Gopher thoughts

[CCdeville]

Re: Gopher thoughts

"Why do the Gophers always end up having to play top 10 FCS teams? Why didn't we get to play NDSU this year? Is USD going to be top 10 next year or will we get a break? "

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its a good thing NDSU will have another year next year to shore up it's defense, oh well, at least NDSU beat the gophers. USD will get piss pounded, pyschologically & physically, NDSU in their minds would compete with UMinn year in and year out, USD= No way.


SDSU played good, UM played below average, thus equally a UM win.

[jackmd]

Re: Gopher thoughts

Excellent experience, tailgate lot was fun, Gopher fans were polite. Lots of comments about Bison fans and Hawkeye fans and how Jackrabbit fans were different.

Excellent Jackrabbit crowd, a little disappointed in the Gopher students numbers.

Jack's lost because the offense didn't have an experienced enough leader against a Big 10 defense. Could the play calling have been different? Tough question. Snaps from center needed to be better.

Those guys were fast, strong and quick making our typical first reads on pass offense tough and making it difficult to even progress to the next option. We needed a leader on offense that didn't get us in trouble or give up points but that still had the arm to be a threat through the air, I'm not sure we have a player at that level right now.

One heck of a performance by the defense, the best I've seen, the were impressive to say the least. Great kick returns, wish we could have taken advantage. Punting was shaky at best but our defense rose to the challenge.

I hate watching this team lose games they could win but that's football. When you hand a team 14 points that is tough to overcome. Great effort that falls just short. Dang.

[Nidaros]

Re: Gopher thoughts

Excellent experience, tailgate lot was fun, Gopher fans were polite. Lots of comments about Bison fans and Hawkeye fans and how Jackrabbit fans were different.

Excellent Jackrabbit crowd, a little disappointed in the Gopher students numbers.

Jack's lost because the offense didn't have an experienced enough leader against a Big 10 defense. Could the play calling have been different? Tough question. Snaps from center needed to be better.

Those guys were fast, strong and quick making our typical first reads on pass offense tough and making it difficult to even progress to the next option. We needed a leader on offense that didn't get us in trouble or give up points but that still had the arm to be a threat through the air, I'm not sure we have a player at that level right now.

One heck of a performance by the defense, the best I've seen, the were impressive to say the least. Great kick returns, wish we could have taken advantage. Punting was shaky at best but our defense rose to the challenge.

I hate watching this team lose games they could win but that's football. When you hand a team 14 points that is tough to overcome. Great effort that falls just short. Dang.

I see this as an excellent breakdown of what went wrong and why we did not win. We had our chances last Saturday. Seems like we had a few bad snaps in the SIU game as well, surely as we read and post here someone on the staff is working with the snappers on doing a much better job this Saturday and in future games if we are still playing football.

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: Gopher thoughts

[QUOTE=jackmd;135164]Snaps from center needed to be better.[QUOTE]

Mentioned this on another thread, but I saw at least six or seven center snaps in the shotgun that were on the ground when they got to O'Brien. The snap when they were at our 11-yard line was at his feet, and before he could pick it up, an inrushing defensive players appeared to hit the ball with his foot and kicked it away. O'Brien got blamed by a number of people for "fumbling" the ball. When the QB is in the shotgun, he is expecting the snap to be in his hands, so his eyes are simultaneously downfield. When the snap is low and he has to look down to get it, he loses a precious split-second in making his checks.

I'm not sure why the snaps were low...possibly the noseguard for Minnesota was very tough and the center's focus was more on a defensive move?? Anyway, I just think O'Brien got a little too much criticism for "fumbling" the ball that led to the Gopher win.

[JimmieTuba]

Re: Gopher thoughts

Mentioned this on another thread, but I saw at least six or seven center snaps in the shotgun that were on the ground when they got to O'Brien. The snap when they were at our 11-yard line was at his feet, and before he could pick it up, an inrushing defensive players appeared to hit the ball with his foot and kicked it away. O'Brien got blamed by a number of people for "fumbling" the ball. When the QB is in the shotgun, he is expecting the snap to be in his hands, so his eyes are simultaneously downfield. When the snap is low and he has to look down to get it, he loses a precious split-second in making his checks.

I'm not sure why the snaps were low...possibly the noseguard for Minnesota was very tough and the center's focus was more on a defensive move?? Anyway, I just think O'Brien got a little too much criticism for "fumbling" the ball that led to the Gopher win.

O'Brien had the ball after the bad snap though. True the bad snap led to the eventual fumble but he still had control of it after that.

[JimmyJack]

Re: Gopher thoughts

I'm not sure why the snaps were low...possibly the noseguard for Minnesota was very tough and the center's focus was more on a defensive move?

Yup. I asked a few players about that and it was pointed out to me that Minnesota's tackles each weighed about 375 pounds and were very quick fellas for their size.

[Rabbitden]

Re: Gopher thoughts

O'Brien had the ball after the bad snap though. True the bad snap led to the eventual fumble but he still had control of it after that.

I think if you look at the play again you will see that he never did have total control of the ball. Here-nor-there, it really doesn't matter. The game is past, we have to clean up the mistake and put a big arse whoopin on the Leathernecks.

[jackmd]

Re: Gopher thoughts

I think if you look at the play again you will see that he never did have total control of the ball. Here-nor-there, it really doesn't matter. The game is past, we have to clean up the mistake and put a big arse whoopin on the Leathernecks.

I watched the replay very closely on the big Daktronics board. TOB was looking out over the defense, the snap came in low, he tried to grab it, thought he had it, and then it slipped out.

No doubt our O-lineman, including the center, had a huge task at hand blocking some big and talented Gopher D-lineman. I'm not trying to blame anyone just trying to be fair to TOB. A low snap, near your own endzone when the game is on the line is tough. Snapping the ball, when the game is on the line, against Big 10 D-linemen is tough well. I'm proud of our guys, they played hard and came up just short of their goal.

[mitchell]

Re: Gopher thoughts

I thought I read or heard somewhere too that TOB was saying the ball was pretty slippery all game. I believe he said that it caused one of his interceptions.

It would make sense considering all the botched snaps, fumbles, and INT's.

Brewster probably had the equipment managers grease up the balls before the game. Just kidding but I could actually see him try and pull something like that being the sheister he is.

In the end, SDSU just didn't get the job done and there isn't really anything you can blame it on besides a poor performance by the offense and kicking. Let's hope the game doesn't hang over our heads too bad because we need to come out and get some confidence back this Saturday against WIU.

[JimmieTuba]

Re: Gopher thoughts

I watched the replay very closely on the big Daktronics board. TOB was looking out over the defense, the snap came in low, he tried to grab it, thought he had it, and then it slipped out.

No doubt our O-lineman, including the center, had a huge task at hand blocking some big and talented Gopher D-lineman. I'm not trying to blame anyone just trying to be fair to TOB. A low snap, near your own endzone when the game is on the line is tough. Snapping the ball, when the game is on the line, against Big 10 D-linemen is tough well. I'm proud of our guys, they played hard and came up just short of their goal.

He was able to pick it up off the ground. Granted it was a tight area, which caused him to lose what little control he had.

[EQguy]

Re: Gopher thoughts

Just found this on twitter from Dan Barriero on KFAN

DanBarreiroKFAN

I am officially apologizing to South Dakota State redshirt frosh QB. He's better than Iowa's redshirt frosh QB.