[POST GAME THREAD] - Maryland defeats Minnesota 31-24

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RolGnav said:
. Claeys and Kill always had a way to pull out a victory in close games
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Kind of like USC 2012, New Mexico State 2012, Michigan State 2011, Syracuse 2013, Illinois 2014, Ohio State 2014,Michigan 2015, Iowa 2015, Penn State 2016, Iowa 2016, Nebraska 2016. All one possession losses. Some of those losses were to ranked teams, and you might have a beef about Ohio State 2014 with the non-targeting call; however, your statement about how Clayes/Kill always had a way to win the close one is obviously grossly incorrect.
 

Gopher028 said:
Quite simply we got grossly out coached. We had essentially the same players both sides of the ball when we played at Maryland, and won 31-10. Difference they were down to their 3rd string qb. Our gameplan was atrocious. PJ is more worried about "culture" and starting from ground zero with acronyms and holding players accountable by having their fist up on 3rd down than wins and losses than building off a NINE win team from last year.
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This. Out coached, plain and simple. Waited all game for adjustments to be made. Never happened. Short pass plays to middle of field open all game...RUTM instead. Very curious offensive play calling.
 


MennoSota said:
I place the blame on O and D coordinators. The game plan was woefully unoriginal despite 2 weeks of preparation.
On a flip-note, Tracy Claeys has to be shaking his head at the joke of a game plan by the new Gopher coaching staff.
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Have to agree. No adjustments. Puzzling.
 

PMWinSTP said:
This. Out coached, plain and simple. Waited all game for adjustments to be made. Never happened. Short pass plays to middle of field open all game...RUTM instead. Very curious offensive play calling.
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I said it after the Buffalo game. I hate this offense. Fleck's excuse about OL depth is legit. So maybe try and protect and help those guys out. Take a little off their plate and keep your monster TE on the line to block. Instead of wasting Beebe on the sidelines, put him in the backfield to block for Smith and Brooks.
 


MennoSota said:
Claeys would have won this game, but you can't undo what has been done. Just another 5 year project for Gopher football...
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Just like he did vs Michigan?

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What is the debate here? I really don't care if Kill, Claeys, or Brewster would have won this game or not. I care that PJ didn't. This was a disappointing loss. Anyone trying to rationalize it as anything else is a fool.


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Breakin' The Plane said:
I said it after the Buffalo game. I hate this offense. Fleck's excuse about OL depth is legit. So maybe try and protect and help those guys out. Take a little off their plate and keep your monster TE on the line to block. Instead of wasting Beebe on the sidelines, put him in the backfield to block for Smith and Brooks.
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The 5-10 yard pass in the middle was open all day. That's an easy adjustment. This staff is better than what they showed today.
 

Spoofin said:
What is the debate here? I really don't care if Kill, Claeys, or Brewster would have won this game or not. I care that PJ didn't. This was a disappointing loss. Anyone trying to rationalize it as anything else is a fool.


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So disappointing, might not make the motor City bowl this year.
 

Spoofin said:
What is the debate here? I really don't care if Kill, Claeys, or Brewster would have won this game or not. I care that PJ didn't. This was a disappointing loss. Anyone trying to rationalize it as anything else is a fool.


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+1

I should learn to care less than I do.
 

PMWinSTP said:
The 5-10 yard pass in the middle was open all day. That's an easy adjustment. This staff is better than what they showed today.
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Not to mention the 5-10 yard QB keeper. Even the stupid announcers were calling for that all day. This was Jerry Kill stubborn on offense and I thought we were better than that.


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PJ has been telling us since he came here they are young, inexperienced, and not alot of depth. That showed today.

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fippled said:
PJ has been telling us since he came here they are young, inexperienced, and not alot of depth. That showed today.

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Of course PJ is going to say that. The reality is that this team had more than enough talent to beat Maryland. It is on the coaches that we lost this game.
 


I will say the time out he used at the end of the half didn't make much sense.

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fippled said:
I will say the time out he used at the end of the half didn't make much sense.

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I don't know this, but the announcers said we had a LB covering a WR 1-on-1 on the outside. If true, the TO would make sense.


