The Minnesota Golden Gophers season has new life. On Saturday afternoon in Iowa City, the Golden Gophers behind a tremendous defensive effort defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 12-10.
Minnesota in the game kept Iowa to just 127 total yards of offense, including just 11 rushing yards, completely suffocating the Hawkeyes on the ground. Through the air, the Gophers held Iowa quarterback Deacon Hill to just 10-of-28 for 116 yards. Minnesota's defense also forced Hill to throw an interception on the Hawkeyes final offensive drive before Justin Wally stepped in, to seal the victory.
The Hawkeyes were the first to get on the board in the first quarter with an 11-play, 70-yard drive to open the game, finishing the drive off with a 23-yard field goal from Drew Stevens.
The Golden Gophers would answer back before the end of the first quarter, making it a 3-3 game on a Dragan Kesich 43-yard attempt. Prior to halftime, the Hawkeyes would have one of the better drives of the game, going 46 yards on six plays that was capped off by a Deacon Hill 1-yard touchdown dive to give the Hawkeyes a 10-3 lead.
Coming out of half, the Golden Gophers would narrow Iowa's lead to 10-6 with a 13-play, 64-yard drive, ending in a 44-yard field goal by Kesich. It was a drive that gave the offense just enough confidence for the remainder of the game while also giving confidence for the Gophers offense. The Gophers defense in the second half was terrific, keeping Iowa to just 12 yards in the second half including -8 rushing yards.
Joe Rossi's unit forced four three-and-outs in the second half and two turnovers, the latter being an interception on Iowa's final drive.
The Golden Gophers would later cut Iowa's lead to 12-9 with 2:25 remaining in the third quarter on Kesich's third field goal of the day, this time a 28-yard attempt. That score was setup by a sack-fumble caused by Tyler Nubin and recovered by linebacker Devon Williams that set Minnesota up at Iowa's 11-yard line.
In the fourth quarter, Minnesota would take the lead on a fourth field goal from Kesich, a 31-yard attempt, making it a 12-10 lead with 8:33 remaining.
Late in the fourth quarter with just over a minute and half left, it had appeared that the Golden Gophers were going to leave Iowa City without a win as Hawkeyes superstar, Mr. Do-It-All Cooper DeJean had returned a Mark Crawford punt for a touchdown, giving the Hawkeyes the late lead.
However, after review, the referees had ruled that DeJean made a fair catch signal. Whether or not he did, is up to interpretation. That being said, the reversed call would instead put Iowa at Minnesota's 46-yard line. The Gophers would immediately push Iowa even further back on the very first play of the drive thanks to a Danny Striggow sack. Two plays later, Justin Walley would intercept a Deacon Hill pass at Minnesota's 44-yard line to seal the win.
Less than a minute later, Minnesota would be running to the Floyd of Rosedale trophy and will be taking it home to Dinkytown for the first time in eight years. It was also their first win in Iowa City since 1999.
UP NEXT
The Minnesota Golden Gophers now 4-3 on the season, have new life and will take on the Michigan State Spartans next weekend at home. The Spartans are set to take on the Michigan Wolverines this evening.
============================
- Talk about it INSIDE GOPHER NATION.
- SUBSCRIBE TO LOGoldenGophers
- Follow us on Twitter: @MinnesotaRivals, @AlexCarlsonTGR, @SeanW_Rivals, @DylanCC_FB,, @GopherKaneRob, @LOGoldenGophers
- SUBSCRIBE to The Gopher Report.
