Gopher Football Sunday: Minnesota vs Michigan State

Justin Gaard is back to talk about the Gophers win vs Michigan State.. Ryan Burns of Gopher Illustrated joins and gives his perspective on the win.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And welcome into the sixty five one carpets plus studio.
This is Gopher Football Sunday. Happy fall back Daylight Savings
Time Sunday.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm justin guard here on the fan.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
We are reviewing a Gopher victory twenty three to twenty
in overtime, the first overtime game in the history of
the stadium that opened in two thousand and nine. The
Gophers knockoff Michigan State. They improved a six and three
and four and two in the Big Ten. Now the
second bye week comes and the Gophers play Oregon Friday,
November fourteenth. It's a Friday night in Eugene, believe in
eight o'clock Central.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Tip.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
If you're new to the show, what we do is
try to carve out an hour on a Sunday to
talk a little bit of Gophers. You can hit the
bratch on Bryan Kfean text line sixty four six eighty six.
You can also hit me on social media at guard
Zy on Twitter and or Instagram. We like to go
over what we liked and what we didn't like before
we hand it over to Barrero at nine o'clock and
then Vikings Football Sunday with the Purple in Detroit. Today

(00:55):
starts at ten with a noon kick. Ryan Burns from
Gopher Illustrated dot Com will join me next segment for
a couple of segments, and I'm excited to talk to
Burnsey as always in terms of what we liked and
what we didn't like.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
We'll get to that in just a second.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
But if I told you this morning that the Gophers
won the game twenty three to twenty in overtime, you
would probably say, if you've been following along this year,
that makes a little bit of sense. Gophers were four
and a half point favorites as the game closed or
as the game started, and every game in the Big
Ten it seems like is going to kind of be
one of these meat grinders that even goes back to
last year with the parody, even though Michigan State was

(01:30):
winless coming in, winless going out. But it's not that
they won twenty three to twenty. If you just read
the box score, you might nod your head and go,
I understand, that makes some sense. It's the way that
the day win that makes it so wild, and it
really was a tale of two halves. I don't think
they could have played much better defensively in the first half,

(01:51):
the defense was outstanding another six sacks. They ended up
with seven on the day, Six of them are in
the first half. Michigan State dropped in a new quarterback
that they hadn't started, and the Gophers were all over him.
And zero points for the Spartans, but the offense could
not deliver the dagger and it took a minute for
the offense to get going. If Emmi egy boys fifty

(02:13):
yard run sparked a touchdown drive, they tacked on a
field goal, but then missed a huge chance. I thought
to really end things right before the half. They're up
ten zero. They drive into the red zone, they take
a shot at the end zone, they don't get it.
They threw another pass, they didn't really get anything there,
and they end up missing the field goal. So I
said on the radio broadcast, if they punch it in
there as a touchdown, if it's seventeen to nothing, that

(02:34):
game might be over. They did not deliver the knockout punch.
Michigan State found their footing in the second half and
it turned into an absolute meat grinder, and Michigan State
had the lead with less than two minutes to go.
And I'm thinking about Gopher football Sunday. How are we
going to explain this one away? Because it would have
been unexplainable. But they found a way and somehow got

(02:58):
the victory when all looked ridiculously lost. Speaking of lost,
PJ says it all the time. More games are lost
than one. You want to point one of the reasons
why the Gophers were able to survive a day where
they did not play very well. Ten Michigan State penalties,
multiple face masks, they kicked the ball out of bounds
after taking the lead with less than two minutes to go,

(03:19):
just cataclysmic stuff. If you're a Spartan fan and the
Gophers were a more disciplined team. They let Michigan State
hang around in the first half, and it should have
cost them, you argue most days it probably does cost you.
But because Michigan State gave them chances, they were able
to somehow find a way to get to tying drive
in regulation and then get the touchdown drive in overtime

(03:43):
to pick up their fourth Big Ten victory and sixth overall.
What we liked they did. They hung in, They didn't
play well. The offense wasn't very good for whatever the reason,
they didn't push the ball down the field much. They're
down their top two running backs. We've talked about it.
I know when Burnsey joins in ten minutes, he's gonna
want to talk about the lack of contested catches, a
lot of bubble screens, a lot of flat passes. They

(04:04):
really couldn't do anything after they jumped out to the
ten zero lead, had forty four yards in the second
half until that last drive where they got the help
with the kick out of bounds, they got to help
with the face mask. They're able to go down there
and drive, but offensively they just didn't have it for
whatever the reason.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
But they hung in long enough.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
And Drake Lindsay is probably the biggest thing that we liked,
because Drake wasn't very good yesterday. He wasn't at his best,
but when the Gophers needed him, he was right there.
He was just okay until they really needed him, and
then he was really good. I did the unofficial count
of the final drive. His numbers six of eight thirty

(04:46):
nine yards, and I think one of the eight was
the pass interference call. A pass interference call that continued
to help them move the ball down the field. But
when they got the ball back with less than two
minutes ago, down seven in what would have been a
cataclysmic loss, to use that word a second time, the
freshman quarterback was good, and I think we have to

(05:07):
appreciate that the dude knows when they absolutely need him.
Do you want to see him start the game faster,
of course? Do you want to see him play better
throughout the game, of course? But he didn't turn it
over on a day where he didn't have his best
and when they needed him to bring them down the field,
he was able to do it. And we'll obviously remember
the touchdown in overtime on a third and goal where

