Gopher Football
At the beginning of the game it looked like a possible blowout for Michigan, as they scored 10 quick points in the first quarter. Minnesota’s running attack looked dead until Laurence Maroney broke free for an 80-yard touchdown run to pull the Gophers to within three late in the first quarter. As we have seen so many times, once Maroney got into the open field no one could come close to catching him.
Both teams traded TDs in the second quarter to make it a 17-14 game in favor of Michigan at halftime. Marion Barber III broke it for 19 yards to get the Gophers other touchdown.
In the third quarter it was the Gophers defense that really stepped up. Michigan was forced to punt twice in the quarter and more importantly, the Gophers nabbed two interceptions, one by Ukee Dosier and the other by Brandon Owens. That kept the Wolverines scoreless for the quarter and allowed Minnesota to go ahead with a 26-yard TD catch by Jared Ellerson.
Minnesota had a great opportunity to go ahead by more than a TD in the fourth quarter when Michigan fumbled a punt inside their 10 yard line. However, the Gopher offense stalled and they had to settle for a field goal. Michigan would go on to score the next 10 points to pull out the win.
When the other team turns the ball over three times and commits several key penalties you should have every opportunity to win the game, especially when you don’t make any glaring mistakes. The Gophers had no turnovers, few penalties, and no major special teams breakdowns. So what happened? It came down to what happened and what was still possible at crunch time, that last five or so minutes in the game. Minnesota was holding on to a tenuous lead at that point. Quite frankly, the Wolverines looked like a team that expected to win a game like this. The Gophers look panicked. The Gopher defense that stood so strong for much of the game collapsed when they had the chance to put the game away. Allowing a team to drive 87 yards with only one timeout left and take one minute off the clock is a total collapse. In the process Minnesota used two timeouts, further signifying their panic, and made a last second comeback very improbable.
What this game showed today is that Michigan still knows how to win big games. The Gophers are still trying to figure it out. The good thing is that the season is far from over. The team must regroup and respond better than they did last year after the Michigan game when they played a very sloppy game the next week against Michigan State. They will have to play a largely mistake-free game like they did most of the way today to get an always tough Big Ten road victory. If the Gophers respond like that in the next few weeks they shouldn’t have to worry about Michigan State, Illinois or Indiana (the next three opponents) having any chance of comeback wins.