Weekend Recap

Wow, sorry for the Saturday night post. Not sure what that was all about. That's what happens when you end up watching the end of the biggest win of the season alone in your living room after everyone else is sleeping and you need to tell someone about how great the Gophers are while sipping on Gopher kool-aid.

Anyway, here's how we fared this weekend:

MC: 12-3 (9-1 in NCAA! wow)
MH: 10-4 +NO
AW: 9-6
JG: 7-7 +ATL
MK: 7-7 +ATL
JR: 7-8
MR: 7-8
GR: 7-8

No epic disasters this weekend, and a couple really good weeks for the guys on the top. Full standings update coming tomorrow after the Saints-Falcons tonight. Don't really care who wins, just keep it under or at 54 so I can win my tiebreaker in a pick'em pool!

What a great football weekend! My scenario for the perfect weekend did actually come true, even though I had my Gopher Hockey schedule wrong...sweeping AA is not as thrilling as sweeping WIS, but I'll take it.

GOPHER FOOTBALL
I re-watched the 1st half last night during the thrilling NYG-PHI game, trying to remember everything that happened. How many big plays were there each way!?!? Unreal.

1. AWEB - that's the way you're supposed to play QB in this offense! Spread the wealth, don't turn it over, make good decisions. A+ for Saturday night Mr. Weber. Wow, I did not see this coming at all. He has looked so lost all year, but like I hinted at earlier in the week, I think losing Decker could actually be a positive for this club by forcing other guys to make plays and making us much less one dimensional in the passing game.

2. OL - where did this come from? We haven't been able to protect well all year, and then we throw for 400 yards with numerous down field passes. Credit the OL for that one. They did have a ton of bad penalties, but they got it done for the first time this season as far as pass protection goes.

3. WR's - we have the talent, that's obvious. It's nice to see breakouts from a lot of them all at the same time. This is what our offense should look like - if you can't run, then throw it all over the place and throw it down the field! Only blemish was the TS drop on a sure TD, that after rewatching still looks like a vdecet throw that he should have caught and scored on. He also had another TD reversed in the EZ on a fade. Tough night for Troy, but overall a GREAT night for the young Decker-less WR crew.

4. Defense was tough when necessary. A couple of big goal line stands lifted this team to victory. The DL played very strong and actually got some pressure on MSU for the first time in a long time. The big plays were killer, that's definitely something that needs to be addressed, but overall I was happy with the defense once again.

5. BPT - Big Play Traye has been changed to bench player traye. After getting torched a couple of times early he rode pine most of the 2nd half. Michael Carter played extremely well, and should not lose that spot for the next 2+ years. What happened to this guy? Remember when he was contemplating coming out early last year? Apparently, he won't have to worry about that for the 2010 draft. Let's hope it's a wake up call and he picks it up the next 4 games.

6. Recruits! Tons of recruits at the game on Saturday - how do you not love that one? Also got a 4-star RB recruit late FRI night when Josh Huff of Texas committed...he's more in the bruiser style that Brew wants on this club an he should see soem time next season with Whaley and Bennett. Looks like Brew and Co finally figured out that Eskridge is not the answer...thank you. I'm still thinking we have 3-5 big time players that could still commit over the next few weeks. The Illini game will be the last chance for visits on a gameday as the SDSU game will be only for invited walk-ons. A strong finish to the season would not hurt our chances with all of the big names left on the radar.

Then if that wasn't enough...Purple Jesus and #4 lead the Vikes to a sweep of the Pack in Lambeau.

1. Obviously, #4 is the big story. He played well again, and lead this team to a great win.

2. Cheech! How wrong was I on this guy?!? I really wasn't a huge fan of the pick, but my god I think this kid is the MVP of this team right now. The returns and the huge TD catch were game-changers. Love it.

3. #69 - 7.5 sacks and 8.5 TFL...not a bad season for most...for Jared Allen it's just his series stats against the Pack this year! How great is this guy.

4. OL - again, outstanding. GB couldn't sniff Favre, which is a key that hasn't really been talked about a whole lot this year. Keeping the old man upright helps our odds of winning and doing something special this year.

7-1 into the bye doesn't suck. Here's the rest of the slate:

DET
SEA
CHI
@ARI
CIN
@CAR
@CHI
NYG

I dare you to find a loss. Home games will all be wins...only potential land mines could be at CHI or at CAR, but really would you bet on either of these clubs over the Purple right now? I wouldn't. Let's just hope the Aints drops about 3-4 between now and then so we can lock up home field.

Minnesota Football...catch the fever!