(05:28):
it's a little fake handoff. The naked bootleg Michigan State
guy does his job. He's right there, Lindsay stiff arms him.
It's a race to the pylon, really close to the pylon.
It got reviewed. If they would have called it short
at the one inch line, I could have lived with that.
That seemed like it would have been a legitimate call.
But Lindsay's done that now a couple of times, and

(05:48):
you got to give him credit for bringing the team back.
What we also liked the defense in the first half,
they probably deserved better than what the offense gave him.
Mentioned it earlier. They dominated the first half. Two huge
plays in the second half hurt them. One was a
touchdown on the first drive where I'm still not sure
how that ball got there. I'm still not sure what

(06:10):
the Gopher defensive backs were doing, but they catch it
on the sideline on a third down, two Gopher guys
essentially fall down and Michigan State sprints into the end zone.
And like we said earlier, the Gophers let them hang around.
They only had a ten point leading the first half.
Now all of a sudden, it's ten to seven and
you're in a ballgame with the team that's fighting for
its head coach who might be in his final days

(06:31):
in East Lancing, and they just didn't They didn't have
it much after that. Michigan State at a million yards,
Gophers had a bunch of tackles for lost in sacks.
But after that, Michigan State really settled in. Their quarterback
threw for over three hundred. But the defense in the
first half was really good and definitely deserved better than

(06:51):
what the offense gave them a ten zero lead. What
we didn't like the offense flatlining after going up ten rip.
They put together a few drive to get into the
red zone right before the half, but they missed it.
We've already mentioned the passing game, so many short passes.
The few times that they went deep, they were rewarded
with pass interference calls, including in overtime. So it was

(07:12):
just an uneasy, a choppye certainly an eventful victory. All
of that can be true, and it can also be
true that it's a victory. And one of the things
I want to talk to Burnsy about is, you know,
the not taking that for granted part, because you look
around the league and you continue to see meat grinder
games a Purdue and Michigan game you've obviously got, you know,

(07:34):
Nebraska losing it home to USC a game that they
probably had to have. There's two clear cut teams in
the Big Ten right now that are just rolling, and
it's Ohio State and Indiana, and they are on a
collision course for the Big Ten championship game in India
about a month from now, and I think that's going
to be a hillacious game and I can't wait to
watch it. The rest of the Big Ten is to
me about survival and even more so surviving when you

(07:57):
don't play well. And the Gophers did that yes yesterday
to pick up their fourth win in the conference and
their six win overall with a bye week now on
the horizon. So that's what we liked to what we
didn't like. You take the victory as always, six and three,
four and two. They're going back to a bowl. Good
stuff on all of those fronts, and now you go
take your chances. A couple of Friday nights from now

(08:18):
in Eugene, Oregon, after this second bye week, hit the
brad Sean Bryan Cafe in text line six four six,
eight six. We're here until nine o'clock when Burial takes
over for Sunday sermons. What did Ryan Burns from Gopher
Illustrated dot com think of the performance yesterday? A couple
of segments with Burnsey when we continue go for football Sunday.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Next right here on the fan.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Welcome back to Gopher Football Sunday. Guards you here in
the six five to one carpets plus studios, we are
reviewing the Gophers victory over Michigan State twenty three to
twenty there now six and three overall, four and two
in the Big ten second bye week time They've got
the Oregon Ducks Friday November fourteenth in Eugene. So a
couple of fridays from now. Time now to hear from

(08:57):
our buddy Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrate. He's on the
Kinetico Water Systems hotline making his weekly appearance. We all
needed the extra hour of sleep. I think Burnsey after
the first overtime game in Huntington Bank slash TCF Banks
Stadium history and one that I said in the open,
I thought at one point there was no way that
the Gophers could lose. Then I thought, how how are

(09:21):
they ever going to win this game? And they somehow
figured out a way. We've got a lot to unpack
here in the next couple of segments. But as it
hits you, and I know your takeaway's article is up
at Gopher Illustrated dot com. What do you take away
from what you saw yesterday in Dinky Town?

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Then I need to change my high blood pressure medication.
If I was on it, I'm sure my heart rate
on the watch that I love to wear during these
games was going up and down like everyone else is.
This has to be and I feel like we said
this a lot last year on this show. One of
the most roller coaster teams that whether it's the increased
parody in college football on a weekly basis that we

(10:02):
see now, or if this is just the construct of
what PJ. Fleck teams are going forward, there are a
lot of different things that you can use to describe
this Gopher football team. They're entertaining one way or another,
whichever way you want to look at it. They give
you something to watch that you won't get anywhere else
for three and a half hours on a Saturday.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
So I said in the open, if I said the
Gophers one twenty three to twenty, you'd probably say, yeah,
that makes sense if you're at your you know, if
you're picking up the paper, if anybody does that. On
Sunday morning, they were four and a half point favorites.
I think going into the game, if I said they
won twenty three to twenty and it was actually an overtime,

