As always, comments, questions, and criticisms are more than welcome
Offense
- Conor Rhoda was 11/25 for 101 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, and a fumble in the redzone. According to ESPN, his QB rating was 4.4... Safe to say Minnesota missed an opportunity in a winnable Big Ten game, that can be attributed to poor quarterback play on the offensive end.
- Fumble in the red zone. If the ball is going to be the program, that can't happen from your fifth year senior QB.
- As I said during the game thread, as well as the announcers and many other of you in the game thread, Conor Rhoda had a tendency to drift away from the slightest pressure and throw off of his back foot.
- The running game was successful in the big play department and this was the game where Smith and Brooks had the most room to run. 227 yards, and 4.8 yards per carry. Smith with a long of 51 and Brooks with a long of 40.
- Rodney Smith's cutback on his second half 50 yard was spectacular. The initial hole wasn't there, and he cut against the grain and found that the defense was overcommitted to the run to one side. This happened because on inside zone looks like Minnesota runs so frequently, Purdue's defense can commit to slanting the linemen and linebackers to the right, when Smith is also on the right of the QB because Rhoda is not likely to take it. He saw this, cut back, and found a lot of green grass. I would like to see Minnesota's backs do this a bit more as teams are starting to pin down on what they're doing in the run game.
- Several times, the Gophers chose to go under center and put Rodney Smith in the backfield with Shannon Brooks flying across on the jet sweep. This is the first we've seen Minnesota go outside the tackles in the run game. It was much more successful giving it to Brooks on the sweep then selling out for the fake. They tried to utilize play action off this look, but couldn't get Purdue to bite enough for the big play they were looking to create.
- Good news! Rashad Still made his comeback to the Gopher offense by leading the team in receiving yards. The bad news... he had one catch for 32 yards. Credit him, however, for the great concentration to reel in a slightly underthrown ball that really should have been intercepted.
- Tyler Johnson's route, adjustment, catch, and reach on the third and goal play for the touchdown were spectacular. He did all that he could to get into the end zone and needs to be credited as such. Nice catch for him on the sideline as well for his only other grab of the day.
- Brandon Lingen had a nice touchdown catch set up by the play action. He had four catches and lined up as a receiver several times throughout the game. It looks like they are trying to get him more involved, they just haven't been able to get him the ball for a number of reasons...
- Look for Croft this week... no inside information that I have when I am saying this, but I can't imagine Fleck will let the offense and playcalling struggle this much, much longer. There's only so much Ciarocca can do with Rhoda at quarterback when he can't run or make many plays with his feet.
Defense
- The defense let up 24 points, 439 yards (307 passing, 132 rushing), forced four turnovers (two interceptions, two fumbles), and four sacks.
- 307 passing yards. Not great. A lot of the yards can be attributed to the lack of depth at the safety position. With Duke McGhee and Antoine Winfield out, Minnesota was down to there third, fourth, fifth, and sixth options (when Huff went out momentarily after making a tackle). With Kunle Ayinde and true freshman Ken Handy-Holly playing extended snaps there wasn't much trust in the secondary.
- More on the secondary. It's hard to play press coverage when you are skeptical of the safety help you're going to be getting over the top. This led to Shenault and Thomas having to play off the Purdue WR's with a big cushion. Many of the completions that Purdue had in the second half were short passes, followed by YAC.
- Coney Durr was back in the secondary, and he didn't necessarily look ready to be back in the secondary. I'm not sure he trusts his knee yet and looks a bit slow. His sagging coverage and self trust-issues led to the large play that occurred right before Purdue's go-ahead touchdown late.
- Thomas Barber continues to be a bright spot in the defense and the linebacking core. 10 tackles for the Minnesota native. Carter Coughlin (1.5 sacks, 5 tackles) and Kamal Martin (Interception, 7 tackles) were two more Minnesotans who had impressive days for the defense.
- Another reason for the lack of coverage on the outside looked to be Coach Smith's commitment to getting a pass rush. In weeks past, he held linebackers back from blitzing often to help his inexperienced secondary, but this week he wanted to get to Purdue's shaky QB situation and that could have resulted in more passing yards. With the team and depth that they have, it looks like Smith will have to decide on getting pressure on the quarterbacks, or dropping his linebackers for the rest of the year.
- They forced FOUR TURNOVERS. Can't be upset about that effort.
- One more thing on turnovers... It should have been five. If it had been five, the Gophers would be 4-1 heading into their game against Michigan State. The play I am talking about is the dropped interception by Kunle Ayinde in the second half. The ball was overthrown, and drifted right to the chest and hands of Ayinde, who already had one pick on the day. He dropped it, and Purdue went on to score that drive. This is the second game in a row a dropped interception has lead to points for the other team. If Jacob Huff catches the pick against Maryland, and Ayinde catches it against Purdue. Minnesota is a 5-0 football team, and is possibly playing in a top-25 matchup at home vs. Michigan State.
Conclusion:
- What was the problem that would hold this team back.... injuries. That has reigned true so far and the results because of it are not surprising. Injuries to Antoine Winfield Jr, Demetrius Douglas, and Chris Bell, as well as suspensions to Duke McGhee, Rashad Still, and Demry Croft are a solid reason this team is 3-2 instead of 5-0 right now.
- Blame this loss on P.J. Fleck. Blame this loss on Kirk Ciarocca. Blame this loss on Conor Rhoda. Blame this loss on me. Blame this loss on your third cousins' divorced roommate. But DO NOT blame this loss on Coach Smith and the defense. They forced four turnovers and gave the team good field position multiple times, with many injuries to key players. There is only so much they could have done, and they are not the ones to blame, although they were worn down at the end.
- Another victory in turnover margin and time of possession. That part of the culture has been lived out so far.
- This is going to be an interesting rest of the year, and with the injuries and questions on offense and in the secondary, a bowl game is going to be tough to come by. I do expect this team to be competitive in more games than you think, as ball control and time of possession are going to be an emphasis, as always.
Offense
- Conor Rhoda was 11/25 for 101 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, and a fumble in the redzone. According to ESPN, his QB rating was 4.4... Safe to say Minnesota missed an opportunity in a winnable Big Ten game, that can be attributed to poor quarterback play on the offensive end.
- Fumble in the red zone. If the ball is going to be the program, that can't happen from your fifth year senior QB.
- As I said during the game thread, as well as the announcers and many other of you in the game thread, Conor Rhoda had a tendency to drift away from the slightest pressure and throw off of his back foot.
- The running game was successful in the big play department and this was the game where Smith and Brooks had the most room to run. 227 yards, and 4.8 yards per carry. Smith with a long of 51 and Brooks with a long of 40.
- Rodney Smith's cutback on his second half 50 yard was spectacular. The initial hole wasn't there, and he cut against the grain and found that the defense was overcommitted to the run to one side. This happened because on inside zone looks like Minnesota runs so frequently, Purdue's defense can commit to slanting the linemen and linebackers to the right, when Smith is also on the right of the QB because Rhoda is not likely to take it. He saw this, cut back, and found a lot of green grass. I would like to see Minnesota's backs do this a bit more as teams are starting to pin down on what they're doing in the run game.
- Several times, the Gophers chose to go under center and put Rodney Smith in the backfield with Shannon Brooks flying across on the jet sweep. This is the first we've seen Minnesota go outside the tackles in the run game. It was much more successful giving it to Brooks on the sweep then selling out for the fake. They tried to utilize play action off this look, but couldn't get Purdue to bite enough for the big play they were looking to create.
- Good news! Rashad Still made his comeback to the Gopher offense by leading the team in receiving yards. The bad news... he had one catch for 32 yards. Credit him, however, for the great concentration to reel in a slightly underthrown ball that really should have been intercepted.
- Tyler Johnson's route, adjustment, catch, and reach on the third and goal play for the touchdown were spectacular. He did all that he could to get into the end zone and needs to be credited as such. Nice catch for him on the sideline as well for his only other grab of the day.
- Brandon Lingen had a nice touchdown catch set up by the play action. He had four catches and lined up as a receiver several times throughout the game. It looks like they are trying to get him more involved, they just haven't been able to get him the ball for a number of reasons...
- Look for Croft this week... no inside information that I have when I am saying this, but I can't imagine Fleck will let the offense and playcalling struggle this much, much longer. There's only so much Ciarocca can do with Rhoda at quarterback when he can't run or make many plays with his feet.
Defense
- The defense let up 24 points, 439 yards (307 passing, 132 rushing), forced four turnovers (two interceptions, two fumbles), and four sacks.
- 307 passing yards. Not great. A lot of the yards can be attributed to the lack of depth at the safety position. With Duke McGhee and Antoine Winfield out, Minnesota was down to there third, fourth, fifth, and sixth options (when Huff went out momentarily after making a tackle). With Kunle Ayinde and true freshman Ken Handy-Holly playing extended snaps there wasn't much trust in the secondary.
- More on the secondary. It's hard to play press coverage when you are skeptical of the safety help you're going to be getting over the top. This led to Shenault and Thomas having to play off the Purdue WR's with a big cushion. Many of the completions that Purdue had in the second half were short passes, followed by YAC.
- Coney Durr was back in the secondary, and he didn't necessarily look ready to be back in the secondary. I'm not sure he trusts his knee yet and looks a bit slow. His sagging coverage and self trust-issues led to the large play that occurred right before Purdue's go-ahead touchdown late.
- Thomas Barber continues to be a bright spot in the defense and the linebacking core. 10 tackles for the Minnesota native. Carter Coughlin (1.5 sacks, 5 tackles) and Kamal Martin (Interception, 7 tackles) were two more Minnesotans who had impressive days for the defense.
- Another reason for the lack of coverage on the outside looked to be Coach Smith's commitment to getting a pass rush. In weeks past, he held linebackers back from blitzing often to help his inexperienced secondary, but this week he wanted to get to Purdue's shaky QB situation and that could have resulted in more passing yards. With the team and depth that they have, it looks like Smith will have to decide on getting pressure on the quarterbacks, or dropping his linebackers for the rest of the year.
- They forced FOUR TURNOVERS. Can't be upset about that effort.
- One more thing on turnovers... It should have been five. If it had been five, the Gophers would be 4-1 heading into their game against Michigan State. The play I am talking about is the dropped interception by Kunle Ayinde in the second half. The ball was overthrown, and drifted right to the chest and hands of Ayinde, who already had one pick on the day. He dropped it, and Purdue went on to score that drive. This is the second game in a row a dropped interception has lead to points for the other team. If Jacob Huff catches the pick against Maryland, and Ayinde catches it against Purdue. Minnesota is a 5-0 football team, and is possibly playing in a top-25 matchup at home vs. Michigan State.
Conclusion:
- What was the problem that would hold this team back.... injuries. That has reigned true so far and the results because of it are not surprising. Injuries to Antoine Winfield Jr, Demetrius Douglas, and Chris Bell, as well as suspensions to Duke McGhee, Rashad Still, and Demry Croft are a solid reason this team is 3-2 instead of 5-0 right now.
- Blame this loss on P.J. Fleck. Blame this loss on Kirk Ciarocca. Blame this loss on Conor Rhoda. Blame this loss on me. Blame this loss on your third cousins' divorced roommate. But DO NOT blame this loss on Coach Smith and the defense. They forced four turnovers and gave the team good field position multiple times, with many injuries to key players. There is only so much they could have done, and they are not the ones to blame, although they were worn down at the end.
- Another victory in turnover margin and time of possession. That part of the culture has been lived out so far.
- This is going to be an interesting rest of the year, and with the injuries and questions on offense and in the secondary, a bowl game is going to be tough to come by. I do expect this team to be competitive in more games than you think, as ball control and time of possession are going to be an emphasis, as always.
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