BleedGopher
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per Jon K:
There was nothing to savor against the Badgers. No reason to hold on to anything to mark this occasion. No reason to stay until the end of a game that was over early in the fourth quarter.
Final score: Wisconsin 38, Minnesota 17. A season of so much promise and joy brought to a crashing halt by a defeat so thorough that it was hard to look past it to the overwhelming success the season has been in total.
This one should hurt.
When the dust settles and reflection kicks in on this Gophers football season, there will be rightful praise given to a 10-2 regular season that no one saw coming. A top-10 ranking, that stirring victory over Penn State, the best start to a season in 120 years, ESPN’s “College GameDay” coming to Dinkytown, of all places — it all deserves to be celebrated.
But the thumping the Gophers took at the hands of Wisconsin on Saturday should not be easily brushed aside. The Badgers walked into TCF Bank Stadium with their chests puffed out and brimming with confidence. In the snow globe on Saturday afternoon, the carriage the Gophers took to the doorstep of the Big Ten title game turned back into a pumpkin, and the Badgers smashed it to smithereens.
The Gophers were outplayed, outcoached, out-everythinged in the loss that took them out of contention for the showdown with Ohio State in Indianapolis next week, and virtually eliminated any consideration for their first trip to the Rose Bowl since Jan. 1, 1962.
It stings, and the Gophers would do well to hold on to that disappointment for as long as it takes. The only way to overcome a defeat like this is to learn from it, stew over it, spend the next 364 days walking around campus with that pebble in their shoes so they never forget what it felt like to watch the Badgers race across the field, pick up Paul Bunyan’s Axe and hold it like it belongs to them and was merely on loan to the Gophers for a year.
theathletic.com
Go Gophers!!
There was nothing to savor against the Badgers. No reason to hold on to anything to mark this occasion. No reason to stay until the end of a game that was over early in the fourth quarter.
Final score: Wisconsin 38, Minnesota 17. A season of so much promise and joy brought to a crashing halt by a defeat so thorough that it was hard to look past it to the overwhelming success the season has been in total.
This one should hurt.
When the dust settles and reflection kicks in on this Gophers football season, there will be rightful praise given to a 10-2 regular season that no one saw coming. A top-10 ranking, that stirring victory over Penn State, the best start to a season in 120 years, ESPN’s “College GameDay” coming to Dinkytown, of all places — it all deserves to be celebrated.
But the thumping the Gophers took at the hands of Wisconsin on Saturday should not be easily brushed aside. The Badgers walked into TCF Bank Stadium with their chests puffed out and brimming with confidence. In the snow globe on Saturday afternoon, the carriage the Gophers took to the doorstep of the Big Ten title game turned back into a pumpkin, and the Badgers smashed it to smithereens.
The Gophers were outplayed, outcoached, out-everythinged in the loss that took them out of contention for the showdown with Ohio State in Indianapolis next week, and virtually eliminated any consideration for their first trip to the Rose Bowl since Jan. 1, 1962.
It stings, and the Gophers would do well to hold on to that disappointment for as long as it takes. The only way to overcome a defeat like this is to learn from it, stew over it, spend the next 364 days walking around campus with that pebble in their shoes so they never forget what it felt like to watch the Badgers race across the field, pick up Paul Bunyan’s Axe and hold it like it belongs to them and was merely on loan to the Gophers for a year.
‘It’s gonna sting’: This loss should hurt, and there’s fuel Gophers can take from it
With so much at stake, the Gophers fell flat Saturday. What matters now is how they respond to a speed bump in an otherwise great year.
theathletic.com
Go Gophers!!