(10:42):
people might go all right, yeah, that sounds about right.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
That's interesting.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
But if I told you how we got to that place,
I don't think anybody would believe me. Do you want
to start in the first half or the second half?
How do you want to go here because it was
kind of a tale of two halfs.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
I thought, you're the captain of the ship. I'm just
the wary well.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
I thought that this is gonna sound silly given that
the game went to overtime, but I said it on
the radio broadcast the drive right before half where the
Gophers missed the field goal, the chip shot field goal,
I felt like a touchdown there ends the game. Given
that Michigan State has winless in the Big Ten, they're
clearly the vibes are not good. They make kind of

(11:21):
the quarterback change now midweek, which is something we can
talk about.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
I know both.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Guys had played, but if you get a touch down there,
the game's probably over. You don't, and not only do
you not get it, you missed the field goal. So
then it's a ten zero game. And it felt like,
I don't know what you felt like, Burnsy, But at halftime,
I felt like the Gophers should be up by a
lot more because that was again another dominant defensive half
that ended up going away in the second half. So

(11:47):
what the first half? I felt like the Gophers should
have been up by more than ten points.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
What did you think?

Speaker 3 (11:52):
I think that's a good way to say it. I
think the offense left some meat on the bone, as
some would say, and you can't say they weren't at
least trying. They did take an end zone shot once
they got in the red zone. But the story of
the day was if they can't win a contested catch
at receiver right now, they just they cannot fifty to
fifty balls there twenty five seventy five, thirty seventy. I

(12:13):
think the stats be a pro football focus continue to
tell that story. Or then you get a third and
twelve and you can run a comeback at sticks and
then it's dropped. Yeah, they go okay, Well, at least
they didn't just run it twice there, like we've seen
some Fleck teams do in Turtle of yesteryear. And then
the chip shot field goal. You get six first half
sacks but no takeaways. And that's the thing that I'm

(12:35):
going to just continue to come back on when I
think about the defensive performance, which was very Jekyll and Hyde,
because you take out the sack yards from yesterday, Michigan
State put up over five hundred yards, five hundred yards
without their starting tailback, with their backup quarterback getting his
first shot a banged up offensive line. Do you know

(12:56):
how hard it is? And this is one of the
great things about football and why the games while we
get to talk about them on the radio. The Gophers
came into that game second in the Big Ten in
sacks second they got seven of them. If I were
to have just told you as we're doing this radio
show Sunday morning that they had twelve tackles for loss

(13:19):
in seven sacks yesterday, you just said they turned over
Michigan State three times and they won by twenty five points,
and I would have agreed, But no takeaways. They have
thirty two sacks in the Big Ten or just excuse me,
thirty two sacks as a defense this season zero fumble
recoveries on those is so difficult to do that it's

(13:39):
kind of mind blowing to an extent. But yes, they
needed to get more points there before halftime. I know,
I'm all over the place, but that's also the type
of game that it was.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
A game that's the show today is.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
The offense left me and on the bone. The defense
did special teams was not very good again, Yet at
the end of the day, you win twenty three to twenty.
So yeah, if you would have told me that twenty
three to twenty I think I said twenty four to
twenty Gophers. Yeah, I'll be like, yeah, sure, okay, But
the journey, the journey was the everything. It wasn't just
how they got to the final destination. It was about

(14:14):
the journey.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Well, let's talk about the offense, because one of the
themes we were talking about on the broadcast was there
weren't many opportunities down the field. They weren't taking them,
and I'm obviously you know you're down Darius again, which
is unfortunately the story of the twenty twenty five season
for him. It seemed like every time they went down

(14:35):
the field it was either a contested catch that they
didn't come up with or they got a PI. And
they even did that in overtime, right, they got the
Olamechi Brockington PI. We'll talk about what is a pass
interference and what's not and can you actually say it's
a pass interference and then pick up the flag. That's
maybe I think segment number two. But it just seemed
like Burnsley. There were so many bubble screens, so many

(14:56):
tunnel screens, so many basically lateral passes.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
What did you make of that?

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Because this is a Michigan State defense that, as we know,
we talked about it all week parent A Sperr, you
talked about it on Gopher Gridiron. Joe Rossi had to
move from his perch in the press box next to
you down to the field because that's how poor the
Michigan State defense had been. And from the nine minute
mark in the first half to the final drive of
the game, the Gophers could do basically nothing. So what

(15:25):
was the what did you make of just their approach
and then obviously the execution or lack thereof.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
I'd say, I mean, it's not just one thing. And
one of the things that Fleck loves to talk about
with US media jackals is coaching.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Is it personnel? Is it scheme?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
I know a lot of people put a lot on
the scheme of the offensive coordinator Greg Harbo, and I'm
not telling you he's infallible. I think if there's two
things I learned from the game yesterday, if I would
have been Harbo, which I'm not, but the two changes
I would have made, I would have gone with more tempo.
You look at the at the end, at the end
of the game. There they were able to move the ball.

