Tribune: The Gophers were the tougher, smarter and more resilient team.

[Iceland12]

Now they have lost three straight. And this one came in their "easiest" remaining game — they were 12-point favorites against a Gophers team that had been beaten soundly in its two conference games.

"You can't turn it over and expect to win," Fitzgerald said. "The football gods upstairs aren't going to let you do that."

Minnesota (5-2, 1-2) won the turnover battle 3-0 — but that was hardly the only one.

The Gophers were the tougher, smarter and more resilient team. Consider that they fell behind 7-0 and missed a 44-yard field goal just before halftime..

And when the Wildcats were desperate for a stop, trailing 20-17 with two minutes to play, they got impaled. The final blow came when cornerback Nick VanHoose reacted too slowly to stop quarterback Philip Nelson on a 7-yard naked bootleg.

"Really disappointing," Fitzgerald said. "We told them: 'The quarterback naked is coming.' Disappointing. Disappointing."

Borrowing a page from Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, Fitzgerald said: "Do your job. And that's everybody — the coaches, the staff, the players, it's everybody. And you stick together. That's what I fully expect these guys to do."

Before struggling last week at Wisconsin, Siemian was viewed as a solid alternative to Colter.

But he made several poor decisions Saturday, threw some off-the-mark throws, struggled to adjust to pressure and had four passes batted down. He's also a minimal threat to run, negating the spread-option plays on which Colter thrives.

Of course it's not all on the quarterback. Superback Dan Vitale dropped two catchable passes, and Northwestern's offensive line struggled. NU's three tailbacks combined for 96 yards on 21 carries.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...ern-minnesota-football-20131020,0,80272.story

 

[Dr.Don]

No team ever puts together a perfect game, including our Gophers, but today the guys showed me toughness that I expect to see in B1G Football.

 

[Unregistered User]

The final blow came when cornerback Nick VanHoose reacted too slowly to stop quarterback Philip Nelson on a 7-yard naked bootleg.

"Really disappointing," Fitzgerald said. "We told them: 'The quarterback naked is coming.' Disappointing. Disappointing."

See kids. That's how you throw a player under the bus.

 

[Triple D]

See kids. That's how you throw a player under the bus.

Might also show Limegrover needs to mix up his play calling more.

 

[50PoundHead]

See kids. That's how you throw a player under the bus.

Well, if that's how you do it, Claeys did it par excellence when he singled out our LBs for poor play when they stuck the mic in his face as they were headed to the locker room. It kind of took me aback, but he didn't shy away.

Siemian isn't a very good QB. He has a game every now and then where he puts up some eye-popping numbers, but he's really inconsistent and not very mobile.