Things We Learned Today

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Triple D

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Injuries suck - Not having Ibrahim and Autman-Bell really hurt us today. Injuries are a part of the game, hopefully Mo gets healthy for the end of the season push. Injuries can change the chemistry of any team, could happen to our future opponents too and we might catch them on a good day like Purdue caught us today so no time to panic. I feel we win this one with a healthy Mo and a healthy CAB.

PJ does not learn from past mistakes. Going for it on 4th down early hurt us....very concerning to me to hear him say in the post game presser that he would do it again.

Walley is a stud, thought he played very well in coverage and the play on the punt coverage could have changed the game had the bounce gone the right way.

Morgan is not good when the pocket breaks down, same can be said for many QB's though.

The stadium staff needs work. I watched from the Plaza today instead of from my seats in 214....several very angry fans complaining about the bag policy and how long it took to get into the game. We simply have to do better at this and figure it out or the casual fans will say screw it, I'm not coming back.

We didn't capitalize on a great chance to make this town a Gophers town. Heard lots of comments like "at least the rest of my Saturdays are freed up" "same old Homecoming loss, not coming back ever again" ....ugh

Wisconsin is bad, Illinois could be good.

The game against Illinois will be huge, need to win that. West looks wide open where any team can beat any other team on any given week.

We played as bad as we could of early and had a lot of calls not go our way but we were still in this game, showed some heart and that's encouraging.

Daniel Jackson has potential, nice game by him.

Fleck still seems high on this team. That's encouraging.

Stripe out was cool, great to see the majority of the fans get the message and buy in.
 

what we still need to learn: how good is this Gopher team, really?

was the Purdue game a blip, or a preview of coming attractions?

don't ask me - I don't know. after today, I really have no idea how good the Gophers are, or could be.

sure, injuries matter, but we're talking about a D1 P5 FB team here. Losing one player should not cause the entire team to fall apart. If it does, then the team wasn't as good as people thought.
 

The Gophers shot themselves in the feet so many times yet still had a chance to win. This is a good team that played poorly today.
After Michigan State I thought the receiving corp played one of the best games we have seen. Guys that have struggled to catch contending balls in the past did not have that issue at East Lansing. Not so today.
@Triple D Walley had a good game but was a bummer he got burnt on that key play in the 4th. T Smith had an amazing game I thought. He locked down Jones most of the game.
The OLine really struggled and I was surprised that Kirk got out schemed and failed to adjust. Reminded me a lot of the Illinois game last year where Morgan got flustered due to pressure, and the Gophers never got into rhythm.
I wish the offense would have taken more deep shots as Morgan throws them well and we have some good receivers.
 

Well I’m not sure if we learned this today but it’s pretty obvious that we can’t pass when the running game is not working.
 




gopherbadgerman said:
Well I’m not sure if we learned this today but it’s pretty obvious that we can’t pass when the running game is not working.
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Morgan's Completion % definitely below average today, but we still had over 250 yards passing, helped out by that long one by Jackson, without that not very impressive.
 

All Purdue did was a quick shift or a few line stunts and run blitz there linebackers into the gaps in the middle. This is a look we should have been able to exploit with quick outs or a quick slant in.
Same thing happens against Illinois and the same result will.happen. Illinois much more athletic team up front than Purdue. Morgan doesn't handle pressure in his face fast, he doesn't have the height or the wheels to handle it. He is tough and has taken a lot of hits over the years, one thing he cannot do is beat a team when the running game is going poorly because he cannot run the ball well. Good QB, not good enough to put the team on his back and win a game for you.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
All Purdue did was a quick shift or a few line stunts and run blitz there linebackers into the gaps in the middle. This is a look we should have been able to exploit with quick outs or a quick slant in
Same thing happens against Illinois and the same result will.happen. Illinois much more athletic team up front than Purdue. Morgan doesn't handle pressure in his face fast, he doesn't have the hight or the wheels to handle it. He is tough and has taken a lot of hits over the years, one thing he cannot so is beat a team when the running game is going poorly.
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We should have won Tanner threw a perfect pass that was dropped and intercepted. Kicker missed a 28 yard give me. Fleck went for it on the 30 really?
 



Cedar Rapids Gopher said:
We should have won Tanner threw a perfect pass that was dropped and intercepted. Kicker missed a 28 yard give me. Fleck went for it on the 30 really?
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Two dropped interceptions too. Gophers get stuffed running the ball and play from behind by so many negative line of scrimmage plays where they lost yardage or gained a yard or two. Couldn't seal and beat them to the edge either. All of the negative running plays are why Gophers lost today. Running into blitzing linebackers did them no favors, they beat us with quickness up front shooting into the gaps. Same recipe Illinois will use. Oline lost at line of scrimmage, and too many drops, or poor passes. Offense as a whole unit was the losing side today.
 

Beating up on weak opponents may look and feel impressive - but it really isn’t.
 