(16:02):
They had four second half punts until that final drive
that there were some gifts in there, certainly kicking it
out of bounds and then a face mask penalty on
the first play gets you across the fifty. Then you
didn't really do much to earn it. But that's the
beauty of the Big ten of times you don't always
have to earn it. I would have gone to more tempo,
try to find to get ways to get Drake lindsay

(16:25):
in a rhythm. And then the other thing I would
have gone back to is you saw the one long
run for Feme Edge Boy that was on gap scheme. Now,
Minnesota is historically under PJ. Fleck, a very zone heavy
scheme inside zone, mid zone, outside zone. So they hit
the home run a forty five yard gain or whatever

(16:45):
it was, and then they really didn't go back to it,
and I didn't really quite understand why. So if you
want to be after Harbo for that, sure, but I
also don't know how many other times we can just
continue to come back and say there the angry running
back deity of your choosing continues to smite the Gopher
running back room for the third straight odd year where

(17:07):
you're on RB three, RB four, your receivers refuse to
make it contested catch. They refuse to to create an
ounce of separation for Drake Lindsay And Drake wasn't great
to start the game. He was a little off, and
I think he settled in as the game went on.
And an offensive line that I think the epitome of
the run game continues to be. If you're the offensive

(17:29):
coordinator and you see six defenders in the box and
you got six hats in the box to block them,
you're thinking yourself, great, I should be able at least
get three four yards. Remember watching that in the fourth
quarter and Fama edge a boy got one yard when
they needed four. Right, So there's just not to me.
You are what you are at this point of the season.
We're now through was it three fourths of the way through?

(17:50):
This thing? Already? This thing flies even though yeah, like
I wrote after the game, it's like putting lipstick on
a pig at times, it.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Is what it is.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
It's just the offense can't sustain drives because they lack
explosive plays. They lack consistently or consistency. A lot of
key spots, but with the way that Rossi was playing
that yesterday against Drake Lindsay, who was a lot of
show this at the line and then they would drop
into something else, and it felt like Drake was a
half second off on how quickly he would normally read

(18:22):
and diagnose and get the ball out. And I think
that played a part in it. But for as much
for as many issues as Joe Rossi's defense has had,
we talked about this on parentis Bear. Part of it
is because their offense had been turning the ball over
in some horrendous field positions because Michigans defense is bottom
five in all of college football, and where they get

(18:44):
the ball as a defense, they had been constantly put
on short fields. Well, when your defense doesn't give you
the ball in that scenario for the Gophers, and then
the special teams continue to not give you anything in
the return game if ross team has to make you
go fifty yards every time, we saw that's why he
makes a copious amount of money now for the Michigan
State's spartans. Now, I don't know how for how much

(19:05):
longer he will continue to do that. We'll see what
the rest of today brings it into Monday because heat
rises and Michigan State is now zero to six in
the Big Ten, and that's the way that this thing goes.
I just think, for as much consternation as there is
about the offense, and they deserve it, they largely have
not been good. I think you just have to look
around and say, they are who they are at this point.

(19:27):
I think they were much more talented last season with
a healthy Darius Daniel Jackson, Elijah Spencer, an offensive line
that featured a second round draft pick at left tackle.
They just kind of are who they are this year
and they're taking their lumps, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
This is Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com and
the Kinetical Water Systems Hotline. We're reviewing a Gopher victory
over Michigan State in overtime yesterday, twenty three to twenty.
They're six and three, four and two in the Big Ten.
Let's before we pause, Burnsy, talk about Drake, because you
hit it. He was a little jumpy. He was, you know,
trying to get to his check down. Sometimes it was

(20:03):
just flat footed, just kind of flinging it out there.
You could tell he wasn't feeling great back there at
all times. Right, there wasn't I don't think of what
you would call like crazy pressures.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
All the time.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
I think technically there was only like one in the
first half, but you could tell it just wasn't clean
for him. He wasn't feeling clean. And then you get
the final drive where I've got him at six of
eight for thirty nine yards and one of those eight
I think was a pass interference there is and the
throat to Lamechi on third down that might be the
one contested catch, right, He's the one guy that seems

(20:36):
like can go grab it and get.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
It in the horrifically and they got it finally the
first contested catch one there.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, and you know credit to him because he you know,
you know, got hurt as well earlier in the game
and he draws the pass interference. He's kind of the
one consistent guy, which you would expect, right for a
guy that's been around for five years and has been
a part of some big moments. But I read what
you wrote it goverh Illustrated dot Com and I and
I am right there with you. And Adam Weber joined
my podcast this week, and he's right there with you

(21:04):
and Tanner Morgan a few weeks ago looked right into
the camera on the Fox pregame show and wanted to
like shake it Billy Madison style, like you guys seeing
what we're seeing here, Like this guy is gonna be good.
This guy is a dude, and he wasn't very good
yesterday for long stretches. The offense was that you just
mentioned it. And when he gets the ball down seven

(21:25):
gets the help obviously with the face mask and everything.
He brings him down the field and we'll talk about
the overtime touchdown as well, But we have a lot
of evidence that this guy knows what he's doing in
those spaces and is not afraid to go meet the moment.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
We know he has the tangible things with the ideal
size and the arm talent, but it's the intangible stuff,
the stuff that you can't teach where I think he
continues to shine and that's something that has to make
you optimistic for a freshman quarterback in the Big ten
where the moment when you needed him most, and I
have mentioned it earlier. They had four second half drives
before that final one of regulation. They hadn't done anything.

