On the topic of Tanner and opportunities

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A_Slab_of_Bacon

A_Slab_of_Bacon

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So the OL was terrible last night and that likely colors all this, and Tanner's completion % was good ... but ...

Watching tanner through the binoculars last night I felt like our QB missed a lot of opportunities that don't show up on the stats as there wasn't a pass attempt.

It looked to me like South Dakota State basically committed their defense to whatever they saw first and it worked most of the time. There were numerous occasions where the defense was shifted entirely to one side or all up in the box leaving lots of 1 on 1s with WRs and DBs, and Tanner didn't see it, and we still forced the play right into the defense. On passes when Tanner did try to get to his check downs the secondary would have already committed to where Tanner's head was pointed first and it felt like he just didn't see where his other WRs were in more open spaces or make the defense pay for committing the way they did.

He's young, and it was a rough night for the OL, but it was frustrating to see what seemed like a lot of opportunity lost out there and I'm concerned if this continues to be an issue it's kinda a full stop for the offense as we play other teams who won't be afraid to commit to plays, and we run right into them.

The most worrisome is how the result was South Dakota State seemed to not have to adjust much. They committed to die by the sword of whatever they saw first and ... it didn't hurt them much. They could just go whole hog on whatever they saw first, and that nullified what should have been the usual OOC game scenario where eventually the better teams athleticism and talent just win out over a few quarters when it comes to one on one battles and making plays.

Granted I was riding the bench in the stands (my knee is better but i'm still listed as day to day) so what do I know and maybe I change my mind after I watch it on TV.

Wondering if anyone else thought / saw any of the same.
 

I didn't see what you saw. I saw Tanner go 13-18 with 2 crucial drops by our best WR. I saw him evade a couple sacks and make a nice throw on the run for a big gain when he could have played it "safe" by running 5 yards OOB. I saw him use his feet a couple times for a few decent runs. For a kid making his 7th or 8th start I thought he did pretty well.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
I didn't see what you saw. I saw Tanner go 13-18 with 2 crucial drops by our best WR. I saw him evade a couple sacks and make a nice throw on the run for a big gain when he could have played it "safe" by running 5 yards OOB. I saw him use his feet a couple times for a few decent runs. For a kid making his 7th or 8th start I thought he did pretty well.
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I agree with this. And the offense isn't predicated on Tanner making the presnap play call in all situations. A ton of that is run by the coaching staff on the sideline, who got outcoached by SDSUs shifting late presnap. Why they we're prepared for that is beyond me, but I'm hopeful some of this is due to SDSU having a whole off season to try prepare for what was overall a generally pretty vanilla scheme
 

I agree with much of what you have written. I'm not necessarily putting it on Morgan, the coaching staff may have limited his ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage, or they were interested in seeing how a particular play was run. Under any scenario, the Gophers appeared to run into whatever strength of formation SDSU presented.

On the line of scrimmage, both the offense and defense seemed over matched at times, too many times. Were they physically inferior or out schemed? I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest they played vanilla on both sides and thought their superior size would prevail. They prevailed, but not because of size.

As to Morgan, he played pretty well in my opinion if the Gophers played a vanilla game plan.
 

To your point, the play that stood out to me was IIRC late in the third Morgan attempted to force one into Bateman who was triple covered. Accross the field was Johnson with one on one coverage. Johnson had his guy beat. Frustrating.
 


STPGopher said:
To your point, the play that stood out to me was IIRC late in the third Morgan attempted to force one into Bateman who was triple covered. Accross the field was Johnson with one on one coverage. Johnson had his guy beat. Frustrating.
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Yup, I was thinking of that one too. A few WRs looked a little slow walking back to the sideline after being pretty well open and the play went the wrong way.

In fairness that happens to some extent or another every game, but it felt like it was a bit more pronounced last night.
 

