Butler’s Backtrack

Style points, and why they don’t matter
Posted by Constable Butler

To date, the Gophers are 4-0 and they beat their toughest non-conference opponent handily Saturday afternoon at The Bank.  Sure, many Gopher fans say, but they’re in trouble when they get to the B1G unless they can show a stronger passing game.

Maybe that’s true.  But I had a little déjà vu on Saturday.  My buddy Dave was in the stands for this game, just as he was in 2010 when the Tim Brewster-led Gophers lost 34-23 to Jerry Kill’s Northern Illinois squad early in the final season of Brewball.  I remember Dave turning and looking at me early in the fourth quarter and saying, “They’re just flat out better than us.”   And I agreed.  They ran the ball better, they blocked better, they took fewer penalties, they executed on third down, and they put the game away in the fourth quarter.  The one thing they didn’t do better?  Pass the ball.  I had to go back to the box score. 

Kill's ground-control game worked wonders with
Mitch Leidner (7) and David Cobb (27) Saturday.

Adam Weber was 31 for 46 that day for 373 yards , 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception for our beloved Gophers.  That’s a solid day, and certainly an impressive yardage total.  NIU’s Chandler Harnish? He was a Mitch Leidner-like 11 of 17 for 81 yards.  NIU rushed for 297 yards that day. 

That they didn’t throw the ball around didn’t matter against a squad from the Big Ten.  They executed their system, ugly as it may look, and pushed around a Big Ten team on the ground.  They did it with a diverse running game with varied formations.  They had too many ways to beat us on the ground for us to be able to stop them. 

Do I wish we’d seen more from the Gopher passing game to this point?  Yeah, a little.  On the other hand, we saw the jet sweep to KJ Maye added to the fold this week and we’re seeing serious production from David Cobb, Roderick Williams, and hopefully soon Donnell Kirkwood again, not to mention what both Leidner and Nelson bring to the rushing game.  The maroon and gold had rushing yards with one back, two backs, three backs, and no backs lined up in the backfield with numerous formations and multiple types of motion. 

This is what we should have known we were getting when Jerry Kill was hired.  And when there are so many ways to beat teams on the ground, I guess style points really don’t matter all that much.