(22:03):
They punted the ball four times. They get a first
down here and there, but nothing Well. Drake finally gets
a contested catch win from l Matchy Brockington. He gets
the benefit of watching his tight end Jamison Gears get
absolutely eviscerated in the end zone, which was very funny
for me because I'm sure many of our listeners are
saying all they did on the TV broadcast yesterday, and

(22:26):
I can say this is somebody who watched some of
it from the press box.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Was show Joe ROSSI.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
I know that your mister narrative Street and you love
to you know, slap your suspenders against that barrel chest
to ears as you were taking a stroll. Yeah, they
leaned into it hard yesterday and he was irate, and
I'm thinking of us. I'm watching Jamison Gears get Essentially,
you have a daughter. This is going to be a
horrific analogy when you're giving her, as the kids would say, uppies.

(22:52):
You know, you're just trying to pick her up above
your head. That's what the guy does, and he didn't.
Tosses Jamison Gears and then Drake actually gets a two
yard sneak, which I thought was a great call where
they've been running out of eye formation the entire year
and they just left the a gap open and he
goes up in between it. Or even probably my favorite
part of the press conference from PJ after the game

(23:15):
was listening to I mean, what was the play call?
And he said, the offensive coordinator Greg Harbo goes thirty
four blasts, but Drake's going to keep it now. Drake
gave us the insight after the game that he doesn't
think that the coaches knew he could hear that initially, Well,
let me explain, because there was about twenty four to

(23:36):
twenty five seconds left on the playcock. Yeah, and they're
trying to get it down into him, but he's talking.
It's Harbo talking to Flex saying but we're going to
have him keep it. And so Drake told us he
was like, when I heard that, I got a little
jolt energy. And then when he gets the naked boot
on third and goal, which that that takes as let's
keep it PG for the kfan listeners on their drives

(23:57):
here Sunday morning, it takes some stones to call that
with a He has many things, but Drake Lindsay is
not fleetist to foot and the only thing I could
think of as I'm watching him try to win a
foot race of the pylon that he nearly steps out
before he gets across the line. I'm not convinced that

(24:20):
if the call on the field had been he was
out at the half yard line, that would have been overturned,
but because it was what it was. But as he's
trying to win the foot race, all I hear is
Chris Berman at halftime as he's running through the the
NFL games for that day, going rumbling, bumbling and stumbling
down the field. And that's that's the way it was.

(24:41):
But there's something to be said, and I think a
lot of the Iowa media has said it about Mark
Ronowski and for what he has done for that team.
For sure, Drake Lindsay is a winner. I think it's
not perfect at times, nor will it ever be for
a freshman quarterback. As you said, you had Adam Weber
on the podcast, and Adam Weber knows that better than anyone.
But when his team needed him most under two minutes left,

(25:04):
he led them all the way down the field and
then in overtime he makes the plays. Drake Lindsay did
a lot of things, and he did a lot of
things that weren't exactly great yesterday, but he didn't turn
the ball over.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
I was just going to say no turnovers, right, I mean,
he didn't. That's like in a game that both teams
tried to give to the other one fifty two times,
the freshman quarterback didn't do what he did last week,
which was press right and force balls into situations that
didn't need to They didn't need to be forced. And
it's not always pretty. Obviously it wasn't pretty. We mentioned

(25:36):
the gap in offensive productivity from the second quarter to
the fourth quarter. It was ugly, it was choppy. We
talked about a pregame that it might be a little
bit of a rock fight. But there's value in not
gifting the team the short field or not giving them
the momentum, you know, breaking turnover, whatever it is, and
that keeps you alive to make the plays that you

(25:58):
need to make at the end of the game.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
It does, and that's where I think there's a disconnected
times in this market. We all know vikings are king,
we all know that, and I think people take for
granted at times that NFL quarterbacks are so good at
taking care of the football well the guys in college
who are eighteen to twenty three years old have to
go through those learning curves, and largely outside of the
Iowa game where Drake had the three takeaways, he's not

(26:23):
giving the ball away and there is a lot of
value in that for a team that struggles to take
the ball away defensively. I mean, that's a huge part
of why they ended up winning the game yesterday. Yeah,
Michigan State shot themselves in the foot constantly, and we
can get into that in the second segment. But there's
so many ways to lose a football game in college football,

(26:44):
more than there are to potentially win. And because your
quarterback made the winning plays and part of winning plays
is not giving away the football, you're able to win
in overtime.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
This is Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com. You've
got a second segment with Burnsy. We're recapping the Gopher's
victory from Michigan State yesterday twenty three to twenty in overtime.
So a couple of things I've never seen before an
overtime game at Huntington Bank or TCF Bank Stadium. And
I also saw a pass interference penalty picked up after

(27:14):
it had been announced and the ball had been spotted
in the new spot. We're gonna start there when we
come back. This is a Gopher Football Sunday I'm the fan.
Welcome back to Gopher Football Sunday. Final segment of the
show one hour Sunday Sermons with Dan Barrero coming up
at nine o'clock, and then it's Vikings football. Pretty much
the rest of the day. They are in Detroit taking

(27:35):
on the Lions. The pregame show there starts at ten.
Kickoff from Ford Field, where I've been three times as
a Quick Laying Bowl slash Motor City Bowl veteran, starts
right after noon Burns he's been there as well. Ryan
Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com joining me here on
the Connecticot Water Systems hotline. All Right, we gotta talk.
If I'm if I'm Michigan State fans, I am. I'm

