Well, before I get to an over-emotional response to the NDSU game (as if that wasn't bad enough) we have learned today that Michael Floyd, WR recruit from Cretin-Durham Hall has made a verbal commitment to Notre Dame. This is definitely a blow to Coach Brewster's recruiting momentum, but let's be honest, we all knew it was probably going to be Notre Dame or OSU. On the bright side, at least we, most likely, won't have to play against him in the coming years.
Now, on to NDSU...
As expected, the Bison are a very good football team, and they brought every ounce of hard work and energy they had, along with about 20,000 fans to the Metrodome on Saturday. They played a very good game against the Gophers and absolutely deserved to win the game.
As I was thinking about the game later in the day on Saturday, it really started to sink in how difficult this season is. I've really been trying to stay positive and focus on the things that are going well, like recruiting and the development of some of the younger players. But on Saturday it was very hard to be positive, and with the news of Floyd, today is even tougher.
Here's what's chapping my proverbial ass today. In my opinion, the Gophers did not play poorly on Saturday. They didn't make a ton of mistakes, they didn't turn the ball over a bunch of times. The only thing the Gophers did to really shoot themselves in the foot was a few dropped passes. But they simply did not do anything to win this game. It seemed as though they were able to do what they needed to hang close the the Bison, but never enough to get over the hump.
A couple of Bison fans have admitted to me that when they were up by only 3 at halftime, they thought the Bison were in trouble. And I will admit that I did too. As poorly as we had played, we were only 3 points down, and I was starting to wonder if we might be wearing them down. We have also been a good second half team this year, and I just wondered if we were going to get it going in the second. But we just couldn't get anything worthwhile going offensively. The run wasn't working, the pass wasn't working, the Bison clearly figured out Weber's draw in the second half.
But with under two minutes left in the game, there we were with a chance to win. Brewster called for the punt block, which I think is an aggressive, but good call, because our offense was completely stagnant at that point, and there was really no reason to think they were going to step out of that funk with 1:30 left in the game.
The aggressive call bit us in the ass...
...and that's a little bit how the entire season has gone for the Gophers.
Blogs we check daily
1 comment:
ehjkvThe waiting is absolutely hard. I was one of the very vocal Mason haters. I've sat through ever game since Murray Warmath and I smelled a skunk when Mason was here. I'm not going to go rehash all that, but needless to say, I was pleased to get a new coach. My first thoughts on Wacher(oops Brester) is he is a little too much of a cheerleader for me. Show me then goods, then lets here you cheer, but having said that, he's done wonders in the very important aspect of getting coaches from H.S's in Minnesota excited again. He has gone back to those basics and should be able to put a good team on the field beginning next year and go from there.
Let's be realistic. He had less foundation that the berlin wall has. He came in late to recruit. I'm sure many potential mason recruits turned away. Many kids had already committed. Now you start trying to teach this shell of a team, new plays, new coaches..........I didn't expect much this year.
Bright points are seeing some good improvement game to (most) games. Even seeing some changes at half that have helped.
Down side. We are thin at lots of positions. We are slooooooow. Could use big help at quarterback and pass defense.
Do I expect they will get better. Yes I do. I expect a much better team next year and by the time we are at the new stadium I expect a team that will compete with the very best. I can wait that long. I've waited for 43 years already.
N.D game was disappointing....mainly for me is they are so much like Iowa as fans and the team was coming to a superbowl. Could that N.D team play like that week after week in the Big Ten. I don't think so. Hell, let them play the Big Ten schedule this year and then let St. Johns play them in a game. St. Johns would probably kick their butts. Having said that, they do have some great kids on the team that I wouldn't doubt Mason never even considered looking at them. Hope that doesn't happen anymore.
Gophers will do alright..........
Post a Comment