My thoughts

[Gold Rush]

- I can tell there are a lot of upset and irate Gopher fans out there tonight. I am not happy either. I suppose this is a good time to vent a little bit but in the end remember we are all fans and all want what is best for the team. People are upset because they care.

- I have really been on OC Sanford's play-calling a lot lately as a lot of others have but I actually thought the game plan was better than what it was last week. We gained a lot of rushing yards against a better defense than what we saw vs. Illinois and Ky Thomas in particular looked extremely sharp with his cut back moves. I loved the TD pass on the wildcat formation which Iowa completely bit on.

-There were of course some bad calls. I hated that 2 point conversion play and the decision to go for the long FG didn't work. For a brief period it looked like Morgan was getting into a little groove, but then they took him out for a wildcat play which got stuffed and then he was having more problems.

- Tanner Morgan badly needs to be benched. He is not the same QB he was 2 years ago. This was a very predictable result today that we all saw coming probably a few weeks ago and certainly by the end of the Illinois game. The obstinance of Fleck to stick with him even though he is missing wide open receivers on a continual basis and making bad reads is one reason why we lost today and why we will probably lose to Wisconsin in a couple weeks if nothing is changed. When you are making the offensive gameplan it is hard when your QB is struggling so badly because you have to put up a pretty vanilla running attack to compensate you get one-dimensional and easy to defend.

- This was not completely on Fleck.......or Sanford......or Morgan. The defense choked on a few occasions too like giving up the long bomb TD pass, dropping what would have been a key interception and of course the poor tackling on the TD run by Iowa. The kicking game contributed with the blocked FG. There's a lot of blame to go around in a lot of places.

- I think what I will remember the most about this season is we really missed a golden opportunity to have another year like we did in 2019. Hopes were high but I think we came out just flat for two teams we should have beaten and we failed to abandon what was not working until it was too late. The team played hard today and we came closer to beating Iowa than we have in a long time and we almost won at their place, too. It's very frustrating -and hard, sometimes to be a Gopher fan but we have to rally together because our backs are to the wall right now. Don't take Indiana lightly or we will have disaster number 3 next week. This should be a win if we really come together and maybe take out some of our frustrations on them. I liked a lot of things I saw today but at the end of the day, it was just not enough to overcome all the mistakes.

Peace to all Gopher fans -- and let's just get ready for Indiana. I will GLADLY forget about this one and leave it behind!!

 

[gopherdudepart2]

- I can tell there are a lot of upset and irate Gopher fans out there tonight. I am not happy either. I suppose this is a good time to vent a little bit but in the end remember we are all fans and all want what is best for the team. People are upset because they care.

- I have really been on OC Sanford's play-calling a lot lately as a lot of others have but I actually thought the game plan was better than what it was last week. We gained a lot of rushing yards against a better defense than what we saw vs. Illinois and Ky Thomas in particular looked extremely sharp with his cut back moves. I loved the TD pass on the wildcat formation which Iowa completely bit on.

-There were of course some bad calls. I hated that 2 point conversion play and the decision to go for the long FG didn't work. For a brief period it looked like Morgan was getting into a little groove, but then they took him out for a wildcat play which got stuffed and then he was having more problems.

- Tanner Morgan badly needs to be benched. He is not the same QB he was 2 years ago. This was a very predictable result today that we all saw coming probably a few weeks ago and certainly by the end of the Illinois game. The obstinance of Fleck to stick with him even though he is missing wide open receivers on a continual basis and making bad reads is one reason why we lost today and why we will probably lose to Wisconsin in a couple weeks if nothing is changed. When you are making the offensive gameplan it is hard when your QB is struggling so badly because you have to put up a pretty vanilla running attack to compensate you get one-dimensional and easy to defend.

- This was not completely on Fleck.......or Sanford......or Morgan. The defense choked on a few occasions too like giving up the long bomb TD pass, dropping what would have been a key interception and of course the poor tackling on the TD run by Iowa. The kicking game contributed with the blocked FG. There's a lot of blame to go around in a lot of places.

- I think what I will remember the most about this season is we really missed a golden opportunity to have another year like we did in 2019. Hopes were high but I think we came out just flat for two teams we should have beaten and we failed to abandon what was not working until it was too late. The team played hard today and we came closer to beating Iowa than we have in a long time and we almost won at their place, too. It's very frustrating -and hard, sometimes to be a Gopher fan but we have to rally together because our backs are to the wall right now. Don't take Indiana lightly or we will have disaster number 3 next week. This should be a win if we really come together and maybe take out some of our frustrations on them. I liked a lot of things I saw today but at the end of the day, it was just not enough to overcome all the mistakes.

Peace to all Gopher fans -- and let's just get ready for Indiana. I will GLADLY forget about this one and leave it behind!!

Good analysis, wish we could have picked up 1 to 2 of those interceptions that hit the D in the chest. To me the key play of the football game was the over throw to # 7 on 3rd and seven and the play call before that. The same throw was available on that second down and we ran the toss that Irving managed to salvage a couple yards.The toss play was nice wrinkle added. We score there and take the lead the game changes. Well there were two key plays, if we manage to snare that over throw for interception and get the short field fot the offense it changes the game too. Then the blocked long field goal for the only turnover that gave Iowa a short field, and the missed tackles on thst drive. Gophers did a lot of stuff well, some of the Illinois game passing game mistakes carried over. A lot of Gopher fans are upset because this one we had the better prepared team, dominated the line of scrimmage and still managed a loss. A lot of would a could a should a I know. The run game was excellent and with far less penalties than expected.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Good analysis, wish we could have picked up 1 to 2 of those interceptions that hit the D in the chest. To me the key play of the football game was the over throw to # 7 on 3rd and seven and the play call before that. The same throw was available on that second down and we ran the toss that Irving managed to salvage a couple yards.The toss play was nice wrinkle added. We score there and take the lead the game changes. Well there were two key plays, if we manage to snare that over throw for interception and get the short field fot the offense it changes the game too. Then the blocked long field goal for the only turnover that gave Iowa a short field, and the missed tackles on thst drive. Gophers did a lot of stuff well, some of the Illinois game passing game mistakes carried over. A lot of Gopher fans are upset because this one we had the better prepared team, dominated the line of scrimmage and still managed a loss. A lot of would a could a should a I know. The run game was excellent and with far less penalties than expected.

OP was spot on and you hit some good points as well. The game this one most closely reminds me of was the 2003 Michigan game where there was really no way we should have lost but we did.

Biggest killer was 2 drives deep into Iowa territory that ended in field goals instead of TDs (not counting the one right before halftime). We have been very good at finishing drives in the EZ when we get close this year but it didn't happen yesterday and that proved to be costly in a close game. Some credit has to go to Iowa's defense for that as well.

Some a griping about playing for the field goal before the half. Of all the things to complain about that isn't one of them. Was totally ok with making sure you come away with points there and going into the half with the lead on the road.

Hated the long field goal try, either go for it or punt it in that situation as opposed to using a slightly used field goal kicker to try and make a really long kick. And the 2 point play was a disaster, even if the guy doesn't bat it down, CRAB would have caught it outside the EZ and there was a defender waiting so he would have had to make a great open field move to make it in. Some have said MBS was open on that play but the read that was made had no chance of succeeding.