(27:57):
livid last night, I'm livid at a million different things,
but atop my list and I I'm curious what you
think about this. I've never seen I've never heard a
penalty called.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Spotted.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
And then the officials got together after By the way,
the replays on Huntington Banks stadiums, jumbo trons everywhere, and
they didn't I don't think replay because Carrie Brown, in
my opinion, it was very defensible to call some type
of holding or impeding the progress or the receiver right
on the play that we're talking about.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yes, in terms of grabbed either the towel or the shirt,
and that is what I believe the flag was on,
not at the end of the when.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
The throw was there.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
It was out of the break.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
From the way I understand it.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
So that's the difficult thing is is that what they
were doing, because that was also pretty late to call that.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
When that flag was thrown right, very much so.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
And so so I'm kind of like, maybe that wasn't
even what they were looking at because by the ball,
it wasn't even close. And that was what they showed
on the stadium jumbo tron. I don't know if they
showed it, if they showed what I saw in the
stadium gym trum was at and you're looking around, going,
how do they call that?

Speaker 2 (29:05):
That's ridiculous?

Speaker 1 (29:06):
And Pj's going nuts, And then all of a sudden
they all meet and they get together, even though both
teams and the rest and the ball have moved down
to like the two yard line. They go, yeah, never mind,
we're picking that up. No pass interference, and the rest
is history. They make the field goal, and of course
Minnesota draws a pass interference penalty on the Mecky Bronckett
in which I do think was the right call, but

(29:26):
I give them credit for calling it because it's got
to be a hard It's got to be hard to
call that after you've picked up the previous flag. So
I put it in the ledger of Minnesota got the
breaks yesterday. As I always say when we talk about this,
I still have a lifetime of receipts that I'm keeping
where we didn't get the breaks and any of our
fifty two sports that never win.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
But what did you make of that? Had you ever
seen that before? Because I didn't even.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Know you could do that, pick up the call after
it's been announced and you've already spotted the ball, so
i'd be I understand why Michigan State's mad. I understand
why they would be mad about that.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
I understand, yeah, I mean, I understand being mad. That's
the first time I've seen and now I've only been
on this planet or this giant floating rock in the
sky for thirty three years. But as I would attest
with you, I've seen that go the other way countless
more time. So to see the flag thrown, because that
was a huge spot, oh yeah, and absolutely massive spot.

(30:22):
It was third down. If you don't get that flag
which you saw of Michigan State's got to kick a
field goal, which with their kicker on the day was
no gimme, no guarantee. I don't know how much of it.
And this is where the human element comes into it
and its emotion, where Fleck was absolutely irate on the

(30:43):
sidelines there, and I don't know if that's what got
the referees to get together and say, I think maybe
we were wrong here. But to see them actually pick
up a flag in a massive spot of the game,
and not only just that, I'm glad you brought up
the Lamechi play the Gophers call a slot fade and
he gets maulled.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Now, I'd argue the GOP for receivers couldn't buy a
flag for large stretches of that game, and that played
an issue with the contested catches and things like that.
There's a lot of hand fighting, a lot of back
and forth and there were no flags being thrown, I
would just say, if you are going to throw the
flag for the Kerry Brown one, which I'm not disagreeing
that he yanked something, I don't know if that was

(31:24):
the white T shirt or the towel, whatever it was
that was yanked, but not call the ones earlier in
the game, because I think every listener and even yourself
would agree. I just want anything in sports with referees,
whether it's a Major league umpire with balls and strikes
or a Big Ten officiating crew, just be consistent and

(31:46):
to not call that and pick it up. I haven't
seen before in my extensive experience here covering this team.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
But.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
You know what, they are liable to get a break
every once.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
In a while.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Well, in my sympathy for Michigan State runs out pretty
quickly because, as you mentioned, the games are more lost
than one cliche that PJ brings up. Now it's really
come true this year, like in all these Big Ten
victories that Minnesota has, right, and there's a reason why
the teams that they've beaten are at the bottom of
the conference because people have noticed that obviously, right, that

(32:18):
Minnesota's beaten four of the worst teams in the conference
and Nebraska, who's you know, turning out to be pretty
solid and they dominated them. But it's really shown up
this year in my opinion, burns ey ten Michigan state penalties,
multiple face masks, and maybe the most egregious, they kicked
the ball out of bounds after they take the lead

(32:40):
under two minutes.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Like that's the stuff that just gets you beat.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
So I'm sympathetic to the officiating part of it because
I'm sure it's frustrating when that situation happens, and everybody,
you know, fans are always mad about calls. I'm mad
about calls. We argue about calls all the time. But
you know how many penalties did the Gophers have yesterday?

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Three or four?

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Like, it wasn't a lot, it wasn't a ton, and
they didn't have those backbreaking mistakes, something as preventable as
kicking the ball out of bounds on the kickoff for
the first time all day to jump start that drive.
PJ even said it to me in the post game.
He said, once it gets kicked out of bounds, Okay,
you've got great deal position, let's go. You mentioned the
face mask. All of a sudden You've done nothing. You've
made the other team do nothing, and they're already on

(33:21):
your side after they've been punting since about what three
point fifteen Central Standard time, right before our clocks jumped forward.
So that's where my sympathy runs out for Michigan State.
It's like, that's why you're owing six in the league
because of things like that. You are asking teams to
come back and beat you, even if they are not
forthright about wanting or having the ability to do that

