Game 1 Recap
by Buck Bravo on Sep 5, 2009 4:49 PM CDT
in Gopher Football
30 comments
Let's start by reviewing the TDG staff's predictions for the Minnesota versus Syracuse game, which ended with a 23-20 Minnesota victory:
GN: Syracuse is not as bad as they were last year, but Paulus will still be adjusting to game speed and the team will struggle early. Gophers win by double digits.
BB: The betting line has the Gophers at about 7 point favorites over the Orange, and I think Syracuse will beat the spread but lose the game. Gophers win 28-24. (1-0 record)
JG: I get the feeling it'll take about one quarter for the Gophers to figure out Paulus and this offense. By the fourth quarter, Paulus will probably be wishing he was back on the Duke bench. Minnesota will win this game by at least 25 points. (1-0).
Based upon the first game, the following points highlight some of the the positive and negative perspectives from TDG, our game thread, and the post game radio show:
NEGATIVES
- The offense was predictable and ineffective for most of the second and third quarters. Minnesota failed to establish the run.
- Whether due to play calling or quarterbacking, Adam Weber continues to telegraph passes to Eric Decker and had trouble finding secondary options when the primary receiver was covered.
- The offense did not make aggressive play calls until under pressure in the fourth quarter. Conservative play calling may hinder the Gophers in future matchups.
- While Weber performed strongly down the stretch, several of his passes were erratic.
- Lack of an effective pass rush. Losing Willie VanDeSteeg to the NFL may hurt the team in 2009.
- Duane Bennett left the game in overtime clutching his shoulder. This could be a devastating injury if it is serious.
POSITIVES
- DEFENSE. The defense gave up a few big plays, but did a spectacular job of adjusting to the Syracuse offense as the game progressed. Cosgrove and Lee got the job done.
- KICKING. Despite one bad field goal attempt, both the kicking and punting was strong for Minnesota. This bodes well for future close games. Eric Ellestad was cool under pressure with his last two field goals.
- LEE CAMPBELL. Campbell was dominant at linebacker, and appears to have improved greatly from a solid 2008 season. Look for him to become the leader of the defensive squad on the field.
- ERIC DECKER. Minnesota would have lost without him. He's back to his top form after finishing last season with some wear and tear.
- TROY STOUDERMIRE. Despite a bad decision late in the game on a punt return, Stoudermire appears to be a great kick returner and a solid option at receiver.
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my pos/negs
Negatives – Weber was super inaccurate. He did throw to his first option nearly every time but his receivers were always open, he just couldn’t hit them. The final drive was a perfect example, he threw to the first guy he looked at every time, the guy was open but on that drive he connected and we scored.
Jeff Wills let his DE blow by him too easily. OL was better than last year but there were still issues.
Playcalling was erratic and cost us at least one or two drives.
The run game was actually effective but they never stuck with it and on key short yardage situations they threw the ball! I didn’t get it. Bennett averaged 4.9 yds per carry, can’t argue with that.
Positives
Special Teams (like BB said). Ellsted isn’t expected to be great but he nailed everything inside of 40 today and Orseske was 42+ in his first game as a true freshman.
also like BB said, the linebackers were outstanding. Especially Campbell and Simoni, I’m a big fan of those guys.
and I’ll disagree and say I thought the pass rush was more than adequate. Paulus evaded a few sacks and was brought down 3 times. That isn’t dominant but I liked what I saw.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you
Weber was not connecting
He could not throw the out pattern and lacked the touch on the screen passes. The short out and the screen pass seem to be important part of Fisch’s repertoire so Weber needs to execute those throws. Gray looked more crisp during pregame warmups and I wish they would have given him a shot yesterday.
As for the running game, offensive line is not the problem anymore. We just don’t have any good running backs. I repeat. We just don’t have any good running backs. The holes were there. These guys just can’t make any cuts once they get through the initial hole.
Totally Disagree
about the running backs. Bennett is the real deal. I agree he didn’t have the best game and could have done more with some of his holes, but he still did pretty well—in particular when he bounces it outside. Too bad our screen passes were horribly executed by Weber (bad throws) and the o-line (not getting in position) otherwise he could have been used more as a weapon on those plays.
I do agree that we don’t have much after Bennett.
and penalties
this is becoming an issue that dates back to last year.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you
Seemed like they were taking a long time at the LOS
Even when they weren’t changing the play, even with nobody in motion, just seemed like forever between everyone getting set and the snap. Led to false starts.
