Cal thoughts

[frozengopher]

Okay, just got home from Minneapolis. Before I read any toxic posts regarding should'ves, would'ves and could'ves, or who did what wrong, etc, I'm going to post my pure, unbiased thoughts.

Huge moral victory. For every purist on this site who stated "I will be happy with a win and a win only," I hope you didn't take that mentality with you out of the stadium with two minutes left in the game. If you did, go to hell. Give your tickets to those who will enjoy 60 minutes of football. Our guys left everything on the field. They played their hearts out for YOU. Turning your back on them to miss traffic is a dick move, especially after the way they played against a top ten team in the country. The Minnesota fan base is so f*(%ing frustrating.

The offense... Makes me cringe. No pass protection, no run blocking, Weber's consistent inconsistency, the list goes on. Ugh. The trickeration was fun to watch. Glad to see Weber is expanding his options a little more. A Decker injury will obviously kill this team. We cannot run the ball. I often wonder if it would be different with Lipscomb here, but I have my doubts. Also, Weber has been a Big Ten quarterback for over three years now. He should know when to take a sack and not throw a pick. The first blockhead interception in the 4th was a Northwestern flashback from last year.

The defense was stellar. Our talent level is nowhere near Cal's, and we went pound for pound with them. Keeping Best at 5 ypc was awesome. Pass rush is still lacking, and our defensive backfield concerned me at times, but considering circumstances, we played as well as we could. Two (from what I saw) dropped picks are rough. Longer T.O.P. on offense could've spelled success for us.

Officiating... Bad. For both sides. The Cal false start and subsequent play in the 4th killed us. I think it was a series of four plays after that which brought The Bank from the loudest it's ever been to a weak din.

I see we all but abandoned the run, and were still productive. Going forward, this may be what we need to do, because we do not have any Big Ten backs, or a Big Ten o-line that can open and maintain holes.

I have a ton of confidence for the coming weeks, and I'm happy The Bank is a true home field advantage. We need to keep it that way. If you were guilty of leaving early today, seriously consider what I said about getting rid of your tickets. You are exactly what we do not need in our stadium. There are hundreds of people who would love to have those tickets and stay the entire game. Like I said, our players are performing for all of us, and the "what have you done for me lately" mentality is one of the things that will keep us from getting to the next level. What do you think potential recruits think of a fan base that will inevitably give up on them in a hard fought loss?

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

Okay, just got home from Minneapolis. Before I read any toxic posts regarding should'ves, would'ves and could'ves, or who did what wrong, etc, I'm going to post my pure, unbiased thoughts.

Huge moral victory. For every purist on this site who stated "I will be happy with a win and a win only," I hope you didn't take that mentality with you out of the stadium with two minutes left in the game. If you did, go to hell. Give your tickets to those who will enjoy 60 minutes of football. Our guys left everything on the field. They played their hearts out for YOU. Turning your back on them to miss traffic is a dick move, especially after the way they played against a top ten team in the country. The Minnesota fan base is so f*(%ing frustrating.

The offense... Makes me cringe. No pass protection, no run blocking, Weber's consistent inconsistency, the list goes on. Ugh. The trickeration was fun to watch. Glad to see Weber is expanding his options a little more. A Decker injury will obviously kill this team. We cannot run the ball. I often wonder if it would be different with Lipscomb here, but I have my doubts. Also, Weber has been a Big Ten quarterback for over three years now. He should know when to take a sack and not throw a pick. The first blockhead interception in the 4th was a Northwestern flashback from last year.

The defense was stellar. Our talent level is nowhere near Cal's, and we went pound for pound with them. Keeping Best at 5 ypc was awesome. Pass rush is still lacking, and our defensive backfield concerned me at times, but considering circumstances, we played as well as we could. Two (from what I saw) dropped picks are rough. Longer T.O.P. on offense could've spelled success for us.

Officiating... Bad. For both sides. The Cal false start and subsequent play in the 4th killed us. I think it was a series of four plays after that which brought The Bank from the loudest it's ever been to a weak din.

