EVANSTON, Ill. — Leading 10-0, Northwestern’s offense exerted its will on the Gophers defense with consecutive scoring drives in the third quarter. The drives spanned 25 plays, 137 yards, munched more than 11 minutes off the clock and resulted a 20-0 lead.
“They had the ball forever,” Gophers coach Jerry Kill said. “Six minutes to go in the third quarter, we hadn’t touched the ball yet.”
The Gophers defense allowed 20 points in the Wildcats’ 27-0 win, with Northwestern’s final touchdown coming on a 13-yard fumble return by linebacker Anthony Walker in the fourth quarter.
On that 19-play drive to start the third, Minnesota forced Northwestern to kick a 23-yard field goal.
“That was a good morale boost for us,” said Gophers safety Adekunle Ayinde, who had a team-high-tying nine tackles.
Then Northwestern punched in a touchdown on the ensuing drive, with Clayton Thorson’s quarterback sneak from a yard out.
“We just made some mistakes on those long drives, you know, kind of shot ourselves in the foot,” said Gophers linebacker Jack Lynn.
Lynn had about 50 to 60 supporters from his hometown of Forest Lake, Ill., which is about 30 miles northwest of Evanston. He finished with eight tackles and two tackles for lost yardage.
“Just trying to fly around, have fun, that’s the main highlight,” Lynn said.
Northwestern running back Justin Jackson was a thorn in the side of the Gophers defense. He rushed for 120 yards, about 10 yards south of his season average. His long rush of the day, a 31-yard run, set up the third-quarter touchdown drive.
“He’s a physical guy,” Lynn said. “He makes really good cuts.”
After those third-quarter drives, Minnesota’s defense ran out of gas. To start the fourth, they gave up consecutive plays of nine, 14 and 11 yards before Kill called a timeout to give them a breather.
Overall, Minnesota’s defense allowed 184 rushing yards, a 3.6-yards-per-carry average and 128 passing yards to Thorson.
In the end, the Gophers’ defense couldn’t help out the offense with a turnover. It was the third consecutive game without a takeaway.
“We tried to, because as much as we can say, ‘the offense this, the offense that,’ we got to help them out as much as we can,” Ayinde said.
Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/andgreder
