I'm disgusted even after two cups of coffee

[Bayfieldgopher]

I won't call Brewster a hypocrite just yet, but maybe I will later on.

The credo "was" Pound The Rock! Yet we had a run to pass ratio of 32:42 or 43% to 57%. Even Dunbar and his wussy version of the Spread ran the ball 49% of the time last year. Yet Brewster bally-hoed how we will establish the run this year. Hogwash.

Husker is correct. Take down the sign at Nagurski and put up Pass the Ball instead. The run to pass ratio was 2:11 the last drive when the chips were down. We were a passing team without a doubt no matter what has been proclaimed and what will be said today. Top BT teams can Pound the Rock.

I know, I know. Settle down Bayfield. We won, thanks to a dumb rookie play by Paulus, dropped passes by his receivers and a defense that rose to the occassion. Its only 1/12 of the season. You have posted many times here that the OL will be the main issue this Fall.

That's true. Its also true that we will need to rely on a decent D, with a doubly difficult task to defend a team that relies on the pass, to win games as it appears Fisch is a passing fool. That is if the D can stay healthy, make big plays and find some depth as we will need it.

Maybe after my third cup of coffee I will settle down a bit.;)

[ust4life]

maybe we should get an rb to carry the load the before you complain? who do you want is to give the ball to? bennett was decent, but eskridge can't do it at a b10 level. seriously, a win is a win, quit your bitching!

[gopherjay]

balance is more important. When you need three yards, you better be able to do it. can we do that at this point?

[gold04]

I have to agree with life. I know some of the problem is the O-line but our running backs are a big problem too. Bennet gets hurt all the time. Eskridge is not a Big Ten running back. For some reason people think Eskridge will gain 1500 yards if our O-line is good. The fact of reality is if Bennet is hurt and Whaley is not the prospect people think he is, our best chance to win is passing the ball. I do not think this team has the running backs to pound the rock. If we had Barber and Maroney I'd say pound the rock, but our running backs are not even close to that caliber.

[GophersInIowa]

We were pretty balanced after 3 quarters but had to pass a little more in the 4th because we were losing. We also had a lot of 3rd and longs, that usually results in more passing.

[gold04]

I thought they could have run Bennet more but the frustrating thing is Bennet is injury prone!

[GopherHomer]

"Pound the rock" is just a slogan...lay off Brewster. In the midst of the game you have to play to what the defense gives you...maybe if Weber had played a little better we would have seen that Syracuse was leaving a lot open down the field by stacking against the run. We WON the game. This site becomes increasingly more vitriolic and unreadable every year after the season begins. Let's enjoy that we're 1-0 and hopefully we accomplished that by playing a very sluggish and sub-par game...because, I admit, if that's the best we can do we won't have very many more celebrations this year. And, who knows, maybe Syracuse will be a surprise team this and part of our looking very mediocre was the fact that they played really well. Their defense looked fast and they have a lot of athletes on offense. Paulus looked just OK, but outside of that first snap, I thought they played fairly solid, mistake free football.

[MaxyJR1]

We were losing in the 4th quarter and had to move the ball down the field quickly. We had a player rush for 90 yards in his first game back. We were on the road in a BCS stadium. I know Syracuse has stunk, but they had a new coach and played with a lot of emotion. We were able to over come it.

I'm concerned with Weber's 19/42 more than the running game right now. 19/42 doesn't help our running game at all.

[DarrenTheGreek]

Regarding the balance, keep in mind that we had a TON of offensive penalties. How many times did the false starts and holding calls mean that we had to pass the ball?

[thailleagle]

Please put Gray in...PLEASE.......

[FreakyDeke]

The run to pass ratio was 2:11 the last drive when the chips were down.

We were behind and the clock was running. Of course you'll pass more in that situation.

[Calgoph]

When Minnesota pounded the rock we had running backs with NFL potential. I don't see any on this team. Thirty-two rushing attempts is a legitimate attempt to run the ball IMO. On the other hand, we have a receiver with NFL potential who makes explosive plays and made some yesterday.

