[POST GAME THREAD] - Minnesota defeats Miami (OH) 26 - 3

A few quick thoughts:

Pros:
- Was nice to see the Gophers dominate a team they were supposed to dominate. The play calling was incredibly conservative second half and we still managed to win by 23.
- Offensive line was opening up some massive holes in the running game.
- Defense looked great again, allowing less than four yards per play. Will be interesting to see how the run defense holds up against tougher opponents, but I'm optimistic we will see improvement vs last year.

Neutral:
- Bryce Williams is a nice player but doesn't have the "it" factor required to be a star, IMO. He can find and hit the hole hard, but doesn't seem to be able to make anyone miss at the second level. Will be interesting to see what Ibrahim brings next week.
- Annexstad looked good again and his timing was crisp on many throws across the middle, but he struggled again on the deep ball. He also stuck to one read for most of the game, which was disappointing, but presumably due to the struggle pass blocking up front.

(before you attack me, yes, I realize Annexstad is the best QB we've had in a long time. I'm just mentioning two areas where I would like to see him improve)


Cons:
- Nitpicking, but the offense only put up 290 yards on 70 plays (4.1 yards per play). I attribute much of this to the conservative play calling in the second half, but it would've been nice to see the offense continue to move the ball, as yards per play is one of the most predictive metrics in football.


Overall, a great win and an exciting time to be a Gopher fan!

Good lord, you are a moron. Do you think you're watching Alabama?? A true freshman in his second game ever, first start ever at RB, gets 33 carries for 152 yards and also takes a screen pass 35 yards for a key first down, and he doesn't have the "IT" factor? What an idiotic thing to say.

Annexstad needs a little better pocket presence and needs to recognize pressure a little faster, but also, it's his third collegiate start ever. He'll take his lumps and be a better player for it. O-line also must be better in pass protection. But he mostly hit receivers when he had time, and the slant to Johnson for the TD in a tight window was a ridiculous throw. Annexstad was also clearly a bit hobbled most of the game and as a result, may not have trusted his mobility completely to step up in the pocket when he needed to get away from pressure. I think that part was largely mental.

Defense was outstanding, flying to the football and creating turnovers. That's not a bad offense we limited to 3 points, bummer that Miami lost 2 of its big playmakers early to injury. I like to watch a defense play against an offense at its best, healthiest state.

Not sure we were supposed to dominate this team. 13 point favorites. Meanwhile, Nebraska loses at home to Troy, Maryland gets whipped at home against Temple and Wisconsin chokes in a loss to BYU. Be happy the Gophers didn't play their best by any means and still won going way.

I'll be curious to see how we look when the playbook opens completely. Play-calling got conservative in the 2nd half when we were draining the clock since Fleck know our defense wasn't letting points get on the board.

Solid win, no reason why we can't beat Maryland and be hosting Iowa at 4-0. How fun would that be?
 

That was arguably the worst weather game at TCF ever.... you can do something about cold.... that was so hot.
 

Agree on Bateman. He was basically shut down most of the game. Actually opened things for Tyler so I'll take it.

A win is a win. Neither Nebraska nor Wisconsin nor Maryland can say that today....

I couldn't see what Miami was doing on defense, but they may have been going over/under on Bateman which, like you say, would really open it up for Johnson. I will say this for Bateman. Although it didn't work out on the stat sheet, I was really impressed on the play where he came back to Annexstad and worked to get open. Bateman didn't get back to the line of scrimmage, but I was impressed that he kept working. With him, if he gets it in stride anything can happen.
 

Agree on Williams not seeming to have the it factor. We need backs like brooks or Ibrahim on the 1 carry who have the ability to make people miss and break long touch down runs.

Maybe it really is a strength issue for Williams and he will get there.

Incredible how good annexstad, Bateman and Johnson are. They definitely are stars. Annexsted needs to figure out deep ball but atleast he is missing long. Also Johnson is killing us with the drops 2 per game plus a fumble. He is such an athlete if he figures that out sky is the limit


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Thought today went pretty good overall. Defense did its job and offense had some flashes. If it wasn't for that interception and fumble late in the game it would have been even better. Have to say, heat could have certainly played a factor. Wasn't just hot, but there was no shade. I love blue sky as much as the next guy, but damn, the sun didn't take a break haha. Excited to be 3-0!
 


That was arguably the worst weather game at TCF ever.... you can do something about cold.... that was so hot.

If I remember correctly the UNLV game in 2012 and the 2015 TCU game were almost as hot, they just were a few hours later so it cooled down later in the night.

I love the heat as long as I am not wearing a suit, so it was not big deal. I sate upstairs in the sun, took my shoes off and stretched out in a sparsely populated section. For a while I hung out in the shade at the top of the lower bowl.

Great day overall.

The worst weather day for me was the 2013 Wisconsin game. The 2014 Ohio State game was cold and there was snow, but that game felt just fine. I have no idea why the Wisconsin game felt so raw.
 

