STrib: With Gophers reeling, what happened to Joe Rossi's normally stout defense?

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Randy:

Over the past two weeks, though, Rossi's defense has been anything but efficient. First gashed for 519 yards in a 31-13 loss at No. 15 North Carolina and then riddled for 492 yards in a 37-34 overtime lossat Northwestern, the Gophers suddenly enter Saturday's homecoming game against Louisiana with issues on a defense that's usually been reliable.

What's gone wrong?

"Everything,'' Rossi said Wednesday, assessing the loss to Northwestern, when the Gophers blew a 21-point fourth-quarter lead. "… It's not up to the standard. They have three consecutive drives where they come away with points. We played poor zone coverage. We played poor man coverage. We didn't rush the passer well enough.

"Poor performance is a result of two things: coaching and playing,'' he added, "so, players gotta be better, coaches gotta be better.''

m.startribune.com

With Gophers reeling, what happened to Joe Rossi's normally stout defense?

The Gophers are looking for answers after giving up too many explosive plays at North Carolina and Northwestern.
m.startribune.com m.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Randy:

Over the past two weeks, though, Rossi's defense has been anything but efficient. First gashed for 519 yards in a 31-13 loss at No. 15 North Carolina and then riddled for 492 yards in a 37-34 overtime lossat Northwestern, the Gophers suddenly enter Saturday's homecoming game against Louisiana with issues on a defense that's usually been reliable.

What's gone wrong?

"Everything,'' Rossi said Wednesday, assessing the loss to Northwestern, when the Gophers blew a 21-point fourth-quarter lead. "… It's not up to the standard. They have three consecutive drives where they come away with points. We played poor zone coverage. We played poor man coverage. We didn't rush the passer well enough.

"Poor performance is a result of two things: coaching and playing,'' he added, "so, players gotta be better, coaches gotta be better.''

m.startribune.com

With Gophers reeling, what happened to Joe Rossi's normally stout defense?

The Gophers are looking for answers after giving up too many explosive plays at North Carolina and Northwestern.
m.startribune.com m.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Amen!!!
 

One commonality between the UNC and Northwestern games - one unheralded receiver absolutely blew up on the Gophers.

We haven't seen the recent Gophers give up 400 passing yards like they did to UNC. A lot of that is facing a future high NFL draft pick at QB, but that was still close to a career best day for Maye. UNC won because they won what we thought was a strength v strength match up. Most of that was one receiver who wasn't a big star.

Northwestern clearly watched tape of the UNC game and came out throwing deep a lot by Big Ten West standards. They didn't hook up on the first few but that wasn't because the receivers weren't open - a NFL QB would have turned 3-4 first half incompletions of theirs into long gains or TDs.

Later they started to hook up on those deeper throws and came back fast.

The vibe from the last couple games has been more that something is being exposed in Rossi's scheme or there's a major personnel weakness somewhere in the secondary. It doesn't feel like the Gophers are being physically dominated or blown away by superior talent.
 

New secondary coaching staff is to blame. That's what I'm going with until proven otherwise.
 

Will be interesting to see if the addition of McDonald is able to shore some things up in the secondary.

Getting Lindenberg back at some point here would also be a huge addition. Really odd seeing the D as a weak spot again after it has been so good the past few years. Hopefully Rossi can figure out how to cover for the weaknesses and get the unit back on track again.
 



We’ve got some great experience in the secondary with Nubin and Walley but not enough at the other spots to make up for coverage busts. This season will hinge on the improvement of our defense or lack thereof.
 

Gopherchase said:
I think Rossi has gotten too cute with the three man rush — tackle the receiver before the first down look. Like everything else right now with our schemes, it’s just too predictable. 4 or 5 men coming after the QB consistently would help.
Click to expand...
He went all Robb Smith.
 

Some of Nubin’s compadres in coverage are absolutely brutal. #2 has a very appropriate number for his play and may be the worst.
 



Nubin has been non-existent in the last two games. I couldn't tell he was even on the field. Why is that?
 

I see two unrelated reasons for the defense's performance these past two games. UNC was just better. But v UNw, the collapse was attitudinal, not athletic. The Gophers assumed UNw would quit with the big deficit and by the time the Gophers realized they were wrong, the Wildcats had all the confidence and the Gophers were stunned, confused, and uncoordinated. We've seen this happen before.
 

Gopherchase said:
I think Rossi has gotten too cute with the three man rush — tackle the receiver before the first down look. Like everything else right now with our schemes, it’s just too predictable. 4 or 5 men coming after the QB consistently would help.
Click to expand...
The 3 man rush has absolutely sucked!
 

They aren't able to control the clock and limit possessions on offense anymore. We aren't seeing Mo Ibrahim leading a 14 play drive for 75 yards that eats up half a quarter.
The opposing offenses are getting more drives and more chances to find weakness on the Gophers D. All the players on the other teams offense are on scholarship too. Give them enough chances and they will make some plays.
 



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