Anyone in my boat?

Donate To GopherHole
MaxyJR1

MaxyJR1

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
11,686
Reaction score
5,919
Points
113
After watching scores in the Big Ten and some of the games this season, I think this team can go 8-4 this year. I know the offense is a worry, but I think people are underestimating this team so far.
 

I guessed 7-5 before the season began and all things considered, I think that is still my guess so if I am not in your boat I am at least within range of your thrown life preserver.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
After watching scores in the Big Ten and some of the games this season, I think this team can go 8-4 this year. I know the offense is a worry, but I think people are underestimating this team so far.
Click to expand...

I got my swim trunks and my flippie floppies, so count me in.

Need to see more from the "O" for it to happen. But the little Gopher optimist inside of me sees plenty to like.
 

Of course we can. We could also go 2-10.

But I agree with your optimism. The only games I would put in the "Not Likely to Win Unless the Other Team Totally Falters" category are Cal, OSU, and PSU. We could win the rest with only a few things going our way. I like 9-3 in that scenario. Realistically? I'm still going with 6-6.
 

Schnauzer said:
I guessed 7-5 before the season began and all things considered, I think that is still my guess so if I am not in your boat I am at least within range of your thrown life preserver.
Click to expand...

Close enough. Welcome to the boat Schnauzer. We've got a maroon and gold nautical themed Pashmina afghan set aside just for you.

(Damn you Maxy for getting me going with the "I'm on a Boat" nonense! :))
 


I like this team. I'd much rather be in the position of having a strong defense and an inconsistent, but developing offense (that does have some weapons) than the other way around as we've seen many times in the past.
 

I like were we're at. I really am curious to see where we stand come the Wisconsin game. Our offense is going to come around. Just stop the penalties and hit some more of the mid to long range passing and we are in great shape.
 

Well, we're 2-0, good start. To get to 8 wins, we'd need 6-4 the rest of the regular season. I consider Cal, OSU, and PSU to be losses. So we have room for only one more loss between Wisky, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, and Iowa (SDSU should be a win). 5-1 against those teams? I'm not so sure about that one..... we'll need an upset in that Cal, OSU, PSU group to offset a likely slip up against one of the more winnables.
 

Monty519 said:
Well, we're 2-0, good start. To get to 8 wins, we'd need 6-4 the rest of the regular season. I consider Cal, OSU, and PSU to be losses. So we have room for only one more loss between Wisky, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, and Iowa (SDSU should be a win). 5-1 against those teams? I'm not so sure about that one..... we'll need an upset in that Cal, OSU, PSU group to offset a likely slip up against one of the more winnables.
Click to expand...


At the beginning of the season I might have agreed with you there. But I don't think we'd need to beat any of those big three to get to 8 wins...with the exception of Purdue, all of the other teams have looked worse than advertised, and even at their respective bests, we could hang with all 5 of them. Not saying we ARE going to win all of those, or even go 4-1, but it certainly isn't out of the question.
 



Eternal Optimist

I was thinking the same thing earlier today. That terribly tough schedule does look a little easier after 2 weeks since seeing what most of the B10 looks like. Outside of Cal, PSU, OSU I don't see another sure thing loss on the slate. Iowa...probably, but ILL and MSU at home are very winnable. NW looked awful and I think that should be a win. WIS and PUR at home are also very winnable games that we should be favored in.

I said 7-5, but I don't 9-3 is too far out of range. I'm sure we'll drop at least 1 or 2 we shouldn't to bring this back to a 7 win year, but it's only week 3 so we can dream.

Sometime in the near future we are bound to get all the breaks of some of the other miracle B10 seasons that other schools have put up, right? Why not 2009?
 

This aint Mountain West, this is real as it gets.

8 wins
 


The reason we can go 8-4, is defense is what wins games and we got a group of 11 men out there that have carried the gophers for both of our wins this year. Hopefully The O can pick it up, so our defense is not on the field too much like what happened last year and why our defense was worn out the last 4 or so games.
 



