Gophers Thumped By Winless Nebraska, Remain Winless in Big Ten

Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Can it get any worse? For the Minnesota Gophers, it did get worse as the team fell by a wide margin to the Nebraska Cornhuskers on the road.

Nebraska (1-6 overall) topped Minnesota 53-28 on Saturday and earned its first win of the season. For the Gophers, they dropped a fourth straight game.

There was a moment in the second half where it appeared as if Nebraska had fallen off the rails and the Gophers were on a path for a 28-point comeback.

Starting with receiving the ball to start the second half, the Gophers had some semblance of momentum having scored its first points in the closing minutes of the first half. On 2nd and 2, Gophers quarterback Tanner Morgan threw a short screen pass to Chris Autman-Bell. Autman-Bell turned upfield and burned most of the Nebraska defense, gaining 69 yards and getting to the 4-yard line. Two plays later, Mohamed Ibrahim punched it in from a yard out for the touchdown.

The Gophers needed only 1 minute, 11 seconds to cut into Nebraska’s lead and with Morgan filling in for injured Zack Annexstad. Things were looking up as the Gophers pulled to within 28-15.

The Gophers forced the Cornhuskers to punt and marched down the field to score again. The drive was highlighted by a reverse flea-flicker. Ibrahim took the handoff, tossed it to Morgan, who heaved up a pass to Seth Green 31 yards downfield after Green began the play in the Wildcat formation.

Similar to their last offensive drive, two plays later the Gophers ran it in for the touchdown. Green, from the Wildcat again, wiggled his way through from four yards out.

Just like that, the Gophers were back. Minnesota trailed Nebraska 28-22 with 7:22 to go in the third quarter; plenty of time to complete a comeback.

The comeback did not materialize, though. Nebraska scored on each of its next four drives to run away with the win.

The Gophers were unable to stop Nebraska’s run game all day. Adrian Martinez, Devine Ozigbo and Maurice Washington each rushed for more than 100 yards. The three combined for 383 yards and four touchdowns. From the first touchdown, scored by Ozigbo, it was reminiscent of the Maryland game in which the Terps ran wild against the Gophers defense. Martinez (125 yards) averaged 8.3 yards per carry, Ozigbo (152 yards) averaged 12.7 and Washington (109 yards) averaged 7.8 yards.

With those numbers, the Cornhuskers clearly wore down the Gophers. It’s the second time this season a team has been able to run the ball with ease against the Minnesota defense.

The injury-plagued Gophers couldn’t capitalize on later opportunities to get back in the game and were unable to even hold the Cornhuskers, who outscored the Gophers 25-6 after Minnesota pulled to within six points.

With the loss, the Gophers fell to 3-4 overall and 0-4 in the Big Ten.

Notes/Other Observations

Tyler Johnson finished the day with 184 receiving yards. It’s his third consecutive game with over 100 yards receiving. The last Gopher to record three consecutive 100-yard receiving games in the Big Ten was Ron Johnson in 2000, who did it against Penn State (114), Ohio State (163) and Indiana (177). The last Gopher with five 100-yard games in a season was Aaron Hosack in 2003.

Carter Coughlin continued his sack streak with one sack in the game. Coughlin has now recorded at least one sack in five straight games. As of publication, Coughlin leads the Big Ten in sacks with eight. He also has 12 sacks in his last 13 games.

The Gophers come home to host Indiana on Friday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.


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