Turnovers and offensive miscues drowned the Minnesota Golden Gophers’ chances of walking away with an upset win.
The Gophers fell 24-14 at the hands of the Big Ten West champion No. 22 Northwestern Wildcats on Senior Day at TCF Bank Stadium.
Needing a win to become bowl-eligible, the Gophers offense struggled to gain a rhythm. It failed to gain much in the way of extended drives — just five drives lasted at least six plays and seven drives took less than two minutes of possession time.
The struggles offensively can be pinpointed on not taking care of the football. After a punt on his team’s first drive, Tanner Morgan was picked off on back-to-back drives. The latter of the two was on Morgan, admittedly a bad throw.
“I have to get better,” Morgan said. “Those two (interceptions) are unacceptable. They kill our drives. I have to give our receivers better chances.
Gophers head coach PJ Fleck said the turnover battle — three for Minnesota and none for Northwestern – was and continues to be a primary reason why the team struggles against tougher Big Ten opponents.
“They make you play a perfect game. We weren’t capable of playing a perfect game,” Fleck said. “There were some incredible individual performances… But we just didn’t play well enough. We had three turnovers and when you have three turnovers against Northwestern, you’re going to lose the football game.”
Fleck added that the turnover bug has cost the Gophers wins or chances to win all season.
“We’re not at a point where we can recover from three turnovers at all,” Fleck said. “We weren’t at the beginning of the year and we’re not now.
“If you don’t turn the ball over, you have a 78 percent chance of winning. We turned the ball over three times, and they turned it over zero. That would give us basically a zero percent chance of winning that football game. It’s been a key statistic the entire year.”
While the offense had its issues, the Gophers defense held Northwestern mostly in check. Apart from a drive late in the first half in which the Wildcats went 55 yards in 1:06 and a JJ Jefferson 68-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter, the Gophers defense did its job.
Minnesota’s defense made two, at the time, crucial stops on fourth down. The first came in the second quarter. Northwestern was driving, nine plays and over four minutes of possession. The Wildcats lined up as if to go for it on 4th-and-6 on Minnesota’s 24-yard line, but they called a timeout before running a play. After the timeout, the Wildcats wound up going for it anyway. Blake Cashman sacked Clayton Thorson for a 14-yard loss.
The second big stop came in the third quarter on yet another long drive and again, on a fourth down. Coney Durr, who has filled in at defensive back for Antione Winfield Jr., provided the Gophers with solid coverage and forced an incomplete pass.
At the end of the day, the defensive execution didn’t match that of the offense; which means the Gophers need a win against Wisconsin to become bowl-eligible.
“It can frustrating, but we’re always going to have our offense’s back and we expect the offense to have the defense’s back,” Cashman said. “There’s been a handful of times this year where the defense has been playing well and the offense hasn’t and vice-versa.
“I think this team is very excited about what’s coming next week,” Cashman added. “It’s Axe week. There’s no doubt in my mind that this team is going to bounce back and prepare at a higher level than ever.”
Tackle Machine
Cashman was all over the field making tackles for the Gophers. He set a TCF Bank Stadium record with 20 tackles.
Cashman, a senior from Eden Prairie, previously tied a TCF Bank Stadium record with four tackles for a loss. He also continues to lead the team in tackles with 101.
“We’re going to miss that man one day,” Fleck said before naming all of Cashman’s endearing qualities. “What he did tonight was very special and I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. We talk about refusing to lose versus wanting to win, he refused to lose. All of our young players can learn a lot from how he played.”
Cashman said after the game that he couldn’t remember a time when he ever had 20 tackles in a game. He gave credit to the players around him for their respective play to make it possible for him to play at a high level.
“It starts our defensive backs,” Cashman said. “We have to count on corners to set an edge a lot of times. I think they’ve done a great job.
Offensively Improved
Last season around this time the Gophers offense shut down and was anemic in the final two games of the season, getting shut out in both contests. The back-to-back shutout losses capped off a season in which the Gophers offense struggled to produce not just points but big plays as well.
This season has featured a much improved albeit younger offense. In the passing game, in particular, the Gophers have shown vast improvement.
Minnesota averaged 126 passing yards per game last season compared to 226 yards this season. Part of the 100-yard improvement stems from the amount of big passing plays. Coming into the game, the Gophers had 25 passing plays that went for at least 25 yards. That total, with another game left on the schedule, exceeds last season’s 14 receptions of at least 25 yards.
Notes/Other Observations
Tyler Johnson eclipsed the 1,000-yard receiving mark for the season with 52 yards in the first half. He is the fifth Gopher to record at least 1,000 receiving yards in a season. The four other Gophers to achieve the feat are Chester Cooper (1,012 yards in 1981), Ryan Thelwell (1,051 yards in 1996), Eric Decker (1,074 in 2008) and Ron Johnson (1,125 yards in 2000).
Mohamed Ibrahim moved up the Gopher freshman rushing yards list. Ibrahim came into the game with 717 rushing yards on the season. He finished with 98 yards and is now third all-time in freshman rushing yards by a Gopher. Darrell Thompson (1,376 yards) and Laurence Maroney (1,121 yards) are the only two Gophers with more yards than Ibrahim.
With a win against Wisconsin, the Gophers would become bowl-eligible. Minnesota last played in a bowl game in 2016 — a win over Washington State, 17-12.
The Gophers end the regular season with a trip to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers. The scheduled kickoff for Saturday’s game is 2:30 p.m.
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