Minnesota 27, Illinois 20

Wow

Too bad we have a bye week, as I can’t wait to see us play again.

by Kelly Leeks on Oct 11, 2008 2:38 PM CDT reply actions

Plenty of time though to pput a nice gameplan in for Painter and company.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Oct 11, 2008 2:40 PM CDT up reply actions

How many wins?

I’d say up to 12, counting the bowl.

I had 9 to start the season, and this was a loss. Why not 10 now?

by WhiteSpeedReceiver on Oct 11, 2008 2:41 PM CDT reply actions

12-1 is prety aggressive!!!!

Then again, the only two games left on the schedule that I can envision myself picking them to lose are @ Purdue and Wisconsin.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Oct 11, 2008 2:51 PM CDT up reply actions

Date Opponent Result
Aug. 30 Northern Illinois W 31-27
Sep. 6 at Bowling Green W 42-17
Sep. 13 Montana St. W 35-23
Sep. 20 Florida Atlantic W 37-3
Sep. 27 at Ohio State L 21-34
Oct. 4 Indiana W 16-7
Oct. 11 at Illinois W 27-20
Oct. 25 at Purdue W
Nov. 1 Northwestern W
Nov. 8 Michigan W
Nov. 15 at Wisconsin L
Nov. 22 Iowa W

That’s not unrealistic.

by Moojenowski on Oct 11, 2008 3:41 PM CDT reply actions

10-2 = Nice Bowl Bid

Great turnaround for the Gophers. Just like in the late 1950’s.

by FortyYearCatFan on Oct 11, 2008 5:37 PM CDT reply actions

wow

to me, it didnt seem like the Juice threw for over 400 yards. I thought our defense was hanging in there and getting decent pressure all day.

Nice to see Deleon break some good runs, and the Gophers offense seemed committed to the run this afternoon

by DedicatedFollowerOfFashion on Oct 11, 2008 6:24 PM CDT reply actions

Passing Yardage

I agree…when they put up Juice’s passing yardage stat late in the game I was shocked. I thought he threw for more like 250 than 413. I think those last two long touchdowns must have skewed it late.

by rencito on Oct 12, 2008 9:59 AM CDT up reply actions

Goal line stand

When was the last time the U had a goal line stand like that one. The D is stepping up.

by go4usc on Oct 11, 2008 6:35 PM CDT reply actions

Defense

The goalline stand was great. The pressure on Juice was great. And two turnovers inside the 10 yard line were the difference. I still think the offense really needs another receiver to step up if the GOphers really want to go 10-2.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Oct 12, 2008 8:43 AM CDT reply actions

Goal line stand

This was definitely the play(s) of the game. If Illinois scores six on that drive, the entire dynamic of the game is different. Huge stop by the defense and great job by the refs on correcting the call. Is it just me, or does the Big Ten use instant replay 10 times better than the NFL? It seems like NFL screws up calls on replay as often as they do on the field.

by rencito on Oct 12, 2008 10:02 AM CDT up reply actions

I still cannot believe our D

After sitting through the Wacker and Mason years of horrid D, I can’t believe what I saw yesterday. I just kept thinking of how we were going to lose late yesterday. That is what being in a abusive relationship for 18 years, called Gopher D, will do to you.

I can’t wait to watch a replay of this game or at least the highlights. WVDS is back and he is on a mission. Can’t wait to see what we do at Purdue.

by Kelly Leeks on Oct 12, 2008 9:05 AM CDT reply actions

A glen mason Defense

Folds like a chair in that situation. I was watching it with my dad and once we went up by 14 he said it was over, I then had to remind him that Minnesota football has never given me a comfortable win in a big game (see Texas Tech bowl game).

by Moojenowski on Oct 12, 2008 10:05 AM CDT up reply actions

Agreed on the WR

Spry is Pathetic, I Think Kuznia might be stepping up at that other WR position though.

by Tony_O on Oct 12, 2008 9:52 AM CDT reply actions

Spry

I wouldn’t give up on him yet. He isn’t having a good season, but he isn’t getting the ball either. How much of that is his fault versus Weber I’m not sure. I think you could blame Weber just as much for locking in on Decker all the time.

by rencito on Oct 12, 2008 10:05 AM CDT up reply actions

Webber Looking at Decker alot i agree with

But like yesterday he threw to spry once, spry caught it and spry turned it over, Thats enough reason for me to give up on spry, he’s Been hardly given the Ball, Thats because he usually turns the ball over.

by Tony_O on Oct 12, 2008 10:08 AM CDT up reply actions

My point

is that when you don’t get involved very often it doesn’t help you improve. I’m just not sure if he isn’t on the field, Weber doesn’t look his way, or if he just isn’t getting open. The fumbling will get better the more he gets the ball.

by rencito on Oct 12, 2008 10:47 AM CDT up reply actions

My 2 cents

I understand that the Gophers ran more than they should Saturday in an attempt to keep Juice Williams and the Illini offense off the field. Still, our best two players on offense are Adam Weber and Eric Decker. These two need to influence our offense. Decker has been fantastic, Weber has been just as great when given the opportunity to throw. Let him do it more. Let him go downfield.