I had to watch the game on an iPad so that was a big negative. Some flash impressions:

Plus:
Bryce Williams has some jets. He isn’t as physical as Brooks or as good at escaping a bad play as Smith but he has some skills. Excited for him.
Annexstad continues to impress with his poise and his accuracy on short to medium.
Barber showed up hungry.
Carter Coughlin growing into a force.
Shenault made some nice plays.
Herbers.
TJ with some nice plays and athleticism.

Minus:
The protection is going to get our QBs killed. Disagree with those saying it’s mostly Annexstad. Giving a QB 1-1.5 seconds of protection isn’t good enough.
But, OTOH at times he does drift back instead of stepping up. I’m sure they’re hammering on that.
TJs hands are alternately clutch vs Wozniak-like.
Annexstad’s accuracy and touch on deep passes continue to underwhelm, eg throwing it 5 yards out of bounds. That has to get better to really unleash Bateman.
PJ declining the penalty. I’d like to hear the reasoning on that one.
Cashman hurt. That could really hamstring the D.

Overall I think this team is way better than I hoped for. That, combined with some teams underperforming this season has me excited for a Cinderella season. Get Brooks back, unleash Bateman, improve at O line and D line play...something special could happen.

Don’t @ me
 

Agree on Williams not seeming to have the it factor. We need backs like brooks or Ibrahim on the 1 carry who have the ability to make people miss and break long touch down runs.

Maybe it really is a strength issue for Williams and he will get there.

Incredible how good annexstad, Bateman and Johnson are. They definitely are stars. Annexsted needs to figure out deep ball but atleast he is missing long. Also Johnson is killing us with the drops 2 per game plus a fumble. He is such an athlete if he figures that out sky is the limit


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4.5 yards/carry and 150 for the game is more than enough of an it factor for me. Had a nice catch as well.
 

Have to remember Williams is a freshman. He looks fine to me for a guy who just started his first game. Runs hard even if he is a little tentative at times, but, again, he's a freshman.
 



If I remember correctly the UNLV game in 2012 and the 2015 TCU game were almost as hot, they just were a few hours later so it cooled down later in the night.

I love the heat as long as I am not wearing a suit, so it was not big deal. I sate upstairs in the sun, took my shoes off and stretched out in a sparsely populated section. For a while I hung out in the shade at the top of the lower bowl.

Great day overall.

The worst weather day for me was the 2013 Wisconsin game. The 2014 Ohio State game was cold and there was snow, but that game felt just fine. I have no idea why the Wisconsin game felt so raw.

Agree. That Wisconsin game was miserable. The OSU Game didn't seem so bad.
 

Have to post an addendum and another (big) plus: Seth Green and his short yardage package. Worked to perfection numerous times vs Miami. Love that they’re showing the throw out of it. That slant TD was beautiful.
 

Agree. That Wisconsin game was miserable. The OSU Game didn't seem so bad.

I would take the cold over the heat any day. You can keep putting on layers when it’s cold. There’s not much else I can do once I strip down to my Gophers speedo.
 

I had to watch the game on an iPad so that was a big negative. Some flash impressions:

Plus:
Bryce Williams has some jets. He isn’t as physical as Brooks or as good at escaping a bad play as Smith but he has some skills. Excited for him.
Annexstad continues to impress with his poise and his accuracy on short to medium.
Barber showed up hungry.
Carter Coughlin growing into a force.
Shenault made some nice plays.
Herbers.
TJ with some nice plays and athleticism.

Minus:
The protection is going to get our QBs killed. Disagree with those saying it’s mostly Annexstad. Giving a QB 1-1.5 seconds of protection isn’t good enough.
But, OTOH at times he does drift back instead of stepping up. I’m sure they’re hammering on that.
TJs hands are alternately clutch vs Wozniak-like.
Annexstad’s accuracy and touch on deep passes continue to underwhelm, eg throwing it 5 yards out of bounds. That has to get better to really unleash Bateman.
PJ declining the penalty. I’d like to hear the reasoning on that one.
Cashman hurt. That could really hamstring the D.

Overall I think this team is way better than I hoped for. That, combined with some teams underperforming this season has me excited for a Cinderella season. Get Brooks back, unleash Bateman, improve at O line and D line play...something special could happen.

Don’t @ me


Cashman is hurt?
 



I haven’t watched the game on TV but how the hell wasn’t the 3rd and long Johnson catch spot not overturned? Even live it looked like they spotted the ball a good 2 yards behind where it should have been. Not sure when that play happened.
 

I haven’t watched the game on TV but how the hell wasn’t the 3rd and long Johnson catch spot not overturned? Even live it looked like they spotted the ball a good 2 yards behind where it should have been. Not sure when that play happened.

We wondered that at the game as well.
 



I haven’t watched the game on TV but how the hell wasn’t the 3rd and long Johnson catch spot not overturned? Even live it looked like they spotted the ball a good 2 yards behind where it should have been. Not sure when that play happened.

Really inexplicable. I rewound that several times, saw the slo-mo. Bear in mind this was the infamous crew of “there was no targeting” at OSU in 2015. Maybe they read our comments.
 


