Trailing 31-20 at halftime, it looked like the Gophers could suffer their first Big Ten loss of the season against an athletic Purdue squad. According to popular odds site Online Football Betting, the Gophers were the clear favorites as they were favored by two touchdowns. With some defensive adjustments, an efficient offense, and a 52-yard field goal, the Golden Gophers rallied to beat the Boilermakers in a shootout, 39-38.
The Comeback By The Numbers
51,241 – The largest announced crowd to watch a Gopher football game in the history of TCF Bank Stadium. Today’s game beat the previous record of 50,805, which happened on seven occasions. This record will likely be topped when the hated Iowa Hawkeyes invade TCF Bank Stadium on November 8 where a sellout of 52,525 is certainly possible.
1.000 – The Gophers’ winning percentage in the Big Ten after notching a third conference victory on the season. Minnesota hasn’t started conference play with a 3-0 record since 1990. The last time the Gophers started the Big Ten season with a 4-0 record was 1967.
194 – Yards by running back David Cobb who carried the ball 35 times and added a touchdown. Cobb has been called on often this season to grind teams down late in games and he relishes in what may seem like an exhausting responsibility.
“At the end of the game, that’s when I have to run hard and get a first down,” said Cobb. “The offensive line got a great push for me and that’s my job to finish, close out the game.”
147 – The Gophers gave up 304 yards in the first half, but made adjustments and held Purdue to just 147 yards and seven points in the final 30 minutes.
“We were calm,” said Cedric Thompson about being down at half. “Coach (Jay) Sawvel came in, he just talked to us calm. We knew what we had to do. We weren’t worried about anything. We knew we were beating ourselves. We knew if we could go out there in the second half and do our job, play the way we knew we were capable of playing, we’d go out there and win the game.”
52 – Yards of the field goal made by freshman kicker Ryan Santoso to give the Gophers a 39-38 lead late in the fourth quarter.
“Shoot, he might have been able to kick it who knows how far because I think it was 8 or 10 yards deeper than that,” said Kill. “[Ryan Santoso] has a tremendous leg and he has a good, strong head. We’ve said all along that it comes down to needing a guy to be able kick a field goal.”
22 – Coming into Saturday’s game, the Gophers had lost all 22 games under Coach Kill when trailing at half. Against Purdue, Minnesota was down 31-20 at the midpoint but only allowed seven points in the second in what turned out to be an incredible comeback victory.
“I don’t keep track of all that stuff,” said Kill referring to the streak. “All I know is that we won the game and we came back from behind. I guess that’s another stat we got taken care of today. I appreciate you filling me in on that, that makes me feel good.”
2 – The number of interceptions by senior safety Cedric Thompson. The last Gopher to have two interceptions in one game was Michael Carter, who accomplished the feat in 2012 against Texas Tech. Thompson’s first pick came on the initial offensive play of the game; setting up a Gopher touchdown one play later.
“It was pretty important to set the tone of the game,” said Thompson about his interception. “Knowing that we go out there every play and give everything that we have. I kind of knew that route was coming, I sat there and I got it.”
1.8 – A very unofficial estimate of KJ Maye’s hang time in seconds as he flew over the goal line for his first career touchdown donning the Maroon and Gold.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Maye said of his 37-yard touchdown reception. “I’ve been waiting on that for three years. It felt good.”
1 – Week until the Gophers travel south to Memorial Stadium to battle the Fighting Illini. While Kill will certainly enjoy the win tonight, he’s already looking ahead to next weeks’ road test.
“We’ve taken care of home and now we have to go out and get a road win and those are never easy,” said Kill. “Right now we have to go to Champaign and I can tell you, I will start thinking about it now. That game is important for a lot of reasons. I coached in that state for a while so I have a lot of people around there and I don’t want to be embarrassed.”
0 – The number of teams ahead of the Gophers in the Big Ten West standings!