What needs to improve for Gopher football
It was a great opening weekend for the Big Ten as the conference went 17-1, highlighted by a nice win by USC over LSU on Monday night. Maybe Michigan and Oregon struggled while Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin had to sweat things out in the final quarter. But they all managed to win and contribute to an almost perfect weekend for the conference.
Almost.
There was one team who messed up a perfect conference weekend and it was the game we witnessed at Huntingbank Stadium on Thursday evening.
To be fair, most of the conference teams spent their first week of the season tuning up against Group of 5 or FCS teams while Minnesota hosted an ACC team. Perhaps that was their first mistake (of many). It was a loss, to a decent team. The game exposed some of this team’s problems and was riddled with uncharacteristic mistakes.
Does your reigning Big Ten Kicker of the Year often miss 2 field goals? Not typically, especially from inside the 10.
Do you often get 2 defensive holding calls on critical plays that alter the trajectory of the game? Not usually.
If you put the other team in 16 third downs throughout a game, will they usually convert on half of them? No, not going to consistently happen.
Even if you look at some of the more fancy metrics, the Gophers outplayed North Carolin and “should” have won.
Did We Really Get Beat That Bad? (remix)
Net EPA/Play in Week 1 Games pic.twitter.com/9Uv0l02Cyt— parker fleming (@statsowar) September 2, 2024
Of course, they didn’t win and I’m not trying to put lipstick on this pig. It was a loss and if you “should” have won but you managed to lose, that is probably a worse indictment on your team than if you just lost to a team that was better.
There were mistakes all over the field and what still gets under my skin is that they all came at the worst possible moments. Would I care if there was a defensive holding on 1st and 10 when they threw for 4 yards? I would have already forgotten about it. But when it came on a strip sack from inside their own territory, that changes the game.
The same can be said about the offensive holding on the Gophers on their final drive. Throughout the course of a game, no big deal. But when it comes on play when Marcus Major gets you down to the 18 yard line for a potentially game-winning kick…that penalty hurt.
Enough about the mistakes. They happened. What matters most is what comes from it. Does this team learn from these mistakes and grow? That is what matters.
I’m not overreacting to this loss. North Carolina is a solid team. They aren’t winning the ACC but I’m also not going to let my Gopher frustration lead me to convince myself that they are a terrible team either. They are fine.
And as I have typed here many times over the years, one game does not define a season. Especially the first game of the season. There is no reason to overreact to this game. And to be honest there is no reason to have any strong reaction to what comes in the next two games. Whether we put up 49 points on Rhode Island or if we squeak out a win over Nevada, it still isn’t telling us much.
The measuring stick is the Iowa game in week 4. That is when we know what we can expect from this team throughout the rest of the season. Grow from this loss, take care of business in the next two weeks and then show me what you’ve got when Iowa comes to town.
Be patient, Gopher fans. It is a long season and even with the new landscape of college football, we are blessed to be on this emotional journey as a fan. Time for this team to grow.