Post game off the cuff thoughts...
by GopherNation on Aug 30, 2008 9:16 PM CDT
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PrintWhat a game. I am jacked that they got the W, but not as encouraged as I was hoping.
These are just my quick thoughts post game. As I get a chance to watch it, read quotes and contemplate how I feel about it, but these are my quick thoughts...
- What a gutsy call on 4th and 1. That would have been second guessed for the rest of the season had they missed it.
- NIU clearly made the better adjustments at half time and that concerns me more than anything else.
- The defense was better. Statistically they did alright in the first half and then second half did great on first and second down. But third and long was unbearable.
- Weber to Decker is a solid combination.
- Somebody point out how much we used the TE to Haggeman. Simmons with a huge TD and Tow-Arnett had two receptions on the final drive.
- I am glad we got the win under out belt and it is probably beneficial to finish off a close game. But just about everybody we play from here on out will be better, which means we'll have to play much better to get a couple more Ws.
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My Thoughts
Impressed with -
- Willie VDS & Lee Campbell stood out on the line
- Linebackers – Davis, Hightower & Lawrence all had some nice plays
- Simmons & Brock seemed to do well
- Brewster’s call
- Weber looked good
- Decker of course
- Jack Simmons move for TD
- Duane Bennett
- Stoudemire had some nice kick returns
Not impressed with -
- Collado was terrible & Theret wasn’t much better in the secendary
- Onwuachi was invisible
- Blitz’s didn’t seem effective most of the time – still aren’t getting enough pressure on QB
- Can’t let a punt get blocked
- Both Offensive Tackles did poorly and the line in general wasn’t great
- Finally, the replay official. Decker clearly had a TD – I have no idea what they could have seen otherwise. That was a 4 point difference meaning we should have had the lead anyway.
NIU Game
Campbell started at middle LB and looked very good stopping the run. Run D was good, especially the DT’s. Nice game by Moen and Edwards in particular.
Hard to believe Collado and Theret were our starting corners last year. Is there any wonder why we ranked 119th out of 119 in total defense?
VDS didn’t dominate his man, his sack and pressures were of the clean-up variety where someone else chased the QB out of the pocket.
All of the LB’s looked good.
Brock, Sherels were very good and T. Simmons was ok. One of the long passes he gave up was a zone defense.
Sherels could have been called for pass interference on the 2nd to last play, but that would have been a really tough call for the official to make. He plays really tight coverage and is going to have some picks if he learns to turn his head for the ball.
Running game was non-existent, except for the 61 yard run by Bennett. Mostly bacause the line played poorly. It is a very young line so there is a lot of room for improvement and we need that desperately. There was also a ton of pressure on Weber making his play all the more impressive.
Not sure I'd call that 4th-and-1 call "gutsy"...
I was thinking more along the lines of “insane.”
Maybe Tim Brewster has the same condition as Les Miles:
Good call
Further out, obviously you just take the FG. But you just have to fall forward to get two or three more shots pounding away from two yards out. You’ve got probably a 70-75% chance of making the 4th down, and if you do it’s probably 80% to get the TD (plus a good chance of getting a FG if you get stuffed). That’s better than the 50-50 shot at OT. Going for it is the percentage play.
I don’t think most coaches go for it half as often as they should.
It...
..was a good win for them. I’m not the biggest Gophers fan (I really just watch all college football and don’t have ONE team), but being a Twins/Wolves guy I do like to root for them, and they’re fun to watch.
Nice blog you have going here, it’s fun to read….
by Twins Territory on Aug 30, 2008 11:35 PM CDT reply actions
Simmon is #15 right?
Unless I have the numbers wrong I thought I saw him get torched a handful of times.
Outside of Brock I can’t say I was impressed with anyone else in the secondary.
Our D-backs seemed to be letting the plays come to them instead of attacking what was happening. In the first half there was a long pass down the right side of the field that was a total dead-duck and instead of trying to make a play on the ball or lining up the receiver to light him up our d-back let the guy catch the ball and needed assistance on the tackle.
Honestly if this defense can’t bring a little more fire from the d-backs the line and line-backers playing better against the run will matter little to none. Why would a team even bother establishing the run against us when they could pass for just about anything they want too.
On the offensive side of the ball I can’t say I saw the creativity of the spread nor did the I see the game changing potential of the new receivers we brought in.
We got one win so we can’t do any worse then last year but we are going to have to see marked improvement to see any more wins this year.
Not only that...
but BOTH Simmons (Traye and Jack) are #15. :-)
by Jon Marthaler on Aug 30, 2008 11:59 PM CDT up reply actions
The most amazing stat I've ever heard
“It was the Gophers’ first fourth-quarter game-winning touchdown since Nov. 18, 2000 in a 27-24 win over Iowa. It was the first time Minnesota scored a game-winning touchdown in the final minute since Cory Sauter connected with Tutu Atwell from 18 yards out for a 26-23 win over Ball State with 15 seconds left on Sept. 14, 1996.”
It’s been eight years since the Gophs won a game with a fourth-quarter touchdown. Holy. Crap.
not really surprising ....
during Mason’s years, the Gophers were the team coughing up the 4th quarter rallies to lose games.
The kids still have a long, long way to go.
From what I could see on the tube, there’s more team speed on defense and Weber’s coming along very well in the offense. The gap between them & the rest of the Big 10 is still large – - – but it’s not as large as it was last year.
A better look at the pass D
With the exception of Collado, the pass D only gave up 182 yards, with 30 on those 2 play with 22 second left.
Of course you can’t ignore Collado’s lousy play, but the pass defense was OK.
by Ski U Mah Gopher on Aug 31, 2008 8:17 AM CDT reply actions
Tackling
If the secondary could actually make a tackle once in awhile, our pass coverage would be drastically improved. I wasn’t watching the game that closely (much more of a college basketball fan, as I’ve grown tired of the BCS and college football as a whole over the years), but I had it on and it seemed like every time I looked up our secondary was blowing tackles.
As a side note, the Big Ten Network is awesome. After not being able to watch any road Gopher games last year, it’s great to be able to sit down on a Saturday and actually watch my team. I can’t wait until basketball season starts up.
Shut-down Simmons
Isn’t Simmons, Tray that is, supposed to be a shut-down corner? Why didn’t we slide him over to NIU’s #81 on every play after that 91 yard TD?
Bowling Green looked good yesterday. I think it’s going to be tough next week.
I’m excited for the start of the basketball season too.
Prediction
I’d just like to point everyone to the preview thread a couple posts down where I predicted the Gophers would win 31-28!!! Pretty close!
I’m out of town, but I wanted to make one other observation. I watched the game with a couple buddies at a bar in the MPLS burbs. The bar was fairly crowded. As Brewster went for it on fourth down and made it, I cheered. Out of 30-40 people in our vicinity, no one else even noticed.
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