Anyone else see that? Or am I just nuts?
The Game
I think the biggest issue was the lack of using MN’s strengths. The offensive line was built for a run game. So the O coordinator was passing on 1st down nearly the entire game. This lead to a lot of motion penalties on the Gophers. Dom Alford needs to get his ass in gear and pay attention. He looked terrible out there. I am hoping the vanilla offense was a decision made early last week to keep their full playbook under wraps. We saw some Wild Rodent formations early on when we had the lead, but that was scrapped pretty quick. With Weber’s accuracy in the 1-3rd quarters it put them in a lot of bad spots. I liked the final drive in regulation. Hitting green on quick slants provided another option and Weber used that option well. There were some forced balls to Decker that fortunately fell incomplete or Decker made a great catch. Passing to set up the run can be effective, but went down the drain real quick when Webber was at about a 35% completion rate. Fisch should have went back to a run first mindset. Got the W, which is the good thing. They have a lot of work to do to be ready for AF. They dropped 70+ points on a bad team and rushed for over 400 yds. Expect them to run the ball, or at least try to establish the run early.
Cosgrove saved the day
I never thought I would write this but Cosgrove stepped up, made the adjustments and shut down their offense in the second half.
Cuse was making hay by exploiting the inability of our corners and safeties to shed the wide receiver blocks. Their WRs were dominating our DBs when it came to locking up on them. Nobody could shed their blocks and Cuse kept throwing quick outs to exploit that.
The DL was fine in spite of the lack of sacks. I was counting down and, after 3 seconds, at least one guy had shed the block and was bearing down on Paulus. That made Paulus scramble and he doesn’t yet know how to run from pressure and at the same time find his guys. They always had guys open. If we had played this game in late October, we would have easily lost the game. I am assuming Paulus will only get better.
Too lazy to list them all
I am just too damn wiped out by that game to begin to list all my concerns. Suffice it to say there were many more negatives than positives. You gotta take a road win anyway you can get it, but geez, talk about frustrating. Top ten abbreviated concerns:
1—the lack of intensity, emotion, urgency by the Gophers. Almost lackadasical attitude. Not going for the jugular when the chance presented itself.
2—Weber’s footwork in the backfield and vision—-did he ever even LOOK at option #2??. I am afraid he has hit his ceiling. I love the guy’s heart and character but did not see any growth as a QB.
3—the playcalling, clock management, use of TO’s, inexcusable penalties.
4—Brock is really going to be missed
5—If Bennett did indeed hurt his shoulder and is out, no bowl game
6—outside of Campbell, I don’t see any leadership on the field
7—that’s enough negative crap from one person.
On a positive note, Campbell played his ass off.
I'm going to withhold judgment
until I see more than 2 highlights on Sportscenter – I was unable to watch the game in Ann Arbor. But a couple of superficial thoughts:
(1) Whoever disagreed with me for predicting that Illinois would lose to Missouri, resurface.
(2) Whoever tried to argue with me that Tim Brewster was just as good a coach as Rich Rodriguez, do you still want to make that argument?
(3) I am not pleased that Jedd Fisch is learning how to playcall in the Big Ten, for our school, to our detriment. This is similar to my displeasure that Brewster has now spent 3 years learning how to be a head football coach. This has got to be a job where coaches show up already knowing how to coach (Fulmer, Tuberville, etc.) or we’re never going to progress as a program.
(4) I watched California demolish a quality BCS team last night. I saw that Air Force put up 70 yesterday. After what I saw yesterday, I’m officially concerned.
That was me
I said you were blowing smoke for picking a team with just 4 returning starters on defense and a new DC to shut down the supposedly the best offense in the Big10.
Benn left the game with an injury in the first series. RB Ford and Florida transfer Fayson also limped off with injuries. That is my theory for your lucky turn of events and I am sticking with it.
By the way, Zook better put on his asbestos underwear.
Um.....
Illinois has Dufrene and LeShoure in the backfield, and has Wanalonomoooi (sp?) and Cumberland to throw to. For all the love thrown Illinois’ way, I didn’t know they were so dependent upon their WR and the second string RB.
Regardless, 9 points is 9 points. That is pathetic when you have a 4 year starting QB.
Off the Ledge
I saw Iowa squeak by Norther Iowa on 2 blocked FG’s at the end of the game. I also saw OSU eek one out against Navy.
Weber was absolutely horrible for 3 quarters of the game, so maybe his timing is coming together.
The offensive line gave him plenty of time to throw.