I was encouraged by what appeared to be better run blocking. I thought Williams was mostly solid, but there were a few times where he got in the open field where I felt like a good B1G back would have either made a guy or miss or forced a broken tackle and gained more yardage. That said, both Williams and the Oline looked better to me on Saturday than they did against Fresno.

Annexstad is much better than I expected as a true freshman QB. He is really accurate on the short to intermediate throws and the little mistakes (fumbled snaps, taking a bad sack etc) are really few and far between especially when you look through the prism of him being a true freshman. On the negative side, I am very concerned that his tendency to lock on to one read (especially T. Johnson) is going to end up in a house call for the opposing team at an absolutely critical moment. I almost wished it would have happened in this game, just so he might learn his lesson in a "W". The other obvious are of improvement is the deep passing game as he's going to have to complete some of these shots.

Wr group: Continue to love what I see from this group. Bateman's two long PI's were kind of unsung big plays in this game. I hope the amount of separation this group has gotten to date will continue against B1G competition, that's especially a concern with Tyler Johnson (who was fantastic again aside from the drop) as he's not the fastest guy out there.

I might be the biggest skeptic of this defense, because I keep feeling like they are going to get exposed, yet they continue to give up basically nothing. Take away the two short field TD's courtesy of offensive miscues and this group has given up ONE TD? Just fantastic. The secondary has vastly exceeded my expectations to date and even Shenault made a big play. If this group had just one full sized DE that could really play, I'd feel far more bullish about their prospects going forward.

For those asking, the spot on the Johnson catch was horrific and the announcers on TV agreed. They seemed surprised the ruling wasn't overturned.
 

I had to watch the game on an iPad so that was a big negative. Some flash impressions:

Plus:
Bryce Williams has some jets. He isn’t as physical as Brooks or as good at escaping a bad play as Smith but he has some skills. Excited for him.
Annexstad continues to impress with his poise and his accuracy on short to medium.
Barber showed up hungry.
Carter Coughlin growing into a force.
Shenault made some nice plays.
Herbers.
TJ with some nice plays and athleticism.

Minus:
The protection is going to get our QBs killed. Disagree with those saying it’s mostly Annexstad. Giving a QB 1-1.5 seconds of protection isn’t good enough.
But, OTOH at times he does drift back instead of stepping up. I’m sure they’re hammering on that.
TJs hands are alternately clutch vs Wozniak-like.
Annexstad’s accuracy and touch on deep passes continue to underwhelm, eg throwing it 5 yards out of bounds. That has to get better to really unleash Bateman.
PJ declining the penalty. I’d like to hear the reasoning on that one.
Cashman hurt. That could really hamstring the D.

Overall I think this team is way better than I hoped for. That, combined with some teams underperforming this season has me excited for a Cinderella season. Get Brooks back, unleash Bateman, improve at O line and D line play...something special could happen.

Don’t @ me

Generally I agree with most of your points.

We are a little flip flopped on our opinions of Zack.

Let me preface this by saying that for a true freshman, he has played remarkably. However, I think his poise in the pocket is his biggest issue. It is impossible to block for someone who leaves the pocket immediately. He will get better at this, but it's a problem right now.

As far as his deep passes, he threw a great pass to TJ along the sideline. That was a more difficult throw than it might seem (timing and touch and a fairly deep pass). He also had two deep passes that were fairly accurate (I think the one was intentionally underthrown) that resulted in PI calls. Unfortunately for Bateman and Zack, those don't show up, but if he sailed those throws, there never would have been PI calls.

As far as Bryce, I couldn't agree more. He does the most important things that a running back does. He is patient and finds the lanes. He also finishes strong. He is a true freshman, he will eventually make those safeties miss. He did make two of them miss on his screen play.
 

Hopefully something that a little TLC and rest will remedy.

I thought it was a cramp, it looked like he was doing cramp stretches on the sideline.

I might be wrong, but that is my 2 cent opinion.
 

As I mentioned I don’t totally disagree Bob but even when the QBs are stepping up they have guys in their face. Linemen getting schooled, RBs confused.
 

As I mentioned I don’t totally disagree Bob but even when the QBs are stepping up they have guys in their face. Linemen getting schooled, RBs confused.

Agree. The line has to get better before Iowa. IIRC on the sack where he hurt is ankle he literally had the guy on him in less than 2 seconds. He's staying in as long as he can, getting knocked down on a number of passes, like that second TD pass to Johnson.
 

The thing I've noticed is that Annexstad's initial reaction is to retreat and that can be corrected with experience. He's a true freshman and regardless of how tough the competition he faced at IMG, he probably had a decent chance of outrunning the immediate pursuit to get outside the pocket. That's not going to work at the D1 level. But I agree with PMWinSTP, in a number of instances, he has next to no time to do anything else except take the sack.

I noticed that Miami used a couple of all-out blitzes that were effective against Annexstad (and, by extension, the offense) that the coaching staff will have to address. The line just seemed completely overmatched in those instances and looked really confused. It would seem like that's a situation where the tight end could be open on a quick slant, but that doesn't seem to be in the offense. I think the problems are correctable, but my guess is we are going to see a lot of blitzes until we have an effective and consistent counterpunch.
 




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