Minnesota: What Did We Learn?

I have learned we have no culture

We have no toughness

We have no brotherhood amongst this team.

I went to my son's CFB game yesterday.  One of his roommates is/was the starting QB.  At half they replaced him.  Back up QB led them to a win.  I asked him if his roommate was hurt.  He said no, he knew this might happen.  Their defense is really good.  O sucks.

On Sunday last week, the coaches told the team there are no starters this week.  He said top 2 QB's both took snaps.  Back ups were given chances all over.  The O looked completely different 2nd half.  I feel bad for his roommate.  Seems like a great kid.

With a bye week.  Open up the whole thing and see who in the heck wants to compete.

 
Dano564 said:
The point I don't see anyone making, and I've been hearing about the mistakes and "close losses" for a while, is every team makes mistakes. 

Post game Frost and the players talk like if they had just gotten one more score, that they would have won the game.  Well, if Minnesota is down, maybe they don't play the no-pass or short-pass offense the whole second half trying to kill the clock.

The idea that if they hit a FG or get a TD to go up 23-21, it would have been over, but that's not a reality and that's a bit of a loser mindset.

It's like Nebraska just believes they need to at some point capture a lead against Minnesota, and the monkey will be off their back, a lead (something Nebraska only has held against Minnesota for a minute and 34 seconds dating back to 2019.

Look at the game yesterday. For every dumb mistake, Minnesota could say the same thing.

Why didn't Tanner Morgan air that pass out 5 yards more to put them up 28-9 on their opening 2nd half drive.  Bad mistake.

Why did Tanner Morgan make a really bad throw on the very next drive.  Bad Mistake.

If Minnesota win's the turnover battle, that would have been a different game, but Tanner had too many mistakes.  But Nebraska won the turnover battle by 2.  Teams that do that win 78% of the time.

Something bigger is wrong, because you aren't winning games when you win the turnover battle by two.

Frost is essentially trying to put the pressure on his players to play perfectly, and they won't.  No teams play perfectly.  I don't think Frost gets it.

Go beat Iowa and Wisconsin.
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Bingo. It's too much pressure for a kid like Martinez. He can't sit in a porous pocket and try to make 4 different reads. He needs to go 'one read and run' again. Then he could at least pick up some yards on a scramble instead of giving up a safety. 

This staff wants to throw the ball with a young offensive line, to guys that don't get open, while highly regarded recruits like Alante Brown, Latrell Neville, and even Betts stand on the sideline? None of this makes any sense. 

Have we seen the jet sweep to Betts that scored last year? Did we try the pitch to him? A deep pass downfield?

 
So, Frost normally scripts his first drive. We run three plays that are not running back handoffs.

First play, Martinez's accuracy is off on the pass play. I believe the second play was a short side option play? Third & long play, I remember Toure had maybe a step of separation but again, Martinez was off.

And then it just felt like the game was actually over after their offense took the field after we punted.

I wonder if Scott was overthinking that first half. Did he think "they're really stout up front and Prochazka's out, so we'll make them think we're going to just hand it off but then we'll throw" ? I just didn't understand that.

That game had blowout all over it. If Minnesota hadn't started turning the ball over it probably would have been a three score loss.

 
Undone said:
First play, Martinez's accuracy is off on the pass play. I believe the second play was a short side option play? Third & long play, I remember Toure had maybe a step of separation but again, Martinez was off.
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The passes were off a little.  But, they were both catchable balls that those two many times catch. I fault both QB and WR on those.

 
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I went back and watched the first half yesterday.  You could see a team that was worn down. Whether mentally, physically, or both I'm not sure.  This was especially evident on defense where the massive Minnesota line was just pushing our d-line wherever they wanted.  We basically had no legs 

It also showed in the fact that we looked slower on D than we had in previous games which lead directly to numerous missed tackles which continually extended drives for Minnesota.  We were a half step late and were left trying to arm tackle.

Whether we came out flat or just worn out is up for debate but if this team doesn't quit, with some rest, I'd expect to a much better effort by our defense against Purdue.  The problem will be containing David Bell.  If our safeties bite on the run like they did against the Gophers it could be another long day.

 
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Minnesota: What did we learn?

