Minnesota vs. Indiana: The Elite, The Meh & The Ugly

The Minnesota Golden Gophers (5-3) came up short in their bid to the shock the world on Saturday, falling in overtime, 23-16, to the No. 4-ranked Indiana Hoosiers (8-1).

The Elite

Luke Drzewiecki. I don’t even know what to say. He’s been unbelievable this season. A perfect 15-for-15, including a 51-yard field goal and what should have been a game-winning 60-yard field goal.

Tom Weston. While the Indiana punter shanked two punts, both of which set up scoring drives for Minnesota, Weston was outstanding, even when punting deep inside his own territory. He averaged 48.5 yards on seven punts, with three downed inside the Hoosiers’ 20-yard line.

The Gopher defense. They balled out. Indiana has struggled to put up points in conference play this season and Minnesota made sure that trend continued, holding them to 16 points in regulation. They were especially effective on third down, with the Hoosiers finishing 2-of-13 on third down conversions. Indiana certainly contributed to the cause with special teams breakdowns and quarterback Josh Hoover’s errant throws in the first half, but Danny Collins’ defense did more than enough to win the game.

The flea flicker touchdown to Roman Voss. That was fun!

The Meh

A missed opportunity. I’m not angry about the loss, to be honest with you. I’m more sad than angry. It was a missed opportunity. Minnesota had the defending national champions and the No. 4-ranked team in the country on the ropes on the road. This was a winnable game. It would have been one of the biggest wins in program history. The Gophers were 20-point underdogs. The Hoosiers hadn’t lost to an unranked team under Curt Cignetti. Fate seemed to be on the side of Minnesota… until it wasn’t. Indiana did the same thing they’ve done to Northwestern, Nebraska, and Michigan this season: They found a way to win. It sucks. It hurts. I’m not happy about the offense. I’m not happy about the 33-yard pass play the defense allowed on the Hoosiers’ final drive of regulation. I’m not happy about both sides of the ball in overtime. But the Gophers have a shot at redemption on Saturday. They better make the most of it.

The Ugly

A gut punch to end regulation. To be honest, I knew Minnesota had lost after Indiana kicker Paddy McAteer matched Luke Drzewiecki with his own 60-yard field goal to tie the game in regulation as time expired and send it to overtime. It’s extremely rare to see a 60-yard field goal from a college kicker, let alone two in one game. In fact, it’s never happened before in the history of college football.

And somehow the second one seemed even more improbable than the first, after all the issues the Hoosiers had had on field goal attempts throughout the game — including a blocked 52-yard attempt, a 31-yard attempt that went wide left, and a botched snap and hold on a 26-yard attempt.

The Gophers had delivered a miracle, only for Indiana to shrug it off and perform a miracle of their own, as if it was just that easy. The Hoosiers have made a habit of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat this season, and that game-tying 60-yard field goal felt like a product of whatever deal they made with the Devil when they hired Curt Cignetti to be their head coach.

Offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh. It’s over. It’s never been more over. In their last four games, the Gophers have scored a combined five touchdowns. Head coach P.J. Fleck will point out that three of those opponents rank in the Top 20 in scoring defense, which is fair, but that does not explain the 13 points scored against Mississippi State (102nd) and Purdue (124th).

In the same week that reporter Rhett Lewis referred to him as one of the “better game-planning coordinators” in the Big Ten, we saw that Harbaugh’s game plan against Indiana was to repeatedly dial up passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, which resulted in five of Drake Lindsey’s first nine completions going for zero or negative yards. Even CBS broadcaster Charles Davis was quick to point out that screen passes are only effective when there is the threat of a downfield passing game.

Harbaugh does not seem to understand how to tailor his offense to the strengths of his personnel, nor does he seem to have the ability to identify the vulnerabilities of any opposing defense and attack them.

Drake Lindsey. He’s broken right now. Plain and simple. I know many are ready to declare him a bust and that the preseason NFL talk was premature, but I still believe there is a good quarterback in there somewhere, buried underneath an offense that is not built for him — or very many other quarterbacks, for that matter — to succeed. The patchwork offensive line is not holding up well in pass protection, and that has impacted both the offensive play-calling and Lindsey’s confidence in the pocket. The game has sped up for him, and that has led to poor decision-making. There are plays when his receivers are not getting open, but even on the plays when he has an open receiver, his accuracy has frequently been off the mark.

I think most of Lindsey’s issues are correctable. It’s just a question of whether he’ll be able to correct them this season in this offense with this offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

The officiating. Terrible. Just terrible. From Tom Weston getting blown up on a punt but somehow only drawing a flag for running into the kicker rather than roughing, to clear and obvious defensive pass interference being committed against Jalen Smith (but not called) on a deep shot in the fourth quarter, this was some of the worst and most one-sided officiating I’ve ever seen.