situation, he's not very good at it. But in all seriousness, sell out to the run and hope our DBs can survive being on an island vs. Abberderis and those WI TEs. On offense, we need to mix it up and force the front 7 of Wisconsin to be out of position (shifts/motions) and need an accurate passer with our receivers/pass catchers having sticky fingers. We could stay in the game if our guys does the above. To win, we'll need to win the turnover battle (and put points on the board off turnovers).

I'm still scared about this game. But I watched the BYUvWisconsin game on BTN football in 60 minutes and BYU runs a fairly similar offense to ours and they seemed to have moderate success. More so in the air, though. Their QB fires a nice ball (on a line, perfect spiral) unlike either Nelson or Leidner. That said, I think we have bigger and better OLine than BYU, so it may be a wash.

That said, I'm not AS scared of Wisconsin as I was prior to seeing their game from this last Saturday.. but we'll need a lot of help/luck/perfect execution to pull this game out.

I'm just happy we won 3 games more than I was expecting. And I'll be somewhat happy (as one can be) with a loss vs. Wisconsin as long as we are competitive throughout the game.
 

upnorthkid said:
why no picks? stave has thrown 8 this year and that's even with their run game dominating people
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Well we have to make them throw. Let them run all day and they won't. I just hope our linebackers play well...
 


Having seen both teams play, I think the interesting matchup is Wisconsin D against Minnesota O. Good discipline, sound tackling and crowd inspired pass rush will be enough to slow but not entirely stop the Wisconsin O but the Gophers will need to score. Watching from up high Saturday in CR, it really looks like it is hard for the O to figure out who to block with Wisconsin's 3-4 and Aranda's sending /dropping people from all over the field. Of course Borland is a big part of it. I'm admittedly not a football guy and I'm sure there are strategies for dealing with a 3-4, but to me that is the interesting matchup.

Also noteworthy is that Kyle French has lost his kicking job.
 

I just don't see it. . .Wisconsin just has too much talent. I'm hoping we can avoid an Iowa-like embarrassment.
 

Unregistered User said:
They just have to know that they can.

Dominate your assignment, and the rest will take care of itself. Trust your teammates.
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THIS.

Kill has always preached "want to". If we have it against these guys, and I know we will after what we've
achieved, we can. Have to play tight, eliminate penalties, eliminate mistakes, keep riding high, dominate
each position. I think the key to winning, comes down to, get a GOOD pass rush on Stave, having them
limit their passes so we can bring up our Safeties to help our mediocre line backing corps to stop White,
Gordon and Clement. Don't let Pedersen beat you and win the special teams game.

We also gotta keep what were doing on offense, mix it up, shift around, keep them on their heals and by the 4th
quarter, we should have them tired and be able to run the ball on them at will. They have a good defense, not GREAT
like some 'experts' think, if we can catch Boreland out of position, she should be plenty efficient.
 

Also, I wouldn't hate if we mixed in someone like Alex Keith or Hank Ekpe playing a spy Mike back, to help
stuff the run. Kind of like how the Vikes have used Everson Griffen.
 



Gopher028 said:
Also, I wouldn't hate if we mixed in someone like Alex Keith or Hank Ekpe playing a spy Mike back, to help
stuff the run. Kind of like how the Vikes have used Everson Griffen.
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I think it will be more likely that you'll see a CB or LB move closer to the line, at the edge, when Gordon is in motion for the jet sweep. But Claeys and the rest of the staff have forgotten more about game planning than my accumulated football knowledge, obviously.

I'll say it again...I trust this staff to make the right game plan, and adjustments.
 

Firejumper said:
I think a victory all comes down to gap control. Our d-line and linebackers need to be disciplined in their gaps and I worry our DEs are undersized a bit. If you watched them play Iowa, the hawkeyes had success when their defense was able to stay in their gaps.
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The linemen are going to have to engage blockers, and the linebackers are going to have to play off blocks. If the Skunks' linemen are able to block a Gopher lineman and then move to the next level, we're in trouble. That's what I saw several times in the limited minutes I watched the BYU game.
 

Unregistered User said:
I'll say it again...I trust this staff to make the right game plan, and adjustments.
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+1 This is where the extra week will really pay off. That, and the fact it allows guys to heal. Getting greedy, but I can't remember the last time I wanted a win more.
 

