Gophers lose Big Ten opener to the Northwestern Wildcats
by GopherNation on Oct 2, 2010 3:27 PM CDT
in Gopher Football
Email
PrintAll week Brewster has been telling his team they are 0-0, hoping for a fresh start to the season. They are now 0-1 in the Big Ten and 1-4 overall with all four losses coming at home.
Since spring practice Brewster has been preaching that his team needs to learn how to finish. They had opportunities to do that this afternoon on their homefield but were unable to hold the lead and finish off the Northwestern Wildcats.
The Gophers were helped out considerably by Northwestern miscues in the first half. Seven penalties for 57 yards and two fumbles went a long way towards stalling their own drives and aiding the Gopher offense. The Gophers took advantage of those mistakes and capitalized with some big plays to take the 21-14 half time lead. Passes to McKnight for 27 yards, Lair for 42 and Duane Bennett for 38 all led to first half scoring drives.
The second half was less sloppy and the Gophers played well for most of the third quarter. The Wildcats opened the second half with an 11 play, 80 yard touchdown drive but a missed extra point allowed the Gophers to maintain the lead 20-21 which they held till the end of the 3rd quarter. They pushed that lead to 28-20 with 12:15 left to play in the game on an 11 play, 89 yard drive. The drive was 10 consecutive rushing plays averaging 6.5 yards per carry that set up a 3rd down play-action pass to Eric Lair for the 25 yard score.
From that point on it was all Northwestern.
The Wildcats drove down the field to score a TD but missed the 2-pnt conversion meaning the Gophers still held a 26-28 fourth quarter lead. The offense mustered a three and out giving NU the ball back with 6:14 remaining. Persa led the Wildcats inside the 10 but the Gopher defense held forcing a FG attempt. Stefan Demos nailed the 27 yard FG to put NU back up for the first time since 11:19 in the 2nd quarter.
This left 2:07 left for the Gophers to put together a game winning drive. The kickoff was returned to the Minnesota 40 and the Adam Weber led 2 minute offense was set to begin. The play-calling was eye-brow raising and the execution was altogether lacking. With under a minute to play and needing at least 20 yards to get into FG range an inside run was called. NU stuffed the run which ate up precious clock and put the Gophers in long down territory. On third down Weber had McKnight open for about an 8 yard gain but the pass was high and behind. Uncatchable and the Gophers faced 4th and 11. Northwestern blitzed, Weber was forced out of the pocket, threw as he was hit and Ben Johnson intercepted the pass to seal the game.
But this came down to finishing. The Gophers had plenty of opportunities to put Northwestern away but were unable to finish the game and come away with a win.
- Ryan Collado had perfect coverage on the last NU touchdown. He was in position to make a play, but Jeremy Ebert made it.
- Adam Weber had the ball with 2:00 to go on his own 40 but was unable to lead a game winning drive.
- Tim Brewster had the same opportunity but his offense seemed unprepared for a 2-minute offense. The play-calling and the clock management were terrible, yet not surprising.
- The defense had 4 opportunities to stop Northwestern on 3rd down on their final two scoring drives. Three were converted, the fourth was stopped but NU was inside the 5 and easily in range for the go ahead FG.
- The offense had the ball, up 26-28 with 8:17 remaining. This is where a ball-control offense gets a few first downs and eats up the clock. Instead the ran for 1, ran for 4, sacked for -3 and punted; giving the ball back with 6:14 to play.
The Gophers played well enough to win but their inability to finish is what cost them.
Below the jump are a couple clips from Brewster's press conference.
x
x
8 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
That went far, far better than I expected. That my “far, far better than expected” means a loss against NWern is commentary in and of itself.
we shouldn't knock NU too much
over the last decade they have been much more successful than we have. It isn’t fair to lump them in with Indiana, Illinois (sans 2007) and Minnesota.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
Looking ahead
Before the start of the season, I picked the Gophers to go 4-8 (1-7) despite all of the improved “athleticism”. The one conference game I predicted them to win was this one. Now they are sitting at 1-4. I don’t see how this makes me think they will win any of their seven remaining games since I didn’t expect them to win any of them anyways. However, they have an uncanny ability to stay in games just long enough to make you think they might have a chance—if a few things go our way. But things never go our way, do they?
Suddenly, that Michigan State game doesn’t look so winnable, does it? Sure, we can point to that Purdue game as a possible win—but their fan base probably thinks this is their one sure win on the conference schedule. This season reminds me of 2007—not just the fact that we may end up 1-11, but because a lot of those losses could have been wins if we just could have gotten one more first down, or if we had one less turnover, or if our opponent had one more turnover. We are losing games, but we have been close enough where there is reason for optimism. Unfortunately, this is not Brewster’s first year. This is supposed to be when Brewster gets in his groove.
Will my alma mater EVER matter?
They are working their way out of the Big 10
They stink to high heaven and Ill still watch….cant wait for the Saint Johns and St Thomas games….they are going to be winable…The kids will work their tails off blah blah blah blah
This season reminds me of 2007—
Actually,this season reminds me of typical Gopher football since about 1962,maybe not in the number of losses,but from the simple fact that Gopher football stands for being a day late,a dollar short,a “coulda,woulda,shoulda” mentality that rationalizes loss after loss after loss. Change has to come from the very top,above the AD. We will be presented with this opportunity in the near future,with Bruinicks retirement. My guess is that this will be squandered,and mediocrity will remain the status quo. The University of Minnesota has exactly the kind of program they deserve,and those in charge find it acceptable,or it would have changed by now.
What it took to "almost" beat NW?
Playing at home. Severe turnover margin, 2 of 3 where NW was about to score a touchdown….sprinkled with several costly penalties by NW that continued to give MN a chance. NW tried so hard to give us that game, but being the gracious hosts we were, we would not accept on our own turf.
A bunch of homers want to say they are happy we were close in this game, but the facts are that this was the sloppy game by NW that I had said MAY lead to a Big 10 win….and we couldn’t even take advantage of it. It will take a total collapse by our opponent for us to win. They will almost have to want to lose. We are THAT bad.
Why not roll Weber out at the end of the game so he can possibly make some things happen with his legs (like those old crazy days when he was, oh, say, considered a great QB freshman year???)? The late play calling was an embarrassment and should remove any remote questions still lurking about the coaching staff’s abilities. It looked like a bunch of guys who had never been in that situation before running around clueless. Just a shit-show out there.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on The Daily Gopher
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