For Frost Supporters: The team was heavily fatigued as a result of poor scheduling created by Shawn Eichorst, Mike Riley and Bill Moos.  Coach Frost is a coaching giant besieged by an overly negative fanbase, a bloodthirsty media cohort, and Conference leadership determined to put Nebraska in its place.  Against these odds and many others, he is somehow keeping us competitive.  In Year 5, the program will breakthrough these obstacles with the CFP in sight.

For Frost Detractors: Minnesota was an event befitting of immediate termination and is the culmination of 4 years of disastrous performances. AD Alberts has already formed a "secret" exploratory head coach search committee and prominent boosters are plotting a coup to expedite the removal of Bill Jennings' prodigy.

For Realists:  Minnesota is a yawn.  It is merely the continuation of poor game execution and coaching that we have witnessed now for 4 years.  While a coaching change may occur in the future, our aim is simple; with or without Coach Frost, we just want to return to respectability and a degree of relevance.  

 
Scarlet said:
I went back and watched the first half yesterday.  You could see a team that was worn down. Whether mentally, physically, or both I'm not sure.  This was especially evident on defense where the massive Minnesota line was just pushing our d-line wherever they wanted.  We basically had no legs 

It also showed in the fact that we looked slower on D than we had in previous games which lead directly to numerous missed tackles which continually extended drives for Minnesota.  We were a half step late and were left trying to arm tackle.

Whether we came out flat or just worn out is up for debate but if this team doesn't quit, with some rest, I'd expect to a much better effort by our defense against Purdue.  The problem will be containing David Bell.  If our safeties bite on the run like they did against the Gophers it could be another long day.
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What would it have looked like if the defense wasn't tired, but if Minnesota's line was simply using better technique and more power.  

Would it have looked different?

Was Nebraska players tired the other times Minnesota beat them and controlled the line of scrimmage the last 4-5 years?

Prior to the week, Scott Frost said an NFL season has 16-17 weeks, so he wasn't worried about the team being tired after 7-8 weeks. Why does the truth of tiredness not come out until after a loss?

 
Dano564 said:
What would it have looked like if the defense wasn't tired, but if Minnesota's line was simply using better technique and more power.  

Would it have looked different?
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Yes

Was Nebraska players tired the other times Minnesota beat them and controlled the line of scrimmage the last 4-5 years?
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Possibly but this isn't the last 4-5 years.  Have you not seen a D playing much better than in recent years?  You have but I get it.  It's kick and scream and hissy fit time.

Prior to the week, Scott Frost said an NFL season has 16-17 weeks, so he wasn't worried about the team being tired after 7-8 weeks. Why does the truth of tiredness not come out until after a loss?
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I wasn't at practice.  Any idiot would have been wary of a let down.   If you weren't, well....

If you want to know why not give him a call.   Did you expect him to say "man we're bushed.  We're going to get rolled"?

 
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Undone said:
Maybe the third & long was the one where the ball went through Oliver Martin's hands?

I maybe remembered the third down play incorrectly in that post.
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The pass to Martin is one of the harder catches a receiver has to make.  Running sideways, both arms fully extended above his head.   That is not a shoulda been caught ball, more of a coulda been caught ball.  It is definitely a bad pass type ball though  

 
If Frost doesn't get fired after this season, he needs to be canned if he can't go 7-5 next season. Anything less than 7-5 next year is completely unacceptable.

He's got to figure out what it is that gets his offense into a place where they're "off" so often in the first 1.5 quarters.

The special teams stuff is largely fixed from where it was a year ago.

But we're still a 5-7 dumpster fire. 7-5 next year or he doesn't deserve to step foot onto campus as a member of this program's staff.

 
Archy1221 said:
The pass to Martin is one of the harder catches a receiver has to make.  Running sideways, both arms fully extended above his head.   That is not a shoulda been caught ball, more of a coulda been caught ball.  It is definitely a bad pass type ball though  
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It was just a drive that was hard to watch.

Only way we look much worse on that first series is if Martinez would have given up a strip sack or a huge fumble.

It's also hard for me to buy a narrative that this line can't be setup correctly unless Prochazka is in there. We blew another entirely winnable game and as I said in another post, I really thought they were going to blow us out heading into halftime.

 
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