Bad Gopher said:
The linemen are going to have to engage blockers, and the linebackers are going to have to play off blocks. If the Skunks' linemen are able to block a Gopher lineman and then move to the next level, we're in trouble. That's what I saw several times in the limited minutes I watched the BYU game.
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Can the front 7 all eat a bunch, put on 15 lbs, and stay quick before this game? Did you guys notice on Penn State's TD drive, when they marched down the field with big runs by the Ziweks Lumber kid, Gophers were playing the Ekpe brothers and Harold Legania I believe. Kill & coaches have been trying to rotate guys in all year up front, but in these next two games, I think RoJo and Hageman are going to have to play as many series as possible.
 



That is the key to this game. We've struggled against the run, and Wisconsin runs the ball better than anybody. This might have a Tyrone Carter against Ron Dayne sort of feel. I think we'll need a generous helping of turnovers to stick around in this one. I sure hope we get them.
 

nokomismod said:
Can the front 7 all eat a bunch, put on 15 lbs, and stay quick before this game? Did you guys notice on Penn State's TD drive, when they marched down the field with big runs by the Ziweks Lumber kid, Gophers were playing the Ekpe brothers and Harold Legania I believe. Kill & coaches have been trying to rotate guys in all year up front, but in these next two games, I think RoJo and Hageman are going to have to play as many series as possible.
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This. That drive, you're right, me and the guy who usually sits in front of me were wondering 'where is hageman and RoJo?'. We saw Legania (hardly seen him all year) and the ekpe bro;s. Then, I believe they finally brought Hageman in on that drive when PSU got inside the 5. On that note, Bottechili (sp?) wasn't in a lot either. I think we will need A LOT of Hageman and Bottechili (sp?) a week from Saturday against the skunks with D-line rotations in the proper cirumstances.
 

e.bigelow said:
This. That drive, you're right, me and the guy who usually sits in front of me were wondering 'where is hageman and RoJo?'. We saw Legania (hardly seen him all year) and the ekpe bro;s. Then, I believe they finally brought Hageman in on that drive when PSU got inside the 5. On that note, Bottechili (sp?) wasn't in a lot either. I think we will need A LOT of Hageman and Bottechili (sp?) a week from Saturday against the skunks with D-line rotations in the proper cirumstances.
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Get your Bottechili HOT!
 


e.bigelow said:
HAHAHA! Well done, UU! :clap: :)
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That was fantastic by UU. Also, on the subject of keeping Hageman and Bottichelli in, we really need to have our offense sustain some drives to keep them fresh. We really cannot afford very many three and outs, we need to find a way to move the ball just about every time we get it.
 

I just watched Wisky pretty much have their way with BYU. It will take an epic effort from the Gophers and turnovers by the Badgers to get a W. Like I posted earlier, the Badgers will get their yards as they have great runners, an effective OL and Peterson and Abbederus are the best WR/TE combo in the BIG.. My hope is to hold them to FG's and toughen up when they are in the Red Zone.

Nelson and the passing game has to click and the O has to be ready to make adjustments with Becky's D front.
 

On paper, we lose this game 95 out of a 100 times played. And we lose by 3 TDs or more probably 50% of the time. This is David versus a Goliath Becky Skunk Breath. They are very good at what we are not great at and they are very good at stopping what we need to do to win...bad match up, better talent, more mature, you name it.

We can't win this game without a lot of help. Lets hope Becky is thinking ahead and takes a crap against us...it happens all the time and we need it to happen in 11 days!
 

This is a magical season, something is in the air. This is beyond match ups. The stars are aligning. We were predicted to be 0-8 in the Big Ten. Sometimes things cannot be explained. In 1977 no one thought we would ever beat #1 Michigan 16-0.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

maroonfive said:
This is a magical season, something is in the air. This is beyond match ups. The stars are aligning. We were predicted to be 0-8 in the Big Ten. Sometimes things cannot be explained. In 1977 no one thought we would ever beat #1 Michigan 16-0.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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+1000
 

The Badger OL averages 6'5" 320 lbs. It is hard to imagine the Gopher DEs not getting blown off the line by these monsters. With the best RB in the B1G in Gordon running behind that line the Gophers will have to play beyond their abilities to compete.
 

