Nebraska Dominates Minnesota, as expected
by GopherNation on Oct 23, 2011 2:05 PM CDT
in Gopher Football
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PrintThis one wasn't close. The opening kickoff was bobbled, tackles were missed, assignments blown, passes dropped and fumbles that didn't go our way (both times) led to total domination by Nebraska. Everyone was expecting a blowout and that is exactly what happened. There really isn't much more to say other than that.
According to Phil Miller, Kill was looking for toughness today. I do think the defense played pretty hard today as they forced a lot of third down situations for Nebraska and came up big on a couple key short-yardage situations. Not enough to keep Nebraska from scoring 41 points (34 in the first half) but they made them work for it keeping their big plays to a minimum. Small victories, and they didn't play great but I do think they played better today and played with some toughness.
"The team responded well in the second half and fought back, which showed toughness in them. We just weren’t consistent, but we definitely got better and started to get in a rhythm in the second half."
We did win the second half 14-7 but the second half was very different than the first. For Nebraska it felt very much like they were using the final two quarters as a live practice. Nebraska threw the ball 12 times in the third quarter alone, many of them deep balls. To this amateur, the second half appeared to be a live practice for the Cornhuskers. Taylor Martinez is not a very good passing quarterback and they were giving him some reps against a live defense.
The highlight of the day for the Gopher's was a Bennett end-around, reverse to Brandon Green, pitch-back to Gray who threw a 53-yard strike to Da'Jon McKnight. This led to a Gray run for the first touchdown of the day. But we lost our fourth game in a row and many Gopher fans would be happy with a game that is close.
"Right now I am doing less coaching and more mental support for our players than anything. It’s tough right now for the kids, but we are improving and everyone is working hard to get better. We just need to keep fighting through these tough times and everything will eventually get better."
Times are tough. Up next are the Hawkeyes who just might remember how we stole the Pig from them a year ago.
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Kill likes to talk about "baby steps"
and they were taken yesterday. I agree that there was slight improvement across the board.
ever so slight
but this game wasn’t a total embarrassment.
we made Nebraska grind out five, 10+ play scoring drives. We weren’t good enough to actually stop them, but we made them work for it most of the time.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Oct 23, 2011 3:49 PM CDT up reply actions
Home game for Nebraska?
I’m just guessing here.
I'm going to assume...
…that this is what he meant. There was a LOT of red there. Thankfully this version of the Red Horde seemed well behaved.
Say goodbye to the pig.
Seriously though, hang in there. Coaching changes often lead to utterly horrific results the first couple years. Be patient, don’t scream for the coaches head until he’s had a chance to show what he can do with his own recruits.
by Norm Parker's Amputated Toes on Oct 23, 2011 4:39 PM CDT reply actions
Strange
After the game, I actually felt better about the Gopher’s future then I did at the start of the game…typically, I feel worst about them immediately after the game, and then I build myself back up throughout the week, but yesterday was just different
Mikael Granlund: The Great Hope
If they're still trying
Don’t let Kill get away, unless it’s for health reasons. Minnesota isn’t Alabama or Oklahoma. Neither is anybody else in the country, and they lose games too. There isn’t some ingrained reason, unalterable, for Minnesota to be permanently bad though.
by Norm Parker's Amputated Toes on Oct 23, 2011 7:24 PM CDT up reply actions
Dare I be the one to say it, but
Nebraska is not a great team. Far overrated in my opinion in top 25. They will be exposed next week unless MSU has a bad hangover. I know Nebraska fans and they realize how overrated their team is this year.
So while we made them work…they aren’t the most proficient offense we have played this year. Or team for that matter.
by jimipig on Oct 23, 2011 9:34 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
I think that's to be taken with a grain of salt
They were up 34 at the half, so they probably took their foot off the gas to prevent injuries and get some reps in for everyone. I think we can talk about the Gophers being a second-half team all we want, but it’s overshadowed by the fact that we’ve been down 30+ points to every other B1G team at the half…
When we get the Pig, the Jug and the Axe, we'll have one hell of a picnic
At one point in the second half
They converted on 4th down (going for which when you are up by 34 left me cursing Pellini), only to try to throw down field on the next three plays. That seemed to me to be Nebraska pulling up on the drive to practice throwing when they easily could have run the ball to score.
2 things
1 – Nebraska did have a different gameplan in the second half. They were clearly trying other things, getting some stuff on film to dissect and it was a live practice for them.
2 – with that said, they are not a great team and slightly overrated. Are they a top 25 team? Yes. But I see two more losses on their schedule. 9-3 is pretty good, but they are not a great team.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Oct 24, 2011 11:00 AM CDT up reply actions
Miracle to beat OSU...
