MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -When Minnesota lost at home to Northwestern on the last play of the game two weeks ago, it was easy to brush it aside as some kind of fluke. Then came a 29-6 thumping at the hands of a bad Michigan team on Saturday.
Now, it appears the Gophers (7-3, 3-3 Big Ten) are in danger of letting a surprising 7-1 start slip away.
They walked into their homecoming game against the Wildcats as one of the Big Ten’s darlings, a team that went 1-11 a year ago but suddenly had dreams of a New Year’s Day bowl game dancing in their heads.
After two straight losses, and with games at Wisconsin and at home against Iowa to finish up the schedule, they just want to stop the slide.
Quarterback Adam Weber knows the team is entering shaky territory.
“It can spiral out of control. You can start getting some locker room politics,” Weber said. “We’ve never had that before and we’re not going to have it. That falls on our leaders in the locker room.
nting fingers. It’s easy to second-guess. What’s hard is to own up and admit that we all played bad (Saturday) and own up that we’re a team and we’re not just individuals. I know we’re not going to allow that to happen at all.”
The Gophers had their worst offensive performance of the Tim Brewster era against the Wolverines, who entered the game last in the nation in scoring and passing defense.
Weber managed a career-low 114 total yards. What’s worse, star receiver Eric Decker bowed left the game in the second quarter because of an ankle he sprained against Northwestern.
Without the Big Ten’s leading receiver in the lineup to take attention off the rest of Weber’s targets, the Gophers were unable to move the ball.
Minnesota had just one first down in the first half, and its defense suffered for it, getting worn down by Michigan’s physical front.
Now, Brewster has to make sure the locker room stays together and confronts the adversity.
“We’re a 7-3 team because we’ve made improvements and we’ve come together and gotten close,” Brewster said. “We’re going to stay close. We’re not going to finger-point. We know where we need to improve. We just have to go out there and do it.”
r play up front.
“He’s an extremely talented football player and when he’s not on the field we miss him,” Brewster said of Decker. “But the other 10 guys have to do a better job.”
The coach pledged to stay positive during practice this week to try and inject some much-needed confidence into a shaken team.
Defensive end Willie VanDeSteeg took the same approach after the game, preferring to look at the bright side of how far his team has come since last season’s nightmare.
“Shoot, we’re 7-3. We were 1-11 last year. Who thought we were even going to do what we’re doing now?” VanDeSteeg said. “We have to stay positive. There’s a lot of good football to play and we’re still fighting to get to a good bowl game. That’s what it’s all about.
“You have to keep reminding people that it’s not over for us. There’s no question that we’ll bounce back.”
After last season, the Gophers know how quickly things can go from bad to worse.
Weber said he is going to do his best to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“When things go bad, things seem to get worse,” he said. “And that’s on any team I’ve been on, in any sport you play. If someone doesn’t step up or man up and become a leader and make a play, things tend to spiral out of control.”
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