All things sky is falling thread....

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On the bright side, the chances of another program poaching Fleck put off at least another season.
 


Not falling, but a shot of reality. This team isn't very good. Even good Gopher football teams historically haven't really been that good.

Just the way it is.
 

I came away thinking that if we had Croft in there running the Zone Read that he would've had a monster game and opened things up for our RB's.


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Slim Tubby said:
I came away thinking that if we had Croft in there running the Zone Read that he would've had a monster game and opened things up for our RB's.


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I believe Rhoda is a good enough runner to have gained 5-7 yards on several occasions. If he's not willing to be an option threat, he shouldn't be out there.
 

It's the admin's fault. They keep wasting time with search committees and established, proven coaches when the guy's that really know how to coach and fix everything can be found right here on gopherhole.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
If you build it they will post....
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Positive.... our receivers are good. Our defense can get out of the way.

negatives....I forgot ice for my tailgate beer.

Its the BIG and now maybe the Admiral will realize it is more than rowing.
 

Our Gopher Defense cannot hold the edge...
 



Symptoms

STPGopher said:
Our Gopher Defense cannot hold the edge...
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Not being able to hold the edge and having lineman that take themselves out of plays was a symptom of the whole Kill Claey's regime. That and their inability to recruit offensive and defensive lineman. Every time a rusher on the edge took themselves out of the play Maryland caught the Gophers in the line backing corps getting out of position or shifting the wrong way. Not very good fundamentals by the front 7 today. Not having two starting safety's that could fill those gaps really hurt the overall defense. Just not enough depth right now to sustain a major injury and be able to absorb it well. I did like some of the play by the freshman defensive ends today.
 


I didn't see the game today -- sounds like I was lucky :)

I'll admit I got fooled into thinking the team was better than they are based on the first 3 games. It's pretty obvious those teams are all horrible. I said in a thread this week MN could be anything from 6-6 to 10-2. Given the lack of dominant teams in the B1G (especially the West), I still honestly think that's true. 6-6 looks much more likely at this point, of course...

Running game is a huge concern. Most people who watched the first three games closely knew it was a problem that Rhoda never kept on zone.
Some tried to argue it away and pointed to inflated rushing stats that were the result of big plays or late drives on extremely tired defenses in non-competitive games. IMO, one of three things MUST happen, or you'll see many similar offensive performances this year: 1) Rhoda keeps the read option far more often, even if it's a loss ocassionally; 2) Croft comes back and splits series; 3) Offensive staff changes the gameplan to basically scrap read option and go with more stretch, jet sweet, and short play action passes (which were quite effective against OSU, btw).

Defensive performance was surprisingly bad today by the sounds of it, but who would've thought any differently if you knew 3 of the top 4 DB's in an already thin unit would be out? Disappointing to see it happen, but it is what it is. WR's were running free in the first 3 games of the season even with our starters in there, but the QB's weren't good enough to find them. You'd expect it to be even worse with backups in there. Also an extremely concerning lack of pass rush this year against bad teams. That will only get more concerning as the year continues and teams get more talented.

Sh!t happens in college FB, so who knows what this game really means. I fear it means MN is about a 6 win team with very talented RB's and LB's, but extremely average (or worse) talent at most other positions (save for Winfield, TJ, and a couple other young players who will likely be very good).
 

STPGopher said:
Our Gopher Defense cannot hold the edge...
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This is the #1 problem with the team. Previous staff was moving to a 3-4 defense with the success in recruiting LB's. Fleck wants stud DE's.

Also out OL does not look like Maryland's OL.
 



Slim Tubby said:
I came away thinking that if we had Croft in there running the Zone Read that he would've had a monster game and opened things up for our RB's.


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That is not a bad take. What's he out for again?
 

I touched PJ in the tunnel before the game today.

I'm sorry everyone.

It's all my fault!
 




Our athletes are not athletic enough...
 


TAW said:
Why? The touch, not the sorry.
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You would't touch PJ if you got the chance?


I was in the tunnel and he was handing out high fives to the fans as he went down the tunnel.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I believe Rhoda is a good enough runner to have gained 5-7 yards on several occasions. If he's not willing to be an option threat, he shouldn't be out there.
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No, the coaches shouldn't call that play. And they definitely shouldn't call it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and.... over. Unbelievably frustrating to watch.

Our defense didn't come to play today. I guess a big part of that could be winfield going down early as it sounds like he was given a pretty important job to shut down their top WR. The missed tackles were astronomical though. More in this one game than I can remember all of last season. Unbelievably frustrating to watch.