We have what is apparently called an NFL offense so I don't think it will be all that unusual to establish the pass first and then run the ball to close out the win. That's exactly what the San Francisco 49er's did in the Bill Walsh heyday. Under any circumstance, we're going to end up passing in the 4th quarter if we are behind. I just hope Weber's accuracy improves or it will be a long season.

[The 12th Man]

When Minnesota pounded the rock we had running backs with NFL potential. I don't see any on this team. Thirty-two rushing attempts is a legitimate attempt to run the ball IMO. On the other hand, we have a receiver with NFL potential who makes explosive plays and made some yesterday.

We have what is apparently called an NFL offense so I don't think it will be all that unusual to establish the pass first and then run the ball to close out the win. That's exactly what the San Francisco 49er's did in the Bill Walsh heyday. Under any circumstance, we're going to end up passing in the 4th quarter if we are behind. I just hope Weber's accuracy improves or it will be a long season.

Finally! Someone who understands football rather than just thinking running the ball blindly is a sign of manhood/good football! We won the game and made the last drive because we passed the ball after not being able to do much on the ground. It is that simple.

[bigtenchamps1899]

how come whaley only got one rush? i really think that bennett is our best back, but whaley has the potential to be a game breaker. give him 8-10 touches a game, at least.


maybe his turf toe was acting up.

[thailleagle]

how come whaley only got one rush? i really think that bennett is our best back, but whaley has the potential to be a game breaker. give him 8-10 touches a game, at least.


maybe his turf toe was acting up.

Maybe it was a bad play but he did look kinda slow on that run so maybe he's not 100% yet.......

[thailleagle]

Finally! Someone who understands football rather than just thinking running the ball blindly is a sign of manhood/good football! We won the game and made the last drive because we passed the ball after not being able to do much on the ground. It is that simple.

A good O-Line would help more then an NFL Caliber RB.......

[gold04]

I thought I heard they are being cautious with Whaley on his injury. He has turf toe and that's an injury if your not careful could plague you all season. I think he's better but they do not want to bring him back too soon.

[Bayfieldgopher]

Finally! Someone who understands football rather than just thinking running the ball blindly is a sign of manhood/good football! We won the game and made the last drive because we passed the ball after not being able to do much on the ground. It is that simple.

Sorry 12th Man but running the ball in the BT well is more than a sign of manhood/good football. Its what the best teams in the BT do. Along with playing good D and holding teams to 15ppg plus or minus a point or two. OSU ran the ball 72% of the time in BT games, PSU 58% and Iowa 62% and were in the top three with points allowed per game.

Until we can effectively run the ball and play solid D, we will be a mid-pack BT team at best. That is understanding how good BT football teams play.

[Sour1729]

Sorry 12th Man but running the ball in the BT well is more than a sign of manhood/good football. Its what the best teams in the BT do. Along with playing good D and holding teams to 15ppg plus or minus a point or two. OSU ran the ball 72% of the time in BT games, PSU 58% and Iowa 62% and were in the top three with points allowed per game.

Until we can effectively run the ball and play solid D, we will be a mid-pack BT team at best. That is understanding how good BT football teams play.

tOSU last year = Beanie Wells
Iowa last year = Shonn Greene
PSU last year = Evan Royster
Minnesota last year = DeLeon Esk(e?)ridge

Which one stands out? I wonder why those other teams ran the ball so much?

[borninthebarn]

Until we can effectively run the ball and play solid D, we will be a mid-pack BT team at best. That is understanding how good BT football teams play.

Though to play devil's advocate, Purdue did pretty darn well playing "Basketball on Grass". We don't have an identity right now, but there is no hard and fast rule that the only way you can win in the B10 is to run 60%+ of the time. It has been done otherwise.