I see we all but abandoned the run, and were still productive. Going forward, this may be what we need to do, because we do not have any Big Ten backs, or a Big Ten o-line that can open and maintain holes.

I have a ton of confidence for the coming weeks, and I'm happy The Bank is a true home field advantage. We need to keep it that way. If you were guilty of leaving early today, seriously consider what I said about getting rid of your tickets. You are exactly what we do not need in our stadium. There are hundreds of people who would love to have those tickets and stay the entire game. Like I said, our players are performing for all of us, and the "what have you done for me lately" mentality is one of the things that will keep us from getting to the next level. What do you think potential recruits think of a fan base that will inevitably give up on them in a hard fought loss?

preach on brother! preach on! but, careful you are telling the passive-agressive, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately minnesotan exactly what he hates hearing about himself when it comes to really supporting a team, which is first and foremost you don't leave a game early to "beat traffic back to eden prairie" after your supposed team just played their hearts out for you. what is there another bland potluck at the ole' elca lutheran church tomorrow that you all need extra rest for and why you are in such a hurry to turn your backs on the boys in gold?!

you are probably going to get the standard cold-shoulder, talk-about-you-behind-you-back-but-not-to-your-face treatment now from said persons described above.

 

[littlebigboy]

I think the future is bright!! That being said, we had a chance to win this game,but Cal is a better team.

Offensively, the line has a long way to go.... Our backs are average at best. And I'm sorry to finally admit it, but Weber is not a big time QB. He does not know when to throw the ball out of bounce, the cannot do anything but eyeball his receiver, and cannot check down on his throws. If he would throw on time, the protection is not as bad as it looked. But when you lock on a receiver and he is not open it is not possib le to throw quickly. For a three yr. starter this is not acceptable, but I'm not sure we have anybody to step in, so I think we are stuck with Weber.

Defensively, I like the rotation on the DL and think they are ok, but need a little more pass rush. LB are doing pretty well, and I thought other than a few mental mistakes, Cooper looked good. The other 3 are solid. Collato is still in over his head, and cannot play at this level, and Royston is not the answer at FS. The other 2 are OK.



This being the 2nd recruiting class of Brewster, the future is bright, another 2 yrs. like the last 2 and we will be on the next level.

The competition has improved each week and I think our play has improved each week also. If we keep improving, we could be in the chase in the BT.

I would rather play the schedule we have played and be 2-1 than play Wafford and the rest of the little sisters of the poor and be 3-0 and thinking we are great.

The future looks good if we continue to improve, especially the O-L.

Go Gophs.

 

[Schnoodler]

I think we saw a combination of an O-line that's not quite there yet and a pretty good Cal defensive line. Way too fast for our O-line. I'm hoping we're not as bad there as it looked, I think we'll look better next week.

 

[Gophers507]

Well said frozengopher!!! I agree 100%!!

 

[RUGoldenAZ]

Expanding on what frozen gopher said if any body wants to get rid of their tickets for the wisky game I would gladly take them off your hands and stay all 60 min especially since it would be the only Gopher game I would get to see all season considering I live in AZ. Just throwin that out there!

 

[SoMplsHawkI]

This is NOT a flame...

The defense was stellar.

Seriously, not a flame. Your defense gave up 5 TDs - Five. How is that stellar?

 

[Curseislifted33]

Because they adjusted and gave our offense many chances to win the game. We were tied after three quarters to the #8 team in the country. The td to give them 35 pts was garbage so it is kind of misleading the game was tied till mid 4th quarter...

 

[Jike Spingleton]

The offense... Makes me cringe. No pass protection, no run blocking, Weber's consistent inconsistency, the list goes on. Ugh. The trickeration was fun to watch. Glad to see Weber is expanding his options a little more. A Decker injury will obviously kill this team. We cannot run the ball. I often wonder if it would be different with Lipscomb here, but I have my doubts.

I see we all but abandoned the run, and were still productive. Going forward, this may be what we need to do, because we do not have any Big Ten backs, or a Big Ten o-line that can open and maintain holes.

