Strolling Through Twitterland: Minnesota vs. Oregon State

How is everyone feeling today? Has the fear level about the offense subsided? How does it feel to watch a Gopher team stomp on an opponents throat again for the first time since what feels like the Mason years? The Gophers 48-14 victory over Oregon State was fun. Obviously the overall result was fun. The part I truly found to be fun though was knowing this was just a small sample of what could be with this team. We have still only seen a small fraction of what this team will do offensively in the process of building this program the way PJ Fleck wants to build it. A victory like this is what will make the fans sitting on the fence about Fleck, stop and take notice. We as a fanbase needed this to prove last weeks vanilla performance was just that, a vanilla game plan against an overmatched opponent.

Look I get it, Oregon State isn’t a very good football team. Gary Andersen is probably thinking “I should have just put up with Overlord Barry and stayed at Wisconsin.” But I don’t care how bad of a team they are. The Gophers held them to 35 total yards in the second half. Let that sink in. 35 total yards in a half of football. This comes a week after only allowing 69 total yards in the second half against Buffalo. Take away a fluky fake punt that was barely completed. Plus a red zone fumble in the middle of a downpour and Oregon State did absolutely nothing in this game. This game could have and probably should have been even more lopsided.

Enjoy this victory friends. There is still work to be done and improvement to be made. But this was another sign that the process Fleck is implenting is working.

Here are my quick-hitting thoughts on the game:

• Have yourself a game Jonathan Celestin. Though you might want to stay out of sight for a few days. I hear the Corvallis police are looking for you becasue of that vicious hit and run you delivered, I mean hit on that running play you delivered.
• You are becoming the man Tyler Johnson .
• I still don’t understand what this YAC thing is?
• Speaking of Hit and Run. Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith put in a game. It wasn’t always the easiest of going in this game, but they kept at it and were rewarded for the effort,
• The O-Line started slow, but kept grinding and eventually wore the OSU defense down, opening more lanes for Hit and Run to exploit.
• Hard to criticize Conor Rhoda after this game, but I am still going to. You still refuse to keep the ball in the RPO. The OSU defense was just begging you to keep the ball, but you simply refused. Demry Croft’s long TD run was 100% setup by your lack of keeping the ball as the defense was completely keyed in on the backs. Croft chose to keep the ball and it was off to the races. Rhoda, I’m not saying you’ll break free like that but it will at least keep the defense honest and open more up for the backs. The QB has to be an actual option in the Run-Pass Option offense.
• Way to respond Demry Croft. I’m a little torn on playing Rhoda the rest of the way after the Croft fumble. Rhoda threw a bad interception in the first game and was run right back out there. This kind of felt like a double-standard. Yet, Rhoda had the offense moving and took control of the game, so I would have kept playing him myself.
• Remember those famous Tracy Claeys halftime adjustments? Yeah, well, it appears Robb Smith can make some strong halftime adjustments himself.
• Have yourself a game defense. Too many of you had great games for me to really single anyone out other than Celestin. This was a total team effort defensively.

Ok, onto what really matters, the Stroll Through Twitterland.

The main hashtags for this game were:

#RTB

#SkiUMah

#Gophers

#GophersGameDay

Doubt you’ll find a more intimidating pair of mascots in the country.

Stormtroopers! We’ve now seen all maroon last week and all white this week. Will we see all gold next week?

Jerry, this is what Stroke the Post was supposed to look like...

Fairly certain he could have crawled and still scored here. Where were all of the OSU defenders?

We didn’t need him...

Can’t agree with this more @DanOwen247.

Also can’t agree with this more @k_kathleen09. Man that was annoying.

Now this is #ELITE @False_FireAlarm

Test adminstered, test passed with flying colors @GobieMN

Once again, I don’t know where this is all going to go under PJ Fleck, but one thing I do know is it’s not going to be boring. He is certifiably nuts and I absolutely love it!

Last but certainly not least. Though this has nothing to do with the OSU game I am still adding it to the Stroll this week because I want this to happen.

So there you have it, this weeks Stroll. What were some of your favorite Tweets you saw about the game? What are your thoughts on the game? Have you seen enough to start to buy in?

#RTB

#SkiUMah

Follow: @dvits14