YOU'VE SEEN GAME #1...HAVE YOUR OPINIONS CHANGED FOR THE SEASON?

[BreakTheGopherCurse]

After watching the game last night, have your opinions changed on how the Gophers will fare this year? Personally, I think 5 or 6 wins is the best they can do. I wouldn't be surprised if they only win 4 games. I expected the team to look better. Assuming he can pass, I think Streveler provides a look that's more difficult to defend and an offense that could be less predictable. I wonder when his time will come. The defense seems a little soft/slow and like they will give up a lot of yards this season both by ground and by air. What do you guys think?

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

We are 1-0, right where I thought we would be. Last year's 8 win total is still the bar for me. We looked a little weak on offense at times, but I seemed to remember some early rough stretches last year too. It was a little unusual to see such a lopsided score in our favor when we got outgained by the other team.

 

[Go4]

 

[BarnBoy]

It's never as bad as it seems. It's never as good as it seems. It was 35-0 when most of the starters came out thanks to some good execution and some bonehead plays by EIU.

My opinion hasn't changed. News about the D-Tackles not helping my mood though.

 

[MinneStoa]

"Assuming [Steveler] can pass" is a pretty massive assumption given everything we have heard about him leading up to the season. I don't see any reason to believe he could be better for us than Leidner, except that he's the backup so he can do absolutely no wrong.

 

[El Amin Fan]

I don't think we'll know much about this team until the TCU game. Between now and then, stay healthy, get next weeks W and then we'll know where we are after that.

 

[1983]

After watching the game last night, have your opinions changed on how the Gophers will fare this year? Personally, I think 5 or 6 wins is the best they can do. I wouldn't be surprised if they only win 4 games. I expected the team to look better. Assuming he can pass, I think Streveler provides a look that's more difficult to defend and an offense that could be less predictable. I wonder when his time will come. The defense seems a little soft/slow and like they will give up a lot of yards this season both by ground and by air. What do you guys think?

Cleays said after the game that they had no idea what they were going to do which means they watched no film nor practiced specifically for this opponent. Eastern Illinois played like it was do or die. Our play was fine and there is no reason to base the remainder of the season on this game. Next week will be the start of preparing specifically so I believe you will see something to change your mind.

 

[Indi1006]

Our staff feels it necessary to go ultra vanilla in the pre-season games they are pretty sure they can win doing same. So, we all think that they kinda suck because they're not showing much. If they had the full O package in we would have likely looked much better with Cobb getting more carries, Williams catching more balls, etc, etc. I don't like this strategy because it makes the games a little bit crappy to watch, but probably even more so because I think it would be better for our squad to unleash more of the playbook during these games so that it's honed better when the tougher games come up. They are not going to change so it is what it is, but really we can't make many predictions based upon what we see right now. The DL injuries are going to hurt. The freshmen have potential but it's tough to rely upon them in the B1G. Leidner remains and will be the biggest question mark until we see whether he can timely and accurately deliver the ball while standing with poise in the pocket.

 

[Godotguy]

Game # 1 looked like game #1. My opinion hasn't changed. The demonstrated speed and hitting by the defense leads me still believing in a ten win season. I will continue to believe this until we have four losses.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Game # 2 is always a better measuring stick. Coaches can coach this week based on film.

 

[Winnipegopher]

I think it is safe t say they only ran their real O when Streveler was in at the end.

D looks very good, perhaps great, special teams looks very good, even great and O looks very mediocre but may have some playmakers (Cobb, Jones, Williams).

I was unimpressed for much of the game but I kept noticing how they slowly expanded their lead. Basically that was a 35-7 game which is a score I am fine with.

 

[beatles]

After watching the game last night, have your opinions changed on how the Gophers will fare this year? Personally, I think 5 or 6 wins is the best they can do. I wouldn't be surprised if they only win 4 games. I expected the team to look better. Assuming he can pass, I think Streveler provides a look that's more difficult to defend and an offense that could be less predictable. I wonder when his time will come. The defense seems a little soft/slow and like they will give up a lot of yards this season both by ground and by air. What do you guys think?