Our defensive lne looked like we had 4 DT’s out there, the ends are very slow. Then at the end of the game I saw Wilhite and I am more encouraged. He will see a lot more playing time and may be the guy to step up and provide the pass rush.
The had a “stud” DT in Jones and when it was 3rd and short or 4th and short we ran right at him. We were more effective running the ball outside, so the play calling in short yardage situations was atrocious.
Cosgrove and Lee did a fantastic job with half-time adjustments. Syracuse was efective with the bubble screen and the wildcat run in the first half, but the 2nd half they were completely shut down. I do question why it took so long to put eight men in the box when they lined up in hte wildcat formation. The announcers were even saying that.
Our DT’s were great, but as a team we gave up too many yards rushing to the outside.
All in all though, the game would not have been that close if Weber payed anywhere near mediocre for the first 3 quarters.
Agreed Narby
Weber kept SU in the game almost single handed. Including his fumble late in the 4th quarter. As Garrick said above, Cosgrove made the in game adjustments that have alluded MN for more than 20 years. I would like to think that the kids were really jacked up and played tight. Looking ahead to the Bank home opener is very emotional. Heck Im pretty tuned up for that game and really was not too excited for SU other than it was the first game. Bottom line is that we won. Good teams have awful games sometimes. Iowa and OSU as you pointed out. But good teams will somehow pull through with the W. I don’t think Iowa would have won that game based on how they played at home. Im also pretty sure Indiana and maybe Illinois would have went home from Syracuse with a loss hanging around their neck.
Good to see Pantherhawk has been silent….Iowa is lucky that NI has no kicking game…that kid kicked it into the back of his offensive line twice and handed the game to Iowa. They are going to be in a world of hurt if they cannot run the ball, especially on the road where you need to control the clock for long stretches and get the home crowd to sit on their hands.
by DallasGopher on Sep 6, 2009 10:18 AM CDT up reply actions
JG2112
did a better, more concise job than me so I am going to steal his line. “I am offically concerned.” Narby, great point on Jones -- That is a good example of my complaint about the plays being called all day. The “Mo” swung on that busted wildcat inside our 20 that resulted in a 10 yard loss and led to a 3 and out. That was not the place or time to try that.
My take
I agree with the sentiment for concern. I am officially bearish on the Gophers right now. However, this was just one data point from the first game of the year, on the road, against a wild card quarterback who actually lived up to the hype and a team (albeit not a good one) from a BCS conference. I don’t think that means we need to flush the rest of the season down the toilet based on this one game.
What I didn’t like:
Our offense seemed to be no different than last year other than Weber doesn’t line up in the shotgun every down. Other than that, we seemed to like passing on first down and put ourselves in 3rd and long positions all day because of Weber’s inaccuracy and the decisions to keep passing on 1st down.
We were up 14-3 quickly and didn’t put them away. The team and coaching staff lack killer instinct. You don’t sit on a 14-3 lead in the first quarter or even first half.
Penalties continue to kill us. There is nothing more frustrating than pre-snap penalties. This needs to change or we are in for a long season.
What I did like:
The play of the defense, especially in the second half. The coaches made the right adjustments and the players executed well. I disagree with Buck Bravo here. I think the D-line played pretty well. Paulus is going to be one of the quickest QBs we see all year. I mean the guy played PG for Duke, you know he has a lot of quickness. We put pressure on him, but he was able to escape more often than not. Sure he hasn’t played football in several years, but it isn’t like he was sitting on a couch or bagging groceries somewhere. He is a top notch D-1 athelete. He actually reminded me a lot of Doug Flutie out there.
The play of Weber down the stretch. He did not have a good game at all but he stepped up when it mattered. I would still rather have him out there than Gray because we know Weber isn’t going to make many mental mistakes. Gray is an inexperienced wildcard at this point, but it would be nice to see him come in every so often to confuse defenses. I think Weber will play much better next week.
Linebackers. I thought the linebackers played pretty well last year, the defense was just always in a terrible position thanks to many, many three-and-outs from the offense the second half of the season. The Gophers linebackers may be an underrated corps in the Big 11 this year and they played really well yesterday. The D-backs could be a concern. If not for a few critical dropped passes, Syracuse would have won the game yesterday in regulation.
