Minnesota Golden Gophers are 7-1
by GopherNation
on Oct 26, 2008 10:44 PM CDT
in Gopher Football
Seriously, who would have thought? I drink the kool-aid more than anybody I know, but not even I would have suggested 7-1 would have been remotely possible. Back in January I accurately predicted the 5-1 start but I thought for sure we'd lose the two road games at Illinois and Purdue. We've won back to back road games in the Big Ten. I know that nationally the Big Ten is viewed as somewhere between the MAC and the Big Sky, but this start is nothing to be ashamed of. The rest of the season could go horribly wrong but at the very least what a ride we have been on.
Here is what I liked about the Purdue win...
109 passing yards allowed! - a year ago Purdue was the number one scoring offense in the league and barely second in passing per game. I know, that was last year right? Well they are still the number two passing offense in the Big Ten. One play over 11 yards allowed in the air. Even with Painter in the game they were averaging six yards per completion. This was a great job by the pass defense led by Marcus Sherels in my opinion.
Turnovers - as usual this carried us. A great pick by Sherels, a monster hit by Brock to force a fumble and Theret ending the game with a pick in the endzone highlighted the day where we domianted turnovers again.
Brandon Green - FINALLY we saw one of the new receivers step up and make some plays. Green was an integral part of the offense and it was refreshing to see. Great job by the freshman.
What I didn't like...
Offensive line play - this is our most glaring weakness. Currently it slows down the offense cause Eskridge can't get open holes and Weber can't get enough time to find a second open receiver.
That's about it. We were far from perfect and we aren't a BCS contender by any stretch of the imagination. But this guarantees us three road wins on the season. Most importantly we have three home games remaining and a chance to win all of them. One game at a time is important starting with Northwestern.
It is an exciting time to be a Gopher football fan. To quote the wisdom of Mike Tice, "enjoy the season." Cause this one has been a lot of fun.
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What about the defensive penalties?
I complained a bit about some of the 15-yard penalties (that the officials were being too strict and not letting defensive players play) but really, when a guy is already on the white of the out of bounds stripe, don’t hit him! If the whistle blows, don’t pile on. I disagree with the call against us where the tackler was already engaged, but otherwise they have to walk that fine line between agression and over-zealous. So that was another negative that I hope they can address in a positive way without taking away their agressiveness. I never would have thought 7-1!
by mraveling on Oct 27, 2008 9:33 AM CDT 0 recs
Penalties were definitely a negative. Four 15-yard flags really could have hurt them. The defense just has to be a bit more disclipined.
Still, great to see the offense do enough to win and the defense really pick up the slack once again. Liked having Shady Salamon in there a bit to spell DeLeon. McKinley and Brown played great upfront. Sherels is a walk-on stud. Green learned a ton about college football Saturday. Great job most of the time by special teams too.
by HutchLeaderGuy on Oct 27, 2008 12:51 PM CDT 0 recs
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