Minnesota beats Iowa 51-14, Quick Thoughts and Celebration Thread

Minnesota beat Iowa 51-14 at TCF Bank Stadium. With the win, the Gophers improve to 7-2 on the season and 4-1 in Big Ten play. After Iowa scored on the opening drive, Minnesota scored 51 unanswered points. Mitch Leidner was 10/13 for 138 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions. Moose also led the Gophers in rushing. Maxx Williams had three touchdown receptions, as well as the best catch I've ever seen a tight end make.

This was a dominating performance by all three units. The defense, which looked shaky on the first drive, turned in a great performance. Iowa started 5/5 on third down conversions, and then didn't make another third down conversion the rest of the game with the starters in. Mark Weisman had 21 yards on 14 rushes, and most of those yards came on the first series. As a team, Iowa rushed for less than 50 yards before garbage time. The offense scored 51 unanswered points before garbage time. The Gophers had 434 yards of total offense, 296 on the ground. Minnesota was 10/14 on third down conversions. Leidner averaged almost 10 yards per pass. Peter Mortell continued his All-American candidacy with three punts all placed inside the 20.

The coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for putting together a game plan that exploited Iowa's weaknesses on defense. Most notably, Limegrover freed K.J. Maye to run jet sweeps that Iowa was unable to defend. Tracy Claeys shut down everything Iowa wanted to do. The Gopher specialists may need to watch more Jeopardy.

Floyd is back home. He told me his year in Iowa was terrible and he wants to stay in Minnesota forever. For the first time since the 1967, he will be able to see the Little Brown Jug. Use this thread to celebrate.