….they should be 1-2 in big 10. Their fan base is disgusted by them. I see them in 20-25 at best…maybe outside top 25, but since they started and climbed so high….it would take more than a loss to MSU to bump them.
I know they changed their game plans to start working on passing against our skeleton defense in the 2nd half (if they had receivers who could catch a football they win by 50)…but even watching their drives….nothing stood out as overly impressive to me. They executed basics well against a high school caliber team.
I was actually happy with some things I saw on defense as far as intensity and hitting.
Our offense made me vomit in my mouth. As did our punting.
How different would that game have unfolded
If we had actually gotten credit for stopping Nebraska short of the end zone on the two opening drives? Who knows, but it would have been fun to find out.
Instead, the refs blow an off sides (two guys jumped, but both were back by the snap, although that’s a tough call to make) to keep the first drive going. And then we get the strange rule interpretation to keep the second one going.
I don’t know if the second call was wrong by the letter of the rule, but it certainly isn’t in the spirit. You just aren’t supposed to gain yardage when you don’t have possession of the ball. That isn’t an issue for backward passes, by definition, so something sure doesn’t seem right when you can bat a backward pass forward and pick up ground. Sure seems like it should either become a fumble or a forward pass after a player touches it and re-directs it up field.
Maybe we cover the spread...
….but we still lose and aren’t very competitive…we couldn’t move the ball.
True
But maybe with a some different momentum we might have figured out how to gain some yards.
Anyway, I thought the defense played better than the score, in part because of those two calls, and showed some toughness.
They got the letter of the rule right...
…which is all that matters. It’s a rule that needs changing and in the meantime the Gophers got the short end of that stick. What else is new when you’re a Gopher fan? :o)
I'd like to hear from some experts on that
Like the former NFL official guy does on Fox.
That is, they are right under the letter of the rule IF it’s correct that it was a backwards pass. But is it still a backwards pass after it has been touched and batted forward? Is there guidance on that somewhere (I didn’t see any in the rulebook)?
I find
taking an example to the extreme helps magnify it. Like in my example…what if the player “fumbled” the ball and it rolled for 50 yards on 4th down and out of bounds? You’re telling me the offense just gained 50 yards and a first down? That is a farce.
I believe that is true. Unbelievable, but true. I would have thought on my grave it would have been down where the player fumbled it.
We’re talking about a sport where you can’t advance a fumbled punt! WHAT? You can fumble a ball 99 yards and retain posession…..but you can’t advance a fumbled punt.
How would it stop...
…being a backwards pass when it is touched? It’s a live ball from the second it leaves the QB’s hand when it’s a BW pass. The bouncing of the ball off the receiver doesn’t change anything but the direction of the ball.
Kill said after the game that it was the right call given the current rule but that in his opinion the rule needed some tweaking.
Well, for one thing, it isn't going backward anymore
And the result of the call was that Nebraska gained forward yardage without having possession of the ball, which violates the most basic principle of football.
It’s hardly surprising that the rule says that on a backward pass out of bounds you get the ball at the spot where it went out, but that’s because that spot isn’t supposed to be forward from the line of scrimmage.
And I agree...
….how you could kick (“fumble”) the ball 50 yards down field and out of bounds and get the ball 50 yards down field is a mind fuck of a rule.
But what pisses me off about Gopher fans is that people were focused on that, instead of the fact that Minnesota didn’t have a player within 25 yards of that guy…so sure, they blew it and fumbled it…but damn….he was off to the races back to Lincoln if he catches it….
They say they ruled it a "muff" and not a fumble.
So if it had been kicked ahead and out of the endzone is it a TD then or a touchback? since it was not a fumble according to the refs it could be kicked and advanced on 4th down. So in theory its a muff up to the 1 inch line then a fumble when it breaks the plain? Its either a fumble or not a fumble, it cant transform mid kick or mid roll…kind of a fluke of a rule. It seems our luck as MN fans always pulls out the most odd and never seen before non-calls or calls.
I once remember a Vikings game where Ricky Young took a run up the middle at the goal line and the linemen were pushing the pile and he went in for the go ahead score. The refs throw the flag and call Aiding the runner. In all my years of watching football I had never seen that call before or saw it again afterward, but Ive seen the linemen push and pull a RB across the goal line an uncountable amount times with no flag.
by DallasGopher on Oct 24, 2011 6:29 PM CDT up reply actions
Learned that one in tenth grade
When it was called against us. But yeah, it just never gets called.
But according to the rule, yes, if a backward pass is batted forward across the goal line and goes out of bounds without being recovered, I think that would be a touchdown. The offense would be entitled to possession of the ball at the spot where it went out of bounds, which would be in the end zone.
It seems our luck as MN fans always pulls out the most odd and never seen before non-calls or calls.
No doubt.
and head scratching plays...
….calls, non-calls, and plays.
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