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Rapid reaction: Minnesota’s sloppy offense results in ugly loss to Bowling Green
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One week after an impressive 30-0 road win against Colorado, Minnesota laid an egg.
P.J. Fleck’s team dropped a 14-10 decision to Bowling Green at Huntington Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon. While the defense did its job throughout the course of the 60-minute contest, the offense failed to show any life.
Minnesota mustered just 241 yards of offense, leaning heavily on the production of Trey Potts again. The running back totaled 141 yards on 28 carries, the diamond in the rough for the Golden Gophers.
Tanner Morgan and the passing attack struggled to show any consistency, once again. Morgan completed just 5-of-13 passes for 59 yards. He threw an interception on Minnesota’s final 2 possessions, which secured a victory for Bowling Green.
Minnesota started the scoring with a 36-yard field goal make by Matthew Trickett to start the contest with a 3-0 lead. With just over 6 minutes to play in the second quarter, Matt McDonald scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 7-3 heading into halftime.
Backup quarterback Cole Kramer came in for the Golden Gophers and gave the team an offensive spark, scoring on a 19-yard keeper to push his team back in front 10-7. But with just seconds left in the third quarter, Bowling Green answered.
McDonald scored on a 3-yard run, enough to give the Falcons a 14-10 lead and the victory.
Bowling Green ended the day with just 192 yards offensively, which included 22 yards on the ground. As well as the defense played for Minnesota, the offense just let opportunity after opportunity slip through its fingers.
Now, the question for the Gophers is if it’s time to make a change at quarterback. Certainly, the absence of Chris Autman-Bell at receiver — he left with injury again Saturday — has been a factor. But Morgan’s consistency has been nowhere near his 2019 numbers.
That’s a problem for Minnesota.
Next week, the Golden Gophers head to West Lafayette for a division showdown against Purdue. If they don’t figure something out offensively, it could be another long afternoon.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB