Well,
that sure went a lot better than it could have. The weather, I mean.
Notwithstanding a few showers during tailgating and a refreshing mist during
the fourth quarter, I’d say the elements were just about perfect. We got a few
games of bags in, grilled some fine Kowalski’s meat and only had to dive under
the cover of my road dog’s canopy once to keep from getting drenched. Given the
forecast early in the week, that was a win.
As to
the game, the adage of it being easier to coach teams up after a win than a
loss probably came to be after games like this one. Our Gophers got a win and
there are plenty of teachable moments that will need correction prior to the
start of conference play. This is standard fare for Week 1. It is the exception
rather than the rule for teams to come out firing on all cylinders on opening
week.
I can’t
shake the notion that this game was essentially a replay of last year’s UNLV
game. A flaccid first third of the game by our offense, which looked moderately
better as the game went on, though never spectacular. A bend-but-don’t-break
defensive effort, with a few mistakes, but general brilliance from the
secondary. And a remarkably opportunistic special teams unit that put points on
the board to solidify momentum in the Gophers’ direction. When viewed within
that context, seeing as last year turned out okay and Eastern Illinois was
probably not materially inferior to the 2013 UNLV squad, I can’t help but be
fairly satisfied.
Of
course, that reality hasn’t stopped some Gopher supporters from contemplating self-defenestration. It’s easy, particularly during a rough patch of a game or
in the hours following a game’s conclusion, to breathlessly react to a player’s
poor performance, inept decision making by the coaches, or the failure by a
unit of the team to execute their jobs. We, along with every other fan base of
every sport ever played, succumb to these pratfalls. There’s certainly nothing
wrong with it – it’s not really harmful to the program, though it can get
played out pretty quickly on message boards and Twitter - but some perspective
can be useful.
So, we
at Still Got Hope are going to try and bring some of that perspective. On the
Monday or Tuesday following games, we’ll provide an overview of the big talkers
from the previous Saturday and opine as to whether they are being underplayed,
overplayed or are in the Goldilocks zone, receiving the right amount of
attention. Yes, we’re homers and will probably see things through
maroon-colored glasses a lot of the time; but we’ll try to be objective and, if
you disagree, let us know in the comments or Twitter and we’ll take it under
advisement. If I can change…and you can change…we all can change.
So,
without further ado, here are the Saturday Talkers on Monday or Tuesday.
Leidner’s play hurt the team and will hold us
back this year
– Overplayed
Where
to start. Leidner didn’t look great last Thursday, we can agree on that. He
missed some throws that were there and made a couple of pretty questionable
decisions, particularly in the first half. But he wasn’t horrific, either. His
final stat line was 9/17 (52.9%) for 144 yards, with one touchdown and no
interceptions. Excluding the first quarter, though, his stats look considerably
better: 8/13 (61.5%) for 142 yards and one touchdown. Not Heisman-winning
statistics by any stretch of the imagination, but a 62% completion percentage
with an occasional play of 20+ yards is sufficient for this point in his
development. Further, he didn’t really screw anything up too badly. The fumble
was bad, but we escaped without any damage and he didn’t throw any
interceptions. Not colossally screwing up is pretty important for QBs in a
run-first offense (see Mcevoy, Tanner). Again, while he wasn’t great, laws of
physics still hold the sky firmly in the, uh, sky.
Given
that context, I think we can definitively say one thing: we don’t have any idea
how good or bad Leidner will be this year. He looked uneasy in the first
quarter, but got better as the game progressed. Hopefully that was nerves and
won’t be an issue going forward. He was competent for about 75% of the game.
Provided it’s sustainable, that level of performance won’t cost us any games
this year – we’re not asking him to do that much at this point. And there’s
always room for upside. We’ll have to wait until the TCU game, at least, to
really get a look at what we’ve got with Leidner. Until that point, it’s silly
to pine for Demry Croft to forgo his senior year of high school to join the
Gophers to be our savior at quarterback.
With Scott Ekpe’s injury, we are screwed at
defensive tackle
– Goldilocks
This is
the issue that has kept me up since last Thursday and my paranoia was justified
today when Kill confirmed Ekpe was out for the year. Ekpe’s stats were modest coming
into the year, but he had earned Hageman’s old spot during spring ball and was
the model of consistency in the open fall practices. While no one was
anticipating he’d be in the running for conference honors this season, he was
one of the elder statesmen at the tackle position, despite only being a true
junior. Naturally, his absence likely means freshman phenom Stephen Richardson
will be promoted to the starting spot. While this isn’t ideal, Richardson has
the build, athleticism and mentality to succeed at the head table. It’s the way
the second and third teams start to shape up where things get concerning.
With
Yoshoub Timms out for an undetermined amount of time, the 2nd-team
defensive tackles appear to be redshirt junior Robert Ndondo-Lay and true
freshman Andrew Stelter. We heard good things about them from camp, right?
Sure! But they weigh 250 and 245lbs, respectively. That will be fine for the
non-conference season, as the teams we’ll be playing use spread variants (AIR
RAID REPRESENT) as a their base offense; but I can’t believe we’ll be able to
survive so undersized at defensive tackle come conference play. There’s been
some speculation across the ‘Tronz the Gophers may adjust the defense to
account for our (relative) strength at end and go with a 3-3-5 or 3-2-6 or,
hell, maybe switch to the 3-4 and let Legania (now switched back to DT after a
glorious two-week tryst with OG) be the fire plug we all knew he could be. Of
course, I’m not sure we have the linebackers to field a 3-4 when we were
concerned about the horses in the stable to run three linebackers out there.
What do you want from me?
Given
all of that uncertainty, I think the amount of angst expressed over the
defensive tackle position in the last five days is totally justified. Let’s
hope Timms gets back quickly and everyone else stays healthy for the year.
The offensive line was a train wreck – Overplayed
Nah.
The line didn’t have a great day, but they didn’t do that badly. Pirsig looked
like a guy playing in his first game and the rest of the gents had some bad
moments, but on the whole, I think they did a decent job. As has been noted by
the astute Gophers 247 commentariat much of the vitriol directed toward the
offensive line should truly be aimed at their supporting crew: full backs and
tight ends. We can give the tight ends the benefit of the doubt - Maxx missed a
few seal blocks, while Plsek and Goodger failed to get sufficient drive off the
line; but they’re proven guys who we know will be consistent in the long run.
Fullback is more concerning. Quite a few folks have quite rightly stated they
had no idea Mike Henry was so important to the team until seeing the game last
Thursday. And it’s true: Tyler Hartman and Miles Thomas didn’t look great.
Whether that was just a poor game or something that portends an evil emerging
trend, we don’t know.
Regardless,
the offensive line doesn’t bear responsibility for the missed blocks of the
TE/H-back/FB cabal. The OL wasn’t great, but they weren’t as bad as some of the
peeps on the tubez are portraying them.
We’ve got a sweet stable of running backs – Underplayed
I haven’t
seen a whole lot of praise for our running backs and I’m a little perplexed by
that. Sure, Berk has had his praises sung (how could he not, with that
explosive 44-yard touchdown run that left the EIU defenders flailing at air);
but I really like the diversity of skill and build we have with our current
backs and that hasn’t really been a talker from last Thursday’s game. That
could be due to the pedestrian play of our line and missed assignments by their
supporting skill position players, of course. Nevertheless, I thought Cobb
looked great when he wasn’t getting hit behind the line of scrimmage – he has
such good vision and his balance allows him to slide through creases by
changing direction – a skill that the other backs haven’t demonstrated at such
a high level. Nug and Kirlkland, both looking lighter on their feet after
losing some weight in the offseason, can still punish defenders in
short-yardage situations. And Edwards, of course, has the ability to find a
hole, plant his foot and jet to the open field – something that was missing
from the position group in years past.
We have
been and will continue to be a run-first team. Having a stable of backs that
bring multiple dimensions will allow us to be more versatile in game planning
based on what defenses are showing. Cobb is well suited for a base cover-2
defense. Bring the safeties up to stack the box or run blitz and we can counter
with Berk on a stretch or a pass to the flats. It’s been a long time since we’ve
had this much talent at the position. We should be talking about it more.
(Frothy's starting word count: 13,496; Finishing word count: 15,182)
Good thoughts
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