IMO he didn’t really have the time to process the whole field while being under duress pretty much all night. The protection was mostly horrendous. And, he’s a young QB that seems smart - he’ll get better. He did seem to hold the ball a tick too long at times and that may be a result of an unwillingness to go through a progression or maybe he’s coached that way right now. He mostly stood in there and took shots after the pass or was able to scramble to daylight. Overall he continues to show a ton of promise.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
So the OL was terrible last night and that likely colors all this, and Tanner's completion % was good ... but ...

Watching tanner through the binoculars last night I felt like our QB missed a lot of opportunities that don't show up on the stats as there wasn't a pass attempt.

It looked to me like South Dakota State basically committed their defense to whatever they saw first and it worked most of the time. There were numerous occasions where the defense was shifted entirely to one side or all up in the box leaving lots of 1 on 1s with WRs and DBs, and Tanner didn't see it, and we still forced the play right into the defense. On passes when Tanner did try to get to his check downs the secondary would have already committed to where Tanner's head was pointed first and it felt like he just didn't see where his other WRs were in more open spaces or make the defense pay for committing the way they did.

He's young, and it was a rough night for the OL, but it was frustrating to see what seemed like a lot of opportunity lost out there and I'm concerned if this continues to be an issue it's kinda a full stop for the offense as we play other teams who won't be afraid to commit to plays, and we run right into them.

The most worrisome is how the result was South Dakota State seemed to not have to adjust much. They committed to die by the sword of whatever they saw first and ... it didn't hurt them much. They could just go whole hog on whatever they saw first, and that nullified what should have been the usual OOC game scenario where eventually the better teams athleticism and talent just win out over a few quarters when it comes to one on one battles and making plays.

Granted I was riding the bench in the stands (my knee is better but i'm still listed as day to day) so what do I know and maybe I change my mind after I watch it on TV.

Wondering if anyone else thought / saw any of the same.
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Don't know about the plays where "there wasn't a pass attempt"; I'll have to re-watch the game.

But "a lot of missed opportunities" seems unlikely to me.

1) The game plan was clearly to run, run, run... and I agree with that plan. We have to be a dominant run team, or we'll be mediocre at best this season. We have a huge offensive line, and they are simply going to be better at run blocking than they will facing speed edge rushers while pass blocking. Also, this was an opponent we should have pounded on the ground. I'm going to guess Morgan was told to lean on the run game, and that he made choices accordingly.

2) As far as throwing is concerned, he completed, what, 13 of 18? If you factor in at least 2 passes that were clearly dropped by the receiver, that's 15 of 18 throws that found their target. Hard to see "missed opportunities" there... certainly not "a lot" of them.

We apparently have our problems, I'm afraid, but to me QB play is far, far down the list. We will have to regain our swagger from late last year in the run game, or we'll be on the outside looking as the season progresses.
 
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Pompous Elitist said:
IMO he didn’t really have the time to process the whole field while being under duress pretty much all night. The protection was mostly horrendous. And, he’s a young QB that seems smart - he’ll get better. He did seem to hold the ball a tick too long at times and that may be a result of an unwillingness to go through a progression or maybe he’s coached that way right now. He mostly stood in there and took shots after the pass or was able to scramble to daylight. Overall he continues to show a ton of promise.
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Yes, O-Line was atrocious. But I'm sure that will be the best Def. line we will see all year so things should improve:clap:
 



Stats aren’t everything, but here’s his line.

- 13/18 (72.2%) with two drops by TJ, and another incompletion that Bateman had both hands, and couldn’t come down with (admittedly, a tough catch, but one he probably thinks he should he should have had).

-176 yards.

-9.8 yards per attempt, which is higher than last season, when he was something like 7th in the country.

-1 TD/ 1 INT - The interception was bad, but it happens to all of them, even the best.

-161.6 rating, which is quite a bit higher than last year’s number, which was one of the best in the conference.

His deep ball continues to be underrated. That TD pass to Bateman couldn’t have been any more on the money.

He probably has room for improvement in certain areas (who doesn’t?), but with one of the freshman in there, we probably would have been shut out.



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The OL did not give him the best protection.

