It was a trouncing at TCF Bank Stadium as the Minnesota Golden Gophers buried the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 54-21. It was also a historic day, as it marked the first time since 1945 that Minnesota had scored 40-plus points against Nebraska.
Following the Michigan game, the headlining quote from Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck was “We got whopped,” which left the team looking for a bounce-back game. Demry Croft did that for them, finishing with 183 rushing yards while making things happen in the air.
Fleck had commented before on striving to “simplify the playbook,” which is exactly what the Gophers did. With almost exclusively read-option and play-action passing in the first half, the run eventually got its chance too.
“I thought he did a great job on when he decided to pull the ball and when he decided not to pull it,” said Fleck on his quarterback’s decision making to take off. “I think that’s where the growth has happened. We didn’t decide to run him more, it was him making the decisions to pull the ball.”
In the first quarter, the read-option play to running back Kobe McCrary gave Croft huge lanes to run with. The Cornhuskers defense was committed to keeping McCrary in check when running between the tackles, but bit down so hard on the running back that the read was an easy one for Croft.
With gaps like this, it made Croft’s job of dicing up the defense easy. But the running game was also diverse and multi-layered, with McCrary giving the team their between-the-tackles and in the red zone heavy running, paired perfectly with the dance and outside moves from Rodney Smith to the dual-threat option given by Croft.
“Reading the defenders and knowing their body language a little better, getting in the film room a little more,” Croft said, describing his decision making in the pocket.
Minnesota finished with 409 yards rushing — 183 from Croft and 93 from McCrary as both also found the end zone three times each. Croft set a school rushing record for quarterbacks because of improved decision-making, looking comfortable in the pocket the entire game. Not only did he look great running the ball, his choices elsewhere had an air of collected calm that had not been present in past starts for the young quarterback.
He didn’t force the ball to receivers, finishing with 105 passing yards on just 15 attempts. He also didn’t force the run when a receiver did not come free, reading through his progressions before taking off. His overall play also led to a huge day for Smith, who had 134 rushing yards, 135 return yards and 10 receiving yards. It was a career-high 274 all-purpose yards for Smith, who started the game with an electric 100-yard kick return.
The simplified offense not only highlighted the talents of the offensive weapons, it also kept the Gophers consistent, scoring on nine of their 10 drives.
In the second quarter down 14-7, the Cornhuskers kept their offense on the field in the red zone for a fourth-and-short play. They were stopped by a fantastic tackle from safety Duke McGhee – who finished with nine tackles and two tackles for loss – to give the ball back to the offense.
The offense took the opportunity and scored.
“We wanted to keep the gameplan pretty tight and concise,” said Fleck on the simplified playbook. “I think that’s how Demry handles things really well, when he can master things, and I thought he mastered the game plan this week.”
While the Nebraska offense was able to the move the ball for 380 total yards, they struggled in the short-yardage situations. Nebraska finished with six drives halted because of an inability to move the chains on third- or fourth-and-short situations. On the flip side, Minnesota was consistent in finishing drives and was 6 of 6 in their red zone trips.
The best version of the Minnesota offense showed up to grab a big win at home, scoring the most points ever in the TCF Bank Stadium and raking up the eighth-most rushing yards in Gophers history. The Gophers moved to 5-5 on the season before heading out to play Northwestern on Nov. 18.
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