[POST GAME THREAD] Iowa defeats Minnesota 23-19

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EG#9 said:
I don't know what the guy above me is talking about because this is by far my the most painful loss in my 30 years as a fan. To lose an undefeated season to ****ing Iowa really ****ing sucks.

It felt like the only way our passing game could be stopped was by Ciarrocca calling a running play. The special teams probably were a1 0-14 point difference in a 4 point game and that's before you get to any of the BS calls.

I am worried going forward, that was the worst we've seen the team play since South Dakota. We get the team that plalyed Georgia Southern and we're 10-0. The defense was atrocious to start the game due to either coming out flat or having a terrible game plan. That start was enough to screw us with how inept the special teams were for the entire game.

I absolutely hated three decisions in this game: 1. The decision to kick the FG before half with the ball on the 2 and 4 seconds left: you can argue this worked out, but on the road down 20-3 and with a good offense I think you have to try to punch it in there to dramatically increase your odds of the comeback. 2. The decision to go for it on 4th and 4 down 7 in the 3rd quarter: Why would you kick in the first half and then not kick here? Makes zero sense as you are going to need points regardless. This FG would have been from straight on, but Walker might have ****ing missed anyways. 3. The decision to go for the onside kick. This one was brutal to me and the most unforgiveable. Iowa is so f'ing conservative, put them at the 25 and make them punt back to you.
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There are a lot of things we all have and can point to that cost them the game, but kicking the onsides kick in that situation was certainly not one of them. Giving them the ball there or deeper, we still needed to stop them. Recovering it, however, would have been a game changing moment that may have led to a game winner.

All that said, there was no reason at all to have to onsides kick if they had just tried not to keep wasting time on the previous scoring drive. But, because they wasted so much time, the onsides kick was very nearly necessary. All Iowa had to do was make one first down to seal it if we give them the ball back in typical fashion.
 


cncmin said:
There are a lot of things we all have and can point to that cost them the game, but kicking the onsides kick in that situation was certainly not one of them. Giving them the ball there or deeper, we still needed to stop them. Recovering it, however, would have been a game changing moment that may have led to a game winner.

All that said, there was no reason at all to have to onsides kick if they had just tried not to keep wasting time on the previous scoring drive. But, because they wasted so much time, the onsides kick was very nearly necessary. All Iowa had to do was make one first down to seal it if we give them the ball back in typical fashion.
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They didn't need to onside kick there. They got the ball back with over a minute to play and could have had it at their own 40 instead of the 20 had they kicked it deep. The onside had less of a chance to workout than the Walker 50 yard field goal.
 




Should’ve taken the points in the 3rd quarter on 4th and 4


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Sucks, but come on...the emotion spent on Penn state...then rivalry game on road against #20? We're not good enough to pull that off yet.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
That one guy, Espinosa?, really had a game.
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Yeah, he had himself a field day on the left tackle. If Dunlap being out hurt the Gophers, it might have been more because they couldn't use the heavy package vs. Epenesa than a direct impact at right guard.
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
Better team? Iowa won and outplayed, out coached us. Yards are where they are because we were playing from behind.

Iowa’s defense is really good. Holding us to the point total they did is not surprising. The Gophers came back and beat inferior teams. They didn’t with a comparable team. Nothing to be embarrassed about, other than the stupid PJ penalty. They didn’t lose to a bad team. They play an even better team than Iowa in two weeks, and I don’t understand why people feel “good” about that. Wisconsin likely better than PSU - they just choked a game away at IL. Will be a good game.


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Game script does not explain a 141 delta in total yards or 5 delta in 1st downs.
Minnesota absolutely outplayed Iowa today.
I hammer this every week. The best team doesn't always win.
I don't think that Minnesota is better than PSU, and I don't think that Iowa is better than Minnesota.

Scores are results and reflect one outcome. How you get to that score predicts future success.
 




DCinOK said:
Sucks, but come on...the emotion spent on Penn state...then rivalry game on road against #20? We're not good enough to pull that off yet.
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We will not be good enough until we develop a defensive line . If we don't blitz, they are completely invisible.

They don't support the run all that well either.
 

hello-world said:
Game script does not explain a 141 delta in total yards or 5 delta in 1st downs.
Minnesota absolutely outplayed Iowa today.
I hammer this every week. The best team doesn't always win.
I don't think that Minnesota is better than PSU, and I don't think that Iowa is better than Minnesota.

Scores are results and reflect one outcome. How you get to that score predicts future success.
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You make some good points. PSU is probably slightly better than Minnesota, who is slightly better than Iowa. But if the better team always won, football would be boring. This team could be 10-0 right now. Could also be 7-3. I'll take 9-1 going into game #11.
 

Hopefully PJ can change his best after this one. Failure is growth.
 



Goldteam said:
We will not be good enough until we develop a defensive line . If we don't blitz, they are completely invisible.

They don't support the run all that well either.
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Any hype for some of the incoming recruits? The best D lineman is graduating, as well.
 

Face The Facts said:
PJ ran onto the field too soon when TJ got knocked down.
Too fast.