It seems like we have two run plays right now. Handoff right, handoff left. Take away the one long run and DeLeon didn’t have more than 1 or 2 gains of 8+. Our run is pretty predictable. I also hate that on 2nd/3rd/4th and 1’s, we’re in shotgun and run.

Willie was absolutely awesome yesterday, but I thought Eric Small and Garrett Brown played well too. Not sure who the fourth guy is (Derrick O?), but he did nothing. We need more from the other end. Lee Campbell and Simoni Lawrence also had sacks from the outside linebacker position. I have a sneaky feeling Willie gets a one-game suspension for his punch.

Sherels DNP. Two weeks until Purdue, please sit down Ryan Collado (who got a gift INT tipped by WVDS).

by HutchLeaderGuy on Oct 12, 2008 10:20 AM CDT reply actions

My 1 cent

Weber isn’t given an opportunity to throw downfield because he never has any time to do so. I think the coaching staff realizes this and therefore they haven’t called too many long passing plays. The offensive line is young and playing hurt, so I wouldn’t expect much improvement.

I totally agree on the hatred for calling runs out of the gun on third and short. That is so frustrating.

Lastly, I still think we need to cut Collado some slack. Yes, he scares me every time he is on the field, but he has made some plays this year. I wouldn’t call his interception yesterday a gift. Yes WVDS certainly enabled it. But coming down with the ball when two Illini receivers were right there on what is essentially a jump ball is not very easy. I just feel like everyone rips Collado every single time an opposing receiver makes any catch at all which is an unreal expectation for any corner.

by rencito on Oct 12, 2008 10:43 AM CDT up reply actions

Rest of the Season

This is still one of the youngest teams in all of college football. They are definitely maturing before our very eyes, but they are still susceptible to letdowns. It shouldn’t shock anyone if we lose at Purdue, although I think the fact that we have a week off will only help us.

Lest we forget—we barely beat Northern Illinois, couldn’t pull away from Montana State, and we are the only offense that has ever struggled against Indiana. That being said, we won all of those games which is the most important thing. My point is that we need to temper our expectations.

You might read this post and think I’m being pessimistic or negative, but it is really just the opposite. The last thing I want to see fans do is get expectations artificially high just to have them dashed. I think that we already have reason to believe and I would hate to see a few more losses diminish that hope because now we are expected to win. Rather, we should be just as giddy with any subsequent wins this season as we were against Illinois because there aren’t any gimmies.

In any event, we are very lucky we don’t have Michigan State nor Penn State on the schedule this year. That definitely makes the rest of our schedule easier and should we continue to win, you can expect that point to be brought up by the talking heads.

by rencito on Oct 12, 2008 10:25 AM CDT reply actions

I agree with this post.

I for one will still be happy if they finish 7-5. I know that means 1-4 to finish the season, but this is a young team and a 7-5 record will still exceed expectations. I expect that they’ll do better than that – 9-3 is a real possibility – but we should expect some bumps in the road.

by plinytheelder on Oct 12, 2008 12:11 PM CDT up reply actions

Rencito, agreed

I think we still might lose one that we should or expect to win. MN fans are bandwagon prototypes. If we beat PU, the dome would be sold out for NW. Say we lose to NW, nobody would show for Michigan.

I thought we would be somewhere between 5-7 and 7-5 this year. I want us to win every game, but also am not expecting us to run the table from here on out. We are bowl eligible. Nice step from last year. Everything else is just gravy from here through November.

by Kelly Leeks on Oct 12, 2008 12:13 PM CDT up reply actions

I stand corrected

At the beginning of this season, I made a few comments like “The Gophers will be better, but they could improve quite a bit and still be terrible.” Obviously, they’ve improved a bit more than that. Illinois gave this one away, but the Gophers last year would have handed it right back. Given the schedule (the two teams you don’t play in the Big Ten are both 3-0, and you’ve already played the other 3-0), 9-3, maybe even 10-2 seems within reach.

I still don’t think the Gophers are better than fourth-best in the Big Ten (the record being inflated with non-conference patsies and the relatively easy Big Ten schedule), but at the beginning of the year I didn’t think there was any way you’d be better than 7th. Congrats on bowl-eligibility.

by SpartanDan on Oct 12, 2008 5:30 PM CDT reply actions

Great Win!!!!

We are playing great as a team and I love the blitzing and pressure Roof is bringing on the opposing QB. I am cautiously optimistic though. We are doing a great job of getting turnovers, but giving up a ton of yards passing. We had no answer for Arregis Benn (sp?). He looked like a man among boys and was easily the best player on the field. I loved the run defense though and the goal line stand was awesome.

Sherels will be back after the bye week and that will help our passing defense. We still don’t have upper echelon talent to compete with the powers of college football, but we should be in every game the rest of the season and that is all you can ask for.

by Narby on Oct 13, 2008 12:36 PM CDT reply actions