As always, open to comments, questions, criticisms, book recommendations and everything in between.
Offense:
-First play of the game shows why Croft is the better QB for the Gophers right now. Read option, DE comes in hard so he hands to Smith, he picks up a Big first down gain.
-Eric Carter drop was bad. Can’t drop that with three yards of separation and a timely throw.
- Croft nervousness showed several times. The bobbled snap, happy feet in the pocket. Even his TD pass to TJ was not great. Good find, but he bounces up and down in the same spot three times before quickly setting and hitting an open Johnson who again did a great job getting open.
-Good pick play and route diversion from Woz, who probably was open too.
- The first drive is what this offense can be with Croft if he calms down and lets the game come to him like he did against MSU.
- Smith fumble... offense continues to put the defense in tough spots. Fleck put him right back in after. Gave him a chance to respond.
- A lot of foot movement before Croft threw. He never truly had his feet set on most throws. That caused him to be offline often. I honestly think he can have a good week if he settles down.
- Croft at QB allows running backs to get outside the tackles. Not only inside zone.
- Ko Kieft's first down catch was a great play. Fake handoff on the jet, fake handoff on run up the middle froze the end and LB allowing him to be wide open. He was the TE on the other side of the formation, great design.
- Missed slant to TJ in tight coverage. If Croft looks him off, waits one more second, McCrary is wide open streaking the sideline for a TD.
- Croft wasn’t too decisive in his running. Often hesitated in open space and that caused him to get caught from behind. Needs to make a cut and go. He left a lot of yards on the ground first half.
- Kobe. Earned more carries for sure. A workhorse who has been productive when fed. Excited to see what he does when given a consistent role in the offense.
- 1st and goal at the one-yard line. Three points. Need a TD. Especially after how good that drive was.
- Best game for the O-Line all year in terms of run blocking. Owned the line of scrimmage and got a legit push for the first time. Regardless of the opponent.
- Tyler Johnson will be drafted when he leaves Minnesota.
- Kieft is a good blocker on the edge in the run game. Handled the Illini LB’s.
- Croft interception on the throw to Howard was something I was surprised to see. Why? It was something he didn’t do in the spring and fall, and that’s force throws when he’s under pressure and there’s nothing there. That’s a play he would usually throw it out of bounds, but instead, he forced it into double coverage.He did this a few times. Easy and fixable mistake.
- The second interception was a mixture of footwork, and just trying to make something out of nothing. He wanted to throw, but looking back, he should have run it. If he looked right once, he would have seen the open field without a defender in sight. He got pushed back in the pocket and wanted to make a big play. Bad decision and he made the throw after hoping both feet before getting set again. Step and throw, not bounce and throw, Demry. Need to tuck and run it there. (I think it should’ve been called incomplete)
- I’m happy they took out Smith and rewarded Kobe with the TD run. He worked all game and deserved that for sure.
Defense:
- Again... Huff dropped INT on the first possession. Tough play on the run, but need to make that play.
- Carter Coughlin! Better and better every week. Hopefully, he can come back to LB next year, but he’s embracing his role and leads team in TFL (8.5) and sacks (4.5)
- Burning the redshirt on their QB was smart for Lovie to do.
- Can’t blame the defense for the first TD. The offense put them in a tough spot after the Smith fumble.
- Kiondre Thomas didn’t look as solid as he usually does. Maybe return from injury and he wasn’t as confident?
- Counter/ draw play on 3rd and 8 for a first down... this can’t happen.
- Steven Richardson had a nice game. Only one tackle but he was around the ball a lot, fighting double teams again.
- Handy-Holly! The true freshman made a great play to break up a pass and it was almost picked off. He is learning a lot and doing it fast this year. He doesn’t get talked about much but he’s doing well in a role that is much bigger than most expected him to play.
- Merrick Jackson huge hit on the fumble. Awesome to see that.
- Barber solid again. Next step for him is becoming better in pass coverage. He’s been a bright spot all year.
- Umlor is in a role that is probably too big for him also. He’s done a good job and is a hard worker, can get better over time.
- Fourth down stop great play by Huff and McGhee for finding the gap and stopping them short.
- I thought Gary Moore had a productive day. He has a good motor and will improve after another year of coaching from Paup.
- Went after Justus Harris first play. Wish Minnesota could have kept his redshirt, but they had no choice this year.
- I don’t blame the FG on the defense either. They had a short field again. As far as I see, the offense let up 10 points, and the defense is pitching a shutout with 10 minutes left in the fourth.
- Okay. The Jonathan Celestin touchdown was maybe my favorite play in Gopher history. I know it wasn’t that big of a game, but that moment was just one of the special things that you love to see in football. Seeing him run into the end zone and point up, and knowing exactly why he was pointing up is something indescribable. The moment with Fleck was awesome as well.
