The Minnesota Gophers Football team played the 15th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes tough eventually outlasting them in a 13-10 victory at Huntington Bank Stadium. A defensive-driven game was decided by a Luke Drzewiecki field goal as time expired. Minnesota wins the Floyd of Rosedale matchup for only the second time in the P.J. Fleck era. The Hawkeyes came into the game as the seven-point favorite, but were held in check by the Gophers defense for most of the game.

The Gophers had 208 total yards for the game compared to 288 for Iowa. But they won the turnover battle, intercepting three Hawkeyes passes and recovering a fumble. Their opportunistic defense also recorded five quarterback hurries and five pass breakups. It was Minnesota’s finest defensive effort of the season.

Gophers are Opportunistic Early

The Gophers’ special teams created an early break when Mason Carrier blocked a Boston Everitt punt that was recovered by Mekhai Smith at the Hawkeyes’ 13-yard line. But Minnesota could not punch it in and settled for a 31-yard Luke Drzewiecki field goal. Then it was the Gophers ‘ defense’s turn to make the big play when Hawkeyes quarterback Jeremy Heckliniski, at the end of a 12-play, 65-yard drive, threw a ball into the arms of linebacker Joey Gerlach for an interception at the Minnesota two-yard line.

The Gophers went three-and-out, and after a punt, Iowa took possession at their own 49-yard line. But the Hawkeyes could do nothing on their possession, and the Minnesota offense took over at their 14-yard line. The teams traded possessions, but Iowa’s fortunes turned when Deshaun Lee intercepted a Drake Lindsey pass, bringing it down to the Minnesota 21. A personal foul penalty on the Gophers Bennett Warren at the end of the play added ten yards, and Iowa was in great shape at the Minnesota 11-yard line.

Two procedure penalties halted the Hawkeyes’ drive, so Caden Buhr chipped in a 32-yard field goal to tie the game at 3-3. Near the end of the half, an Iowa drive was snuffed out when the Gophers TJ Bush Jr. smothered a Heckliniski pass for an interception at the Minnesota 37, and the quarter ended tied 3 all.

Javon Tracy Creates a Spark

The Gophers Quayd Hendryx took the second-half kickoff and returned it 28 yards to the Minnesota 29. Then wide receiver Javon Tracy took a handoff up the middle for 23 yards to the Hawkeyes 48. Lindsey completed passes to Tracy for 6 and 12 yards and a 23-yarder to freshman tight end Roman Voss, who rambled to the two-yard line.

Four plays later, running back Darius Taylor banged it up the middle for a one-yard Gophers touchdown and a 10-3 lead. The defenses dominated the remainder of the quarter as both offenses could not generate any sustained drives. The game was shaping up as an old-time Big 10 defensive struggle.

Gophers Amp It Up in the Fourth Quarter

With 11:15 left in the game, the Gophers Alan Gousby forced an Iowa fumble at the Minnesota 43 that was recovered by Maverick Baranowski at the 45. However, the Gophers could not convert and were forced to punt. On the next Hawkeyes possession, Matt Kingsbury intercepted a Hank Brown pass at the 46-yard line, but the Gophers offense suffered another three-and-out and were forced to punt.

Iowa marched down the field on a four-play, 98-yard drive that consumed under two minutes, culminating with a Brown strike to Reese Vander Zee up the middle for a 37-yard touchdown and a 10-10 tie. Minnesota got the ball back with 1:48 on the game clock and two timeouts. On second down, Lindsey launched a 39-yard long bomb to Jalen Smith, who advanced it to the Hawkeyes’ 28-yard line. Five plays later, Drzewiecki drilled a 46-yard field goal through the uprights for the win and possession of Floyd.

Summary

Lindsey finished 14-of-26 for 137 yards and one pick. Xavier Ford led all rushers with 33 yards on eight carries. Tracy paced all receivers with seven catches for 45 yards. Zack Harden led all tacklers with 12, with John Nestor close behind with 11. Gerlach, Bush, and Kingsbury each had an interception, and Baranowski added a fumble recovery.

Comments from a Jubilant P.J. Fleck

New Leaf News: Can you unpack how you get one sack and it’s your team’s best defensive game of the year?

P.J. Fleck: “It’s not about the sack. We also had a sack fumble. You can get in trouble with this team if you get past the quarterback. Both quarterbacks can run it. The quarterbacks will draw you. They’ll spread you out. They do a lot of pick plays, wheel routes, as you saw. If you give them time, they’ll pick you apart. Their tight ends are good. Their wide receivers are big and explosive. We just knew we had to contain them. The number one thing was we had to tackle really well. When the ball was caught, tackle it.

“If the ball was ran, tackle it, swarm tackle it, game tackle it. And I thought we did that really well tonight. And that’s what we didn’t do last week. But we had to do that, and they responded. Players deserve all the credit in the world. It’s incredible what they did. But that’s the standard. And we played great football. That’s what it looks like. And when we get away from that. It’s not as good. But it wasn’t about the sacks. We don’t get points just for how many sacks we get. But we won the game because we swarmed, flew to the ball, tackled well, got takeaways.”

Next Week

The Gophers (5-2, 3-1) travel to Bloomington to play the defending NCAA Division I Champs, the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana (7-1, 4-1) is coming off a 13-6 overtime win over Michigan. The game is scheduled for a 2:30 pm CDT start.