Row the Boat 2023

They just showed the play again on ABC during the halftime of Florida St and Duke.

This was zoomed in on the punt returner. He is pointing with his right arm and waving his left arm like a windmill.

At first glance is sure seems like Iowa got jobbed, but it IS the correct call. If you want to be mad at anyone be mad at the punt returner for being an idiot. Pure and simple stupid on his part.

Lastly, as was previously said, hardly like Iowa “deserved” to win. They did absolutely nothing in the 2nd half.

Justice served, IMO

Gophers #16 bit on the punt returner’s inside move and should’ve stayed on the sideline. There were only 5 other gophers to the inside so maybe he thought that wasn’t enough.
I wonder if Fleck was able to suck back the crap in his pants when they announced the illegal signal by the punt returner.

Galifianakis and the Iowa quarterback have to be the two worst QBs in D1.

The Gopher’s 3rd last possession that ended at Iowa’s 45? No effort to score even a field goal so Iowa would need a touchdown to win. Again, the Gophers play not to lose, not to win.

I do agree with that. The Gophers punt was roughly to midfield. All Iowa needed was a FG to win. Terrible strategy most of the time.

Having said that. Iowa could do nothing either. In fact threw a bad pick, when presented with such a game-winning situation.

K. Man still does not look good to me. But he is a softmore and they don’t have anyone else.

I think the whole country learned just a little bit more about that rule today. I can understand the feeling that it’s a BS call.

But also you shouldn’t have to apologize for winning either. Iowa is not good team and was likely over ranked even at 24. Glad to see some of the players so excited to bring Floyd home as those things mean something to them.

As a MN sports fan I’ve come to really enjoy things like this. I know all our teams are stuck in upper level mediocrity at best, and maybe that’s why. Plenty will bitch about Fleck, say they didn’t deserve to win, played an ugly game, got lucky on a call, etc. But as a MN sports fan if you can’t have a good time with things like this every now and then, what else is there to get excited about?

Also, to Lindy’s comment about the QB, that could be possibly the biggest disappointment of the year in that we thought we maybe finally had QB figured out and could build a different offense around that, but we’re nowhere near that.

I thought the Gophers players inexplicably quit on the bounce. Then they showed the replay and it made sense. Absolutely why it is in the rule book. I never heard of the rule, but it perfectly captures an unfair advantage gained by the kick returner’s actions. Obviously, it has happened a few times before, and the rules committee put the kibosh on it.

A fluke call or play can happen at any part of the game. Early to mid game you can overcome that stuff, if you find yourself in the 4th qtr. with the game essentially tied, the fluke is like a coin flip-that’s football. Neither team came close to dominate play, but hey its a rivalry game against a team we have not beat in a long time-I’ll take it!

I just caught the last couple of minutes. What was Fleck so jacked up about while they were running the victory formation? Doesn’t he have faith in his players to do that?

This article explains it pretty well. There is a rule in NCAA football known as “invalid fair catch” in which the receiving player does not indicate a fair catch, but has an invalid one and the ball is presumed dead on the spot.

I was not aware of this rule, as it does not exist in the NFL. Clearly it was not a fair catch signal, as that is defined as waving a hand over the head from side to side while waiting to catch the ball. The punt returner was nowhere near waiting to catch the ball.

Based on this rule, it’s the correct call. But I’m still pretty sure the referee stated he called for a fair catch in his ruling, so that doesn’t make any sense. Either he cited the wrong rule or made a really bad call.

Iowa still had almost 90 seconds around mid field to get into field goal range and try to win the game after that debacle. And yet, their terrible offense couldn’t gain 25 yards to even attempt that.

https://www.si.com/college/2023/10/22/iowa-football-fair-catch-call-rule-explained-cooper-dejean-punt-return-minnesota

Kind of splitting hairs, Gim. It’s the actions of the returner and have the exact same outcome.

IMO, the returner knew what he was doing. Trying to fake the defense and it worked. Problem was, it wasn’t legal.

Won’t comment on the fair catch call, but Iowa got the ball with time and could have scored if they played better. Neither team played good I thought. Late in the game it did look like the Gophers were playing not to lose and relied on their defense. Worked this time, what what about the next time they play not to lose?

