Minnie vs OSU

I do think some of this feeling of Minnesota playing so well comes from a place of outsider-not-connected-grass-is-greener.  I know OSU is a great team, and it showed yesterday that Minnesota was clearly outclassed. Ill be honest, Tanner Morgan played one of the best games he's ever played and Ibrahim is incredible.  That said, they made the same "boneheaded" mistakes we make to lose games.  If we are being objective, OSU had a strip sack scoop and score, Morgan through two interceptions that were game breakers, although one was given back on a roughing call against OSU.OSU scored at least 2 and maybe three times on one play broken coverage 40+ yard strikes.   I think it was more a result of Minnesota o line creating for Ibrahim first half, (credit to Fleck for knowing what his team is capable of and going with it,) combined with OSU playing very poorly in the first half of the season. Minnesota even had a poorly timed offensive holding call on a 20 yard Ibrahim run that negated a 3rd and 5 and instead set up a 2 and 32.  

It was fun to cheer for Minnesota yesterday, and I did find myself longing for Frost to understand what his players strengths are and call to those like PJ did.. That said, everybody lauding the effort from Minnesota should be also able to see that they ultimately lost that game doing the same dumb things we did to lose Illinois, (and yes I know OSU is better than Illinois.) 

 
Born N Bled Red said:
EFF that.... the refs are supposed to call an even game. That call essentially iced the game for Ohio State. Had the refs done as they were supposed to, the fumble would have been overruled and Minnesota would have had a first down plus penalty yards. Screw the Big. It is clear the refs are told before the game who is supposed to win. They make the calls that make that happen. Just like our Roughing/ taunting call that overturned an int. Just like the offensive PI call, just like the holding, on tour's long reception. Its all to create the outcome the Big wants. 

EDIT: The refs also pulled the cute back to back penalties game against Minny in the 3rd quarter to prevent Minny from answering Ohio States 1st touchdown in the 3rd quarter. Questionable holding call and I forget what the other was put Minney back at 2nd and 30.
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I have a bigger issue with switching it from an incomplete pass to a fumble - I don't know how you do that via replay. Although they did the same thing with us last year, which is kinda bizarre. There was helmet to helmet contact, the brunt of it was shoulder to shoulder - I just wish there was consistency. Guys will get thrown out for less, and guys will be allowed to continue playing with worse hits.

But the refs were not out to get Minnesota. One of Minny's TD drives should have been dead, there was an incredibly blatant missed OPI where the TE was on the defender like a heat seeking missile. And the roughing the passer taking away an OSU was ticky-tack in my opinion. He got there a little late, but didn't really hit him hard. I think they called the fact that he hit him high, but it was not that bad. Minny got quite a few calls their way, everyone is going to remember the no targeting yes fumble call though. 

Minny was only in the game because they took advantage of some opportunities (what a novel concept!) like the calls in their favor and the tipped INT, and because Mo Ibrahim was the best player on the field. Hope his injury isn't season ending, but the armchair doctor consensus seems to be torn achilles.

 
Born N Bled Red said:
EFF that.... the refs are supposed to call an even game. That call essentially iced the game for Ohio State. Had the refs done as they were supposed to, the fumble would have been overruled and Minnesota would have had a first down plus penalty yards. Screw the Big. It is clear the refs are told before the game who is supposed to win. They make the calls that make that happen. Just like our Roughing/ taunting call that overturned an int. Just like the offensive PI call, just like the holding, on tour's long reception. Its all to create the outcome the Big wants. 

EDIT: The refs also pulled the cute back to back penalties game against Minny in the 3rd quarter to prevent Minny from answering Ohio States 1st touchdown in the 3rd quarter. Questionable holding call and I forget what the other was put Minney back at 2nd and 30.
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QQ

I thought it was targeting but I also see a lot of stuff that I think is missed on both sides. That happens every game and until the B1G addresses it, you are going to see crap like this. The B1G needs full time refs that train for games. It isn't one thing, it is the inconsistency across all of college football. It also doesn't help when they write rules that are ambiguous. If you want to laugh at OSU for getting bad calls, just watch the OSU vs Clemson game from two years ago.  

