Gophers Flattened by Wisconsin

The Badgers took the opening kickoff and raced down the field against a very porous Gopher defense. It seemed that the defense’s only stop was a first and goal situation. The only problem: The Gophers were nabbed for having 12 defenders on the field. Wisconsin ran a quarterback sneak into the end zone on the next play.

The Gopher offense looked just as bad on their first possession having to punt after gaining just 5 yards on three plays. Wisconsin took the next possession into the end zone with a nice 20-yard catch by Jonathan Orr. The barrage continued in the first quarter as Wisconsin added another TD with the same efficiency as the other two.

It was more of the same in the second quarter. The Badgers extended the lead to 28-0 less than four minutes into the quarter. The Gopher defense finally held later in the period, sort of. A dropped pass that would have been a TD forced Wisconsin to take the field goal. Minnesota finally got on the board with a TD catch by Ernie Wheelwright. Paris Hamilton also contributed on the drive with a 46-yard catch. That made it 31-7 at halftime. Only a missed field goal and the clock expiring at the end of the 2nd quarter stopped the Badger offense from scoring.

Minnesota came out firing in the opening drive of the second half scoring a touchdown on a 7-play march. Laurence Maroney capped it off with a 31-yard run.

Wisconsin scored a TD on their first possession of the second half but missed another field goal later in the quarter. The Gopher defense finally forced a punt early in the fourth quarter and did shut out the Badgers in that quarter.

Make no mistake about it, this was an uninspired Gopher squad that got blown out. Wisconsin had 28 first downs to the Gophers’ 13. Minnesota only had 73 yards rushing. The Badgers dominated in nearly every phase of the game.

Let’s face it. The Gophers have clearly gotten worse as the season has progressed and there have been few injuries to blame for this. I have to put it on the coaches for this regression. Well, it’s now on them to get the team up for Iowa. A win next week will salvage some respectability for this team and make them much more deserving of a bowl bid. It looks like a return to El Paso is the best this team can hope for.