Gopher Football
Quarterbacks
Coming into this game, Gopher fans did have a little bit to be concerned about from the Quarterback position. Starter Bryan Cupito got his bell rung against Colorado State, left that game and did not return. To the relief of Gopher fans however, Cupito returned to the starting lineup against Northwestern and appeared to suffer no ill effects. Bryan was back to his usual self in leading the Gopher offense in another tremendous showing. For the game, Cupito was 12-21 for 155 yards, 2 TD’s and 0 int’s. But to his credit, those numbers could’ve been much better had it not been for a couple dropped passes and a blown call by the officials. Bryan’s passes aren’t always the prettiest, but he continues to make solid decisions (for the most part) on when and who to pass to. Also to Bryan’s credit is the audible he made that setup a 50 yard TD run by Maroney. For the season, Cupito is throwing for 58% with 782 yards, 7 TD’s and most importantly 0 interceptions.
The only real blemishes I can recall was a forced pass to the tight end, and a couple of misfires on some deep passes. But like I’ve said in previous weeks, these are things every QB will almost every game, and is really nothing to be too concerned about.
Grade: A-
Running Backs
The going was a little tougher for Marion Barber this game. Northwestern made a big attempt to slow down the running game, and of the two feature backs Barber was the one who never seemed to find his groove. Starting with the good though, Marion did get to show off his arm in throwing a 21 yard touchdown pass on a halfback option. While many fans may feel this was running up the score, in the long run it may sent an important message by forcing teams to think twice about pulling the safeties in so tight on running plays.
Barber didn’t have a great night running the ball though, as he managed just 86 yards on 22 carries (which is well below his season and career average per carry). But the beauty of the Minnesota running game is that if one guy doesn’t step it up chances are the other guy will, and that’s exactly what Laurence Maroney did Saturday night. For the second time in four games, Laurence broke free on a long touchdown run, this time for 50 yards. We’ve seen it already this year, but Maroney is showing that he is a more complete back; picking up some of Barber’s skills on breaking tackles and running through traffic. Maroney had a nice spin move to avoid a tackle that sprung his big TD run. On the goal line, we can’t forget about Justin Valentine. The 6’2″ freshman fullback scored 3 TD’s in goal line situations, and has 4 TD’s for the season. The emergence of Valentine as a short yardage threat will open up the Gopher offense even more, as defenses will learn that they can not key on Barber and Maroney all the time.
As a group, the running backs found the going much more difficult in the second half than they did the first, but most of this appears have been due to Northwestern choosing to play so many men close to the line. All in all it was another solid game by the backs.
Grade: A-
Wide Receivers / Tight Ends
For the second consecutive game, tight end Matt Spaeth came out and made himself a dangerous presence in the Gopher offensive attack. Matt pulled in 5 catches for 72 yards, leading the team in both categories. In addition to the receiving, the 270 pound Spaeth always does a good job in run blocking. In a year where there are not a lot of great tight ends in the conference, Matt’s performance the past two weeks has shown that may be the best in the Big Ten.
The Wide Receivers had a relatively quiet game again. We saw more of Paris Hamilton than we have all year, and I believe this is a good thing. The first pass to Paris was ruled incomplete after a replay (horrible call by the way) in which it looked like Paris actually caught and then fumbled. But to make up for it, Paris caught his first touchdown pass as a Gopher on the very next play, hauling in a 50 yard pass from Cupito. Paris had a great chance for his second touchdown of the game later on a very similar play, but unfortunately he dropped that pass.
Another guy on the team who showed he can throw is Jakari Wallace. Jakari pulled back and threw a nice 27 yard pass to Matt Speath off a fake reverse. Wallace also contributed 2 catches for 15 yards. What may be most impressive about the Gophers offensive performance is that they ran up 36 points without their best receiver catching a ball. But Jared Ellerson did eventually get in the stats column late in the 4th quarter when he was on the receiving end of the Marion Barber halfback option TD pass.
Grade: B
Offensive Line
The biggest concern this year (on offense) has been the play of the offensive line. Billed as one of the top 5 offensive lines in the nation by several preseason publications, the line thus far has slightly underachieved. Part of the reason for this may be injuries. For the second time this year, a starter left the game and did not return. A couple weeks ago it was Rian Melander, this week it was right guard Brandon Harston. It’s not known at this time how serious Harston’s injury is, but hopefully it’s not too bad. Brandon has been doing a good job so far this year.
As for the rest of the line, there were struggles. Yes, Northwestern did play a lot of 8 & 9 guys in the box, but there were other times where they did not where it looked like the line just plain got beat. When the Gopher offensive line is clicking, you see 2 or 3 linemen 10 yards downfield looking for people to block as a running back is close behind. But in this game there was very little of that, as Northwestern appeared to win a lot of little battles up front and on the edge that prohibited the Gopher running game from taking off. The line did do a good job on pass blocking in not allowing a sack.
Grade: C+
Offense Overall
You know it’s a good thing when you get the feeling your offense didn’t play its best, yet they still ran up almost 500 yards and 43 points. That’s what we’re looking at after the Gopher performance against Northwestern. To Northwestern credit, they did a solid job against the run, “œholding” Minnesota to a season low 251 yards. But to the Gophers credit, they (once again) countered this by beating Northwestern through the air when needed. The Gophers amassed 203 yards through the air to go along with the 251 on the ground. This type of balance makes it really difficult to stop our offense. There were some mistakes, with a couple dropped passes, forced throws and missed blocks, but all of that was pretty much erased with the huge 10+ minute drive that the Gophers put together to eat up the fourth quarter. Altogether it was a solid performance by the offense in making adjustments and doing what they needed to win the game.
