Rossi honeymoon is over! Time to fire!


The original poster is right. Could not make a stop when needed against a depleted offense.

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The original poster is right. Could not make a stop when needed against a depleted offense.

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The defense still sucks. Purdue's offense isn't particularly strong even with Rondale and Sindelar...without them, Gophers shouldn't have even let them hit 20 today. The offense continues to carry the team...(thank god for them).
 

The original poster is right. Could not make a stop when needed against a depleted offense.

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The defense played plenty well when the game was actually competitive. Not too worried.


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The defense isn’t playing particularly well but jury is out on whether it’s staff not prepping and practicing the right way or we’re under-talented at spots particularly the line and linebacker. Way too soon to write off Rossi but I don’t think it’s a crime to talk about it.
 

Defense rolls over in 4th Quarter. We’re a young team and need to learn how to finish!
 

Thought the defense played well. They just took their foot off their opponents neck and it bit them.

Teaching moment
 

If we field the onside kick cleanly, it is 38-24 and maybe 45-24.

Too scary though. That 99 yard drive was disappointing.

Still room for improvement.
 



It looks like the secondary is playing pretty well, but there is very little pressure on the QB. I'm not a film scout by any means that can dissect every play, but one is if there is a little pressure the plays break down most of the time. With no pressure any team can do whatever they want. Not to be Doctor Obvious, but that should be a point of emphasis, meaning change up the blitzes, and be unpredictable. Minnesota has physical talent on defense-let them shine. A 3 man front won't bring pressure unless there is an uncharacteristic breakdown on the O-line.
Watching OSU destroy Nerdbraska-OSU lets them play and explode. Granted more talent for OSU, but not enough talent disparity to change a game plan.
I know Minnesota is still learning to play within themselves, but they have the ability to be pretty special.
 

It looks like the secondary is playing pretty well, but there is very little pressure on the QB. I'm not a film scout by any means that can dissect every play, but one is if there is a little pressure the plays break down most of the time. With no pressure any team can do whatever they want. Not to be Doctor Obvious, but that should be a point of emphasis, meaning change up the blitzes, and be unpredictable. Minnesota has physical talent on defense-let them shine. A 3 man front won't bring pressure unless there is an uncharacteristic breakdown on the O-line.
Watching OSU destroy Nerdbraska-OSU lets them play and explode. Granted more talent for OSU, but not enough talent disparity to change a game plan.
I know Minnesota is still learning to play within themselves, but they have the ability to be pretty special.

The gophers got a ton of pressure on the QB only rushing 3 when in obvious passing situations. Plummer was however much more elusive than Sindelar.

Most of the times we didn't get pressure were on 1st down, second and third and medium when it wasn't an obvious passing down.
 

If we field the onside kick cleanly, it is 38-24 and maybe 45-24.

Too scary though. That 99 yard drive was disappointing.

Still room for improvement.

Martin was spying on Plummer early in that drive. On a sramble/fun, Martin slipped on a cut, or would have had him and stopped them.
 





Thought the defense played well. They just took their foot off their opponents neck and it bit them.

Teaching moment

Watch the replay. Apparently you didn’t see the dozens of missed tackles. Totally unacceptable.
 


I've thought about this and something needs to happen. Defense is a liability. Fleck chose the wrong DC.

I have feeling nothing will happen until the defense costs us a game.
 

Uh I’ll say this now it’s not Rossi it’s the players this is an awful tackling football team. We miss Blake Cashman soo f...ing much.
 

Watch the replay. Apparently you didn’t see the dozens of missed tackles. Totally unacceptable.

I thought was the weakest part of our performance yesterday. The onside kick was a fluke play, tough bounce, don't hold anyone accountable to that, but missed tackles made the game closer than it needed to be and I would say that guys almost always seemed to be in position to make a play. I wouldn't think Winfield would miss 4 tackles in a season and I think he may have missed that many yesterday on his own.

Bad tackling in endemic in CFB( and NFL), wondering if emphasis on reduced full contact is making it harder to hone this skill,
 

Uh I’ll say this now it’s not Rossi it’s the players this is an awful tackling football team. We miss Blake Cashman soo f...ing much.

And the Huff brothers. Some of the the most sure tacklers i've seen....
 


I listened to the game driving cross-country, can't tell you how often the guy calling the game said King Derue broke tackles. Guy sounded like the next coming of Earl Campbell.
 

Uh I’ll say this now it’s not Rossi it’s the players this is an awful tackling football team. We miss Blake Cashman soo f...ing much.

Yeah Rossi's defense had guys staring down the QB or RB well behind the line 1:1 numerous times. That means he got them in position ... Rossi can't make the tackle for them.
 

Just not going to put this on coaching. LB's are really missing Cashman and have not improved. DT have taken a step back. The defense is less talented this year, plain and simple. Hope the offense continues to improve each week to assist the defense.
 

We have any up and coming sophomores and freshmen who can come in and do better?
 

Yeah, I think it's really a tackling issue, more than a scheme/DC issue
 

Just not going to put this on coaching. LB's are really missing Cashman and have not improved. DT have taken a step back. The defense is less talented this year, plain and simple. Hope the offense continues to improve each week to assist the defense.

Cashman seemed to be in on every pile up / play last year.

I guess we're finding out that -1 Cashman means those plays play out differently.
 

Want to echo the sentiment of those who don't want to pin this on Rossi. The players were in position they just didn't make the plays. Now there is a coaching component to tackling but that falls way more on the position coaches then the DC. The DC's job is to make sure players are in position to make plays and for the most part yesterday it felt like we had guys there they just failed to get the ball carrier to the ground.

The defense has not been great this season but anyone calling for a change in DC is kidding themselves.
 

While there are reasons to be alarmed about the defense, compared to last year vs Maryland-Nebraska-Iowa-Illinois the 2019 defense looks better by miles. This year they may be missing tackles, that stretch last year they were giving up TDs untouched. They harass the QB and force some TOs.

Also this year, the offense appears capable of winning games if the D can hold teams in the 20s, and they avoid huge mistakes.
 
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While there are reasons to be alarmed about the defense, compared to last year vs Maryland-Nebraska-Iowa-Illinois the 2019 defense looks better by miles. This year they may be missing tackles, that stretch last year they were giving up TDs untouched. They harass the QB and force some TOs.

Also this year, the offense appears capable of winning games if the D can hold teams in the 20s, if they avoid huge mistakes.

Well said, what we were watching last year was historically bad out of the defense prior to the coaching change. Definitely room for improvement now but we are not getting gashed for huge play after huge play after huge play the way we were last year.

Fresno needed double OT to eclipse 30 points, Georgia Southern got TDs out of their defense and special teams to get into the 30s and Purdue needed 14 late points to get to 31 for the game.

So while the defense isn't playing lights out they are also are not exactly stinking up the joint either. We tackle a little better against Purdue and things could have looked even better then the final score indicated.
 




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