It's probably going to take ~35 points to win this game, even if the defense plays well. Ideally, the Gophers strike early through the air and can use the run game more as the game goes on. Defensively, the Gophers have got to do a representative job against the run and play excellent third down defense. Bayfield has it right in that holding Wisconsin to fg's in the red zone is probably the most realistic way to keep the Badgers score down. I agree with all of those who say this is a bad match up for the Gophers, but it's also a rivalry game at home and the team has a ton of momentum. We're long overdue for an upset in this rivalry (Badgers have won a few games as underdogs against our Gophers in recent memory), so hopefully the stars align. This would be a great game for a Big 'Shede blocked fg followed by a Jalen Myrick #ScoopandScore
 

The coaches are great and I trust that they can put together a game plan that works against WI, but the Gophers just don't have the talent up front yet. Hageman is our only real player on the DL. The DE are a small, athletic bunch that will get run over by WI's o-line. There's no depth at DT and our LB (outside of Wilson) are not physical enough. The D coaches will have to roll the dice quite a bit with run blitzes and stunts, and they may blow up a play here or there, but i still see us giving up huge chunks of yardage in the run game, and the play action game will likely hit us for a few big plays.
 

tpbeight said:
The coaches are great and I trust that they can put together a game plan that works against WI, but the Gophers just don't have the talent up front yet. Hageman is our only real player on the DL. The DE are a small, athletic bunch that will get run over by WI's o-line. There's no depth at DT and our LB (outside of Wilson) are not physical enough. The D coaches will have to roll the dice quite a bit with run blitzes and stunts, and they may blow up a play here or there, but i still see us giving up huge chunks of yardage in the run game, and the play action game will likely hit us for a few big plays.
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All good points here. Yes, our defense has struggled stopping the run. But they have been pretty good at limiting the points our opponents have been putting on the board over the last 4 games (aside from the IU shootout). The defense has stepped up when they needed to and kept points off the board. Even against Iowa we were getting shredded by their run game, but it took forever for them to initially score and pull away. I don't care how many yards we give up if the D can find a way to dig in and stop drives. Iowa proved it can be done against the Badgers - perhaps we can use that to build a game plan and limit Gordon and White. Stave has been shaky, their kicking game has been absent.

If we can do that, and keep our offense clicking, we have a shot. If somehow we end up with a lead, we can't afford to have the offense stall like last week. We will need to keep scoring. I certainly will be on edge the entire game.
 

The thing that has puzzled me about some of the Gopher opponenets during this win streak is their reluctance to stick with the run when it has worked so well. Despite moving the ball fairly easily on the ground, most teams have insisted on a balanced attack and their passing games have stalled their drives. I don't think WI will have any problem calling the run over and over if we prove we can't stop it. To me, that's what makes this game different and much, much harder to win.

Let's also look at how "the Gopher defense" has limited scoring the past few weeks. The key stops have come through opponent error. The fumble on the goal line last weak against PSU and the backwards pass by Indiana. Do we credit the D for those? The didn't CAUSE the fumble or the lateral. They did benefit, however. I'm just not counting on WI to make those same mistakes. They'd have to in order for the Gophers to win.
 

RochesterGopher said:
I think the D ends have to play big. Iowa ran right at the D ends and stayed away from the middle on their big runs. Hopefully coaching staff can figure something out before this game because that's what I was concerned walking away from that Iowa game. That we were still just too small to stand up to a big time O line. Maybe Im crazy but I see Iowa and Wisconsin as similar teams when it comes to the offence side of the ball. Which scares me. That being said this squad has proven me wrong against, Neb, NW, ect... Either way enjoying this run and cant wait for the Skunks to come to town. The build up and pregame for this game will be the biggest in years!!! This is what college FB is all about glad its back around town!!!

Go Gophers!!!!
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What about playing two of the DTs at end for this game (Hageman and take your pic)? If the Gophers put RoJo and Botticelli in at DT, Hageman, and maybe an Ekpe at DE, it gives a little size up front. I'm sure there are many reasons why this is a bad idea though but it's fun to speculate on.
 

nokomismod said:
What about playing two of the DTs at end for this game (Hageman and take your pic)? If the Gophers put RoJo and Botticelli in at DT, Hageman, and maybe an Ekpe at DE, it gives a little size up front. I'm sure there are many reasons why this is a bad idea though but it's fun to speculate on.
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It makes some sense but then you're a little more vulnerable to giving up on sweeps (outside of off-tackle) unless our DTs playing DE can get deep into the backfield fast. Also it potentially hampers the pass rush a bit but I like the outside the box thinking and I likely know less than you!
 

I know the Coaches won't do this ----- but I'd love to see it:

1st snap of game for WI, have Wilson come across the line a count early and just drill Stave. Then get up, say "sorry," and trot back to the Gopher's huddle with a big bleep-eating grin on his face.........
 

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