Gopher Football
Offensively a couple of workhorses, the tight end and fullback, stood out in this game. Fullback Justin Valentine scored two touchdowns running and caught one pass for another TD. This is just what you want from your fullback in these goal line situations. Going into the season I was a bit worried about the loss of Thomas Tapeh but the Gophers seem to have found a good one in Valentine. Tight end Matt Spaeth has also seen to it that there is no drop off at that position either. Spaeth had five catches for 72 yards.
This was largely a mistake free game for the Gophers, well, outside of the special teams. There were no Minnesota turnovers and they had no penalties in the first half. By comparison, Northwestern had 5 penalties for 57 yards in the first half alone. Special teams did cost the Gophers at least nine points. There were the two missed extra points and the NU kickoff return for what may have been their only legitimate TD.
Defensively the Gophers took a step or two forward. Anthony Montgomery was the standout. A few of his tackles resulted in a loss of yardage. Everyone was expecting the Wildcats to come out throwing but they mixed it up well and had better results running. Noah Herron returned to the lineup and led the NU rush with 78 yards. All in all, the Gophers stood tall when they needed to and kept the Cats from crawling back from the dead for a third straight game in the Metrodome.
Apparently there is a fan controversy on the Internet over the Gophers throwing a halfback pass to score their final touchdown. Some fans are claiming that was a classless move to run up the score. Glen Mason addressed the issue on his radio show and was surprised to hear that there was a controversy. Mason went on to say that he was just doing the safest thing, which was to try for a TD, rather than play it conservative and settle for a field goal that could have been blocked. Considering Rhys Lloyd’s problem with blocked extra points it seemed like a prudent choice. If NU blocks the kick and returns it for a TD it would have been a 12-point game with still enough time for them to pull it out. These fans doing the complaining are just fishing for something to gripe about. I guess they forgot about the fourth quarter collapse by Minnesota against Northwestern in 2000 and the near collapse in 2002. Preventing any chance of that happening again made perfect sense.
Really, the only controversial play was the Brett Basanez run for a touchdown. It appeared that he may have fumbled before he got the touchdown and the ball went into the end zone and out of bounds. That would have been a touchback. The really odd thing was that the play was not even reviewed.
The crowd of about 45,000 was good by Gopher standards, especially when you consider Northwestern brought all of about a dozen fans. However, its time we stop needing 15-20,000 visiting fans to fill the Dome. This is a good, no, great Gopher football team that has won 15 of its last 18 games dating back to the bowl game of 2002. They deserve sellouts, even against “œNorthworstern”. Except for the special teams play, this was a laugher all the way. The Wildcats had a short lived 3-0 lead to start the game but after that it was all Minnesota, save a kickoff return by NU to close the gap to 14-10. In the end, the Gophers came away with a comfortable win to move to 4-0 for the third straight season. No Minnesota squad has done that in nearly 70 years.
Next week the Gophers play yet another night game against Penn State. These Cats appear to have a weak offense and an OK defense. This should play right into the Gophers’ hands. The Minnesota offense should overwhelm their defense and the Lion offense should not have enough to make it close. The Rose Bowl drumbeat will continue, so let’s get over 60,000 fans there next week to celebrate the journey.