The Cal game should tell us a lot. I was thinking 6W but there are so many variables that can affect a season record.

The guys are one year older, stronger and it appears we have better quality depth, so I am not worrying about the D wearing out. I am still concerned that our D is good enough to keep the games close and winnable. My hope was for this D to give up less than 20ppg. And the O to score 24ppg. I still think we can do both if we stay healthy and the OL shows steady improvement.
 


The nice thing about the O is it doesn't look completely lost or doomed to the same performance for the year. There are real signs and partial results showing it can pick up and be better by the time the Big 10 schedule rolls.

Pause for a moment and think about this entire conversation and compare it to what we were writing/saying in the first 24 hours after the Syracuse game. This boat was a blip on the horizon and we were wearing lead swim trunks at that time. One game tends to polarize us too much. That is why I am going to maintain my 7-5 prediction but at least buy a ticket for the 8-4 boat trip to Alamo Island.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
After watching scores in the Big Ten and some of the games this season, I think this team can go 8-4 this year. I know the offense is a worry, but I think people are underestimating this team so far.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll probably just be in my boat on Sunday, thank you.....:D

I think this weekend is huge. It we can play Cal tough, win or lose, that will show a ton of what this team can do this year. I'm hoping the 1st couple of games are just the offense getting things going and by game 3 things will really start to turn the corner just in-time for the BT opener.

Playing a team like Cal, really shows us where we are.
 

You guys gotta remember that alot of what we are doing, especially on offense is still relatively new to a lot of people. Keep in mind, this is the first time that Weber is making the blocking calls for the O-Line. So I am sure there is an adjustment there.

I am gonna use the second BigTen game (Wisconsin) as my gauge on what are season could possibly be. I am not gonna put too much stock in a Cal loss. Now...hopefully that doesn't happen, but that is just my opinion.
 

I'll agree with the 8-4 prediction for now. Untimely penalties continue to be the biggest inhibitor for the offense. Those have an impact that goes beyond making the field bigger. The penalties have prevented us from exploring options on offense, whether that means looking off Decker to another receiver, opening up the playbook more, or playing around with attacks on the ground. IMO penalties are a part of the growing process with the new offense and will hopefully go away.

I'm also hoping that the difficult preparation tasks (Syracuse being a mystery, Air Force's unique style, Cal's explosiveness) have helped raise the bar with preparation for when Big Ten season rolls around.
 

I'm with Dpod on this one. I believe we're moving in the right direction at a decent clip, but we had so far to go and I have no clue where we're at in the progression. I am really waiting for Saturday to tell me where we're at and what to expect this year. If we're competitive anything is possible. For now I'm sticking with my 6-6 prediction also.
 

I agree. If the O gets going and if the D keeps it up. Then 8-4 maybe even 9-3 is very realistic. Sign me up for this little cruise.
 

here's the question that this thread raises (hopefully i don't sound too much like glen mason here). would we rather the gophers win 8 games in a weak big ten and potentially get our pants pulled down by a team like oklahoma state or north carolina in a high profile bowl, or win 6 and beat a team like air force in a good game in a lower tier bowl?

generally, an 8-5 year looks better down the road than a 7-6 year, but it would give more ammunition (rightly so) to those who say that the big ten is in decline.
 

Us beating the Air Force in a bowl game isn't going to change anyone's opinion on us or the Big 10. You gotta play big games and win big games against the big teams (even if those teams are in a down year). Example: Iowa beating Florida and LSU in the last 5 years, what great wins for that program.

I would rather see the Gophs lose in a more desirable bowl, with more eyes watching, against a better opponent then beat a smaller team in a bowl that no one watches.
 

I just want the program to get better. And I want evidence of that. Unfortunately year to year win loss records is a poor barometer because of SOS shifts. So I guess I'll just have to pay attention to how we play.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom