Gophers should be B1G West Champions

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EG#9

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I know a lot of people don't have this on their minds right now, but it's certainly at the forefront of my mind.

- Penn State up 17-3 on Iowa and their QB goes down. They score 3 points the rest of the game and lose 23-20. If anything goes different in this game the Gophers are B1G West champions.

- Gophers outgain Iowa 409-277. Iowa makes a 50 yard FG. Minnesota fails on a 2 point conversion. Minnesota has the ball twice with a chance to still win the game and fails. So many chances to win this games. Obviously on Minnesota, but any one thing goes differently and the Gophers are B1G West champions.

- Nebraska has to play a Freshman QB in his first start and is still up 21-6 on Iowa deep in the 3rd Quarter. They were at a 94.6% win probabilty on ESPN multiple times in the 3rd and 4th quarter. Once again if everything doesn't go perfectly for Iowa here, the Gophers are B1G West champions.

Others: Northwestern had the ball down 17-12 with 1:44 left and a chance to win the game at home against Iowa. Illinois had their head coach out with COVID, outgained Iowa 312 to 255 and had the ball multiple times in the 4th quarter down just one score.


Literally all of these things had to go in Iowa's favor and against Minnesota for the Hawkeyes to win the West and not the Gophers.
 








btowngopher said:
Bowling Green doesn’t factor into the B1G west race.
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No shit! But the fact that we lost to a “high school” team, we don’t deserve to be the West Champs! We lost, we moved on and beat WI! Enjoy our axe and our 8-4 season and stop dwelling on could’ves and should’ves! That was my whole point to my response post. 🤦🏻‍♂️
 




More than anything, the key injuries and coaching miscues changed the trajectory of the Gophers' season.

PJ Fleck's teams just don't match up well with Kirk Ferentz's teams.
 

Not sure if your intent was to show just how lucky Iowa was this year, but that’s the summary. One to add to the list: Iowa needed Minnesota to beat Wisconsin for the only the second time in 18 seasons, and that happened too.

Horseshoe up their pie holes this year, for sure.
 





Gophers had their chance to beat Iowa and went backwards on that final drive.
 

Beat Iowa and this isn't a conversation. Instead we're playing a Michigan team we would match up with reasonably well. We only have ourselves to blame for not seizing the opportunity. Great to get the Axe back. Next season needs to be the next step depending on who is all coming back, but we should be pretty solid again
 


My lord fellas. We just beat Wisconsin to stop them from going to the Big 10 championship. If you can't enjoy tonight, why even follow the team?

The last time we won the axe at home, I was in college and I have grey in my beard. Enjoy tonight. It doesn't get much better than tonight.
 



cncmin said:
Not sure if your intent was to show just how lucky Iowa was this year, but that’s the summary. One to add to the list: Iowa needed Minnesota to beat Wisconsin for the only the second time in 18 seasons, and that happened too.

Horseshoe up their pie holes this year, for sure.
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Yup, Iowa caught the break they needed, we didn’t catch ours, so they backed in instead of us.
 


Used the term "fragile" for this team after the Illinois loss.

After today I think the better term is "inconsistent," especially on offense.

There are reasons for this where all timelines start with Mo going down in Game 1.

That offered, being the West Champions in the end it was not meant to be for 2021.

At least for the Billds, winning in better. And today winning The Axe goes a long, long....no long, long, long way...on how to end a regular season on a positive note.

Next up is The Pig. We have I-O-W-A at home in 43 weeks...not even a year. Floyd needs to be in the trophy case next to The Axe next season...evin if only for 8 weeks, heaven forbid The Axe ends up back in Madison.

Go Gophers! Only positive thoughts tonight...
 

I get the sense this year could represent a shift in the West's hierarchy. WI could be done dominating the West...I don't know if "mumbles" Chryst can sustain that program's dominance in the division. Iowa goes to the West championship this year and will remain solid but that team has plateaued under an aging Ferentz.

Overall, I get the sense Minnesota and Illinois are ascending with upside while Wisconsin and Iowa have plateaued. Purdue and Northwestern are enigmas.
 

Wehatebadgers said:
All good backs get run hard in college, people get hurt part of the game. We were trying to beat OSU and he was are best option
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Eh. We made nice catches when Morgan threw. I thought we played annoyingly conservatively vs OSU. They were vulnerable from a number of angles. Our one dimensionality lost us the game.
 


FormerFatOL said:
I get the sense this year could represent a shift in the West's hierarchy. WI could be done dominating the West...I don't know if "mumbles" Chryst can sustain that program's dominance in the division. Iowa goes to the West championship this year and will remain solid but that team has plateaued under an aging Ferentz.

Overall, I get the sense Minnesota and Illinois are ascending with upside while Wisconsin and Iowa have plateaued. Purdue and Northwestern are enigmas.
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I barely follow Minnesota football recruiting, much less other teams, but hasn't Wisconsin's recruiting seen an uptick in the last 2-3 years? I thought the 21 or 22 class represented the first time that Nebraska didn't get the top rated class in the West, because Wisconsin had maybe gotten a top 25 class for the first time ever.

I could be wrong, but I thought I'd seen Illinois fans saying that Bielema convinced a bunch of seniors to come back for an extra year, and that after they're gone, next year will actually be worse for them than this year was.
 


Beating Wisconsin changes the view. What a great game. I never miss that game (in MN or WI) and haven’t seen a lot of Ws. Awesome experience. There is still a part of me that will always look at this year as the season that coulda/shoulda been tho (BTW champs/playing in Indy). 🤷‍♂️ Oh well, it is what it is.
 

Yah-E said:
No shit! But the fact that we lost to a “high school” team, we don’t deserve to be the West Champs! We lost, we moved on and beat WI! Enjoy our axe and our 8-4 season and stop dwelling on could’ves and should’ves! That was my whole point to my response post. 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Newsflash: Bowling Green game never factored in.
 

Also, take a look at the crossover games.

Minnesota drew one hard game with OSU. Iowa had their hardest game be PSU. Meanwhile, Wisconsin drew Michigan and PSU and Purdue had MSU and OSU. If Wisconsin or Purdue don't play Michigan/OSU, one of them is going. Or if Iowa played any of OSU/MSU/Michigan, I think they lose and we go.
 

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