Burned Baby, Burned

I just typed "Ryan Collado" into Google and searched images, and this was the very first result...

No joke.

Apparently Google doesn't have a very high impression of Collado right now.

I was looking at some stats from Saturday's win over NIU when I realized that the two long touchdown catches that Collado gave up amounted to 144 total yards. This is just under 45% of the total passing yards given up by the Gopher defense.

Wow.

I'm certainly not blaming Burnt Toast, er, I mean, Collado for the game being as close as it is. Football games are never about one play. Or in this case two plays. (Two really, really big plays that both went for touchdowns.) But that is a big number to be sure.

Based on how good of a job the Gophers did allowing Tyler Harnish to throw to wide open recievers on 3rd & long, it's safe to say that even if Collado had broken up both (or even one would have been okay) of those passes, NIU might have found a way to continue to put up big passing numbers.

Word today is that Brewster and Roof are talking about giving Troy Stoudermire a few plays at cornerback starting this weekend against Bowling Green. The results certainly can't be any worse, and giving a young kid with some huge upside can only reap benefits down the road.

But giving up big plays like these is precisely the reason that the Gophers need to figure out how to control the ball better on offense. Long sustained drives that end in hard fought touchdowns tire out the defense, and keep the opposing offense from finding a ryhthm. As mentioned before, the Gophers best chance of winning football games is to keep the defense off of the field as much as possible until they can figure out how to stop a 3rd & long.