The Minnesota Gophers missed an enormous opporutnity to upset #4 Indiana in Bloomington but fell short in overtime to los 23-16. The Gophers took advantage of numerous special teams mistakes by Indiana and took a 16-13 lead with 19 seconds left after Luke Drzewiecki nailed a career-long 60-yard field goal.
But the Indiana offense very quickly got into field goal range and Paddy McAteer answered with a 60-yarder of his own to send the game into overtime. The key play was a 33-yard pass to Charlie Becker on first down to set up the game-tying field goal.
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And then on the first play of overtime, Grant Wilson hit Becker for a 25-yard touchdown and it was Minnesota's opportunity to answer. But the Gopher offense manged one first down and then Drake Lindsey was sacked on fourth down to seal the win for the Hoosiers.
For Indiana, it was a barrage of speical teams' mistakes that the Gophers took advantage of to hold the lead for most of the game. For Minnesota it was the third week in a row scoring only one offensive touchdown. Both of those scenarios makes it hard to win in the Big Ten, but Indiana continued to find a way to win games late and sent the Gophers home with a loss.
For the Hoosiers they had two shanked punts, a blocked field goal, a missed 31-yard field goal, and a botched snap on a field goal. But the Gopher offense, at one point, had more penalty yards than offensive yards. They were 3/15 on third down throughout the game and had just three plays of 15 yards or more.
The lone offensive touchdown was a trick play where the ball was pitched to Darius Taylor running to the right, who then tossed it to Jalen Smith on the reverse, who then tossed it back to Lindsey who hit Roman Voss for a wide-open 39-yard touchdown.
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The Gopher defense was mostly great and did everything they could to keep Minnesota in this game. But serious questions are going to be asked this week about the offensive game plan, the coordinator and even the quarterback.
This was an emotional roller-coaster that culminated in the Drzewiecki 60-yarder. With just 19 seconds left, this felt very much like a game-winning field goal and a momentous win for the program. But it quickly fell apart and the emotional high fell to a low and changed the tenor for the rest of Saturday evening.
Strangely enough, this was the first college football game in history where both teams made a 60-yard field goal.
Up next, the Gophers are hosting undefeated UCLA on Saturday. We have a chance to make a statement against UCLA next week, but this one stings.