Finally:
Air Force officially scares me. I know it was Nicholls State, but still. I said it until I was blue in the face last year, but the MWC is better than the Big East and the ACC. Air Force, BYU, Utah, TCU could play in any conference and be competitive—and they have PROVED it over the last few years (okay, so Air Force to a lesser extent). The Mountain West Conference is for the most part located between Big 10 and Pac 10 country and really seem to have the best of both conferences. Tough defenses with high powered offenses. Air Force’s defense doesn’t scare me as much as their offense, so it could be a shootout next week.
Wow. I really cannot wait for the new stadium next week. This will be one of the longest weeks of my life.
Gophers/Syracuse
Still waiting for the gophers to run an offense with the discipline and efficiency seen in both the Navy vs Ohio State and the BYU vs Oklahoma games. BYU actually ran a 4th down play at a critical point near the end of the game with no huddle and a hurry up offense. Navy outplayed Ohio State with discipline and sharp execution with no delays at the line of scrimmage and no indescision. I would like to see the o line jump up to the line and run a hurry-up play once in a while at least, and also a two plays in a row withoult huddle to upset the defense. It would be nice to see some more confidence and "take it to em’ mentality on offense. It would be nice to win, and not just escape with a win.
by bobbyspringfield on Sep 6, 2009 5:04 PM CDT reply actions
Air Force
I heard they get 2 Wins since they won by so much…..at the end of the day its a win. Counts the same as if you win by 100. The defense held when it had to. The offense did just enough to get the win. We can talk about what we can improve, but imagine if we would have lost.
First non-conference win on the road with a BCS school since 1989
I heard this is the first Gopher win since 1989 on the road against a BCS school, out of conference of course. Can that be right? I know Mason never scheduled an away game against a BCS school so he didn’t have a chance, but seems like an incredibly long time and shows how tough it is to win on the road.
Wiki says Gophers W
Sept 16th 2000 34-16 @ Baylor
That’s still a long time…
I hate to
rain on the Gopher parade here and I’ll deal with the Dark Starr-like comments later, but no, beating Syracuse does not prove how hard it is to win on the road…it proves how close the middle, to the bottom of the Big Ten teams are to the Big East- not very encouraging…
Put a tarp on that circus! - showtime @ BSD
expectations?
it seems like our expectations were far too high before the season even began. Beating a middle of the pack BE team on the road isn’t a huge accomplishment but what exactly are the expectations here? We were a bottom half of the Big Ten a year ago, we will have to work for everything this year.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you
Campbell
Great to see Campbell got recognized as Big Ten D-player of the week. The guy played a helluva game. I hope his intensity and effort rub off on the whole squad. Right now he has earned the right to get in anyone’s grill and chew some ass. This team needs leadership on the field. I would like to see more “field general” out of Weber.
Springfield at 3:04
I feel the same way. I used to blame it on the spread but now wondering if it might be something else.
I just watched the game
on TIVO. A couple more thoughts:
(1) Jeff Wills should not be playing Division I-A football. On a screen pass in the first half, he was 5 yards behind Bennett when Bennett dropped the pass. In the second half, Brandon Sharp went right by him, sacked Weber and caused a fumble. He is just too fat and slow for this offense to be effective.
(2) This offense is boring and slow.
(3) MarQueis Gray is the designated Wild Rodent wide QB when Stoudermire comes in? Great. What a waste of talent.
(4) Way too many mistakes.
(5) The defense was solid, but Syracuse dropped at least 6 passes in the second half, and Paulus rarely showed proper footwork on the 5 and 7 step drops. Face it – the Gophers were playing novices and rookies and won by 3 in OT. This doesn’t bode well for the season.
(6) Also, whoever said in the comments to the prediction post last week that Syracuse wouldn’t get to 20, just as I predicted, resurface.
We flat out sucked on offense
and a lot of that had to do with Weber sucking and crappy playcalling. I thought the defense played ok for the most part. If Weber was able to make the throws that we are used to seeing him make, than we would have dominated the game. I am hoping it was a one game funk. As for the playcalling, consider me concerned… run the football!
Love All The UNI References Throughout goofer Nation!!
UNI would have destroyed your rabble on Sat! Don’t believe me?? Watch a replay on BTN! Good luck with that 8 to 9 win season! LMAO!
I actually watched most of the game on the other TV at the bar. Not impressed.
For us, the equivalent of that game would be us barely sqeaking by SDSU at home here.
You are in no position to post here right now and better not make any comparison to our team.
I’m not LMAO at you, but I do pity you every time you post. Vaya con Dios, muchacho.
"If we got to we're going to crawl in this locker room. And on our back is going to be an axe..."
by buddylee853 on Sep 8, 2009 11:11 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
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