Gopher Football
There’s really not a lot you can say about today’s game, other than most of the team seems to be going backwards. The Gopher defense did its part in forcing several turnovers, but the offense and special teams nearly cost the Gophers this game. Just take a look at some of the numbers:
Rushing yards: 137 on 48 carries (2.9 ypc)
Adam Weber: 10-21 for 91 yds, 0 TD and 1 INT
Total Yards: 231
Penalties: 7 for 46 yards
Punt ret coverage: 5 for 68 yards
KO ret coverage: 4 for 146
First Half
One of the lone bright spots for the offense occurred on the second possession of the day when they put together a 13 play, 78-yard drive. Unfortunately the drive stalled at the SDSU 3 yard line and the Gophers had to settle for a FG.
On the following possession Traye Simmons picked off a Thomas O’Brien pass, but a penalty negated a long return. The Gophers started on the SDSU 40 yard line, and aided by a facemask penalty, drove down to the SDSU 8 yard line. Unfortunately, a bad pitch by MarQueis Gray and two bad passes by Adam Weber left the Gophers out of the endzone again, and an Eric Ellestad would put the Gophers up 6-0. This drive went 7 plays for 32 yards.
Following the FG the Gopher special teams had their first blunder of the day. Tyrel Kool returned the kickoff 84 yards to the Gophers 12 yard line. Only a nice hustle play by Jay Thomas kept this from being a touchdown. On the Jackrabbit’s second play the Gopher defense stepped up again when Simoni Lawrence picked off a pass, keeping SDSU off the scoreboard.
After the Gophers went 3-and-out, the Gopher special teams had their second straight blunder when Saunders Montague returned the punt 49 yards to the Gopher 11 yardline. But for the third straight possession the Gopher defense stepped up, forcing SDSU to settle for a FG to make the score 6-3.
On the Gophers next possession the Gophers were 2nd and 9 from the SDSU 21 yard line. Adam Weber was scrambling to the right, and made a terrible decision to throw the ball back across the field, about 25 yards lateral and only 5 yards upfield. The ball was picked off by Derek Domino and easily returned 22 yards for the TD, putting SDSU up 13-10.
The following possession the Gopher offense managed only one first down and the Gophers had to punt the ball away. SDSU found themselves with a 3rd and 13 from their own 14 yard line when the defense came up huge again. Micheal Carter came in on a backside corner blitz and hit O’Brien from behind and popping the ball up in the air. D.L. Wilhite snatched the ball out of the air at the 3 yard line and ran it in for a TD. Unfortunately this would be the Gophers only TD of the day. This put the Gophers up 10-6 about 6 minutes into the second quarter.
This sums up most of the action for the remainder of the half. Kevin Whaley had a fumble on the next Gopher possession, Troy Stoudermire was unable to recover a muffed punt by SDSU, and SDSU would miss a 49-yard FG as the first half expired.
Second half
The second half a another mistake-filled, result-lacking half for the Gophers. On the first offensive possession the Gophers found themselves at 3rd and 7 from their own 37. They converted a first down, but were flagged because Nick Tow-Arnett was covered at the line and was an ineligible receiver. On 3rd and 12 the Gophers converted another first down, but were flagged for an illegal formation. Finally on 3rd and 17 the Gophers gave up, putting MarQueis Gray in to run, and the Gophers would have to punt. SDSU returned the punt 18 yards to their own 40 yardline.
On this possession SDSU put together one of their best drives of the day, getting down to the Gophers 9 yardline before stalling. Unfortunately for the Jackrabbits, Kyle Harris missed the 25-yard FG that would have tied the game.
On the ensuing Gopher drive, Troy Stoudermire caught a quick pass over the middle for 18 yards, and that was following by a 13-yard Kevin Whaley run. But the drive stalled yet again, and the Gophers were forced to punt it away. On the next Gopher possession, Eric Ellestad missed a 41-yard FG, putting him at 0-3 on FGs of 40+ yards this season. After this, SDSU put together a 13-play 60 yard drive, ending in a 34-yard FG to tie the game at 13-13 with 8:27 remaining in the game.
With the game tied, the Gophers took over at their own 18 yardline, but were forced to punt after 2 first downs. SDSU took over with 4:54 remaining, when on second and eight a bad snap by the center led to a fumble which was recovered by Cedrick McKinley. This gave the Gophers the ball at the SDSU 11 yardline. The offense once again was unable to score a TD in the redzone, and the Gophers needed a 25-yard Eric Ellestad FG to take a 16-13 lead. The Gophers tried to keep it interesting, squibbing the kickoff very short, which gave SDSU the ball at their own 43 yardline, but they were only able to gain 13 yards before losing it on downs. The Gophers were then able to run the clock nearly all the way out and got the win.
Other thoughts
“¢ How bad was it? The Big Ten Network named Eric Ellestad the Gopher’s player of the game. Ellestad was 3/4 on FGs with a long of 26 yards, missed a 41-yarded, and had a bad squib kick that could have allowed SDSU to tie the game. Certainly there were players on defense that did better, but that kind of a gives you an idea of what kind of day it was for the Gophers.
“¢ For the second consecutive week the Gophers wasted a timeout. They had a 3rd and 7 when they were trying to score the go-ahead TD in the fourth quarter when they called a timeout. Coming out of the timeout they did not get on the field fast enough, and had to call another timeout when the play clock nearly expired on them. Last week against Illinois, there was an official’s timeout, and the Gophers had to call a timeout before they ran the first play because of alignment issues. Little things like this are an example of things that are holding the team back.
“¢ Adam Weber had his worst game of the season, in the season that has been the worst of his career. He only completed 10-21 passes, and several of his incompletions were to open receivers where Weber just could not connect with them. Weber was a 2nd team All-Big Ten player last season, but has gone backwards this year as much as anyone in the conference.
“¢ Any win is a good win but this one hardly leaves you filled with joy. As the game was winding down I was hoping the Gopher offense would get a chance to drive down the field to setup the winning score so they could have a chance to prove themselves. But when the offense had that chance, they stalled and had to punt. It took a bad snap from the SDSU center for the Gophers to get the ball in a position to score. For the offense’s sake I hoped they would be be the ones to make that happen, so they at least could salvage a little bit of confidence heading into Iowa next week.
Where to go from here?
Well, this is certainly not the type of game the Gophers hoped to have today. The offense and special teams took large steps back and it took a big day by the defense (who got 4 turnovers and kept the SDSU offense out of the endzone) to get the win. This is a game you forget ever happened and just try to rebound next week. Unfortunately the Gophers play a good Iowa team, and the obvious question is going to be, how are the Gophers going to move the ball against Iowa when they couldn’t do it against South Dakota State? Somehow the team will need to find a way. I know that Brewster is very supportive of his starters, but after today you have to wonder if we will see some new faces on the field next week.
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