Gopher Football
Story of the game: The offense was brutal
The Gopher offense had its worst game of the season. On the game they managed just 201 yards, 3 turnovers and in the rare instances when they did move the ball they either turned it over or lost the ball on downs. A big reason for the struggles is that over the course of the season the offense never advanced the point of eliminating preventable mistakes. Some examples of just how bad it was today.
““ On the Gophers first good drive they fumbled a snap away on the Iowa 13 yard line.
““ On the next possession the Gophers had a 3rd and 19 and Weber lost another fumble while trying to scramble.
““ On the play before that he was called intentional grounding.
““ There were numerous dropped passes
““ Weber was way off on a few of his passes once again. He would finish the game just 14-40 passing for 153 yards and 4 fumbled (2 lost).
““ Trick plays did not work. The Gophers were flagged for illegal motion for two men in motion when they tried to run Weber in motion to take the snap. Later Weber handed off to Gray who had come in motion, but then Gray passed and then threw an interception.
““ The Gophers were just 4 of 20 on 3rd down.
““ The OL allowed 5 sacks.
Blown chances
Even though Iowa was 9-2, this was a very winnable game for the Gophers. Iowa was playing a freshman at QB and RB. They lost outstanding LB Pat Angerer to an injury in the first half. And as it turns out the Gopher defense was on. In the chances the Gophers did have they did not take advantage. They actually had great field possession on several occasions but could not do anything with it.
““ On the Gophers second possession of the game, they got their ball on their own 39 yard line, but could only advance it to the Iowa 44 before having to punt.
““ On their next possession the Gophers had their best derive of the game. They drove from their own 45 to the Iowa 13, but then lost the ball after a fumbled snap.
““ On the next possession the Gophers got great field position on the Iowa 33 yard line thanks to a great punt return from Bryant Allen. But the Gophers could do nothing with it, and the drive ended with the Weber intentional ground and then a lost fumble.
““ Midway through the third quarter The Gophers drove from their own 27 to the Iowa 39. But on 3rd and 1 the Gophers ran Jon Hoese for no gain. The on 4th and 1 (after a timeout) the Gophers ran Jon Heose for no gain. Iowa took over on downs.
““ Despite the bad play on offense the Gophers will still only down 12-0. Then with 13:45 remaining in the game the Gophers got a huge break when Iowa fumbled the snap and the Gophers recovered on the Iowa 29 yard line. The Gopher offense drove down and had a 1st and goal on the Iowa 2 yard line. The Gophers then ran 2 times for no gain, then tried a fade pass to 5’10″ Troy Stoudermire which was incomplete, and then Weber got sacked on 4th down. Again the Gophers came away with nothing.
It was frustrating to see that as the season went on the offense never really improved. Sure there were times (like the Michigan State game) where the offense clicked, but there was never any game-to-game consistency.
Defense was great
On the first drive of the game the Gopher defense allowed Iowa to drive 68 yards in 11 plays, but held them on 3rd and 6 and forced Iowa to settle for a FG. After that drive the Gopher defense would allow just 103 yards for the rest of the game, holding Iowa to a total of 171 yards. Despite the defense always having to return to the field due to 3 turnovers, 8 punts, and 4 missed fourth dows by the offense, the defense usually held firm and even came up with a couple of big plays. The only TD the defense allowed was on a 39 yard field. They did a great job applying pressure by using the blitz and recorded 4 sacks, two from Ryan Collado. Marcus Sherels had an interception, and Gary Tinsley had the best game of his young career, filling in for an injured Nate Triplett to record 10 tackles with a sack.
Where to go from here
Believe it or not the Gophers will be going to a bowl game. It certainly doesn’t seem like they should after watching the past three weeks and considering they’ll finish 8th in the Big Ten, but they did get 6 wins and since Michigan did not win today that leaves a sure spot for the Gophers. The understatement of the year is that the Gophers have some work to do before then. With the exception of the Michigan State game, the offense made absolutely no progress over the season, and if anything were worse in the last two games than they were anytime else during the season.
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