Minnesota Football: The Monday Perspective Loves Bacon

Some wins are just a lot of fun aren't they?  Watching the Gophers get on a roll and just pummel Iowa on Saturday was just fun from start to finish.  It was one of those afternoons when things just started to go wrong for Iowa a little bit, the Gophers got on a remarkable roll and put up 51 unanswered points.  Let me say that again...the Gophers put up 51 unanswered points on the Hawkeyes.

Here is the thing, sometimes you just need to enjoy a win.  A nice rivalry win that was done in dominating fashion.  Enjoy it Gopher fans.  Try not to attached grand meaning to the win, avoiding the trap of looking ahead to fantastic end of season destinations where we may not belong and don't waste any energy lamenting what could be if we'd only beat that terrible Illinois tea...see how easy it is to fall into that?

What I greatly appreciate about the community here is that people are generally level-headed for the most part.  You all keep things in perspective and we avoid the majority of anonymous internet commenters who either jump off the deep-end or go wildly optimistic following something like what happened on Saturday.  I have not been reading a whole lot of discussion about running the table, Big Ten Championship talk or even hardly any bowl game discussion at all.  Why?  Because we take things as they come and we know all to well that things like Illinois happens.

I want to appreciate the Iowa win (I feel like we need a nickname for this game) for what it was.  We beat a good team and we kicked the crap out of them.  That doesn't mean we would put up 51 if we could magically erase what happened and replay the game, in fact we might lose if we played them again.  Saturday was one of those games where momentum got going in our favor and it just continued to pick up steam.  This Gopher team didn't let up, didn't take a moment to say, "damn, look at how we are pushing the Hawkeyes around."  Nope, they just continued to push them around over and over until it was clear to everyone it was garbage time.

So, great win that we can bask in for a while.  But where to do we go from here?  Not what does this win mean?  Not what is our path to Indianapolis.  But what are realistic expectations from here on out?  I think the goal for this team is to get into a tier two bowl game, there are a number of scenarios yet to play out but that would be a nice accomplishment to add to what has already been a successful season.

Three difficult games remain and it starts with  an Ohio State team who appears to be playing as well as anybody  else in the country right now.  The high we are experiencing this weekend and into Monday may quickly evaporate on this coming Saturday.  And we get to follow the final home game up with trips to Nebraska and Wisconsin.  I don't believe that all three games are guaranteed losses, but we will be underdogs in each.  Losing all three is a distinct possibility, maybe even probable.  But the way this Gopher team is constructed we can play with these teams.  To me the cumulative result of these games is not so much going to be what determines how we view this season, or even the final month.

Enjoy this win and enjoy this season.  This is the first time in my lifetime that the Little Brown Jug and Floyd of Rosedale are home together.  That is a significant accomplishment and we can enjoy that for now without worrying about what happens the rest of November.