You need to step off the ledge. The first game is always ugly, it's why the NFL has pre-season games. My opinion after last night hasn't changed a bit. We will be better this year than last.

 

[Sparlimb]

You need to step off the ledge. The first game is always ugly, it's why the NFL has pre-season games. My opinion after last night hasn't changed a bit. We will be better this year than last.

Told my wife the same thing. College teams don't get preseason and we had no tape on a new coaching staff. Their first offensive drive was understandable and the fact we were up 35-0 with like 8 minutes left should tell us something. We didn't play great, but won easily. That's a good thing. We lost these games under the previous regime. Leidner will likely never look like he belongs running the offense at Texas A&M. That doesn't mean he can't win here. I think we'll be fine.

 

[jaymil]

Hasn't changed much, although the defensive line depth is concerning. We'll be fine against spread teams but I fear teams like Wisconsin and Iowa will be able to run it well against us.

 

[cncmin]

The team looked basically the same as last season. Made some big plays on D and special teams, but just like last OOC season, won rather ugly, with the opponent able to move the ball, the offense unable to move the ball, etc.

Reminded me a lot of last year's opener - fairly unimpressive. But, then the Gophers had a few surprising wins and had a pretty decent 2013 - in spite of the offense. I was hopeful for more. Perhaps Berkley Edwards can add a big-play spark. The O-line didn't get dominated like they did in last year's opener; though they weren't exactly owning the LOS, either. Nothing else I saw made me think the team is better than 2013, though the team doesn't appear to be any worse, either; and if that's OK with the fanbase, so be it. Will have to do more to make this year special, however.

 

[Gopher07]

We're exactly as I expected, which IMO means we probably win 6-7 games given our schedule (I predicted 7 before last night). It was really vanilla so tough to say overall though.

 

[Oregon Gopher]

After watching the game last night, have your opinions changed on how the Gophers will fare this year? Personally, I think 5 or 6 wins is the best they can do. I wouldn't be surprised if they only win 4 games. I expected the team to look better. Assuming he can pass, I think Streveler provides a look that's more difficult to defend and an offense that could be less predictable. I wonder when his time will come. The defense seems a little soft/slow and like they will give up a lot of yards this season both by ground and by air. What do you guys think?

As GopherJay said the defense had no idea what kind of scheme the new staff at EIU was going to employ so not unexpectedly they gave up a few yards on EIUs first possession. They only gave up 80 yards the rest of the first half. Not sure how you and at least one other poster come up with slow and soft as descriptions for the D. EIUs yards were mainly from poor backside containment on option plays or QB scrambles. The DBs were fast and for the most part blanketed their assignments when they were in man/press coverage.

 

[CoMn]

We are better...Berkley got the ball 4 times and scored twice. Tell me that isn't good news. Maxx is back. Jones is better than last year. Streveler looked better than expected and is clearly capable of running and handing off the ball. Cobb was good. Leidner passed for 144 yards. He had to adjust to not running because we don't have a worthy replacement at this time. He'll adjust and do fine. That's just the offense. The defense had a shutout 7/8 through the game against a team that AVERAGED 48 points last year. The only points were scored against a team of backups. They had two fumble recoveries and an interception. What can one say about the special teams? Our kicking game is awesome. Sanatoso is going to keep some of those speedy guys in the B1G pinned in on the 25 yard line....no kick returns this year. We had a blocked kick to boot. We didn't make stupid mistakes. I counted 3 penalties....two that cost us however...(I think both were made by RS freshmen though..they'll learn, first game and all). We have so much discipline that instead of retaliating after getting punched below the belt, we get the opponent ejected and go on to score a touchdown. We are going to be even better this year....I'm thinking 8 wins....

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Defensive line injuries have me questioning how we'll hang with big ten opponents. My hopes may have been dashed a little bit only because of injuries.

 

[BJN]

The team looked much worse against Western Illinois last year and still spun out eight wins. I'm not worried at all, yet.