I've heard many people say they wish we had a Barber or Maroney so we could "pound the rock." Sure, it'd be great to have backs of that caliber, but even they would have a hard time running behind this line. Extremely disappointed that our line appears to have made no improvement over last season.

 

[BradDad]

There's a new offensive system still being installed; a split second of uncertainty by one guy is all it takes for a play to be unsuccessful.

The receivers not named Decker need to step up their games. It may be the kids the U needs @ WR aren't on campus yet.

The O-line is not ready to win yet against a top 10 team defensive front. I don't know whether the blocking scheme has changed with the new offense or not, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see coordination issues here. It takes a while to get 10 linemen all taking that first step together. Even in the best of circumstances, an offensive line can take a few games to get itself together.

This team got down 14-0 and then 21-7 and got the game back to tied. They were in the game until Weber (with a face full of Cal defenders) threw the pick. They were in the game even though the O & D lines were getting beat.

The message to take away from this game is "We're not as good as Cal - yet."

 

[Weisbrod]

I think the future is bright!! That being said, we had a chance to win this game,but Cal is a better team.

Offensively, the line has a long way to go.... Our backs are average at best. And I'm sorry to finally admit it, but Weber is not a big time QB. He does not know when to throw the ball out of bounce, the cannot do anything but eyeball his receiver, and cannot check down on his throws. If he would throw on time, the protection is not as bad as it looked. But when you lock on a receiver and he is not open it is not possib le to throw quickly. For a three yr. starter this is not acceptable, but I'm not sure we have anybody to step in, so I think we are stuck with Weber.

Defensively, I like the rotation on the DL and think they are ok, but need a little more pass rush. LB are doing pretty well, and I thought other than a few mental mistakes, Cooper looked good. The other 3 are solid. Collato is still in over his head, and cannot play at this level, and Royston is not the answer at FS. The other 2 are OK.



This being the 2nd recruiting class of Brewster, the future is bright, another 2 yrs. like the last 2 and we will be on the next level.

The competition has improved each week and I think our play has improved each week also. If we keep improving, we could be in the chase in the BT.

I would rather play the schedule we have played and be 2-1 than play Wafford and the rest of the little sisters of the poor and be 3-0 and thinking we are great.

The future looks good if we continue to improve, especially the O-L.

Go Gophs.

Why is it always NEXT year with the Gophers? Why can't it be THIS year?

 

[monk10]

Walking out of the game you knew exactly who hurt us. #4, #5 and #44. I just watched the game again on ESPN. Their three players they highlighted before the game? I'll give you a few to figure it out.

We couldn't block #44, and when we ran at #5 he blew up our fullback and our running backs tripped over him. I assume you saw #4 run wild.

 

[jovs]

Why is it always NEXT year with the Gophers? Why can't it be THIS year?

Because they have a glowing weakness that is probably not going to correct itself this year.

 

[gophertree]

It can be THIS year

The schdules is not as brutal as we all once thought, so we still can turn the corner THIS year. All home games are winnable, this week should be a W, and then you take your chances at IOWA, PSU, OSU...8-4 might be turning the corner, but pulling an upset on the road and going 9-3 WOULD be turning the corner. We lost to a better team - sure there were chances to win, but we're only 2-1 with lots of confidence going forward. Hit Happy Valley at 5-1 and roll the dice.

 

[RodentRampage]

I agree partially, but I would not call it a moral victory. I'm never happy with losing. We played respectably, and there is no need to storm the castle with pitchforks and torches. I'm ready to move on to Northwestern.

 

[monsoongopher]

We need Stommes back on the OL. D. Alford has got to be one of the worst O lineman the U's ever recruited!! Or maybe I'm thinking of Ned Tavales??? Heck, they both are about equally as bad.

The defense is a delight to watch play. I think we can be in every BT game this years simply because of the experience and talent of the defense, especially the linebacking corps. We are a far cry from some of the pathetic defenses we had under Mason!!

