bstinger
Posts: 16430
Joined: 7/20/2007
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quote:
ORIGINAL: TJSweens
This game still has me seething a day later. On a day when the Big Ten otherwise shattered the mystique of the great SEC, the Gopher pissed it away. This wasn't a game they could have won, this was a game they SHOULD HAVE WON! We had the better athletes and the better players. The opponents had an injured QB who sucks when he is healthy. The guy was wobbly, erratic and inaccurate. We picked him off 3 times, how the f*** did we lose this on? Because we also havefigured ut a coach who did not prepare his team for a bowl game. Missou obviously figured out what the Gophers do. Their HC even pointed out that the Gophers basically run the same 3 plays over and over, but that they use multiple formations to run those plays. He made it sound like a compliment in the way he said it, but he was obviously saying "hey Jerry, we figured your ass out". Once they saw it on the field they adjusted and took Cobb away from us. What makes it even more frustrating is that in the process of doing it, Missou left themselves vulnerable to the short and mid range passing game. Liedner was actually nailing his targets. He was 13 out of 14 at one point. Rather than exploit it, Kill stubbornly chose to keep going back to Cobb. I go back to the Fran Tarkenton philosophy; when the other team shows that they can't stop something you are doing, you do it over and over until they finally stop it. Then you do something else. That simple, basic concept is lost on Kill. He couldn't seem to fathom that no matter how well you execute, if the other team knows what you are going to do, they can stop it. Claeys does not get a pass here either. His defense got shredded by the same basic run up the middle at least half a dozen times. It was always against the same d line stunt. The tackle essentially took himself out of the play every time. I don't know if the tackle was just stupid or if there was a miscommunication. Generally when someone leaves their gap by design , someone else is suppose to fill it.
Missou also obviously installed new wrinkles in its time before the bowl. The Gophers just as obviously didn't. That's why we got caught looking stupid on the fake punt and the onside kick. Since Kill didn't implement it, he didn't expect the other side to do it either. We got caught so flat footed that the defense was back on its heels when they took the field. The fake punt and ensuing gains allowed them to pin us on our 2 yd line and ultimately score a TD on a short field. The on side kick gave them 3 pts.
Finally, killing the last minute of the first half with all of our time outs available was simply unforgivable. It's inconceivable to me that a coach in that position doesn't say "hey if we can drive down and at least get a FG out it, we can either tie or be ahead and we receive the kickoff to start the second half (mental note, they did a fake punt deep in their own end, they might try an onside kick to start the half)" To me this was every bit as bad if not worse than Denny taking the knee in 1998. You could see Liedner was visibly pissed off at the decision. His body language said "are you f***in kidding me?" He played to keep it close instead of playing to win. This to me was the fundamental difference in the game. Missouri's coach planned for these situations and prepared his players to carry them out. Kill stubbornly planned to just do what they always do and just try to out execute them. The problem is that when you play a good team, they can execute too.
My opinion of Kill is that he is a great practice coach. Players clearly get better in his system. His last two teams have executed at a higher level than even the teams under Mason. He is pretty limited as a game coach. He is great at developing a team that can consistently win enough games to go to bowl games. He is not good at planning for the big one. Yesterday his philosophies and strategies and game management managed to undermine what was the superior team of the field. He had a team THAT SHOULD HAVE WON and yanked the rug right out from under it.
I know it's early, but I nominate this one for post of the year.
_____________________________
"You guys are true athletes!"
--twinsfan
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