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fippled said:
PJ has been telling us since he came here they are young, inexperienced, and not alot of depth. That showed today.

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Kill was a master of the undersell too. The difference is PJ is inheriting a 9-4 team and not Brewster's squad.

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fippled said:
PJ has been telling us since he came here they are young, inexperienced, and not alot of depth. That showed today.

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MSU is playing 12 true freshmen.

As for today, players had some miscues/mistakes, and the staff put together a mediocre game plan that they didn't adjust for some reason. As Fleck said, the coaching staff needs to do a better job of putting players in positions where they can be successful.
 

PMWinSTP said:
MSU is playing 12 true freshmen.

As for today, players had some miscues/mistakes, and the staff put together a mediocre game plan that they didn't adjust for some reason. As Fleck said, the coaching staff needs to do a better job of putting players in positions where they can be successful.
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That goes to show difference in recruiting. Hopefully in a couple years we will be recruiting at a high enough level that our true freshman will be able to make that kind of impact. Yes I agree that he could have coached a better game.

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When posters say things like, "we'll be fine - we just have to fix the mistakes," it reminds me of my high school football coach. (to be clear - I was not on the team - just mean the guy who was the coach when I was in High School)

Our team wasn't very good, but after every game (usually a double-digit loss), the coach would come in the locker room and say something like, "we were right in the game. If you just take away those 3 or 4 big plays by the other team, it was a close game."

And I always wanted to respond - "yeah, if you take away those 3 or 4 touchdowns, it would have been a close game."
 

jrock said:
Of course PJ is going to say that. The reality is that this team had more than enough talent to beat Maryland. It is on the coaches that we lost this game.
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How the flip, in a country of 330 million people, do they have these grave depth issues when they have full ride scholarships in the B1G to give out? We are also a decently historic program that at least gets to a bowl game each year also.

The next man up after graduations or injuries should be ready to go - even true Freshmen.
 

This is a coaching staff that knows how to solve the MAC and Division 1 cupcake program puzzle. It might not be B1G Ten ready yet. In the B1G, you can't just walk in, play hard, execute your basic stuff well, and expect to be able to stick to your "plan A" gameplan all day.

There are smart coaches, playmakers, injuries, crowds etc. to deal with.

They have work to do from here if they want to compete in the B1G West this year.

I don't think Claeys loses this game today. With last year's staff still in place, I think we would be in the mix for a west title this year, but I'm willing to grow under a new regime to see if we can get to the next level of B1G contender every single year.
 

Word said:
Kill was a master of the undersell too. The difference is PJ is inheriting a 9-4 team and not Brewster's squad.

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Yup. Staff is going to have to learn how to scheme in the big time very fast or these first four conference games before Iowa might end up 1-3.

"They had playmakers!" ... WELCOME TO THE BIG TEN EVERY.SINGLE.WEEK BOYS!
 

So much to say about this game, a lot to be concerned about for the rest of the year.

1. Offensive line gets no push/creates no holes: This is a rinse and repeat aspect of Minnesota football for as long as I can remember- a run heavy offense does well enough to win against a usually soft non conference schedule...and then we find out that "surprise!" we have an average to below average running attack against our peers in conference play. The inability to run the ball against a 250 yards and 6.4 yards per carry last week against UCF doesn't bode well for the future.

2. Defensive line is manhandled: The whole line was virtually MIA today with the exception of a tipped pass or two by DeLatiiboudere. So many of the plays sideline to sideline plays Maryland ran would have looked a lot different if your Dline could have caused any disruption whatsoever. I believe this QB was sacked on 20% of his dropbacks coming in to this game and the Gophers let him get rid of the ball on time and in rhythm all day.

3. Losing one on one battles: Maryland put us in a lot of positions today where they dared our guys to win one on one battles and we consistently lost. The most glaring example of this is Antonio Shenault who was beaten over and over again for huge conversions including the key 3rd down on what would turn out to be the game winning score. Shenault was far from the only culprit though as in the run game we usually had an unblocked man who would have a chance to stop the runner behind the line of scrimmage or for no gain and time and time again they failed. Was disappointed to see Celestin, Barber, and Martin fail so frequently in this area. On the offensive side of the ball, Maryland was challenging us to beat them with big plays down the field and we simply don't have enough speed on the outside to make them (or anyone else) pay.

