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Minnesota isn’t that good. Minnesota hasn’t played anybody. Minnesota struggled against bad teams in its non-conference schedule.
We’ve heard it all. We know you have, too.
But then, Week 11 happened. Minnesota hosted No. 4 Penn State — which was also undefeated — and won 31-26. The Golden Gophers are now 9-0.
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Why have they been so good this season? The defense has certainly done its part. It’s not a dominating defense. But it gets stops and creates turnovers when it needs to.
Offensively, however, look no further than quarterback Tanner Morgan. The sophomore has completed 67.9 percent of his passes this season while tossing 21 touchdowns compared to just four interceptions.
He has been extremely efficient.
And in two games in particular, he’s been unthinkably accurate. Against Penn State, he completed 18-of-20 passes — good for a 90 percent clip.
With that in mind, he became one of only two QBs in a single season to have multiple games of completing at least 90 percent of his passes:
✌️ QBs, in the last 20 years, have had two games of at least 90% completion percentage (minimum 20 passes):
1. Jameis Winston
2. @GopherFootball's @T_morg2 pic.twitter.com/NBKxxNw5Ob
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 10, 2019
This is pretty incredible. Again, Morgan hasn’t done this just once this season. He’s done it twice. Earlier in the year against Purdue, he completed 21-of-22 passes.
Again, he’s been insanely accurate at times. And on Saturday, Penn State felt the barrage of perfect throws coming from Morgan to give the Nittany Lions their first loss of 2019.
Kevin covers Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.