Thought I would highlight this game because this was the only game Samson coordinated with his best player, Mohamed Ibrahim, on offense. Ibrahim got hurt some time in the 3rd quarter. Also of note in this game, Minnesota didn't have their best receiver, Chris Autman-Bell who had a leg injury and didn't play at all until the Colorado game (lucky us).
Minny had 409 yards of offense against Ohio State, 31 points, and Morgan threw for 205 yards and a touchdown.
This was a very balanced performance of run and pass in terms of yardage. Minny did run it 50 times compared to the 25 times they passed it. Game was 24-21 before Ibrahim got hurt. It was 38-31 until the end when Ohio State scored a game ending touchdown late in the 4th.
Ohio State got a fumble return touchdown after Morgan was stripped of the ball trying to do too much with Ibrahim out. That was really the big difference in the game. Might have been a Minnesota win with Ibrahim finishing the game and what would they have said about Sanford then?
I get it, Minnesota's offense struggled, etc. You have to look between the numbers though. It definitely wasn't all on the OC. It seems he ran a ball control offense that was supposed to keep the other team's offenses off the field. They were great in 3rd and 4th downs. They had a high average yards per completion, but they just weren't efficient with the passing game. Maybe that's on the OC. Maybe Morgan just wasn't accurate. The games I saw him, I was puzzled by his accuracy at times. Seemed to sail balls where he had guys open. Maybe they didn't throw the ball enough to get Morgan in a rhythm and he was expected to just make too many big plays in the passing game that he's not capable of making. I don't know. I do think Farrell's take is way exaggerated though. Minnesota looked pretty dang good when they had their horses and not at one single point last year did the have all of their guns available at the same time. Only a few games did they have their full repertoire of WRs as well.
I'm OK with Sanford for now. I definitely don't think he's anywhere as bad as Farrell says but he's had some hot takes on here in the past that didn't come through.
Minny had 409 yards of offense against Ohio State, 31 points, and Morgan threw for 205 yards and a touchdown.
This was a very balanced performance of run and pass in terms of yardage. Minny did run it 50 times compared to the 25 times they passed it. Game was 24-21 before Ibrahim got hurt. It was 38-31 until the end when Ohio State scored a game ending touchdown late in the 4th.
Ohio State got a fumble return touchdown after Morgan was stripped of the ball trying to do too much with Ibrahim out. That was really the big difference in the game. Might have been a Minnesota win with Ibrahim finishing the game and what would they have said about Sanford then?
I get it, Minnesota's offense struggled, etc. You have to look between the numbers though. It definitely wasn't all on the OC. It seems he ran a ball control offense that was supposed to keep the other team's offenses off the field. They were great in 3rd and 4th downs. They had a high average yards per completion, but they just weren't efficient with the passing game. Maybe that's on the OC. Maybe Morgan just wasn't accurate. The games I saw him, I was puzzled by his accuracy at times. Seemed to sail balls where he had guys open. Maybe they didn't throw the ball enough to get Morgan in a rhythm and he was expected to just make too many big plays in the passing game that he's not capable of making. I don't know. I do think Farrell's take is way exaggerated though. Minnesota looked pretty dang good when they had their horses and not at one single point last year did the have all of their guns available at the same time. Only a few games did they have their full repertoire of WRs as well.
I'm OK with Sanford for now. I definitely don't think he's anywhere as bad as Farrell says but he's had some hot takes on here in the past that didn't come through.
