Minnesota at Illinois Final Score 28-24: Gophers Lose The Game They Shouldn't Lose

Just so you all know, I started with with Gophers punting down 4 with 5:19 left to play. I don't know what's about to happen. I'm not feeling really great though. So consider this a Rapid Reaction and a Live Blog all in one I guess?

Thoughts, Live Blog, A Little Bit Of Everything

While we're in commercial, I'll get into my quick hit thoughts...

- I didn't like the way Limegrover called a lot of this game. I think he put Mitch in a lot of positions he wasn't comfortable in during the first half and I think they blew their shots to close it out early in the 4th.

- Mitch was hit or miss. There were some really nice balls today, but also some completely inexplicable misses. I'm willing to give him a pass on most of that. But not the sack taking. STILL with the sack taking. And one of them was a play where he got really good protection and had room to run out of the pocket. Instead he ran straight into the sack. I dunno.

- I don't know where the Minnesota defense was for the first two drives or for several plays during the rest of the game. Things felt...I dunno, lackadaisical? Just not sharp. Reilly O'Toole looked like a great running QB. Reilly O'Toole is not a great running QB. Yes, the defense stepped up for most of the rest of the game following those first two drives, but the damage was done early.

- ESPNU had a green field goal line that listed Santoso's get to point as 61 yards. That's a thing that happened.

- Minnesota just got the ball back with over 80 yards to drive with a little under 4 minutes left. Mitch just sailed a pass over an open receiver. Sigh...

- Life of a field goal kicker. Santoso hits the game winner last week and has his miss this week loom large right now with Minnesota down 4.

- KJ Maye catches a pass, runs backwards OOB, costs the team the 1st down conversion on 3rd down. 4th down QB sneak barely gets it. This game...

- Mitch ran the ball, could have gotten out of bounds, stayed in bound. Just as I'm raging he completes a huge pass to Fruechte. This game...

- And now we had to burn out 2nd timeout when the clock isn't running. We need to settle a bit I suppose but sigh...

- And now it's 4th and 10.

- Sack, fumble, game. I'm going to go find something fun to do.