Gopher Football
Offense starts to find a running game
Even though I’m not going to get too excited after a game against Northwestern, for the first time in a while we saw the Gophers start to develop an identity in the running game. Duane Bennett was solid, rushing 21 times for 89 yards and 3 TDs, and Kevin Whaley showed some spark as the #2 guy. John Hoese added two key carries for 15 yards. What was really impressive to me is that unlike the past year or two, the Gophers were able to get yards on the ground when needed. I don’t know much impact this had, but the Gophers did have some changes on the offense line. Matt Stommes started in place of Dominic Alford and DJ Burris played in place of Matt Carufel.
Which leads to”¦ Offensive efficiency
The Gophers put together their most impressive, balanced, offensive performance of the season ““ or maybe in a couple years. The running game was there, Adam Weber was not locked into Eric Decker all day, and he found ways to get different guys involved. This led to the offense scoring five TDs, four of which were longer drives. Weber was a little disappointing at times, missing on a few easy passes, but he did make some big throws when needed. For the first time this season, I could kind of get a sense of what Jeff Fisch wants to do as coordinator. That is, establish a balanced attack where the running game and passing game co-exist and can thrive off each other. The first drive today was particularly impressive, with the Gophers needing only five plays to get the game’s first touchdown.
What the ??
I can’t say that I’ve ever seen this before. After the refs ruled that Eric Decker caught a ball on a 3rd and short, they reviewed the call. The refs announced that the call stood, and the offense and chains moved up to the next spot. Then there was another delay, after which it was announced that the ruling was changed; that Decker did not catch the ball. I’m going to be curious to hear the Big Ten’s explanation of this call. Later, it appeared to me that the refs and replay officials made the wrong call on the Northwestern TD late in the fourth quarter. If you watch the replay, by the time the Northwestern receiver controlled the ball, he had leapt in the air and the first part of his body to touch down was his elbows, which touched out of bounds. In both of those replay calls I thought the Gophers got the short end of the stick.
Finally, an interception!
Including a ball that went off Nate Triplett’s hands in the second quarter, the Gophers had a streak where they had missed on about their last five interception attempts dating back two games. But Kim Royston put an emphatic end to that streak when he made a great interception to stop a Northwestern drive just before halftime. In hindsight, this was one of the HUGE plays of the game, ending a Wildcat threat and keeping the Gophers ahead going into halftime.
Still, the pass defense struggles
I really expected the Gophers to do a better job on pass defense than they did. Northwestern was able to exploit the Gopher defense almost all day long, with Mike Kafka finding open guys in the zone with ease. On the day, Kafka threw 32-47 for 311 yards, for 2 TD and 1 INT. There are very few times I can think of where the Gopher pass defense made a play to stop the Wildcats. The Royston interception was one of them, and another was a nice 3rd down pass breakup by Triplett in the middle of the 4th quarter. Most of the time pass plays did not succeed because of a poorly thrown pass or a Northwestern drop. The way Northwestern spread the field and established a QB to WR connection really gave the Gophers fits. The good news for the Gophers heading into next week is that Wisconsin is not a team that spreads the field out like this.
McKinley comes up huge
The play of the game came right near the end, with a great individual effort by Cedric McKinley. A few plays after the Gophers had taken a 28-24 lead, McKinley beat his man around the edge, and then was able to swat the ball away from Mike Kafka as he ran by him. Cedric then had the presence of mind to just fall on the ball, rather then trying to pick it up, which would put the recovery in jeopardy. The Gopher offense took over and the next few plays worked out beautifully. The Gophers were able to run the ball twice, forcing the Wildcats to burn timeouts. Then they got the game-clinching TD on a third down Weber to Decker pass to go up by 11. On the next Northwestern play, DL Wilhite made almost the exact same play in forcing the fumble, giving the Gophers the ball back and thwarting any attempt at a miracle Northwestern comeback.
Final Thoughts
This is exactly the kind of game the Gophers needed. A lot of people were calling this a trap game, since it was sandwiched in between #8 California, and archrival Wisconsin. But starting with the lethal precision on the Gophers opening drive it was clear that this team was mentally prepared to play. More evidence of the Gophers state of mind was how well they were able to limit mistakes The team had only 1 turnover (which was a 4th down INT, so no harm done), and the team was called for just 1 penalty (a pass interference against Marcus Sherels which could have very easily not been called). All in all, it was a very well executed game for the Gophers, and it should give the team a big boost heading into Wisconsin week, in what figures to be a crazy atmosphere next Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium.
Click here for the box score.
““ Other article: Brewster exorcised the demon of the Northwestern Wildcats
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