No Contest: Penn State 44, Gophers 14

The first half was all Penn State, which jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the first quarter. By late in the second quarter the Nittany Lions had doubled the lead to 20-0. The Gopher running game was grounded and not much else was happening on offense. Even a 65- yard kick-off return by Jakari Walace didn’t lead to a Minnesota score, as the offense couldn’t get a single first down Jason Giannini missed a 51-yard field goal.

The Gophers saved something to keep their hopes alive with a touchdown with 1:43 left in the half. Ernie Wheelwright brought down a bobbled pass for a 48-yard touchdown on a third and short.

Still, the stats showed complete domination by the Lions. The first downs were 17-4 in favor of PSU. Penn State had 277 yards of total offense and the Gophers had 111 yards with nearly half of that total coming on the TD pass to Wheelwright. Laurence Maroney, who had over 100 yards rushing by halftime in each of this season’s games so far, had only 14 yards on seven carries. If all those sad statistics weren’t bad enough, one of the Gopher defenses leading tacklers and biggest hitters, Brandon Owens, was out of the game after a nasty collision with State quarterback Michael Robinson.

Penn State didn’t miss a beat in the third quarter with an efficient drive to open the half for a touchdown. The Gophers looked desperate on their first possession, going for a first down on a 4th-and-5 near midfield. Bryan Cupito and his receiver were not on the same page, as the pass fell incomplete. Penn State took advantage of that field position and scored yet another touchdown six plays later. It was now a nearly insurmountable 34-7 lead by Penn State.

The Gopher offense did not give up in the final period, despite the lopsided score. A prime example of that was a bulrush by Gary Russell for 11 yards that set up a first and goal. Minnesota went on to score a touchdown on an end-around by Jakari Wallace. The offense ground out a 16-play of 73 yards on the scoring drive. Russell ended up being the leading rusher for the Gophers with 53 yards but at least a healthy 6.6 yards per carry.

However, the Minnesota defense could not slow the Penn State offense down, even when their backups came in. With 5:38 left in the game, Penn State had piled up 44 points. They scored on eight of their 11 possessions.

There’s no other way to put this. It was a bad showing all around for the Gophers, and that goes double for the defense. The only positive about this is that a blowout still counts as just one loss. Yet, with Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio State next in order on the schedule, there is plenty of cause for concern. Losses in all of those games leaves the Gophers playing for another trip to the Music City Bowl, at best. The Gophers will somehow have to recover from this and win at least two of the next three to keep their hopes alive for a post New Year’s bowl.

Lastly, I have full confidence in Glen Mason. Gopher squads of the past folded after a trouncing like this, and I mean losing every remaining game. Mason will not let this team fall apart. I don’t think we can expect a huge season out of this team but we should expect them to bounce back to competitiveness and win a few more. It’s not great. It’s also about the best Gopher fans should expect at the current state of the program right now.