(33:44):
as the game is going on.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah, it was just stupid penalties or even the first
offensive possession for Michigan State scoring and end around holding call.
Two plays later, it's on a busted coverage from Minnesota
and the receiver just drops it in the end zone.
So you have two touchdowns, one taken off by penalty,
one by your own error, and then you turn around
and get no points on the drive with a missed

(34:06):
field goal. You also missed the chip shot field goal.
And I know Fleck doesn't believe in momentum, and he
talks about that all the time. Say what you will
about it. As I watch Michigan State score their seventeenth
unanswered point and I'm looking around at the press box
thinking what am I watching? How is this game a
seven point lead for Michigan State. You don't think that

(34:27):
that ball and that wasn't even close. It's not like
the ball bounced near the front left pylon and just
went out that almost hit you at about the twenty
yard line. Yeah, like it was just a clear shank.
And then one play later you have Javon Tracy have
his face mass ripped and you haven't done anything and
you're gifted across the fifty. If you're trying to have
an offense build momentum, there's your recipe. I mean, just

(34:51):
different facets of every one of these games. And you
mentioned even back to the Purdue game, I felt like
I was watching a very similar game where they go
ers get out yardage by nearly two hundred yards, but
they didn't turn the ball over. They didn't make the
stupid mistakes when it matters. And that's another thing about
college football, is flex right when he says it, there

(35:13):
are more games that are lost with these eighteen to
twenty three year olds than they are one And just
because you were the recipient of that, as Minnesota has
been at home where they're now six and oho for
the first time since twenty nineteen at home. You shouldn't
have to apologize for that. I've watched enough of those
games and you and I can attest go the other way.

(35:33):
I can think of so many throughout the years. So
now be the beneficiary on multiple of these. That's how
you get to be four and two in Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Play well, and you look at the Big Ten yesterday.
This is a parent a spare topic for sure, but
there's two great teams in the Big Ten, right like Barnunn.
You look at Ohio State thirty eight fourteen over Penn
State Indiana again fifty five to ten. Yeah, Kurt Signetti says, oh,
you're gonna pay Matt Ruhle more than me. Okay, I'm
gonna go double nickel Maryland on the road. And what

(36:02):
people thought might be a tricky game, you know, we
mentioned Perdue. Everybody thinks that Purdue you know lost or win?
Was you know no good?

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Right? How do you get down to Purdue and how
do you win? Well?

Speaker 1 (36:12):
They hung with Michigan yesterday. They only lost by five points. Now,
was Michigan very good? I don't necessarily think so, but
it's kind of proving the point, and then USC goes
into Lincoln and knocks off Nebraska late last night twenty
one seventeen. Like, there's two great teams and then every
other team. To me kind of feels like you got
to survive it and find a way to figure it out.

(36:34):
And I know you spent time writing about this in
your takeaway article last night, Burnsy.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
I'm I don't think anybody should apologize for it.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
And I do think this is the new normal in
the league that it's not always going to be pretty,
it's not always going to be you know, perfect, It's
not always going to be Nebraska twenty four to six
right like it was two weeks ago. You just have
to hang on and survive and find a way to
make a few more plays and fewer mistakes than your
opponent does. In this big middle of the big time,

(37:06):
we can talk about how do you get to the
next level and how do you break through, and you know,
all of those things, but to just have a good,
solid season, you got to have kind of what they've
had at least at home this season.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, And I know that I'll step up to the
pulpit here on this Sunday morning.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
That's why I heat it up because I know you've
got thoughts and feelings.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Is I understand that the world just in general is
probably angrier than we've ever been, and many different facets
and social media, and you tell me all the time,
I spend way too much time on Twitter and the
different spaces, and it comes with the territory of being
a journalist in this day and age, especially covering sports
is interacting with people. But the amount of people I

(37:48):
continue to see even after a win yesterday, and I
said it in the first segment, it was like put
lipstick on a pig and it ain't pretty. But at
the end of the day, what is PJ. Fleck going
to be judge? It's wins and losses. What are people
going to remember in five years?

Speaker 2 (38:03):
It's what was his record?

Speaker 3 (38:05):
And what are they going to remember from this game
in six, twelve, eighteen months, Probably Drake Lindsay's stiff arm
and then the Rumble Bumble stumbled to the pylon there
to win in overtime. I know that you, myself and
many of the listeners will remember here in the short term.
You know that they blew the blew the lead in
the second half what like, I understand that this team,

(38:27):
if you want to talk about last year's team, they
were way more talented. I don't think anybody here is
disagreeing with that. They had six guys on that team
make fifty three man rosters in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
For go for football.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Plus they got a starter at Ohio State. Who is
I mean, that's one of the best things, one of
the best teams in college football. And if you want
to have a discussion about how in year nine is
this team look the way that they do talent wise,
I think that would be an entirely different segment, maybe
for a different day, but I don't think you can
say that this isn't among Fleck and his staff's best

(39:03):
coaching jobs, because if you think about this as a lemon,
they're getting every little drop that this team can have
to offer. Now, they've been the beneficiary of some nice
bounces here and there, and guess what they are liable
to do that in this wonky game that is college football.
I just have covered so many of these games where

