[POST GAME THREAD] Minnesota defeats Illinois 40-17

Hollinsanity

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What’d you think, Gopherhole?


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5 down. 3 more and then the west race is on.
 

Damn fine game. Scored 40, defense held Illinois to only 3 offensive points. Offense had the plays that resulted in turnover touchdowns, but more pros than cons for sure. Great to see Smith and Brooks tag-teaming again.
 

Great job. Way to take care of business. Illinois is not a good team, but that is what you do to bad teams.
 

Worry about the injuries to Faalele and the others going forward.
 


Onto 4-2 Nebraska! Big opportunity next week. Way to close the door on Illinois in crummy conditions.


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Encouraging game all around after a really messy start.

Defense, running game, Rodney, Shannon, St Juste, Durr, Winfield, Martin all had great games. Oliver had a nice sack, may be the Cashman replacement we’re looking for. Spann Ford will be a weapon.

Meh would include receiver hands. Morgan struggled a bit early but I’ll blame it on the rain.

Bad would include the INT and TJ 50/50 hands making a return. I can’t think of anything else.
 

Just need a few teams to lose and we will have a top 25 ranking!
 

If you had told that the Gophers offense would give up two TDs and the margin was 23, I wouldn't have guessed the Gophers won.

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Encouraging game all around after a really messy start.

Defense, running game, Rodney, Shannon, St Juste, Durr, Winfield, Martin all had great games. Oliver had a nice sack, may be the Cashman replacement we’re looking for. Spann Ford will be a weapon.

Meh would include receiver hands. Morgan struggled a bit early but I’ll blame it on the rain.

Bad would include the INT and TJ 50/50 hands making a return. I can’t think of anything else.

I know TJ6 is the golden child, being from Mpls, but good grief, his drops are just plain maddening. Sure, it was wet today, but WTF. With CAB and some of the younger receivers waiting in the wings, I'm not sure we see much of a drop-off next year when TJ has moved on. Great player, and he'll go down as a great all-time Gopher but he could be so much better.
 

Worry about the injuries to Faalele and the others going forward.
I missed some of the end of the game. What was the injury to Faalele?

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Worry about the injuries to Faalele and the others going forward.

I had to leave for a family engagement. What happened to Faalele? Is it a season ending injury?

Who else is injured?
 
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I know TJ6 is the golden child, being from Mpls, but good grief, his drops are just plain maddening. Sure, it was wet today, but WTF. With CAB and some of the younger receivers waiting in the wings, I'm not sure we see much of a drop-off next year when TJ has moved on. Great player, and he'll go down as a great all-time Gopher but he could be so much better.
Bateman dropped a couple too though. But I don't think there's any question....we won't lose a step next year at WR. Bateman is already a more talented receiver than TJ....and CAB has all big ten potential.

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And now, because no one else has said it - with apologies to Beth Mowins --

SLASH and BASH are back, baby!!!

(sorry, couldn't resist)
 

Spano-Ford played and got targeted and caught a TD. Makes teams work to stop that going forward.

Running game and OL were dominant. Morgan didn't get hit much at all (only 17 attempts, but still)

Defense dominated. Illinois had one decent drive that stalled out and they missed a FG. Forced a fumble or two. Got an INT. Lots of big hits, and I don't remember any penalties????
 

I didn't know it was legal to win by more than one score..
 

I know TJ6 is the golden child, being from Mpls, but good grief, his drops are just plain maddening. Sure, it was wet today, but WTF. With CAB and some of the younger receivers waiting in the wings, I'm not sure we see much of a drop-off next year when TJ has moved on. Great player, and he'll go down as a great all-time Gopher but he could be so much better.

Your first sentence and your last sentence don't really jive. I think TJ is a golden child here because of your last sentence. I don't even know if I would call him "the golden child", he is a revered Gopher because, as you said, he's an all time great.
 

Still haven’t played a complete game yet but still sit at 5-0. Continue to clean things up and they should continue to win a lot of games.
 

