#7 at safety is a failed experiment....

Eyes in the wrong place. Illinois QB said he got #7 to move right and let it rip when Williams split it.
Yes, that is exactly what the QB said. He fooled us. A lot of questions here, including why we don’t have a QB as good as Illinois’ backup.
 

Williams started on Ghouls side, so I don’t know why people on here are saying it was Nubin’s man when he’s lined up on the other side.
because he ran into Nubin’s zone?Seems like 7 and 27 did not communicate properly. 7 can only let him go if 27 takes him.

Again, to me the bigger problem was that their QB was allowed so much time to let such a play develop. Pathetic.
 

because he ran into Nubin’s zone?Seems like 7 and 27 did not communicate properly. 7 can only let him go if 27 takes him.

Again, to me the bigger problem was that their QB was allowed so much time to let such a play develop. Pathetic.

Also, that's a job for your top CB to guard the speed burn bomb route. Gophers don't have that. Big offseason need is a #1 CB.

No safety is going to be able to win a track meet against that WR for Illinois Williams.

Bad coach decision, but then again if they don't have a CB to do that job... would Nubin be your best chance? I don't know.
 

@SHGopher thanks for the still shots!

The ILL receiver started out on #7 (Gousby) side, then worked towards the middle.

You can say they were in 2-deep zone, probably were. But you can't just stay in your zone forever. Eventually you have to break out of that and go make a play.

There is also a thing called "zone match", but I have no idea if they were running that either. Regardless, you can't let a defender get behind you as a safety. That's like football 101.
 

because he ran into Nubin’s zone?Seems like 7 and 27 did not communicate properly. 7 can only let him go if 27 takes him.

Again, to me the bigger problem was that their QB was allowed so much time to let such a play develop. Pathetic.
Exactly what I have been saying. #7 thought #27 had him, #27 thought #7 had him. End result no one had him. Poor communication, because poor coaching. Sad
 


Williams ran a great route and he’s fast. We were playing zone with 2 safeties deep. All players were watching their zones. Cody Lindenberg started to cover Williams in his zone and quickly Williams zoomed passed Cody’s zone, then it’s the 2 safeties, Nubin and Gousby, responsibilities. It’s neither Nubin or Gousby s fault, Williams was simply just too fast and split his route between both of our safeties and neither of them could close their gap soon enough.

BTW, Gousby is a freshman so definitely he’s not as experienced but this busted play was not his fault.

Great pass by the backup 5th year transfer and a great determined route by Williams.

Looking back, the only way we could’ve disrupted this last play was we were playing Man-to-Man with Cody checked Williams at the line to delay his route and then someone defended Williams one-on-one.

Our D’s mentality was too cocky to play zone. Williams was their best receiver and coming into this game Williams was known to be their best receiver, how we ignored him as if his a normal dude, I have no clue.

Their entire last drive (3 plays), our D just went through the motions and Rossi did not place an emphasis on their most dynamic receiver.

Watch the highlight video again, pause it and run it back and forth, you’ll see Williams just ran past everyone like a ghost, like a hot knife through butter. By the time we paid him any attention, it was too late, he’s already beyond Nubin and Gousby.
People are ripping the players, but I'm putting most of this on Rossi. He made the wrong call. There is no way we should have been in a 2 cover zone in that situation. We just needed to keep them from scoring a TD.
 

Also, that's a job for your top CB to guard the speed burn bomb route. Gophers don't have that. Big offseason need is a #1 CB.

No safety is going to be able to win a track meet against that WR for Illinois Williams.

Bad coach decision, but then again if they don't have a CB to do that job... would Nubin be your best chance? I don't know.
They were playing zone. There was no man on this play. We’ve been really poor in zone all year and why coaches feel this idiotic need to play zone prevent at the end of games is mind boggling. Rossi played like he thought Illinois would be running underneath crosser man beaters and that he could rely on your running out and they drilled our soft zone every time. Man it’s easier assignment wise and you can have 2 deep safeties if you’rehell bent on only rushing 4 and you can per at the line. For whatever reason Rossi seems to have trouble making on the fly adjustments rather than those he can make at half. As soon as they completed the 4th and 11 we should’ve stopped the clock and reset. Instead on our heels and never recovered
 




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