Gopher Football
The game started off well enough for Minnesota. They forced the Golden Bears to punt after little progress on their first series. The Gophers then marched the ball into the end zone on their first series. Alex Daniels provided most of the punch by carrying the ball for the last five plays of the drive.
After that it was all down hill. Daniels and the rest of the Gopher running game were ineffective. Bryan Cupito completed 64% of his passes but much of that success was negated by two interceptions. Tight end Matt Spaeth was the biggest bright spot on offense. He had six catches for 91 yards, including a big one for 48 yards.
The Gopher defense was the most troubling aspect of the game. Tackling was putrid, to say the least. By halftime the Cal offense had nearly 400 total yards and 19 first downs. Willie VanDeSteeg provided one of the few highlights on defense with a fumble recovery.
Really, it was amazing the Gophers were only down 28-17 at halftime. Cal had twice as many total years and first downs as Minnesota. A Dominic Jones 99-yard kickoff return helped keep the Gophers in it. The Bears did their part with a number of penalties.
The second half went even worse for Minnesota. The offense was shutout and the defense still couldn’t tackle. Painfully the bottom fell out and the game was pretty much out of reach by the end of the third quarter.
The damage done by the Bear offense was impressive. Nate Longshore completed 71% of his passes, including four touchdown tosses. Marshawn Lynch was just as effective with 139 yards rushing. Cal had two receives with over 100 yards.
No doubt this was a slap down that could have looked even worse. On the bright side, the Gophers know what they need to work on going into the Big Ten season. The bad thing is that there are a lot of things to fix. The defense has all kinds of problems but first and foremost would be fundamentals like tackling. Offensively, the running game is still in flux. Penalties totaling 100 yards revealed lack of execution and discipline all over the place. Special teams is the one area that looks improved but that’s not saying much given their struggles last season.
The Gophers get a big chance to regain some confidence next week against Temple, arguably the worst Division 1-A time in the country. The Owls lost to Louisville yesterday 62-0. Temple has scored a total of three points in the first two games and they played lowly Buffalo last week.
Looking ahead further, the Gophers do have some winnable early season games against Purdue, Penn State and North Dakota State. The best-case scenario is probably a 5-2 record to start the season then a couple more wins (most likely over Indiana and Michigan State) the rest of the way. Not having Illinois or Northwestern on the schedule really hurts. Making a bowl game for a 5th straight year will be a big challenge.