Yes, the consistent powers run a lot. But I'd be happy to start out with one Big Ten Title, which has been done with pass-happy offenses.

[cduff]

Some good points made in this thread.

I am satisfied with yesterday's commitment to the run. Even though there was very little success rushing the football (seemed like 50% of our yardage came on about 5 runs), the coaches stuck with it and we finished the game with 32 attempts. Like Darren said, the penalties hurt. I believe we had 6 that were either line or formation related. That put in a whole, and in many time made the running game more difficult.

Like GophersInIowa said, our balance was there at one point, but got skewed towards the end because we were in desperation mode trying to catch up. On our last drive we had about 11 passes and 2 rushes. So up to that point we'd had 31 passes and 30 rushes. That sounds like pretty good balance to me.

[thailleagle]

tOSU last year = Beanie Wells
Iowa last year = Shonn Greene
PSU last year = Evan Royster
Minnesota last year = DeLeon Esk(e?)ridge

Which one stands out? I wonder why those other teams ran the ball so much?

Now name one of those teams that had an O-Line worse then ours.......

Don't worry I'll wait....... :rolleyes:

Football 101

[Sour1729]

Now name one of those teams that had an O-Line worse then ours.......

Don't worry I'll wait....... :rolleyes:

Football 101

Apparently reading comprehension isn't your strong suit. In Bayfield's post, he correlated the top 3 teams in the Big Ten last year with the percentage they ran the ball. The obvious conclusion was that to BECOME one of those top 3 teams, we had to run the ball at a similar rate. My post was to show that there is a reason they ran the ball so often, and the biggest was that they each had a marquee back.

The O-line, an obvious contributor to running success, was not mentioned in the original post nor was it addressed in mine. So frankly I have no clue why you are even discussing it or "rolling your eyes."

[thailleagle]

Apparently reading comprehension isn't your strong suit. In Bayfield's post, he correlated the top 3 teams in the Big Ten last year with the percentage they ran the ball. The obvious conclusion was that to BECOME one of those top 3 teams, we had to run the ball at a similar rate. My post was to show that there is a reason they ran the ball so often, and the biggest was that they each had a marquee back.

The O-line, an obvious contributor to running success, was not mentioned in the original post nor was it addressed in mine. So frankly I have no clue why you are even discussing it or "rolling your eyes."

I didn't think you were capable of answering the question either.......

[Sour1729]

I didn't think you were capable of answering the question either.......

Please stay on topic. Thanks.

[The 12th Man]

Sorry 12th Man but running the ball in the BT well is more than a sign of manhood/good football. Its what the best teams in the BT do. Along with playing good D and holding teams to 15ppg plus or minus a point or two. OSU ran the ball 72% of the time in BT games, PSU 58% and Iowa 62% and were in the top three with points allowed per game.

Until we can effectively run the ball and play solid D, we will be a mid-pack BT team at best. That is understanding how good BT football teams play.


I agree 100%. The problem is that it seems as though you want us to run the ball all the time even though we lack the ability. Should we just run because "its what the best teams in the BT do," or should we tailor our game plan to what gives US (and not the other teams in the BT) the best chance to win?

What works for other teams means nothing for us. I trust our coaches to decide what works for our players.

[Iceland12]

"We won, thanks to a dumb rookie play by Paulus, dropped passes by his receivers and a defense that rose to the occassion..."

I keep reading and hearing about those items but there were also two dropped interceptions (Sherels and Campbell) and a bad out of bounds call on a Gopher reception. Change those things and the Paulus interception doesn't apply and the passes don't happen let alone the "drops" because the Gophers win maybe handily in regulation.

Though none of those things happened. I'm just saying...

[thailleagle]

"We won, thanks to a dumb rookie play by Paulus, dropped passes by his receivers and a defense that rose to the occassion..."

I keep reading and hearing about those items but there were also two dropped interceptions (Sherels and Campbell) and a bad out of bounds call on a Gopher reception. Change those things and the Paulus interception doesn't apply and the passes don't happen let alone the "drops" because the Gophers win maybe handily in regulation.

