[POST GAME THREAD] Minnesota defeats Michigan 49 - 24

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3, 4 wins max this year....A giant step back for the program after last year
 



At least they won't get to lose to Runtgers this year...........
 

Clearly not what I expected. This year is going to be weird as to Covid etc. I'll be curious to learn more as we move along as what is going on behind the scenes.
 




DelawareGopher said:
Looked very bad tonight but 5-6 wins is still doable. Seems like everyone is forgetting how bad we looked in the first game last year.
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Different defense....had 4 guys drafted to the NFL...Half the guys playing tonight should not be on a B10 roster.
 

Growing pains on defense. New OC adjustments. Unusual circumstances around kicking game. Should be an interesting season.
 

Was surprised how horrendous the D played. I won't panic unless they lose any of the next two games. We could still have a successful season by beating IO. and WI.
 






I thought I wanted to punch myself in the balls, but then realized this debacle makes me feel castrated.
 


Rickman55 said:
Starting linebackers: Aune, Lindenberg and Sori Martin, really?
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I like Sori-Marin. Tough task for a true freshman in Lindenberg. We just don’t have the benefit of playing an SDSU this year unfortunately to get things fine-tuned.
 

I did not think we would look that bad tonight. Michigan's defense looked really good. We looked very slow on offense and defense.
 

I'll take the 2020 Gophers over the 2020 Vikings any day.
 
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Rough start, not having entire kicking battery was a major hinderance, short kickoffs, terrible punts, hope the regulars aren't done for a while due to covid because that was ugly.

Defense struggled and Nubin had a rough debut in place of Winfield. To the Michigan QBs credit, he didn't make a lot of mistakes like new starters tend to, but the D is going to have to grow up in a hurry.

Morgan had a rough game and the reshuffled O-Line didn't do much to protect him. He locked in on Bateman too much and was off on a number of his throws. My guess is he will play much better going forward but this was not a great game for him tonight or for the offense as a whole outside of Mo.

This one sucked but it is important not to get too crazy about the first game after a long layoff. Michigan may very well be a really good team this year. Everything is still in front of this team though in terms of the Big Ten season. Maryland got crushed by Northwestern and Illinois looked terrible against Wisconsin so the next two games are very very winnable. Win those 2 and you are 2-1 with a game against Iowa at home.

Everyone take a deep breath and let's see what this team looks like next week. Very good chance many of the issues from this one will be addressed and the team will play much better going forward.
 



Failure = Growth

Our D will be better in week 2. Film doesn't lie. They will see themselves in the wrong gap, taking bad angles, not setting the edge. Having 52k fans screaming would have helped the D too.

Offense scored 24 points on mostly long fields. Also got inside 5 yard line another time and went for it, no points.
 

Lots of thoughts about this game. I literally come away from the game with one positive and that was the Gophers being able to run the ball effectively against a team full of good athletes.

The special teams were awful, but I feel like we need to see what they look like with the starting K and P before we know for sure they are a long term problem.

I couldn't be more concerned about the defense. From the start, there were a couple East-West runs where last years team would stop them in the backfield for a loss and tonight the runner would get the corner on us and get positive yardage and often a big gain. We couldn't stop anything either up the gut or on the perimeter and made it so an inexperienced QB never had to make a difficult throw to beat us. Outside of Boye Mafe's early sack, I am not sure we forced another negative play until garbage time in the 4th quarter. When we are neither fast enough to make a play in space nor strong enough to get off blocks, things are not going to go well. It didn't show up as much because of the issues with the running game and short passing game, but when Michigan tried to go down the field, guys were often open there as well. Much of this game looked liked the Robb Smith era on defense and we won't contend in the West if it's not much, much improved from here.

Offensively, I am concerned by a few things. The first is the lack of deep shots taken against this defense. The announcers correctly pointed out that the shots were there and we weren't taking them. Can nobody separate on the outside in this offense? It was notable that we had Bateman in the slot on a number of his successfull plays. We need Rashod to win on the outside so someone else can win in the slot as its simply much easier to win from the slot than from outside the number. CAB had a big gain on a deep shot early, but he had no separation and simply made a great adjustment and catch. The other possibility is guys were getting open and Morgan wasn't seeing them. I was really disappointed in Morgan's play tonight after hearing what a fantastic offseason he had. He is still very bad at feeling pressure and also still has the habbit of scrambling out of the pocket and creating pressure that wasn't there. He had the one bad interception in garbage time, but in the first half he threw 2 or 3 balls that he was lucky were not picked. If you remember from last season, there was almost always a pick or a ball that should have been picked early in almost every game..and for the most part Tanner would be on point after that. The offensive line broke down in pass protection a lot late in the game and I was worried about the hits Tanner was taking especially since the game was out of reach.

I go back to how this team played against South Dakota to open last year and if we had played Michigan that night we would have been absolutely crushed. If anyone would have said we'd be in the CFP conversation and have to absolutely choke to miss the Rose Bowl in November, we all would have laughed. I am not saying history will repeat itself, just that I am not willing to write any possiblity off yet.

One final thought: For me, this result sucks because I really want validation that I can believe in this program. College GameDay at home against a helmet school in prime time was a perfect opportunity for Minnesota to show it was for real and last year was not just an aberration. I personally still have that fear that we will look back at '19-'20 and curse laying an egg in Iowa City for decades as we go back to being 8-4 in a "good" year. Losing tonight, especially in this manner, just amplifies that fear whether it is warranted or not.
 

We're Comin' said:
Failure = Growth

Our D will be better in week 2. Film doesn't lie. They will see themselves in the wrong gap, taking bad angles, not setting the edge. Having 52k fans screaming would have helped the D too.

Offense scored 24 points on mostly long fields. Also got inside 5 yard line another time and went for it, no points.
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A couple good points. Especially about the offense. Showed a lot of potential against a very good D.
 

We blocked Michigan’s punt on the first series, and they never punted again the whole game (did miss three FGs, though). Anybody notice who we had back to receive that first Michigan punt? Not DD, obviously. Just curious.
 

This team clearly isn’t ready for prime time, but early returns last year also made us question what was going on and the team improved dramatically after the first quarter of the season. Michigan’s constant penetration and pressure made it hard to do anything consistently and Morgan clearly looked a little rattled. Last year he tended to settle down after the first quarter or so but against good defenses like Sconnie 2019 and Mich 2020 things have snowballed. We seem to be missing Tyler Johnson early on. The less said about the defense and special teams the better. A couple nice plays here and there but plenty of cover your eyes moments.

Michigan is clearly a good team with some exceptional talent on both sides of the ball. Our guys are probably better than they looked but we’re not at that level yet.. and certainly not when the (exceptional in 2019) passing game isn’t clicking. Stay tuned, more manageable opponents coming up.
 


this team has everything in front of them. Defense with so much growing up to do. The OL needs to gel. The west is still there. Get the shit together and come out next week.
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