(39:23):
I even think about the last overtime game that they
played and you were there with me and Evanston.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
They blew it.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Yeah, I mean they blew a twenty one point fourth
quarter lead and then lost in overtime, and they that
game was playing out pretty dang similar. You had this
double digit point lead in the second half, you blew it,
you came back, you forced overtime. I'm old enough to
even remember in the Fleck ten year going out to
Maryland and then missing an extra point to lose when

(39:49):
they had not exactly been the greatest of overtime teams.
Even though they've had some moments, they found a way
to win and their four and two. Do you know
how many fan bases in the Big ten would kill
to be four four and two in play right now?
I think I look around, there's still four winless teams
Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Purdue. You got Nebraska

(40:10):
who refuses to beat a ranked team. There's a lot
of different teams that if you would just want to
talk about pure talent. We said it coming into the season.
There's a reason that the win total for this team
in Las Vegas with six and a half, and there's
six and three with three games to go. Again, I
don't expect them to go out to Eugene, Oregon in

(40:31):
twelve days and pull a chakra on the Ducks. Now,
nothing surprises me in this day and age of parody.
But you've also got Northwestern, which will be a meat
grinder at fly the w Wrigley Field, and then you
get to face whatever is the corpse of Luke Fickles
team at the end of the season. If this team
somehow finds a way to go three and one in
the month of November, which they'll be favored against Wisconsin,

(40:52):
we'll see what the line is against Northwestern. You can't
not say it's not one of Flex's best coaching jobs.
But after a game, just specifically like yesterday, there's a
lot to be irritated, specifically if you want to look
at it through a microscope on offense, defense and special teams.
We've spent a lot of this show talking about it.

(41:12):
But if you zoom up from thirty thousand feet and
you look up and I told you on November two
that they're four and two in the Big Ten, and
you don't find joy in that. In this world that,
as I said, continues to be angry and angrier every day.
I mean, I just choose to find joy. I like
covering good football teams. They're four and two in the

(41:32):
Big Ten. I've seen a lot of bad Gopher football
teams in my time. Four and two in the Big
Ten is still foreign too in the Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I guess we can
call it a sermon. I guess it's I know that
Sunday sermons will turning up here. Next Sunday sermons is
coming up next. People should stay tuned for that here
in the next couple of minutes. But I appreciate that sermon.
I look at get you out of here on this.
So you mentioned Oregon's the next opponent. The Gophers have
a bye, So what do you think the objective should

(42:02):
be between now and then? Like there's you know, there's
not a million things you can fix. Obviously you want
to try to get some people healthy. But what would
you hope would improve here in the next twelve days
or so before they head out to Eugene.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
I think they have to figure out why they are
so horrific on the road. I mean, that's going to
be the thing is you have two of these last
three are on the road. Now, we can call Wrigley
Field technically a neutral site if we're trying to get
very nuanced with this, but they have been outscored one
hundred and ten to twenty on the road. There's a
reason they're own three. There's a lot of reasons on offense, defense,

(42:40):
and special teams while they're own three. And now you
have to travel to Eugene, Which if we're talking about
tiers of the Big Ten, I think Ohio State and
Oregon are in their own tier, but I think the
next tier is a tier by itself and then includes
the Oregon Ducks. Now, fortunately for your Golden Gophers, Oregon
has to travel to Iowa City this upcoming week and

(43:02):
then they have to come home on a short week
to play the Gophers. So if the Gophers can figure
out how to travel at all, like just at all,
just show up. I feel like they did in the
first ten minutes of the Ohio State game. You saw
that Wisconsin of all teams, a team that has no hope.
If you want to talk about just hopeless and abandonment,

(43:25):
I mean that is the Wisconsin Badger football team right now.
They're just they are soul searching like you wouldn't believe. Yep,
if they can show up in an organ you can
show up an Oregon. So that would be the thing
I would fix is if you're still going to end
this season surpassing expectations, you have to find a way
to play better on the road, and that starts an organ.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Hope, what did you call it? Hopeless? What hopeless? And
what abandonment?

Speaker 3 (43:53):
We're just throwing things together at this stage of the morning.
We'll sleep deprived, even with that extra hour.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Even with the fall back hopeless and abandoned.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
I'm not here to tell you my nomenclature. My vernacular
is one of yours or in the next man up
here for Sunday sermons. But I'm trying my best as
an East Metro kid.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Okay, yeah, it's a lot.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
It doesn't roll off the tongue like row the boat
sky Yuma and go Gophers.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
But hopeless abandonment I like that.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Thank you for never abandoning me on a Sunday, even
when we're doing it from a tarmac in Berkeley, California,
or whatever we've done this year. Enjoy the bye week, Burnsy.
We'll listen to you on Gopher grid Iron Radio. See
you Tuesday for parentispar and of course, read all of
your stuff at Gopher Illustrated dot Com.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Thank you, my friend, appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
That is Ryan burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com and
that is go for football Sunday. For this particular week,
the Gophers beat Michigan State twenty three to twenty in overtime.
Six and three. Now on the year, four and two
is Burnssey said in the Big Ten second bye week
time they've got Oregon Friday, November fourteenth. If you're looking
for a place to watch the Vikings game today, come
to Great Food Hall downtown Minneapolis North Loop. I'll be
there starting at noon. It's a fun time, great food,

(45:00):
awesome drinks, plenty of TVs. Would love to see you
at noon, and stay tuned for Sunday sermons with Dan Barrero.
He's coming up next