The next time the opponent will have a quarterback.

Iowa got what they had coming to them. The hand wave was underhanded and they got called on it. The D lineman that tried to bat the ball away from the center a second or so later was underhanded. All the crap that flew out of the stands was just plain total unsportsman-like conduct on the fans. With the iowa quarterback playing like a highschooler they should have lost, in spite of all the other crap that took place..

dup

The Gophers out Iowaed Iowa. Neither of theese teams are very good especially offensively.
At least they beat Iowa so Gim can’t pound that drum anymore.

The Goohers QB was 3 of 9 at the half. Think my seven year old had more completions in his flag football game yesterday and most of the kids can’t catch yet.

MVPs of both teams were the kicker and punter.

The West is terrible.

i tried to watch again last night and that lasted like 15 minutes. you guys really have a sickness if this is entertainment. i thought i was watching the old army navy games where they run left, run right and run into the pile.

Honestly I didn’t watch. Had it on the radio in the boat. At one point I thought to myself “man how can someone pay to go to this game”

Ripjiggen wrote:

At least they beat Iowa so Gim can’t pound that drum anymore.

History in the making right there, 24 year drought is over!

The question is now, what day this week will PJ seek a contract extension?

gimruis wrote:

The question is now, what day this week will PJ seek a contract extension?

I kind of liked Fleck before this season. But after watching this team and how all he wants to do is run the ball even on 3rd and 6 or 8 and rely on his defense to let him win by only kicking field goals, I’m starting to think he’s an idiot. He deserved to lose that game on that punt return because he refuses to be aggressive at all on offense which is why he’s lost to IA 6 years in a row in the first place. Just look at how winnable last year’s game was. The guy doesn’t adapt at all or learn from some of his worst mistakes.

They also have the worst special teams I think I’ve ever seen. They give up 15+ yards ever punt return and on kick returns the guy they’ve been trotting out there all year catches the ball, runs in a straight line to the 15 and right into 11 defensive players. Every. Time.

I hope the kids in the hospital didn’t see the Iowa fans throwing beers at the Gophers bench…

big_g wrote:

I hope the kids in the hospital didn’t see the Iowa fans throwing beers at the Gophers bench…

Haha ouch…..

That was one of the ugliest games I have ever watched but everyone knew it would be. Iowa’s offense is absolutely terrible and its their D that usually scores. Iowa only had 2 yards in the second half so give the gophers D some credit there too.
To those criticizing the runs, that has been MN bread and butter for years. They have two really good backs, but still couldnt really get much traction with it so they should have adjusted for sure.

The Kick returner Had been signaling late fair catch signals all game. One of them even lead to a penalty. Iowa Lone touchdown score was aided by many penalties that were questionable. Also we can not here what he was saying was he yelling for a fair catch? Let alone all they needed was a couple completions to score.

Either way these are two of the worst offensive teams I have seen in a long time. Minnesota quarterback skipped more passes of the turf then completions. Also what happened to the gopher big tight end? he had maybe one target and dropped that.

orve4 wrote:

Either way these are two of the worst offensive teams I have seen in a long time

^^^^ Spot on. That was a ugly football game. How Iowa was 6-1 and Ranked 24th with that football team, I have no idea.

Dutchboy wrote:

If I was a betting man I would be curious what that call did for the gamblers.

The spread favored Iowa by 4.5 points. If that punt return had stood, they would have won by 5 and covered. Assuming that 17-12 was the final score, and they made the PAT.

The gophers are favored by 7 against Sparty at home on Saturday.

First time Floyd and the Axe have been in Dinkytown at the same time since 1993.

gimruis wrote:

The gophers are favored by 7 against Sparty at home on Saturday.

Well considering Michigan State just got beat by 49 and PJ eked out a win against a team without a quarterback I anticipate quite a tussle.

Maybe Bucky can give us the winner prior to the game and then I can decide if it’s worth watching.

Gophers 31 State 20

BigWerm wrote:

First time Floyd and the Axe have been in Dinkytown at the same time since 1993.

Thats impressive and sad all at the same time. Would be nice to keep the axe another year.