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Golden Nugz - 10.10.12

Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

Will he play or won't he? That is the question of the week.

Phil Miller takes a look at how the matchup of these two teams is likely going to showcase four quarterbacks on Saturday.

Northwestern will present a similar keep-them-guessing quandary when the 5-1 Wildcats visit TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday, because they frequently shift starting quarterback Kain Colter to receiver, using sophomore Trevor Siemian to throw the ball.

The Gophers offer the same two-QB dilemma for Northwestern's defense this week, but for a different reason:

Miller also talks to Tracy Claeys about what went wrong defensively at Iowa.

What's frustrating to him is how magnified a run of mistakes in the second quarter became, how the Gophers allowed a competitive game between two fairly even teams, in his estimation, to turn into a blowout. Iowa's first three possessions encompassed 15 plays -- 12 of them gaining fewer than four yards, and six for no gain or a loss of yardage. The second play of the game was a 45-yard completion on a botched coverage, but even then, the Gophers forced the Hawkeyes to settle for a field goal.
"I wasn't disappointed with the way we came out of the gate. They ran a little trick play type of route that we hadn't seen, but we tackled it and held them to a field goal. That's what I'm used to," Claeys said. The Gophers forced Iowa to punt away its next two possessions, and there was no inkling that the game would turn lopsided.
But over the next dozen plays or so, the defense made one awful play, one ugly mistake, after another, turning a three-point tug-of-war into a four-score laugher.

He is not happy about having to wait an extra week to show everyone that his defense is better than that.