 

[BreakTheGopherCurse]

i just thought that EIU could move the ball at will against us when they weren't snapping the ball past the quarterback, fumbling or throwing terrible passes. Adam Drake was open consistently as were other receivers and their backs ran by us on the outside fairly easily. Had EIU not self-imploded...... I know it's just the first game, but a good Big Ten QB and team would've killed us last night. Wisconsin would've beat us by 4 touchdowns in my opinion had we played our first game against them. We're all entitled to our opinions and my eyes were telling me that we're not that good.

 

[t-docious]

rust. pure rust. We will definitely improve throughout the season. I still think we win 8 games somehow.

 

[GopherHomer]

i just thought that EIU could move the ball at will against us when they weren't snapping the ball past the quarterback, fumbling or throwing terrible passes. Adam Drake was open consistently as were other receivers and their backs ran by us on the outside fairly easily. Had EIU not self-imploded...... I know it's just the first game, but a good Big Ten QB and team would've killed us last night. Wisconsin would've beat us by 4 touchdowns in my opinion had we played our first game against them. We're all entitled to our opinions and my eyes were telling me that we're not that good.

So, they could move the ball at will against except when they couldn't?? They shot themselves in the foot in what looked to be a very impressive first drive, but for the vast majority of the time that our first string D was in there, we were dominant. Adam Drake got open at times, but he's a pretty dynamic receiver. Also, I don't think we should be ashamed about that offense getting some yards against us...their QB started in the SEC last year and put up numbers that look pretty similar to the stats of our own QBs. My expectations before the game were 5-7 wins - they still are. Anyone who expects the Gophers to win 8+ games in any given year, hasn't been around very long.

 

[oleboy41]

I'm a little down based on our quickly diminishing DL depth (including losing Ekpe) meaning we're going to be playing a lot of true frosh a lot of minutes which will be an issue against B1G teams

 

[Dr.Don]

I do not divulge my opinions of the season in any way, shape, or form. Past performance is NO indication of future performance, because we are dealing with human beings, not robots.

In fact, I have a tendency to go at things one game at a time.

I had to look up the Gopher schedule to find out whom we play next in order to start the Predict the Score vs Middle TN State.

One game at a time is reminiscent of the song One Day At. A Time.

 

[Okie]

Well I see it didn't take long for the backup QB to become the fan favorite again...

Give Mitch a little more time. He had some pretty decent games last year, I'm not going to totally write him off yet. He should work on that spiral though...

 

[The Goofy Gopher]

I generally agree that I don't think too much can be taken from this game, other than we didn't look super crisp offensively, yet still put up 42 points. As previous people have said, these are games we lost with the previous regime (and even during Kill's first year). I think a potential contributor to our mediocre offense was the fact that our starting LT and WR didn't play. That shifted Campion to LT and brought in Pirsig (who many have stated didn't play super great...although it was just his first start). And I don't remember Maye doing anything...so it will be interesting to see what happens when those two return.

 

[monk10]

The only thing that has changed for me is that I hope we don't see A&M the first round of the playoffs.

 

[Dr.Don]

The only thing that has changed for me is that I hope we don't see A&M the first round of the playoffs.

I disagree, monk. I think a pissing contest with our friend Texas Aggie would be a thing of beauty. In fact, as Supervisor of Officials of pissing contests, I have already assigned myself to that game.

GO GOPHERS!!!

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

i just thought that EIU could move the ball at will against us when they weren't snapping the ball past the quarterback, fumbling or throwing terrible passes. Adam Drake was open consistently as were other receivers and their backs ran by us on the outside fairly easily. Had EIU not self-imploded...... I know it's just the first game, but a good Big Ten QB and team would've killed us last night. Wisconsin would've beat us by 4 touchdowns in my opinion had we played our first game against them. We're all entitled to our opinions and my eyes were telling me that we're not that good.

Aside from POSSIBLY Devin Gardner, I don't know that the Gophers play a good Big Ten QB this year. They are all average or unknown.