Michigan State hands Gophers their worst loss in six years

The Gophers have won 16 of their last 21 games. Four of those five losses have come against Michigan and Michigan State. Today Michigan State left no doubt which team deserved to win. The Spartans scored early and often in this game building a 21-point lead by halftime and never looked back. Today’s 51-17 loss was the most lopsided for the Gophers since Purdue beat them 56-21 in 1998.

Three MSU turnovers in the first half gave the Gophers opportunities to stay in the game but they could only convert those turnovers into three points.

By the middle of the third quarter Michigan State had stretched the lead to 31. Game over. So much for Minnesota being a 10-point favorite.

There’s no point in detailing all the ugly plays and stats from this game. The Spartans punted for the first time with 10:41 left in the game. That statistic tells you all you need to know about how the Spartan offense was humming. Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney didn’t get 100 yards combined rushing. MSU had nearly twice as may first downs as Minnesota. Yes, the Gophers soundly were dominated in every aspect of this game. This was a total collapse from the opening kickoff.

Gopher fans have every reason to be disgusted right now. In fact, the word disgusted is too mild. #@%*&!!!! might describe it. Yes, the season is in grave peril. Another trip to the Sun Bowl is now looking like one of the best-case scenarios. Gopher fans’ expectations have just dropped like the barometer in Florida before those hurricanes.

So where does this team go from here? Well, that’s why Glen Mason gets paid the big bucks. He’s going to figure something out quick and judging from today’s performance, there is serious work to be done everywhere. There are no gimmes in the Big Ten, so you can forget about the next games against Illinois and Indiana being easy. The Gophers will in fact lose those games handily if they play anything like they did today. As for the remaining two games, there’s no point in worrying about them until the time comes.

Football definitely is a game of momentum and the Gophers never got it going in their direction when the outcome was still in doubt. Getting blown out is bad enough but the really troubling thing was how it happened today. The Gophers were victims of a similar blowout score-wise against Iowa last year. In that game you could blame turnovers and some key injuries for much of the Gophers’ problems. In today’s game it seemed that there were no such excuses. It was simply poor execution of fundamentals that cost them. A person needs two hands and both feet to count the times the defense had glaring mistackles. On the offensive side, the execution was nearly as poor, especially on key fourth down plays. Where was the running game when the team needed that first down? Where was the running game?

No doubt, Glen Mason’s name is mud with a lot of fans right now. He can still earn his paycheck by getting this season saved, which means winning at least three of the final four games. It may sound crazy to even suggest something like that after this debacle. However, football is a game of momentum and it can swing the other way.