Gopher Football
The Gophers’ first touchdown of the game, midway through the second quarter, was so amazing it took the replay official to validate that it was actually a TD catch. Bryan Cupito threw a perfect 21-yard pass to Logan Payne who somehow kept a foot inbounds and held onto the ball.
The Gophers didn’t get much help from the officials the rest of the way. The prime example was the 38-yard touchdown pass early in the second half that was called back on a holding penalty. Minnesota ended up punting on that drive.
Michigan did give the Gophers a small opening in this game, as the Wolverines squandered a few good scoring chances in the second half. One Michigan drive took them to the Gopher 4-yard line but it fizzled there with a 21-yard field goal miss.
You have to give the Gophers credit for trying until the bitter end to pull this one out. Minnesota cut the lead to 28-14 with just over four minutes left in the fourth quarter. They then recovered the onsides kick and drove the ball to the 7-yard line, where they were stopped on downs. The sad thing about that final series is that Mike Chambers was wide open in the middle on the fourth down play. However, Cupito was forced out of the pocket making it hard to find the open receiver or even get the pass off.
There were some bright spots in this loss. Amir Pinnix had a very good day rushing with 96 yards against one of the nation’s best run defenses. Cupito looked sharp and made no major mistakes. Payne was again the leading receiver with 104 yards. The Gophers also did win the battle of special teams.
The Minnesota defense bore down after being run over in the first quarter. Mike Sherels again led the defense with 12 tackles. Trumaine Banks also had some nice stuffs. Still, Michigan put up some impressive numbers on offense. Mike Hart had almost 200 yards rushing and averaged over six yards a carry. Chad Henne completed 71% of his passes and many of those were deep balls to very open receivers.
Overall, this was a fairly solid performance for a seriously outmanned Gopher squad. If the players and coaches had put together a similar performance last week against Purdue, Minnesota would have won easily.
Still, there is not much solace in a 2-3 record and the strong possibility that they could lose three of the next four games, barring a last minute schedule change today. The one break the team could get is a bye next week because of a conflict with a Twins’ Wildcard game. With the Penn State game moved to the end of the season, the Gophers could realistically hope to even their record at 5-5 with late season wins against Indiana and Michigan State. It would force them to go at least 1-1 in their final two games at home against Iowa and the Nittany Lions in order for Minnesota to possibly go to their 7th bowl game in 10 years under Glen Mason. Even with all this gloom and doom already this season, there could be something to play for right through Thanksgiving.