News Gazette in Champaign: In the grand scheme of things ... Minnesota could be beat

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Bill Cubit is a heck of an OC and he has matched wits with Jerry Kill & Co more than once in the past. I thought the Cubit hire might save poor Beckman's bacon in Champaign, but it doesn't look to be the case. Judging by average rush pass play they have some decent skill position guys in Ferguson and Dudek. Those stats are probably skewed by Wes Lunt as they didn't match those number against Wisconsin. Their oline doesn't pass protect well as their QBs have been sacked 22 times already this season. Their defense gives up 271 yards a game on the ground, almost 500 per game overall, and 4 of their top 5 tacklers are DBs. Unless they put 9 in the box the whole game I don't think they're going to have much luck stopping our run game consistently. Mitch could be hitting wide open receivers all day. Our dline is probably licking their chops thinking about all the sacks they'll have an opportunity to make. On paper we should win this game.
 

50PoundHead said:
Maybe it's because I'm a middle-aged Scandinavian who was raised in just about the most emotionally-repressed, allergic-to-joy household in the history of mankind (making the sources of my problem both genetic and environmental), but I still think the Gophers are a team that has to play well to win. We just can't mail it in and expect our athleticism to overcome a lack of ardor. Kill has said as much.

I think we win in Champaign. Maybe convincingly. But we can't be as sloppy as we were against Purdue. I love Claeys and I think he learned that teams are now figuring out how to counter-punch our aggressiveness on defense. He showed an ability to adjust (as did Limegrover in opening up the playbook a bit) and that is going to be key. We're still a lunch-bucket team and I love that about us, but we have to play well to win comfortably.
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The bold is true. However, I think we are talented enough that if we show up and play well, we will win. If we lose, its because we didn't bring 100%, Illinois playing a good game won't be enough if we also play well.
 

gophmeister said:
Bill Cubit is a heck of an OC and he has matched wits with Jerry Kill & Co more than once in the past. I thought the Cubit hire might save poor Beckman's bacon in Champaign, but it doesn't look to be the case. Judging by average rush pass play they have some decent skill position guys in Ferguson and Dudek. Those stats are probably skewed by Wes Lunt as they didn't match those number against Wisconsin. Their oline doesn't pass protect well as their QBs have been sacked 22 times already this season. Their defense gives up 271 yards a game on the ground, almost 500 per game overall, and 4 of their top 5 tacklers are DBs. Unless they put 9 in the box the whole game I don't think they're going to have much luck stopping our run game consistently. Mitch could be hitting wide open receivers all day. Our dline is probably licking their chops thinking about all the sacks they'll have an opportunity to make. On paper we should win this game.
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You should do one of these for the Iowa game. You've convinced me that we'll beat Illinois by 35.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
This could be another marker for how much the program has changed under Kill. In the bad old days, the Gophs had at least one game every year where they laid a complete egg against a team they were favored to beat. I would love to see the Gophs go out and just stomp Illinois - a real no-doubt butt-kicking, so I don't have to spend the 4th quarter squirming and pacing and swearing.
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Yeah, it was often Indiana on the road where the thud would happen.
 

My motto is -
Never, ever, get too cocky about any Big Ten road game. (Not to mention that they had a bye week.) I will be happy with a one-point win.
 


Here's a somewhat pessimistic article from an Illinois paper:

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...014-10-18/tate-illini-familiar-situation.html

Here's an interesting point from the article:
Head coach Tim Beckman has no NFL-ready defenders at this point. And, having given scholarships to just five offensive linemen the last two years, he is further hampered by the injury losses of Scott McDowell, Ryan Klachko, Jesse Chadwell and Tony Durkin. The Illini are weak in their senior and junior redshirt classes and lack numbers in the young classes.

“We have to practice like the pros with their limited squads,” Beckman said. “We don’t have enough offensive linemen to put together a scout squad to run against the No. 1 defense. The best way to get a good look is to run against the 2’s, and we did work against 1’s and 2’s a lot during our bye week. But we can’t do that normally.”

So Beckman is caught between a rock and a hard place. The upfront defensive unit has shown itself shy of Big Ten-level ability, and he is handcuffed in attempting to pound them into shape in practice.
 

dpodoll68 said:
It's a participle.

The steak could be eat by me?
The balloon could be chose by the girl?
Minnesota could be beat by Illinois?

No - eaten...chosen...beaten.
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ah, ok. i thought that you were picking on the passive voice. the bare infinitive can be used with the verb could, just not -- as it is in this headline -- in the passive voice.
 

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