Though none of those things happened. I'm just saying...

Don't forget Traye had his hands on a potential pick.......

[Iceland12]

Don't forget Traye had his hands on a potential pick.......

Did I get him mixed-up with Sherels or were there three interception drops?

[thailleagle]

Did I get him mixed-up with Sherels or were there three interception drops?

Yep, 3 potentials. Sherels had the first potential pick...then Campbell had a possible pick 6 and Traye's hit him on his hands and the announcer made the comment about he held his hands out wrong and that he could've picked it off had he tried catching the ball with his thumbs inside instead of his pinky's.......

[gold04]

Unless Bennett is healthy or the other guys prove they can run, why worry about passing the ball so much. I know Big Ten teams run the ball but that's not the only way to do well in the Big Ten. Purdue and Northwestern have had success in the Big Ten by their passing offenses. Running teams do better in the Big Ten but we can't get stuck with the mentality the only way to do well in the Big Ten is just to run the ball.

I think Fisch needs to get creative in getting guys like Gray, Weber, Stoud., and Hayo some touches in the running game. If Bennet is hurt, MN does not have the running backs that would be worth pounding the rock with. So we need to be creative in getting touches in the running game to players who are not always the running backs.

[thailleagle]

Unless Bennett is healthy or the other guys prove they can run, why worry about passing the ball so much. I know Big Ten teams run the ball but that's not the only way to do well in the Big Ten. Purdue and Northwestern have had success in the Big Ten by their passing offenses. Running teams do better in the Big Ten but we can't get stuck with the mentality the only way to do well in the Big Ten is just to run the ball.

I think Fisch needs to get creative in getting guys like Gray, Weber, Stoud., and Hayo some touches in the running game. If Bennet is hurt, MN does not have the running backs that would be worth pounding the rock with. So we need to be creative in getting touches in the running game to players who are not always the running backs.

I agree, stick to what we're good at and right now it's passing. Green & Stoudamire both proved yesterday they are very good weapons on Offense and could take a lot teams focus off of Decker.......

[GophersInIowa]

"We won, thanks to a dumb rookie play by Paulus, dropped passes by his receivers and a defense that rose to the occassion..."

I keep reading and hearing about those items but there were also two dropped interceptions (Sherels and Campbell) and a bad out of bounds call on a Gopher reception. Change those things and the Paulus interception doesn't apply and the passes don't happen let alone the "drops" because the Gophers win maybe handily in regulation.

Though none of those things happened. I'm just saying...

I will even add the Weber fumble when the ball hit one of our lineman's leg. I thought we were going to take over the game several times in the 2nd half but something would happen to end the drive.

[thailleagle]

I will even add the Weber fumble when the ball hit one of our lineman's leg. I thought we were going to take over the game several times in the 2nd half but something would happen to end the drive.

That's one thing to be optimistic about. In the 2nd Half we started moving the football a lot better but the drives would end prematurely (fumble, failed 4th down conversion, etc).......

[GophersInIowa]

That's one thing to be optimistic about. In the 2nd Half we started moving the football a lot better but the drives would end prematurely (fumble, failed 4th down conversion, etc).......

I agree, you take away a few mistakes in the 2nd half and we win by two touchdowns.

[thailleagle]

I agree, you take away a few mistakes in the 2nd half and we win by two touchdowns.

If someone actually picks up Williams on that TD then it might've been a much different game.......

After watching it for the 6th time we had a chance to put up a good 30-38 points but we didn't finish some very key drives.......

[The 12th Man]

If someone actually picks up Williams on that TD then it might've been a much different game.......

After watching it for the 6th time we had a chance to put up a good 30-38 points but we didn't finish some very key drives.......


I agree with your takes on this game. I don't buy the concern. It looked like a first game against an unknown opponent. The 2nd half was pretty good, and I expect us to build on that next week.