4. Special teams: An argument can certainly be made that we lost this game due to special teams. No excuse for Santoso to kick two balls out of bounds. Carpenter misses a straight on a 41 yarder and the Maryland kicker hits from past 50. Shannon Brooks makes a horrific play on the last kick return that greatly reduced our chances at a tying score.

I am pretty disgusted to read some of the posts in this thread and others piling on PJ for this loss and revisiting the coaching change as if this team was primed to do something significant this season. We had at least two home games (Iowa/Rutgers) just last season that were at least as disappointing as this one from a coaching/playing standpoint and that was with a veteran team with a veteran QB. Once Winfield Jr went down in this game, the only player with any significant prior experience in the secondary was Shenault and he played a terrible game. The difference in a win and a loss in this game could have been as simple as having Winfield Jr in coverage in the slot on that last 3rd down instead of Shenault or having Duke McGee coming up in run support from the secondary instead of Handy-Holly.

Make no mistake about it, this was a bad loss and PJ Fleck should get some blame...the "defense" played on the last play of the first half was inexcusable and basically gave Maryland a free chance at 3 points. We were unable to run blitz or do anything else to cause negative plays for the Maryland offense and by PJ's own admission they were vanilla on defense. I would argue they were also very vanilla on offense and needed to try something else other than the zone "read" which was consistently being stopped. That said, it should be alarming and enlightening to the PJ Fleck bashers that this team still doesn't have an offensive line that can dominate the line of scrimmage despite recruiting to a running offense for 6 years under the previous regime and it still doesn't have a vertical threat at receiver despite the previous regime lacking that needed element for 6 years and we still don't have a defensive line that matches up favorably to our conference peers (especially at DE, but the DT's were bad today too). The biggest difference between last years team and this years team is that last years team had a secondary that could cover man to man and allow us to blitz and play a generally more aggressive style.

Two positives from today: Rhoda threw some very nice balls despite not having the clean pocket he was accustomed to in previous games or the running game he had in games 2 & 3. He made a very poor decision on his last throw but overall I though he did well especially for a former walk on. How about Eric Carter's spectacular catch? Carter has been on the field for a lot of snaps over the past few years, but has rarely made an impact so it was great to see him make a spectacular catch in such a big spot.
 

GopherHusky said:
Coach said it earlier in the week. Maryland has a lot of talent. 2 weeks to prep isn’t enough.
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The program is in BIG TROUBLE then!!!! The B1G is loaded with talented teams and you only get one week. How will PJF ever win a Chip if that's what he thinks. This isn't the effing MAC where you only have a game or two to worry about until a 3 week prep for a Bowl!!!
 

Is this a correct assessment?....


Fleck & staff are facing the inevitable learning curve of coaching at the higher D1 level.

Early turbulence shouldn't be a surprise.

Fleck looks the part as one who is smart & disciplined enough to tackle the learning curve. So that at least gives hope moving forward (dangerous to pin much hope on appearances: see Brewster).

Nothing has been proven yet.
 

bfast said:
Is this a correct assessment?....


Fleck & staff are facing the inevitable learning curve of coaching at the higher D1 level.

Early turbulence shouldn't be a surprise.

Fleck looks the part as one who is smart & disciplined enough to tackle the learning curve. So that at least gives hope moving forward (dangerous to pin much hope on appearances: see Brewster).

Nothing has been proven yet.
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I agree with this. Thinking PJ wasn't outcoached today is silly. Thinking today shows any reduction in his chance of being successful at MN is equally as silly.

I expect us to come out firing on all cylinders against PU and all will be right in the World again.


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Spoofin said:
Not to mention the 5-10 yard QB keeper. Even the stupid announcers were calling for that all day. This was Jerry Kill stubborn on offense and I thought we were better than that.


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It was there..... all day... 4-8 yards or more....
 

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