I'm re-watching the game now because I was distracted working in the garage this afternoon. I'm realizing now that the Gophs simply look like better athletes as well as better coached. Then I wonder, how in the hell did the Illini make the Gophs look like little kids last year?
 

Still haven’t played a complete game yet but still sit at 5-0. Continue to clean things up and they should continue to win a lot of games.

You think? Giving up two defensive touchdowns to the Illini and yet still blowing them out? That might be the first time I've ever seen a team win in that scenario.
 

You think? Giving up two defensive touchdowns to the Illini and yet still blowing them out? That might be the first time I've ever seen a team win in that scenario.

I take that back. The Gophs beat GSU in that scenario.
 

The Illinois loss from last season has been sticking in my craw (as a Gopher fan) for almost a year now. I couldn't believe they could run all over us like they did. It was awful to watch.

Well, today we exorcised that demon. We won't have to think about it any more. That part of the past is dead and buried.

Next up: Nebraska — and yet another horrific memory from last season. Let's banish that nightmare in the same way!
 

To me this is the most encouraging win of the year by a wide margin. Many people this week will say something along the lines of, “the gophers beat an awful Illinois team, get back to me when they beat a real team.”

The important distinction here is we didn’t just beat Illinois, we **dominated** Illinois. 9.1 yards per attempt and 6.4 yards per carry, vs 4.0 YPA and 3.4 YPC for Illinois.

Good teams aren’t supposed to just beat bad teams — they are supposed to dominate in the trenches, hit them in the mouth and assert on play after play that they are superior team.

We did that today and proved we are a good team. How “good” is yet to be determined, but today was a massive step in the right direction, regardless of how bad Illinois is.



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I know TJ6 is the golden child, being from Mpls, but good grief, his drops are just plain maddening. Sure, it was wet today, but WTF. With CAB and some of the younger receivers waiting in the wings, I'm not sure we see much of a drop-off next year when TJ has moved on. Great player, and he'll go down as a great all-time Gopher but he could be so much better.

TJ passed Eric Decker on the career TD list yesterday, he'll go down as one of the all-time greatest receivers in Gopher history. He's usually good for one drop per game, yesterday he had 3. Concerning? Sure. That said, his TD catch was in a ridiculously tight window and he tipped it to himself. Morgan's numbers look much better if WRs don't drop 6 passes. Fleck stressed they need to work on being possession receivers, make sure they make the catch first rather than trying to take it 70 yards for a TD every time. Defense played lights to that stuff wasn't a glaring issue. It's 40-3 without Illinois 2 defensive TDs.
 

First game we looked really physical. Oline was physical. Running backs were physical. Dline and special teams played physical. Tackling much improved. Shut Corbin down. Shut the big USC transfer wr down.
 

Nice to see #4 get rolling. Rodney was fantastic...never seems to go down on first contact. Mo gets another week to rest. I think Wiley has two games left on RS?
 


Nice to see #4 get rolling. Rodney was fantastic...never seems to go down on first contact. Mo gets another week to rest. I think Wiley has two games left on RS?

I believe Wiley only played against GSU, meaning he'd have 3 games left.
 

First game we looked really physical. Oline was physical. Running backs were physical. Dline and special teams played physical. Tackling much improved. Shut Corbin down. Shut the big USC transfer wr down.

That was the biggest positive to me also. We're trending in the right direction and there is still room for improvement. The Nebraska game can't get here soon enough!
 

I know TJ6 is the golden child, being from Mpls, but good grief, his drops are just plain maddening. Sure, it was wet today, but WTF. With CAB and some of the younger receivers waiting in the wings, I'm not sure we see much of a drop-off next year when TJ has moved on. Great player, and he'll go down as a great all-time Gopher but he could be so much better.

While TJ had his drops, so did Bateman, and CAB, and all of the Illinois receivers as well. The first half was brutal across the board. 2nd half was a different story.
 




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