So that leaves us with special teams. Also frustrating to watch.

What happened to the team for this game? Did they really think a conference opponent would come in and roll over because vegas thought we should win by 13? Disgusting performance almost all around.
 

bottlebass said:
No, the coaches shouldn't call that play. And they definitely shouldn't call it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and.... over. Unbelievably frustrating to watch.

Our defense didn't come to play today. I guess a big part of that could be winfield going down early as it sounds like he was given a pretty important job to shut down their top WR. The missed tackles were astronomical though. More in this one game than I can remember all of last season. Unbelievably frustrating to watch.

So that leaves us with special teams. Also frustrating to watch.

What happened to the team for this game? Did they really think a conference opponent would come in and roll over because vegas thought we should win by 13? Disgusting performance almost all around.
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Yes, I get your point about running a play that isn't working over and over again. It was very frustrating to watch. But this is still a run first team like it or not and we have to be tricky with the play calling because our OL isn't that good at run blocking. We need to keep defenses guessing about who the ball carrier will be. Maryland knew exactly who was getting the ball every single time.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
Yes, I get your point about running a play that isn't working over and over again. It was very frustrating to watch. But this is still a run first team like it or not and we have to be tricky with the play calling because our OL isn't that good at run blocking. We need to keep defenses guessing about who the ball carrier will be. Maryland knew exactly who was getting the ball every single time.
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I understand we are a run first team and that's fine. Our two best offensive players (i guess you could argue TJ is starting to work his way into that conversation) are our running backs, we need to get them the ball. But the whole point of the read option is to keep the DE honest, which doesn't happen when the QB won't ever keep the ball. At times you could see the DE jumping inside before the ball was snapped, it was ridiculous how much room there was around the ends for Rhoda.
 

bottlebass said:
I understand we are a run first team and that's fine. Our two best offensive players (i guess you could argue TJ is starting to work his way into that conversation) are our running backs, we need to get them the ball. But the whole point of the read option is to keep the DE honest, which doesn't happen when the QB won't ever keep the ball. At times you could see the DE jumping inside before the ball was snapped, it was ridiculous how much room there was around the ends for Rhoda.
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What plays do you think PJ should have called that don't involve Rhoda keeping the ball to keep the D off balance?
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
What plays do you think PJ should have called that don't involve Rhoda keeping the ball to keep the D off balance?
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PJ doesn't call the plays.

At the very least let the fake be the sweep to keep the ends honest (which they did do a couple times in the 2nd half with brooks). Maybe some bootlegs and throw the ball since they were selling out on the run so hard. 8 guys in the box on every single play would tell me we should be able to throw the ball. Include the running backs in the passing game more, that would be really nice. At the very least don't have 50% of your plays be a wasted play because the QB doesn't keep it.
 

bottlebass said:
PJ doesn't call the plays.

At the very least let the fake be the sweep to keep the ends honest (which they did do a couple times in the 2nd half with brooks). Maybe some bootlegs and throw the ball since they were selling out on the run so hard. 8 guys in the box on every single play would tell me we should be able to throw the ball. Include the running backs in the passing game more, that would be really nice. At the very least don't have 50% of your plays be a wasted play because the QB doesn't keep it.
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Maybe there were opportunities with the sweep but with their speed and the way they released off blocks, I don't think it would have been a consistently reliable play to run. The short passing game doesn't seem to be a consistent option from what I've seen as both Howard and Johnson dropped catchable balls on occasions. Against speedy defenses, the conventional wisdom is to run at them and overpower them.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
Maybe there were opportunities with the sweep but with their speed and the way they released off blocks, I don't think it would have been a consistently reliable play to run. The short passing game doesn't seem to be a consistent option from what I've seen as both Howard and Johnson dropped catchable balls on occasions. Against speedy defenses, the conventional wisdom is to run at them and overpower them.
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Then line up under center and do that. Don't dick around in the back field holding the back up with a fake that won't fake anyone out because there is zero chance of the QB keeping it.
 

bottlebass said:
Then line up under center and do that. Don't dick around in the back field holding the back up with a fake that won't fake anyone out because there is zero chance of the QB keeping it.
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If we have wisky's line, yes. We don't have that caliber of linemen yet. We'll need to call plays to keep defenses off balance until we get to that point.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
If we have wisky's line, yes. We don't have that caliber of linemen yet. We'll need to call plays to keep defenses off balance until we get to that point.
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You are running in circles. What part of our current read option keeps defenses off balance? Maybe if Rhoda kept it once a drive, but he doesn't and the defense doesn't even pay attention to him.
 

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