That's the penalty.
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I heard PJ's presser and that's what he said but I am thinking until the ref blows the whistle for an injury PJ can't come on the field.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
I heard PJ's presser and that's what he said but I am thinking until the ref blows the whistle for an injury PJ can't come on the field.
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Yeh. I watched the replay numerous times to find a way to defend PJ on this (because that's what I do).
But he was out there within a couple seconds. I swear if there is an alt-22 view of the full field, PJ was probably a step onto the field before TJ's butt hit the ground.
 



EG#9 said:
They didn't need to onside kick there. They got the ball back with over a minute to play and could have had it at their own 40 instead of the 20 had they kicked it deep. The onside had less of a chance to workout than the Walker 50 yard field goal.
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This. If you have a kicker that’s been tested, it makes more sense. But this is effectively his second game action, and he’s a freshman. The 50 yard FG was beyond dumb. Hasn’t Fleck said in the past that Ryerse is the “long” FG kicker? I swear he’s made that statement before. Regardless, based on the kicking situation, that decision seemed more reckless than aggressive.

Again, considering the kicking situation, the onside kick seems like a poor choice. The defense had been playing well in the second half, I think you trust them at that point to get you a stop.
 


Iowa is really good. They were only a few plays away from being 9-0 as well.

They got TDs in the red zone. We had to settle for field goals and didn’t score on one of the key drives of the game. That’s really it.
 

Went to the game. I'm disappointed, but like many here I'm trying to keep a level head about this. Few things:

1) So many things went wrong it was just ridiculous. Really great moments, but so many deflating plays, penalties, and bad breaks. Tough to beat ranked teams on the road when you don't play perfectly.

2) I haven't watched Iowa much, but I think it's pretty clear they put in a few wrinkles early and saw some stuff on film that had the Minnesota D on their heels. They took the ball to start the game because they were very confident they'd score. That ain't a Ferentz move. MN D settled and pretty much shut Iowa down after that, but the damage was done. One of the worst redzone offenses in the B1G converted their first 3 chances.

3) Stanley made some huge throws to extend drives. A lot of that was the continued lack of pass rush by MN which is certainly worrisome. Every time they generated pressure, Stanley either took a sack or made a bad throw. MN needed to find a way to create more pressure, but for the most part they didn't.

4) Whether you like it or not, the team has a lot of young players (especially on O). That was an EXTREMELY tough environment against a good team. It was incredibly loud and MN was playing from 2+ scores behind almost the entire game. The excellent Iowa DL could pretty much pin their ears back and not worry about the running game much because of the game script. Failure is growth, I guess.

5) There were quite a few Gophers fans there, so respect to everyone who came. Didn't have a lot to cheer about for long stretches, but there was a point when a very loud "Let's Go Gophers" chant started in one of the corners while Iowa was on offense. Majority of Iowa fans I encountered were super complimentary and now want MN to destroy Wisc. I appreciated that.

6) I never thought MN was out of it. I love this team so much. High character, explosive offense, lots of belief. At 20-3, I told my brother we'd get points before half, score a TD on the first drive out of half to pull within a score, shut Iowa down, and eventually win 24-23.
 

Oregon Gopher said:
Sam did not have a great game


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Epensa is expected to be a top 10 draft pick. A lot of solid players have a bad game against him. Iowa’s DBs had a bad game against Johnson and Bateman.
 

I'm bummed, but more worried about Morgan.

Still at least 3 more games this season.
 

John Galt said:
Epensa is expected to be a top 10 draft pick. A lot of solid players have a bad game against him. Iowa’s DBs had a bad game against Johnson and Bateman.
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Epenesa is really good, no doubt but he had 2.5 sacks and IIRC 2 near strip sack/fumbles that resulted in wounded duck passes. Schleuter was abused by a very talented player, but don’t try to sugar coat it too much. Epenesa had 4.5 sacks on the season coming into the game.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Epenesa is really good, no doubt but he had 2.5 sacks and IIRC 2 near strip sack/fumbles that resulted in wounded duck passes. Schleuter was abused by a very talented player, but don’t try to sugar coat it too much. Epenesa had 4.5 sacks on the season coming into the game.
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He was also able to pin his ears back and only worry about rushing the passer as we were down the entire game.
 

howeda7 said:
We played poorly on the road at the #20 team in the country and still almost won.

But it's still frustrating as hell. With a different kicker, we're probably playing OT right now. If Johnson catches that pass, we probably win.
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If you’re saying that because of missing the 50 yarder that’s unlikely. NCAA rate of success last year at >50 yards was ~33%


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icepirate13 said:
Should’ve taken the points in the 3rd quarter on 4th and 4


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I was saying this at the time. Take the 3. Yes he missed the xtra point, but prior to that I thought he’d been kicking well. All his kicks vs PSU looked good. If you trust him to try from 50 you trust him there. Fleck going for it had nothing to do with a lack of confidence in the kicker and he should have kicked the FG. Just like last week PSU should have taken the 3.


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John Galt said:
He was also able to pin his ears back and only worry about rushing the passer as we were down the entire game.
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So the guys get a mulligan every passing down? That’s a new one. Epenesa is really good, and he made Sam look silly a few times. I wish we had two Epenesas.
 

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