- Coughlin should have had two more sacks but he was held and both times they game Minnesota the call.
- The only touchdown of the game the defense let up was the last drive in my opinion. Soft coverage all drive. Gophers secondary is a walk-on safety at corner, True freshman at corner, true freshman at safety, senior at safety in Duke, and a junior at safety in Huff who is getting his first play at safety this year in his career. And by the time it happened, there were 23 seconds left. The game was pretty much over.
Special teams:
- Kick coverage needs to improve. Too many returns past the 30.
-I like Drew H. at PR. Athletic kid, and WR is gonna be a position of depth (yup) for years to come, so better than putting some in the secondary there.
- Missed FG at end of half is demoralizing. Carpenter needs to be better. That’s why you always ice the kicker if you can.
Summary:
- I was all aboard the Croft hype train after MSU. Now I’m awake, but not getting off the train at this stop. I’m learning from my mistake. One game is not a big enough sample size for anyone. He looked nervous and inexperienced in his first career start. His footwork needs to be fixed and looking back at the MSU game, it was so much different. He looked calmer in the pocket. I believe he can still be a very good QB for Minnesota this year, and maybe in the future. One thing that can’t be said, is that he doesn’t improve the offense. The opposing linebackers and defensive ends hesitate on read option plays and that opens up more lanes for the backs. Right now, he gives Minnesota the best chance to win. Even if they don’t throw the ball again this year. He had a great day against a great defense and a bad day against a mediocre defense. I’m not jumping to conclusions on him yet. He also needs to be much more decisive when he’s running. He was hesitating and allowing people to catch up from behind. One cut and go. Also, (sorry about the QB rant) the offensive line and running backs deserve so much credit. Best game on the ground by far.
- What Coach Smith has done with this defense is nothing short of impressive. Not sure how you can’t be happy with how the defense has played given the secondary depth that has been playing. Two true freshman and a former walk on in the secondary right now and they only let up one late touchdown. The other 10 points were on short field, so I’m blaming that on the offense, we can argue about that if you want to. Barber getting better, Coughlin getting better, Umlor getting better every week. Great job all game by the defensive tackles, they’re being avoided all game but are making an impact off the stat sheet.
- Iowa will be an interesting game, and I think it will be determined three things: Demry Croft, the secondary, and Minnesota’s ability to set the edge on outside runs.
Offense:
-First play of the game shows why Croft is the better QB for the Gophers right now. Read option, DE comes in hard so he hands to Smith, he picks up a Big first down gain.
-Eric Carter drop was bad. Can’t drop that with three yards of separation and a timely throw.
- Croft nervousness showed several times. The bobbled snap, happy feet in the pocket. Even his TD pass to TJ was not great. Good find, but he bounces up and down in the same spot three times before quickly setting and hitting an open Johnson who again did a great job getting open.
-Good pick play and route diversion from Woz, who probably was open too.
- The first drive is what this offense can be with Croft if he calms down and lets the game come to him like he did against MSU.
- Smith fumble... offense continues to put the defense in tough spots. Fleck put him right back in after. Gave him a chance to respond.
- A lot of foot movement before Croft threw. He never truly had his feet set on most throws. That caused him to be offline often. I honestly think he can have a good week if he settles down.
- Croft at QB allows running backs to get outside the tackles. Not only inside zone.
- Ko Kieft's first down catch was a great play. Fake handoff on the jet, fake handoff on run up the middle froze the end and LB allowing him to be wide open. He was the TE on the other side of the formation, great design.
- Missed slant to TJ in tight coverage. If Croft looks him off, waits one more second, McCrary is wide open streaking the sideline for a TD.
- Croft wasn’t too decisive in his running. Often hesitated in open space and that caused him to get caught from behind. Needs to make a cut and go. He left a lot of yards on the ground first half.
- Kobe. Earned more carries for sure. A workhorse who has been productive when fed. Excited to see what he does when given a consistent role in the offense.
- 1st and goal at the one-yard line. Three points. Need a TD. Especially after how good that drive was.
- Best game for the O-Line all year in terms of run blocking. Owned the line of scrimmage and got a legit push for the first time. Regardless of the opponent.
- Tyler Johnson will be drafted when he leaves Minnesota.
- Kieft is a good blocker on the edge in the run game. Handled the Illini LB’s.
- Croft interception on the throw to Howard was something I was surprised to see. Why? It was something he didn’t do in the spring and fall, and that’s force throws when he’s under pressure and there’s nothing there. That’s a play he would usually throw it out of bounds, but instead, he forced it into double coverage.He did this a few times. Easy and fixable mistake.
