This was the first time that a team tried to shut down our passing game.  Up until this time, teams were stacking the line and trying to make us beat them with the pass.  But the Minnesota coaching staff was smart enough to realize three things:  1) that wasn’t going to work any better than it did for the other four teams we had played thus far, 2) Minnesota’s secondary was overmatched, and 3) the OSU running game was just a little bit questionable with Chris Wells’ ankle injury from the NW game and our not having Brandon Saine. 

It didn’t work, in that we beat them 30 to 7, but it was clear from the outset that Minnesota had only a lotto player’s chance at winning that game, and that we were superior in all facets of the game. 

OSU’s offensive line did a good job opening up holes for Chris Wells and Maurice Wells.  When Chris Wells was in, the Gophers tried to shut down the inside and make him run outside.  I fancy that his ankle made him a little less effective than usual in this endeavor, but that could be reading too much into it on my part.  When Maurice Wells was in, they tried to take away the outside and make him run inside.  They were pretty effective in this, but Maurice still got his yards, both to the outside and the inside.  All in all, it was a well thought out defensive plan that frustrated our offense on many occasions.

The line gave Boeckman a lot of time to throw, but there were fewer people open this game than in the past four.  I was encouraged to see Boeckman sailing the ball well out of bounds in certain risky situations rather than trying to force a play.  It led to some punts, but we usually got the ball right back in strong field position.  There were still two underthown long balls, both of which led to pass interference calls when the DBs ran into the OSU WR as he slowed down, but I would have rather seen the WRs hit in stride.  Other than that, Boeckman put on a very solid performance, and took a few steps forward in the game (one very nice step forward to make a DE miss in the backfield).

I can’t finish this post without complimenting the punter for Minnesota.  Ray Small looked very dangerous on the first return of the game, and ever after that, their punter was smart enough to take about five yards distance off of his punts in favor of hang time, and time after time his cover people got to Small at the very instant he was able to catch the ball.  It completely took Small out of the game on the punt returns.  The one time we put only Hartline in to receive, the punter for Minnesota went back to his old tricks of kicking the ball long, and Hartline ripped off a nice return.  But all told, that punter knew what he was doing, and did it very well.

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