EVANSTON, ILL. – Another defensive stop. Or another first down won. That’s all the Gophers needed to win in regulation.
Instead, they blew a 21-point fourth-quarter lead to Northwestern, which got the game-winning 11-yard touchdown pass from Ben Bryant to AJ Henning with two seconds left in the fourth quarter Saturday night.
Then, in overtime, the Gophers settled for Dragan Kesich’s 20-yard field goal, and the Wildcats got a 25-yard touchdown pass on their first play of overtime on a throwback from Bryant to a wide open Charlie Mangieri for a 37-34 win before an announced crowd of 20,148 at Ryan Field.
“Completely unacceptable in the fourth quarter. Period,” Gophers coach PJ Fleck said.
The loss dropped the Gophers to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten, while Northwestern — a team that entered Saturday on an 11-game losing streak against Power Five opponents — dropped to 2-2 and 1:1 improved.
Bryant completed 33 of 49 passes for 396 yards and four touchdowns. His favorite target, wide receiver Bryce Kirtz, caught 10 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns, including an 80-yarder.
The Gophers got the ball first in overtime and reached the Wildcats’ 10-yard line when Athan Kaliakmanis ran off a 15-yard completion to Corey Crooms Jr. After Bryce Williams gained 7 yards on first-and-goal and 1 yard on second down, tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford couldn’t get Kaliakmanis’ pass near the goal line on third down.
“That ball to Brev, I should have put a better ball,” Kaliakmanis said.
The loss spoiled a big day for Gophers true freshman running back Darius Taylor, who completed 31 carries for 198 yards and two touchdowns. Kaliakmanis completed his first eight passes to give the Gophers a 24-7 halftime lead. The QB finished the game 14-for-19 for 191 yards and two touchdowns.
Taylor had his third straight 100-yard game at halftime and had 18 carries for 137 yards before halftime. He broke 41 yards for a field goal in the second quarter, broke a tackle on a fourth-and-1 and ran 43 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter for a 31-10 lead. Taylor left the game due to an undisclosed injury after his final carry. Fleck didn’t have an immediate update but said, “Hopefully it’s nothing serious.”
Taylor’s efforts wouldn’t be enough as the Gophers’ defense, hobbled by strong players in last week’s loss at North Carolina, collapsed in the fourth quarter. Minnesota gave up 169 yards in the fourth quarter and allowed the Wildcats to convert five of six third-down situations.
The comeback began when Cam Porter’s 1-yard TD run capped an 11-play, 75-yard drive that cut the lead to 31-17 with 12:01 left.
After the Gophers hit three points on offense, Northwestern needed just 39 seconds to cut the lead to 31-24 with 9:46 left in the game. Bryant connected with Kirtz for touchdowns of 21, 31 and 17 points.
Northwestern got the ball back with 6:12 left, but the Gophers forced the Wildcats to punt. Minnesota scored a first down on Kaliakmanis’ 19-yard option keeper, but no more. On third-and-2 from the Northwestern 36, Taylor was stopped for a 1-yard loss.
“As far as offense goes, we just have to keep going,” Kaliakmanis said. “Let it run.”
Faced with fourth and third passes, Fleck decided to punt. Quentin Redding was able to land the ball inside the 5, but instead drifted into the end zone and threw the ball up for a touchback.
“He’s really good at what he does,” Fleck said of Redding. “Unfortunately he just lost track of where he was.”
With 2:07 remaining and no timeouts remaining, Northwestern began its decisive drive. A facemask call to Gophers defensive end Jah Joyner moved the ball to Minnesota’s 48. A 16-yard pass on third-and-12 from Bryant to Thomas Gordon moved the ball to the 23.
Bryant then found Henning for 12 yards to the Minnesota 11 and fired the ball in with eight seconds left. Tyler Nubin and Tre’V Jones broke up a pass in the end zone to Johnson. Then Bryant hit Henning diagonally and equalized with two seconds left.
“Eyes in the wrong place, tackling, lack of communication – pretty much everything,” Fleck said of the reasons for the defensive failures.
Defensive end Danny Striggow added: “Football is a four-quarter game. You can’t expect to win a lot of games if you don’t play four quarters.”
Northwestern’s surge overshadowed a solid first half for the Gophers, who scored their first touchdown on a 9-yard pass from Kaliakmanis to Le’Meke Brockington after Minnesota defensive tackle Kyler Baugh forced and recovered a Wildcats fumble.
Early in the second quarter, the Gophers took a 14-0 lead after a nine-play, 68-yard drive capped by Taylor’s 1-yard run. The key play on the march was Crooms’ spectacular one-handed catch that gave the Northwestern 22 a 27-yard gain. Taylor then ripped off runs of 8, 5 and 8 yards.
The Gophers marched 72 yards in six plays and extended the lead to 21-0 on Kaliakmanis’ 18-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Jackson with 2:50 left in the half.
Northwestern quickly responded with Bryant’s 80-yard TD pass to Kirtz, who got behind Gophers cornerback Justin Walley and sprinted into the end zone to cut the lead to 21-7 with 2:06 left in the half.
The Gophers made the score 24-7 with 1:04 remaining in the half on Kesich’s 50-yard field goal, set up by Taylor’s 41-yard run and an 8-yard gain by Kaliakmanis that capped a Wildcats Defender overwhelmed.
Afterwards, Fleck said his team had to regroup quickly.
“Very disappointing, incredibly disappointing,” he said. “I mean, that’s one that hurts.”