Not to be a wet blanket, but next week will really tell the story. A lot of teams can, for various reasons, rise up and play inspired football for one game. The key, as it has been all season for the Gophers, is consistency. Can the Gophers come out next with with a similar effort? If they can put a couple games even similar to this back-to-back, that could quell some of the doubts people have about the program. If they can play 3 in a row like this, people might even want to buy a ticket to watch the team play.
I don't want to get ahead of myself - but you could paint a scenario where, if the Gophers played like this against Wisconsin - and (gasp) won, it might be the first step toward changing the perceptions of the program.
Of course, if they come out next week and lay an egg against NW, then it's back to square one. And such is the life of a Gopher fan. Show me a silver lining, and I'll look for the cloud, because we know there's a cloud there somewhere.