Please don't act like Michigan fans. I honestly believe the B1G would love for teams like Nebraska and Michigan to be good every year. Just hanging the proverbial B1G hat on OSU every year isn't a good business decision for the conference. If the administration could actually make sound decisions at either school they would be sitting with OSU at the top of the conference. 

 
Yeah I def thought it constituted targeting.  You can clearly see the defender launch (no wrapping of the arms) as well as lead with the crown towards the head and neck area of the receiver.  Easy call imo.  I follow/like MF but sometimes he has some hot takes.


 
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Can't believe I'm saying this...

Just watched the quick highlight version of this game. Minnesota's offensive line is criminally underrated. Combine that with a strong, relatively quick back like Ibrahim that hits the holes hard and that's pretty much a perfect offensive scheme for the B1G West.

I'm not saying they're the best team in the West right now, but the level they played at last night would have squarely beaten anybody in this division.

 
And I also feel compelled to say how bad we need Wan'Dale right now watching that game. Holy s***. We just need ONE extremely dynamic playmaker out there, if for nothing else to draw double-teams. 

 
And then just for fun, here's a play I think Martinez would be really good at and that we need in our playbook (click play to start at correct time):
 




 
jaws said:
I thought it was targeting but I also see a lot of stuff that I think is missed on both sides. That happens every game and until the B1G addresses it, you are going to see crap like this. The B1G needs full time refs that train for games. It isn't one thing, it is the inconsistency across all of college football. It also doesn't help when they write rules that are ambiguous. If you want to laugh at OSU for getting bad calls, just watch the OSU vs Clemson game from two years ago.  
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The rules are extremely frustrating. And, one thing that makes them that way is that the rule is ambiguous....yet the penalty is so severe.  When you have a bang bang play where the defender goes in low, the ball carrier then drops his head, heads hit and they call it targeting....then you have it so severe that it's a major penalty in yards AND the player is kicked out of the game, that's just not workable.  For that to be that major of a penalty, it HAS to be CLEARLY intended to be a that type of a hit.

 
Husker03 said:
That said, they made the same "boneheaded" mistakes we make to lose games.  If we are being objective, OSU had a strip sack scoop and score, Morgan through two interceptions that were game breakers, although one was given back on a roughing call against OSU.OSU scored at least 2 and maybe three times on one play broken coverage 40+ yard strikes.   I think it was more a result of Minnesota o line creating for Ibrahim first half, (credit to Fleck for knowing what his team is capable of and going with it,) combined with OSU playing very poorly in the first half of the season.
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The box score for the game shows Morgan threw 0 interceptions. 

If you compare the stats of that game last night to ours with Illinois, it looks like this:

-NU total offensive yards: 392

-Minnesota total offensive yards: 408

So, how does Minnesota wind up with 31 points against a Top 5 team and we wind up with 22 points against freaking Illinois? Answer:

1. We made waaaaaaay more mistakes than they did.

2. Our special teams are killing our season each year now; average starting field position in the Big 10 is unbelievably important.

Some of these mistakes include Martinez missing an open man in the end zone...although that one wound up only costing us four points and not 7.

 
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lo country said:
Continually getting good classes and talent, but just never translates to the most important stat.....The W's.......
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Well, the good classes and talent side of the equation will stop if we keep losing.  Then the account will be 'balanced'.   That is the direction we are going. You can sell recruits on a vision if they don't see it playing out on the field. 

 
Undone said:
I don't think there is, Buster. Just going off of eyeballing it from watching games personally.

So I admittedly can't post specific, hard data - but we clearly are behind our opponents more often than not.
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I agree and wasn't arguing anything different.  But, with something like that, I would like to see a stat to see really where we were at in this game.  Thinking back, the major things that could have affected this:

a) They had a great punt early in the game that went out at the 1.  I'm not sure how we could have changed that.

b) Returning kickoffs to the 20 instead of fair catching it and starting at the 25.  Doesn't sound major, but it adds up over a game.

c) Our bad punts.  Hopefully our punter gets over his nerves and does better.  I'm sick of having bad punting.

 
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