Minnesota Football vs Maryland: Postgame Exit Survey

Sure, the Minnesota Golden Gophers were trounced on Saturday by the Maryland Terrapins, but did you see the punting from Jacob Herbers?

What is your Tweet-length (140 280 characters or less) summary of the Gophers’ 42-13 loss to Maryland?

GoAUpher:

Dumpsters are alight.

Flaming bags of poo are too.

Special teams did good.

gopherguy05: Freshman gonna freshman, OL line hot garbage, Winfield done for season again, hand me the rat poison please.

IowaGopher: Three hours of my life I’ll never get back.

Ustreet:

wildcat00: Is this what the rest of the B1G season is going to be like? Make it stop.

To borrow a Fleck-ism, who is your pick for “Nekton of the Week” from the game?

GoAUpher: Jacob Herbers and Emmit Carpenter for avoiding making the special teams “special”... Ok, it’s actually because they were good. I’ll try to reduce my sass.

gopherguy05: Herbers. Because there isn’t really any other possibilities.

IowaGopher: Jacob Herbers. He played well — or punted well, to be specific — which is more than I can say about most of his teammates.

Ustreet: Herbers, with a nod to Chris Autman-Bell who had a nice, albeit quiet, game.

wildcat00: Jacob Herbers. Punting is (still) winning.

If the problems on the offensive line are more about talent than experience, do you burn the redshirts of younger and more talented linemen or stay the course with this starting five?

GoAUpher: You do whatever gives you the best chance to be bowl-eligible. However, that’s me saying this, not P.J. Fleck. I think Fleck waits until Week 10 or 11, unless he’s using them in spots.

gopherguy05: If they will be better, yes. But now that you are missing Antoine Winfield, Jr. for the rest of the season, your realistic chances of a bowl game are significantly hurt and it may just be another developmental year....

So that’s a lot of gibberish to say I don’t know.

IowaGopher: Tough call, but I think you stay the course with this group. True freshmen Curtis Dunlap, Jr. and Daniel Faalele are waiting in the wings, but I doubt the coaching staff wants to use them for more than four games. The problem is that if this current group can’t get better as the season goes along, there won’t be much of Zack Annexstad left come December. I’m not sure how much the weekly abuse will help his development.

Ustreet: You stay the course until Week 11.

wildcat00: This is a real quandary. On the one hand, if you stay the course, you’ve given the unit valuable experience and that will only help with depth issues in 2019. On the other hand, will this offensive line break Zack Annexstad? Ugh, what a situation.

I’m told we need to be more positive. What were the positives on offense? There had to be at least one... Right?

GoAUpher: That drive to end the first half was really pretty. That version of the Gophers is fun.

gopherguy05: The last drive of the first half. That literally is about it.

IowaGopher: Rashod Bateman caught his first career touchdown. That was nice. I also like the talent at running back with Mohamed Ibrahim and Bryce Williams. It’s not hard to be excited about the young players at the skill positions on offense. Unfortunately that talent is moot when the offensive line can’t run block or pass protect.

Ustreet: The game ended.

wildcat00: I thought Bateman looked pretty good, as did Ibrahim. Also Autman-Bell.

Two consecutive games against Maryland. Two consecutive season-ending injuries to Antoine Winfield, Jr. Please explain.

GoAUpher: Matt Canada brought voodoo with him from the bayou.

gopherguy05: I’m trying to think of something funny but nothing is coming. Maybe just sit out that game on October 26th next year at TCF Bank Stadium to be safe, Antoine?

IowaGopher: I never wanted them in the Big Ten in the first place, and I feel even more confident now that expansion was a grave mistake. It’s obvious to me that this Maryland program is dabbling in some sort of witchcraft to neutralize Winfield. But will Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany do anything about? No.

Ustreet: Forget it, Jake, it’s College Park.

wildcat00: There’s something in the water in College Park. Whatever that something is, Winfield needs to stay far away from it. Good grief.

On a more serious note, how terrified are you for the season ahead now that the Gopher defense will be without Winfield?

GoAUpher:

gopherguy05:

IowaGopher: I’m mostly dumbstruck at the sheer bad luck of the same player getting injured for the second consecutive season at the exact same point as the previous season. I mean, what are the odds? Obviously, the complete meltdown that followed for the Gopher defense does not bode well for the rest of the season with Winfield out for the rest of the season. Time for defensive coordinator Robb Smith to earn that paycheck.

Ustreet:

wildcat00:

What are your plans for the bye week? Aside from cursing the day Maryland was allowed to join the Big Ten.

GoAUpher: I don’t know. What I do know is how I feel about the no Gophers part of bye week.

The getting healthy and fixing what’s broken part is a-ok though.

gopherguy05: I’m going to see Hamilton, which may have only slightly less drama than the Gophers meeting rooms the next week and a half.

IowaGopher: Not watching football. I think Saturday’s game was more than enough to last me through the bye week. I need to rest up for Hate Week.

Ustreet:

wildcat00: I’m going to pretend college football does not exist. This is the only way to preserve my sanity at this point.