By: Jared Hines
After a less-than-impressive win over Purdue last week, there seemed to be a lot of questions unanswered heading into this week’s game vs. Nebraska.
From the opening kickoff, the atmosphere and game play felt like a complete 180 from last week, leading to a dominating victory over the Cornhuskers!
Quick notes after today’s win!
Darius Taylor goes over 2000 yards in his Gophers career, tying for the third fastest player to do so in school history. It took Taylor 23 games to reach the mark, with only Darrell Thompson (18 games and Laurence Maroney (21 games) doing it faster.
Sacks Sacks Sacks! The Gophers had five first-half sacks in the win. Smith and Menz each had two, and Eastern had one.
In the second half, Howard got the sixth sack of the game as the defense continued to pressure Raiola all night long. With a minute left in the third quarter, Kingsbury got involved for sack No. 7 and Howard added his second of the night for the eighth team sack of the evening. With 17 seconds left, the ninth and final sack came from Anthony Smith and Karter Menz, capping off an amazing night from the Gophers defense!
Greg Eslinger into the College Football Hall of Fame! Eslinger spoke to the media before the game and had lots of awesome things to say. Funny enough, the Gophers offensive line played their best game of the season tonight, a game similar to many Eslinger played in his college tenure with Minnesota.
Red Zone Success was huge for Minnesota tonight, scoring points all four times they were in the red zone. The Gophers also didn’t turn the ball over and only had three penalties.
Balance it out: The Gophers ran and passed effectively today, running for 186 yards and passing for 153. 339 total yards to Nebraska’s 213.
Winning Streak: Six straight wins for the Gophers over Nebraska dating back to 2018. The last four wins came by seven points or less before tonight’s 18-point win.
Looking ahead to Iowa, Minnesota has a tough road game in a place they haven’t had much success. Overall, the record between the two schools is 63-53-2 in favor of the Gophers but 24-34-1 on the road and only two wins since 2012. The Gophers defeated Iowa 12-10 on Oct. 23, 2023.