Example: the simple stunt (the DT shoots out across the guard's face towards the OT, and then the DE loops around past the guard to the inside), which the left side completely whiffed on. Sack


Another example: DE got under Schlueter's pads and pushed him right into Tanner's lap. You just can't do much as a QB, especially when you're 6' tall and your 6'7" OT is getting pushed right into you.
 

The announcers said several times that SDSU had 7 defensive lineman that they rotated to keep fresh. So the wearing down factor was mitigated. They also did a lot of loading box and stunts. The good thing about getting to conference schedule is our o-line will be going against big d-lines, not the smaller quicker d-line that SDSU has.(and first game of the year fresh)
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
I didn't see what you saw. I saw Tanner go 13-18 with 2 crucial drops by our best WR. I saw him evade a couple sacks and make a nice throw on the run for a big gain when he could have played it "safe" by running 5 yards OOB. I saw him use his feet a couple times for a few decent runs. For a kid making his 7th or 8th start I thought he did pretty well.
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Maybe I'm wrong but I didn't think the first one was Johnson's fault. At the very least it was a very tough catch, went off his fingertips. Too bad though, I think that goes for a TD because there was no one on the side of the field he was running to.
 



Thymanst said:
The announcers said several times that SDSU had 7 defensive lineman that they rotated to keep fresh. So the wearing down factor was mitigated. They also did a lot of loading box and stunts. The good thing about getting to conference schedule is our o-line will be going against big d-lines, not the smaller quicker d-line that SDSU has.(and first game of the year fresh)
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I'm not sure that makes me feel better as that smaller SDSU dline was physically pushing our OL back way fast.... "going against big d-lines" does not bode well.
 

My concern on offense:

The Gophers seemed unwilling to run the ball wide last night. There has been so much talk about how big the offensive line is, so what if they weren't just unwilling but were unable to do it? Is there so much bulk that it's been sacrificed for foot speed? Do we not have linemen who can pull and/or seal the edge on a sweep?

I'd hate to think that the only reasonable option for a running play is between the tackles with tight splits.
 

I am rewatching the game right now and that play just came on. He had his hands on it just went through. Not an “easy” catch particularly running in traffic across the middle but an elite WR should have had that. It wasn’t a fastball. TJ does have issues with watching it into the glove so to speak.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
I am rewatching the game right now and that play just came on. He had his hands on it just went through. Not an “easy” catch particularly running in traffic across the middle but an elite WR should have had that. It wasn’t a fastball. TJ does have issues with watching it into the glove so to speak.
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The drops are the one thing really keeping TJ for ascending to that next tier of WR. He seems to be really prone to dropping 1-2 catchable balls every game.
 

Thymanst said:
The announcers said several times that SDSU had 7 defensive lineman that they rotated to keep fresh. So the wearing down factor was mitigated. They also did a lot of loading box and stunts. The good thing about getting to conference schedule is our o-line will be going against big d-lines, not the smaller quicker d-line that SDSU has.(and first game of the year fresh)
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Are you certain that SDSU's DL was smaller than the average Big Ten DL?

They have some pretty big boys on both lines.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Yup, I was thinking of that one too. A few WRs looked a little slow walking back to the sideline after being pretty well open and the play went the wrong way.

In fairness that happens to some extent or another every game, but it felt like it was a bit more pronounced last night.
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Yep, me too. He was pretty locked on that throw and I was thinking INT as soon as it left his hand.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
IMO he didn’t really have the time to process the whole field while being under duress pretty much all night. The protection was mostly horrendous. And, he’s a young QB that seems smart - he’ll get better. He did seem to hold the ball a tick too long at times and that may be a result of an unwillingness to go through a progression or maybe he’s coached that way right now. He mostly stood in there and took shots after the pass or was able to scramble to daylight. Overall he continues to show a ton of promise.
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Looked like What ZA was dealing with early last year. Pressure, lack of protection, and no pocket to speak of. He did what he could given the situation.

