How only two or three players can make a huge difference...

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Great Plains Gopher

Great Plains Gopher

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Imagine if Brooks, Smith and Winfield were available all season. Imagine if Adrian Martinez had come here instead of Nebraska and Spielman had stayed home (and Brooks or Smith were healthy). We'd be in the run for the West title either way.
 

Yep, but that NEVER HAPPENS for us. We're cursed, we're the Minnesota Gophers. We can never have nice things.
 
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Imagine if we were good enough where we don’t need everything to go perfectly to win. Where we have enough depth to overcome an injury to a defensive back.
 

Imagine if Brooks, Smith and Winfield were available all season. Imagine if Adrian Martinez had come here instead of Nebraska and Spielman had stayed home (and Brooks or Smith were healthy). We'd be in the run for the West title either way
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I didn't know any of them played OL or DL.
 



If my aunt had a dick she'd be my uncle

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Imagine if we were good enough where we don’t need everything to go perfectly to win. Where we have enough depth to overcome an injury to a defensive back.
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Depends on what the "to win" is.

The top teams certainly have enough talent to still be bowl eligible with critical losses.... but even the top teams are potentially vulnerable to a handful of injuries wiping out playoff chances.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Depends on what the "to win" is.

The top teams certainly have enough talent to still be bowl eligible with critical losses.... but even the top teams are potentially vulnerable to a handful of injuries wiping out playoff chances.
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I think Bama or OSU winning 9-10 games instead of 11-12 after suffering some key injuries qualifies as winning still.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I think Bama or OSU winning 9-10 games instead of 11-12 after suffering some key injuries qualifies as winning still.
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I think so too, but it's not like they're invulnerable to the impact. We might think so because we'd love 9-10 games... but CFB is a game where a handful of high performers really drive the end results.
 



Great Plains Gopher said:
Imagine if Brooks, Smith and Winfield were available all season. Imagine if Adrian Martinez had come here instead of Nebraska and Spielman had stayed home (and Brooks or Smith were healthy). We'd be in the run for the West title either way.
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We still would've lost to Maryland.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Depends on what the "to win" is.

The top teams certainly have enough talent to still be bowl eligible with critical losses.... but even the top teams are potentially vulnerable to a handful of injuries wiping out playoff chances.
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"to win" is to win football games. Not make excuses about how things would be different with Brooks, Smith, Winfield, etc. I REALLY like those guys and I know our running game should be hurt by losing our top two RBs. However, that doesn't change the offensive line, defensive line, etc.

Losing Winfield sucks. We got shredded by Maryland. Is he so good that we win, or even stay close, vs Maryland with him? I don't think so.

EVERY. SINGLE. TEAM. HAS. INJURIES. Plenty of them still go 8-4 or whatever. Just because you have injuries doesn't mean you can't win. Ohio State won a national title with a 3rd string quarterback. We get drilled by Maryland because Winfield is out. OK.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
"to win" is to win football games. Not make excuses about how things would be different with Brooks, Smith, Winfield, etc. I REALLY like those guys and I know our running game should be hurt by losing our top two RBs. However, that doesn't change the offensive line, defensive line, etc.

Losing Winfield sucks. We got shredded by Maryland. Is he so good that we win, or even stay close, vs Maryland with him? I don't think so.

EVERY. SINGLE. TEAM. HAS. INJURIES. Plenty of them still go 8-4 or whatever. Just because you have injuries doesn't mean you can't win. Ohio State won a national title with a 3rd string quarterback. We get drilled by Maryland because Winfield is out. OK.
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I don't ... have any idea what you mean.

You just don't want to hear anyone say that it is different with critical injured players?

If they win one more than they loose that is good enough provided you don't hear anyone say what you don't like?
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
"to win" is to win football games. Not make excuses about how things would be different with Brooks, Smith, Winfield, etc. I REALLY like those guys and I know our running game should be hurt by losing our top two RBs. However, that doesn't change the offensive line, defensive line, etc.

Losing Winfield sucks. We got shredded by Maryland. Is he so good that we win, or even stay close, vs Maryland with him? I don't think so.

EVERY. SINGLE. TEAM. HAS. INJURIES. Plenty of them still go 8-4 or whatever. Just because you have injuries doesn't mean you can't win. Ohio State won a national title with a 3rd string quarterback. We get drilled by Maryland because Winfield is out. OK.
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Dude, I hear what you're saying: great programs have enough depth to overcome injuries, even to critical players. But let's be honest: OSU's 2nd and 3rd string players are mostly better than MN's starters. That "3rd string QB" got drafted into the NFL...while MN hasn't had a QB drafted since, well, it's been a long time.

MN has suffered season ending injuries to arguably their 3 best players. Rodney and Antoine are among the best in the conference at their positions...and BOTH are out. I mean, that would be absolutely devastating to most teams, let alone a team that won 5 games last year and is relying on Frosh all over the field. I want them to simply man up and overcome injuries as much as the next guy, but it ain't that easy. I sure hope the coaches have a good plan moving forward though...at least to minimize the loss of these guys.
 




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