For the first time in nearly a decade, the Little Brown Jug belongs to the Gophers after a 30-14 win over the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor. Though Minnesota fell behind early, the Gophers quickly responded and dominated the Wolverines for the majority of the game. It was a sound game all around for Minnesota on offense, defense and special teams. Here are the grades for the Gophers following their big road win.
The Wolverines were one of the Big Ten's top running defenses before Saturday's game, averaging just 80.2 yards per game on the ground. That didn't matter to the Gophers, who ran all over Michigan. Running back David Cobb had his third game this season with 180 or more yards on the ground as he finished with 183 yards on 32 carries (5.7 yards per carry). Minnesota didn't really get the rest of the running backs involved much and instead let Cobb get the brunt of the carries. Rodrick Williams was the only other player with more than two carries as he ran four times for 14 yards, mostly inside the red zone. Quarterback Mitch Leidner ran much less frequently than usual, too with just six carries for -5 yards, although he did run for a 10-yard touchdown to put the Gophers on the board in the first quarter. In total, Minnesota's 206 rushing yards were well above what Michigan's defense had averaged in its first four games.
It was a big step forward from last week's game in which the Gophers completed just one pass against San Jose State. Saturday against Michigan, redshirt sophomore Mitch Leidner had a bit more success through the air. After a shaky start to the game, he finished 14-for-22 for 167 yards and a 1-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Maxx Williams. Perhaps just as important was the fact that Leidner didn't throw an interception. There wasn't much of a deep passing game to speak of for the Gophers. Instead, most of Leidner's completions came on short or intermediate routes. Williams had a team-high four catches, while Cobb also got involved in the passing game with three catches for 50 yards -- including a 33-yarder. Leidner was able to get the ball in his receivers' hands and let them do some work after the catch, and it worked.
A mere 83 yards. That's all Michigan was able to gain on the ground Saturday in its loss to Minnesota. The Wolverines had averaged more than 200 rushing yards per game before running into a stout Gophers front seven. Defensive linemen Cameron Botticelli and Theiren Cockran both had good games stopping the run, while linebacker Jack Lynn made five tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss. Michigan's leading rusher was De'Veon Smith, who managed 57 yards on nine carries -- a solid average of 6.3 yards per carry. But the rest of the Wolverines couldn't do much against Minnesota's defense and wound up averaging a combined 3.0 yards per carry. Both of Michigan's touchdowns came on the ground, including a 10-yard scamper by Smith to open the scoring, but the Wolverines otherwise never gained big chunks of yardage in the running game.
As good as Minnesota's defense was against the run, it was even better against the pass. The Gophers game planned all week as if they were facing senior quarterback Devin Gardner, who had beaten them in each of the last two years. Instead, it was left-handed quarterback Shane Morris getting the start over the struggling Gardner. Minnesota's secondary made it a long game for Morris, who was just 7-of-19 for 49 yards. He also threw an interception to Gophers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell, who returned it 30 yards for a third-quarter touchdown that all but sealed the win for Minnesota. The Gophers' secondary got strong games from cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun and safety Damarius Travis, who each had two pass breakups.
Kicker Ryan Santoso had his best game as a Gopher, converting all three field-goal tries (from 24, 48 and 25 yards) and was 3-for-3 on extra points. Additionally, four of Santoso's six kickoffs went for touchbacks. Peter Mortell maintained his spot as one of the best punters in the Big Ten by averaging 41.0 yards on his six punts, including three that were downed inside the Michigan 20-yard line. With Marcus Jones not playing due to injury, Minnesota turned to Jalen Myrick on kickoff returns and Craig James on punt return duty. Myrick's only return went for 28 yards, while James averaged an impressive 16.5 yards on his four punt returns, including one that went for a game-high 32 yards. On the other side of the ball, Minnesota's kick coverage was solid. The Wolverines returned just two kickoffs, and their only punt return went for negative yardage.
There were questions about how Minnesota would look once it got to Big Ten play, and Saturday's 30-14 win answered that. This was arguably one of the biggest wins in coach Jerry Kill's four years at Minnesota. The Gophers hadn't beaten Michigan since 2005 but have now gone on the road and won the Little Brown Jug in convincing fashion. Though this year's Michigan team has its issues, there weren't many flaws in Minnesota's game in all three phases. The Gophers now have a bye week, which perhaps comes at a bad time as Minnesota is riding high following Saturday's dominating victory.
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