Offensively...I have to ask the question, when does Brewster consider putting in Gray at QB?? I have to agree with a previous post in that I just don't know if Weber has what it takes to be a top 3 QB in the BT...which isn't saying much considering the conference!!

If the Gophers can open just a few holes for Duane Bennett, I think he can do some special things. I liked the way the Off Coordinator shook up the play calling Saturday, need to see more of that. I will be disappointed with anything less that an 8-4 record. This program needs a 5-3 conference record...it's been too long since they posted a winning percentage in the conference.

 

[Schnoodler]

I think he is a top three QB. Put him behind OSU's, PSU's, or Iowa's line and he's maybe the top QB. There's only two big arms in the B10 right now, juice and weber. I'm not saying either is the best all-around, just that they are much better than given credit for.

 

[The411]

Cal fan's perspective here.

I don't think any big 10 team is going to relish goping into TCF. That place is already a great homefield advantage and it's going to get even better.

@Northwestern should be interesting. They too played Syracuse in a tough competitive battle.

I hope Eric Decker is ok and able to play as he's one of the best if not the best receiver in the country.

No reason why you guys can't roll into Happy Valley at 5-1.

I could see 8-3 rolling into Iowa.

I see 8-4 as the end result with a trip to the Champs Bowl.

I don't like the Gophers at Penn St. Ohio St. or Iowa because the running game hasn't develoepd yet.

 

[Schnauzer]

I do not share all this doom and gloom. Weber was pretty much considered a top 3 Big 10 quarterback last year as a sophomore and now this year after three games we have people saying he isn't capable of "ever" being a top 3 QB.

Cal is ranked as high as they are for a reason. It is one of their all time best teams. I fully expect them to win the Pac 10 this year. If we all get to use 20/20 hindsight and Cal falls on their faces the rest of this year, I will retroactively share some of this gloom. But that was a great Cal team with enough talent to make a lot of noise this year. I left the stadium torturing myself over 4 plays that could have potentially won the game for the Gophers. I also left the stadium knowing that if the Gophers could put themselves in a position to win against Cal, they can do the same with every other game on their schedule. That gave me a warm fuzzy. Certainly a lot better feeling than reading all the comments from people convinced the Wacker years have returned after one tough loss to a top 10 team. These same individuals would probably be booking their Rose Bowl hotels if the same Gopher team had blown out Temple on Saturday.

Yes, the running game is poor. I point the blame of this reality to both the backs and line but it can get better. This team shows the ability to improve on defense and the offense may follow. It also might be a little more complex than player talent too. Everyone said before the season started that the revolving door of coordinators may be tough to overcome. Now that this is proving reality on at least one side of the ball... the rips have all turned to the individual players.

I also find it very funny that so many people get upset that the team actually uses its top offensive weapon. The only thing that makes people more angry about not getting Decker enough touches, is, well, getting Decker so many touches.

 

[oak_street1981]

Bronko, as great as the first post was, yours

tpreach on brother! preach on! but, careful you are telling the passive-agressive, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately minnesotan exactly what he hates hearing about himself when it comes to really supporting a team, which is first and foremost you don't leave a game early to "beat traffic back to eden prairie" after your supposed team just played their hearts out for you. what is there another bland potluck at the ole' elca lutheran church tomorrow that you all need extra rest for and why you are in such a hurry to turn your backs on the boys in gold?!

you are probably going to get the standard cold-shoulder, talk-about-you-behind-you-back-but-not-to-your-face treatment now from said persons described above.

was even better.

You just captured the issue with many of our fellow uptight Minnesotans, they just cannot act like real fans. They refuese to do simple things like stand up and make some noise on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd down as needed after the MN score when Cal had the ball at 21-21. They will only stand on third down, if even then and will often flee the stadium.

They think Minnesota "nice" is a complement; it is exactly that treatment masked by a fake smile that you describe above. Uber passive agressiveness. Heaven forbid anyone actually become too verbal and speak the truth around the more extreme of this group.


I still remember all the fans leaving he stadium after Minnesota went ahead of Wisconsin in 2005.

Typical