We learned the Gophers can cream bad teams because MSU ia definitely bad. We already knew the other 3 teams we beat are bad.

We also learned this team isn't good enough to be counted on to beat mediocre teams.

What does all this mean?

Count on wins over Northwestern and Rutgers. Everything else is a potential loss.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Well I’m not sure if we learned this today but it’s pretty obvious that we can’t pass when the running game is not working.
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... which is ironic, as the critical time you need a passing game is when the running game isn't working. If stop the Gophers' running game = beat the Gophers, then the season becomes a 6 or 7 win proposition. Too many teams we still must face, beginning with Illinois, can stop the run by loading the box (and simultaneously bringing lots of pressure on the QB).
 



Play calling on Gophers 2nd to last drive really sucked, 3 n out - 2 run plays and an incomplete pass. Purdue got the ball back, became aggressive and passed its way down the field for a go ahead field goal. One of many coaching errors today.
 

Key plays that went wrong in yesterday that caused us the game

We easily could’ve won even we played like shit wasn’t for these shitty calls and situations

The ref-ing absolutely sucked

PI call on T-Time in the first quarter gave Purdue 1st & 10 in the red zone. The ball wasn’t even catchable and T-time even looked back for the ball, no way a PI! Wasn’t for this shitty PI call, Purdue may had max get a FG instead of their TD

4 & INCHES, you called shotgun formation with Kramer!? You’re 5-6 yards off of the line!? What happened to place Tanner under JS and have BSF motion and stop behind Tanner to shove his ass forward and then have Potts shove BSF forward like we’ve seen in the first games? I love this play as we can get easily 2-3 yards! 4 & INCHES! It wasn’t 4 & 1…it was inches and you called shotgun?! C’mon!

MBS dropped TD pass just before the half?! C’mon! In press conference MBS say things like “catch radius”, being a “dog” and “ball hog”….you didn’t do any of that! The ball hit you! I don’t care if it was slightly behind you…it touched your body! You’re in the end zone, BE READY!

I can recall at least 3 passes by TM that were either too slow, too late or simply were behind the receivers! TM was SO off yesterday. He HAD time! All of you saying OL sucked, I don’t believe it was all OL, TM sucked yesterday. BSF had to stop his route and come back to try to catch TM’s ducks.

Trickett? OMG, a 27 yarder! I can do that with my eye shut in Tecmo Bowl! C’mon! WTF?

Out of bounds late hit by our DB when we could’ve gotten off the field?! Seriously!? Why?!
 

Triple D said:
Injuries suck - Not having Ibrahim and Autman-Bell really hurt us today. Injuries are a part of the game, hopefully Mo gets healthy for the end of the season push. Injuries can change the chemistry of any team, could happen to our future opponents too and we might catch them on a good day like Purdue caught us today so no time to panic. I feel we win this one with a healthy Mo and a healthy CAB.

PJ does not learn from past mistakes. Going for it on 4th down early hurt us....very concerning to me to hear him say in the post game presser that he would do it again.

Walley is a stud, thought he played very well in coverage and the play on the punt coverage could have changed the game had the bounce gone the right way.

Morgan is not good when the pocket breaks down, same can be said for many QB's though.

The stadium staff needs work. I watched from the Plaza today instead of from my seats in 214....several very angry fans complaining about the bag policy and how long it took to get into the game. We simply have to do better at this and figure it out or the casual fans will say screw it, I'm not coming back.

We didn't capitalize on a great chance to make this town a Gophers town. Heard lots of comments like "at least the rest of my Saturdays are freed up" "same old Homecoming loss, not coming back ever again" ....ugh

Wisconsin is bad, Illinois could be good.

The game against Illinois will be huge, need to win that. West looks wide open where any team can beat any other team on any given week.

We played as bad as we could of early and had a lot of calls not go our way but we were still in this game, showed some heart and that's encouraging.

Daniel Jackson has potential, nice game by him.

Fleck still seems high on this team. That's encouraging.

Stripe out was cool, great to see the majority of the fans get the message and buy in.
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Many good points stated here.
 

Going for it on 4th and 2 from your 29...sending in a QB who ONLY ever runs...then, worst of all...NOT having him under center but snapping the ball BACKWARDS 5 yards when you are going to try to run for 2. SO Stupid, yet everyone...college and the NFL does it. Because having a QB under center is so "Old School!" and "Not what we do in the days of the Spread Offense!" So flippin' stupid.
 

Ton of great stuff outlined in the OP. Thanks for the great post.

One more point I want to make but will put in its own thread and I think reasonable to do that.
 

Cedar Rapids Gopher said:
We should have won Tanner threw a perfect pass that was dropped and intercepted. Kicker missed a 28 yard give me. Fleck went for it on the 30 really?
Click to expand...

If the mistakes that Purdue made, starting with a couple of drops on Offense and Defense, didn't happen then sure, that would work.

Thing is if we were reading the Purdue Boards during the game they'd be pointing those out and saying how the margin would have been even bigger than it was.
 

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