- The second interception was a mixture of footwork, and just trying to make something out of nothing. He wanted to throw, but looking back, he should have run it. If he looked right once, he would have seen the open field without a defender in sight. He got pushed back in the pocket and wanted to make a big play. Bad decision and he made the throw after hoping both feet before getting set again. Step and throw, not bounce and throw, Demry. Need to tuck and run it there. (I think it should’ve been called incomplete)
- I’m happy they took out Smith and rewarded Kobe with the TD run. He worked all game and deserved that for sure.
Defense:
- Again... Huff dropped INT on the first possession. Tough play on the run, but need to make that play.
- Carter Coughlin! Better and better every week. Hopefully, he can come back to LB next year, but he’s embracing his role and leads team in TFL (8.5) and sacks (4.5)
- Burning the redshirt on their QB was smart for Lovie to do.
- Can’t blame the defense for the first TD. The offense put them in a tough spot after the Smith fumble.
- Kiondre Thomas didn’t look as solid as he usually does. Maybe return from injury and he wasn’t as confident?
- Counter/ draw play on 3rd and 8 for a first down... this can’t happen.
- Steven Richardson had a nice game. Only one tackle but he was around the ball a lot, fighting double teams again.
- Handy-Holly! The true freshman made a great play to break up a pass and it was almost picked off. He is learning a lot and doing it fast this year. He doesn’t get talked about much but he’s doing well in a role that is much bigger than most expected him to play.
- Merrick Jackson huge hit on the fumble. Awesome to see that.
- Barber solid again. Next step for him is becoming better in pass coverage. He’s been a bright spot all year.
- Umlor is in a role that is probably too big for him also. He’s done a good job and is a hard worker, can get better over time.
- Fourth down stop great play by Huff and McGhee for finding the gap and stopping them short.
- I thought Gary Moore had a productive day. He has a good motor and will improve after another year of coaching from Paup.
- Went after Justus Harris first play. Wish Minnesota could have kept his redshirt, but they had no choice this year.
- I don’t blame the FG on the defense either. They had a short field again. As far as I see, the offense let up 10 points, and the defense is pitching a shutout with 10 minutes left in the fourth.
- Okay. The Jonathan Celestin touchdown was maybe my favorite play in Gopher history. I know it wasn’t that big of a game, but that moment was just one of the special things that you love to see in football. Seeing him run into the end zone and point up, and knowing exactly why he was pointing up is something indescribable. The moment with Fleck was awesome as well.
- Coughlin should have had two more sacks but he was held and both times they game Minnesota the call.
- The only touchdown of the game the defense let up was the last drive in my opinion. Soft coverage all drive. Gophers secondary is a walk-on safety at corner, True freshman at corner, true freshman at safety, senior at safety in Duke, and a junior at safety in Huff who is getting his first play at safety this year in his career. And by the time it happened, there were 23 seconds left. The game was pretty much over.
Special teams:
- Kick coverage needs to improve. Too many returns past the 30.
-I like Drew H. at PR. Athletic kid, and WR is gonna be a position of depth (yup) for years to come, so better than putting some in the secondary there.
- Missed FG at end of half is demoralizing. Carpenter needs to be better. That’s why you always ice the kicker if you can.
Summary:
- I was all aboard the Croft hype train after MSU. Now I’m awake, but not getting off the train at this stop. I’m learning from my mistake. One game is not a big enough sample size for anyone. He looked nervous and inexperienced in his first career start. His footwork needs to be fixed and looking back at the MSU game, it was so much different. He looked calmer in the pocket. I believe he can still be a very good QB for Minnesota this year, and maybe in the future. One thing that can’t be said, is that he doesn’t improve the offense. The opposing linebackers and defensive ends hesitate on read option plays and that opens up more lanes for the backs. Right now, he gives Minnesota the best chance to win. Even if they don’t throw the ball again this year. He had a great day against a great defense and a bad day against a mediocre defense. I’m not jumping to conclusions on him yet. He also needs to be much more decisive when he’s running. He was hesitating and allowing people to catch up from behind. One cut and go. Also, (sorry about the QB rant) the offensive line and running backs deserve so much credit. Best game on the ground by far.
- What Coach Smith has done with this defense is nothing short of impressive. Not sure how you can’t be happy with how the defense has played given the secondary depth that has been playing. Two true freshman and a former walk on in the secondary right now and they only let up one late touchdown. The other 10 points were on short field, so I’m blaming that on the offense, we can argue about that if you want to. Barber getting better, Coughlin getting better, Umlor getting better every week. Great job all game by the defensive tackles, they’re being avoided all game but are making an impact off the stat sheet.
- Iowa will be an interesting game, and I think it will be determined three things: Demry Croft, the secondary, and Minnesota’s ability to set the edge on outside runs.