Offense Grade: B+
Defensive Line
Once again, the defensive line didn’t complete dominate this game, but they did enough to force Northwestern into being uncomfortable for much of the time. In the first half the Wildcats were able to break off a couple long runs, and a few Gopher fans (including myself) may have started thinking “œHere we go again!” in remembering the first half of the Colorado State game last week. But aside from those few runs Northwestern was able to generate, the Gopher defensive line did a fantastic job in stopping the Wildcat rushing attack. In particular, Anthony Montgomery showed some flashes of what Gopher fans hoped to see this year from him. The big guy in the middle had 4.5 tackles, including 2 tackles for loss.
In the pass rushing department, Darrell Reid provided the most pressure on the quarterback, but like the other games he wasn’t able to get any sacks to show for it. Darrell is making an impact though, and perhaps the best numbers the pass rush can look at is that with one or two exceptions, the Wildcat offense was not able to complete any passes of more than 20 yards. Darrell and the rest of the line took a big step forward this game over what was billed as a very good Northwestern offensive line.
Grade: A-
Linebackers
The Gopher linebackers had a quiet, yet very solid game on Saturday. The best performance was given (again) by Terrance Campbell. The junior led the linebackers in tackles with 3.5, and also had a nice interception to go with it. Along with the rest of the linebackers, Campbell did a good job in disrupting Northwestern quick passing attacks. Actually, whether it was a run or a pass, a linebacker always seemed to be in position to make an impact on the play. It doesn’t seem like that long ago where our defense would get killed by the quick rhythm passing game. Thanks in part to the linebackers, it doesn’t seem to be happening as much anymore.
Grade: B+
Defensive Backs
This was easily the best game of the year for the secondary. In particular, Ukee Dozier played what may have been his best game as a Gopher. After struggling at times versus Colorado State, Ukee looked like a different man out there on Saturday. He did just about everything right, doing a good job in coverage and a MUCH improved job in tackling. Trumaine Banks was no slouch either. The starting cornerback opposite Dozier had a few big hits of his own, including a punishing lick on Basanez as he tried to cross the goal line. Not to be outdone, John Pawielski provided a couple of highlight reel hits as well; something that is becoming routine for him.
By quarter, Minnesota allowed only 18, 44, 45 & 20 yards passing. That equals 127 yards passing for the game, which is especially impressive considering Northwestern’s reputation for moving the ball. While the entire defense deserves credit for these numbers, the secondary certainly did their part. Most of the Wildcats completions were very short, and usually the cornerbacks and safeties were there to keep it from becoming a big gain. Basanez did try to throw a lot more, but most of the time the coverage was just too good and Northwestern was just forced to throw the ball away.
Grade: A
Defense Overall
It will remain to be seen until the end of the year, but this may be the game that Gopher fans can look back to as proof that the defense took a large step up in 2004. By all accounts, this was a dangerous Northwestern offense that came into the Dome this past weekend. They had one of the Big Ten’s most experienced quarterbacks, one of (potentially) the best offensive lines, and an offensive scheme that has given the Gophers fits in the past. Never the less, the Gopher D stepped up and turned in their most impressive defensive performance of the year.
But upon closer inspection, the defensive did a little better than the stats may have indicated. On the one touchdown that the defense gave up, the replays clearly showed that Brett Basanez fumbled the ball on about the ½ yard line as he dove into the end zone. He did fumble the ball out of the end zone, so by rule that would’ve given the Gophers the ball. If you take that score away, the Gopher defense only gave up 3 points. Not too bad at all. This coupled with the 267 yards the Gophers gave up is hopefully the start of what will be an above average defensive team this year for Minnesota.
Defense Grade: A-
Special Teams
“œUgly” is about the only word you can use to describe the Gophers special teams play. An otherwise solid team performance was marred by a couple of large special teams blunders. Things were going ok at first, with the kickoff return team doing a good job after the first TD. But after that things got bad. Northwestern ran back the next kickoff for a TD, and following that had several long runbacks for a whopping game average of 43 yards/return. The punting by Rhys Lloyd wasn’t much better. He did have one nice punt that bounded out of bounds at the 5 yard line and a nice 47 yarder, but his other 3 were very short. His five punts averaged just 35 yards. Also compounding the bad performance for Rhys were the 2 missed extra points. (At least one of them was off a bad snap). The best play of the night for Rhys was his 46 yard FG. The only other bright spot for Minnesota on special teams was the 39 yard kickoff return by Marion Barber.
Grade: D
Team Overall
Despite a couple of ugly moments provided by the special teams, this ranks with the Toledo game as the Gophers best performance of the year. A lot of times Minnesota will tend to let games like this turn into shootouts, but not this time. The Gophers dominated the game on offense and defense, holding an advantage in most statistical categories. As it turns out, this was also a nice statement game for Minnesota. As was the case with Toledo, some national pundits predicted this could be an upset game. Minnesota ended all talk of that early on by racing out to a 33-10 halftime lead. After that the defense held, and then Gophers went on the great 4th quarter drive that ate up 2/3’s of the fourth quarter clock. Minnesota got everything done they needed to in very impressive fashion, and didn’t really show too many things that should have us worried heading into next week vs. Penn State.
Overall Grade: B