The progression thing has been something I have observed as a noticeable difference between Morgan and Annexstad going back to last Fall camp. Zack seemed to naturally go through his.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
IMO he didn’t really have the time to process the whole field while being under duress pretty much all night. The protection was mostly horrendous. And, he’s a young QB that seems smart - he’ll get better. He did seem to hold the ball a tick too long at times and that may be a result of an unwillingness to go through a progression or maybe he’s coached that way right now. He mostly stood in there and took shots after the pass or was able to scramble to daylight. Overall he continues to show a ton of promise.
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This is what I observed last night as well. I thought, given his limited time in the pocket to make a decision, he played better than average. There was one instance where he held the ball entirely too long when he had all day to make a decision, but other than that, he simply didn't have the time.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Looked like What ZA was dealing with early last year. Pressure, lack of protection, and no pocket to speak of. He did what he could given the situation.

The progression thing has been something I have observed as a noticeable difference between Morgan and Annexstad going back to last Fall camp. Zack seemed to naturally go through his.
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Sorry but I’d totally disagree. He locks in just as much IMO. Young QBs. ZA would have gotten killed back there last night being less mobile.
 

Urbandale said:
My concern on offense:

The Gophers seemed unwilling to run the ball wide last night. There has been so much talk about how big the offensive line is, so what if they weren't just unwilling but were unable to do it? Is there so much bulk that it's been sacrificed for foot speed? Do we not have linemen who can pull and/or seal the edge on a sweep?

I'd hate to think that the only reasonable option for a running play is between the tackles with tight splits.
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Very conservative approach, for sure.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Sorry but I’d totally disagree. He locks in just as much IMO. Young QBs. ZA would have gotten killed back there last night being less mobile.
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In Spring and Fall practice scrimmage, it was absolutely noticeable. As I said, they both were experiencing the same poor line play and that changes a lot. Morgan looked very similar to ZA in the early games last year trying to deal with the pressure.
 

PitinoFan said:
Stats aren’t everything, but here’s his line.

- 13/18 (72.2%) with two drops by TJ, and another incompletion that Bateman had both hands, and couldn’t come down with (admittedly, a tough catch, but one he probably thinks he should he should have had).

-176 yards.

-9.8 yards per attempt, which is higher than last season, when he was something like 7th in the country.

-1 TD/ 1 INT - The interception was bad, but it happens to all of them, even the best.

-161.6 rating, which is quite a bit higher than last year’s number, which was one of the best in the conference.

His deep ball continues to be underrated. That TD pass to Bateman couldn’t have been any more on the money.

He probably has room for improvement in certain areas (who doesn’t?), but with one of the freshman in there, we probably would have been shut out.
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If Tanner Morgan roughly duplicates this stat line throughout the course of the season, we'll be golden. That is, assuming we can get our running game back on track — which we will.

He's a gamer. I'm glad to have him. His scrambling impressed me as well.
 

RememberMurray said:
If Tanner Morgan roughly duplicates this stat line throughout the course of the season, we'll be golden. That is, assuming we can get our running game back on track — which we will.

He's a gamer. I'm glad to have him. His scrambling impressed me as well.
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If we have an interception every game I don’t think we’ll be golden. Otherwise I think TM played well. He did miss a wide open Bateman on a play where he ultimately forced it to TJ that I think would have gone for 6, but my issue wasn’t with TM last night. We looked unprepared and our big guys weren’t physically dominating. Hopefully that’s something that can be changed quickly to replicate the end of last year. Maybe it was a stylistic matchup issue. I guess we’ll find a lot out next Saturday.
 

RememberMurray said:
If Tanner Morgan roughly duplicates this stat line throughout the course of the season, we'll be golden. That is, assuming we can get our running game back on track — which we will.

He's a gamer. I'm glad to have him. His scrambling impressed me as well.
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I agree.

Most importantly, he’s now 5-2 as a starter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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That the Offensive Line has to improve is an understatement. They have to protect Tanner Morgan better. And right, the run blocking has to improve. This is their bread and butter. Where were the TE's?
 

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