Penn State is not a great team, but neither are the Gophers, at least not now.
Dang! You had me up until this comment. "Lucky" is about the last word I would think of to describe the Gophers first three victories. I do think the defense has warts and Oregon State and Colorado State in particular should have been more comfortable wins, but they certainly weren't "lucky" wins.
The context of the word "lucky" is in the context of the amount of injuries, suspensions, pre-snap penalties and lack of 3rd down efficiency (Number of third down conversions given up) , (number of youth 7 true freshmen have played) and all of the change on defense and the offensive line this year, they could be 2-1. Without the roster depth, the Gophers easily would have lost to Oregon State, with all of the turnovers, high snaps, fumbled punts, number of false starts, the targeting penalties, and mistakes that game without the way Leidner and the offense gutted out that win. That game with the amount of mistakes made, a lesser talented Gophers team would not have been able to overcome that. The "lucky" part is they were able to overcome a rocky start against Oregon State and the targeting calls and still win that football game. Suspension are a distraction that hopefully gets resolved soon.
The pass defense has been shaky, and the linebackers have missed quite a few tackles on screen plays ( a lot of rotation and different defensive sets).
The Gophers have played a ton of youth and inexperienced players on the field so far this year. Penn State is not a great team, but a talented program that has traditional talent, (a recruiting advantage of being in Pennsylvania better HS football than MN) and pretty dang good QB and skilled position players that will be a real challenge. This game is a step up competition wise, that makes this a tough road game.
None of the Big 10 road games are going to be easy this year. Gophers have a Senior QB, seem to get decent O-line play, and they have playmakers on offense in the backfield at least, that give them a chance to win. I just don't think development wise, the Gophers are where they will go on the road and dominate teams. Shannon Brooks is the kind of playmaker that makes things happen even when he doesn't get clean blocking.
I wouldn't overlook Penn State especially when the game is in their building.
The Gophers are going to have to clean up the penalties and the mistakes to give them a chance to win on the road. You cannot make a load of mistakes in conference play and expect good results.
In the non-conference they got away with that, mistakes, and getting injuries that affect depth and on field play, that will become a lot tougher in conference to recover from.
The good news this season is Mitch is playing like a quality senior QB, and gaining a lot of confidence in his playmakers, the bad news is the pass defense has been quite leaky this season. That happens when you're replacing some really talented secondary players like Eric Murray and Brien Boddy Calhoun. #4 the Safety has been getting picked on as a weakness a lot. Penn State is not a great football team, but they are an opponent on the road the Gophers are going to have to have a good game plan and execution to beat. I like the talent on this Gophers team, but they are playing a lot of young guys, young guys tend to make mistakes that cost you on the road. I'm hopeful that program wise they are able to overcome the inexperience of this being the first road game. There is no reason they should enter this game not believing they can win.
