Gophers football has a truly special attachment to Huntington Bank Stadium. A perfect home record and no wins for Gophers football in opposing stadiums, even if it is a baseball stadium.
With 53 seconds left, Northwestern University’s kicker Jack Olsen brought the Wildcats to victory and sealed their bowl eligibility with a 38-35 win.
After the game, head coach P.J. Fleck said so many good things are going to be overshadowed by the Gophers’ loss. He said sophomore Koi Perich’s 230-yard game might just be one of those things.
It is hard to say more about what Perich has done for the Gophers’ offense and defense. On Saturday, he simply added to his long list of achievements as a Gopher.
Perich kick-started the momentum for the Gophers at the end of the first quarter when he returned a punt for 93 yards like it was nothing. Perich evaded defenders all the way to the 10-yard line to set up Minnesota for their first points of the game.
Perich was not the only one with an impressive stat sheet after the Northwestern loss. When the run game felt stagnant for the Gophers, redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Lindsey threw for four touchdowns, a career-high, three of them to redshirt junior Javon Tracy.
Even though the last time that happened was when Rashod Bateman was a Gopher, Lindsey was straightforward about his connections with Tracy throughout the game. There were just a lot of opportunities popping up, and they just executed.
But Lindsey’s performance could not hold the Gophers together.
Key defensive issues kept reappearing for the Gophers and helped Northwestern come back. One issue was their unhealthy secondary. Four defensive backs were out, and it showed.
Fleck said he still loves what Gophers first-time defensive coordinator Danny Collins is doing and kept it simple with how the Gophers address this major defensive issue.
“We gotta coach ‘em better, and then we gotta be able to play better,” Fleck said.
Fleck added he is the one with the responsibility to make sure the players are properly prepared to move from the practice field to the football field. For the third straight game, the Gophers’ defense allowed 450 yards. With an inexperienced secondary, Northwestern looked more explosive than it had all season against a Big Ten opponent.
When Fleck was asked about it being the third straight game of 450-plus yards allowed, he deflected, saying each game is its own, the Gophers are 0-1. When the same issues keep appearing over and over again, Fleck’s one-game season is becoming harder and harder to buy into.
“This game has nothing to do with the last game,” Fleck said.
Here are some similarities: Both games had 450-plus yards of offense allowed.
Wildcats quarterback Preston Stone was able to connect on all of his passing attempts in the second half, ending the day 25-30. Fleck said it was probably Stone’s best game of the year.
Stone threw for 305 yards but was helped a lot by the fact that Northwestern had a competent run game, outgaining the Gophers 220-59.
The Wildcats dropped their last three games but have had strong second-half performances.
The Gophers were able to put up points throughout the game, but desperately needed a defensive stop. They maintained a 21-13 lead going into halftime, and when Northwestern continued fighting offensively, so did the Gophers; it just was not enough.
Minnesota will finish up its regular season at home against Wisconsin for the famed Axe game.
