In Review: Minnesota 38-35 Fresno State (OT)

Minnesota and Fresno State have no arrangements to play each other again in the future, and it's probably best for everyone's health that they take a break.

Despite repeatedly making mistakes against a tough opponent, the Gophers survived the Valley. Last year's game was decided by an interception on the Bulldogs' final drive, and so was this year's — and the same player made the interception. Whatever forces gave the Gophers the win Saturday night — talent, strategy, luck, fate, famous relatives — they needed all of them to continue the nation's longest non-conference winning streak and stay undefeated.

There was a lot to unpack in this game, but we must try to unpack it all anyway.

1. Antoine Winfield Jr. is the playmaker this defense needs.

Has Winfield had a perfect first two games? Definitely not; you can find tackles he missed against both South Dakota State and Fresno State, including on the Bulldogs' third-quarter two-point conversion.

But when the defense needs someone to make a big play, Winfield is often the one who makes it.

2. Minnesota gave Fresno State several opportunities to stay in the game, and Fresno State took advantage of those opportunities.

If you thought that was the sloppiest game of P.J. Fleck's tenure as head coach, you might have been right. Bad snaps, drops, fumbles, drive-extending penalties, and missed tackles made this a maddening game to watch. It was more frustrating knowing that the Gophers usually don't have games like this.

I wanted to see how Saturday night compared to other games since Fleck came to Minneapolis, so I created a simple statistic adding up all a team's fumbles, interceptions, and penalties. I named it the Sloppiness Index and looked at the numbers for all 27 Gopher games since 2017. Here are the five sloppiest:

Sure enough, Saturday's win over Fresno State ranks as the sloppiest of Fleck's tenure. On TV, he looked as angry as I've ever seen him.

A key Fleckism is that "the ball is the program". Protecting the ball is a priority for Fleck (and so many other coaches) because nothing affects the outcomes of games the way turnovers do. Turnovers are pretty random (especially fumble recoveries), but turnover opportunities are not. If you fumble the ball, you are more likely to give away the ball.

The Gophers fumbled five times officially (and should have been credited with one more). Almost every time they did was costly.

Mohamed Ibrahim fumbled first. Ibrahim didn't lose the ball once in 2018, but he's already done so twice this season. This time, Minnesota lost the ball in the red zone.

Tanner Morgan fumbled the next two times. The first, a strip-sack at the end of the half, stayed with the Gophers. The second, punched out on a scramble just inside Fresno State territory, did not.

After Minnesota tied the game at 21 early in the fourth quarter, the defense forced a three-and-out. However, Morgan and the offense never got the ball. Demetrius Douglas muffed the punt as blocker Justus Harris backed into him, and the ball bounced directly into Justin Rice's chest. The Bulldogs scored a touchdown on the ensuing free possession.

Two snaps hit the ground on Minnesota's game-tying drive. The first, in Seth Green's only Wildcat appearance of the game, was center Conner Olson's fault. The second was a little low, but Tanner Morgan deserves the blame for dropping it. Each play cost the Gophers yardage.

This wasn't officially a fumble, for some reason.

In addition to repeatedly fumbling, the Gophers kept the Bulldogs alive with horribly timed penalties on each side of the ball. Penalties generally don't have a major impact on a game, but if they happen often enough and at the wrong times, they can kill a team's chances.

While Fresno State failed to convert a third-and-22, Tai'yon Devers and his blocker wrestled a mile away from the play, and Devers incurred a 15-yard facemask penalty by throwing him to the ground. The Bulldogs scored a touchdown on the drive. Instead of getting a chance to extend their lead to 18 points going into halftime, the Gophers saw that lead trimmed to 4.

They opened the next drive with a delay of game, putting them behind the chains from the start of what became a three-and-out.

During the second half's opening drive, Jordan Howden was called for holding on third down. Instead of punting, he Bulldogs subsequently drove another 66 yards and kicked a field goal.

At the end of the third quarter, the Gophers had another drive start with a procedural penalty, this time a false start.

The Gophers' last drive of regulation featuring a holding call on Daniel Faalele to negate a 12-yard gain on third down.

It was an embarrassingly sloppy game that almost cost Minnesota a win. Somehow, they survived.

3. Minnesota's linebackers had play-action problems again.

Last week, South Dakota State scored a touchdown on a play-action wheel route that took Braelin Oliver out of the play. Though a block in the back negated the touchdown, the play showed that the Gophers' linebackers are susceptible to play action and not able to keep up with faster players.

Fresno State offensive coordinator Brian Grubb tried to exploit that weakness, targeting Thomas Barber with a similar playcall.

On this play, the Gophers showed Cover 2, with both Jordan Howden and Winfield sitting deep.

However, it was actually Cover 1 man, with Winfield taking the middle of the field and Barber playing the "robber" while everyone else had a man to cover. Martin had the slot receiver on the right. Howden was over Jared Rice, who is flexed to the left. Nickel back Chris Williamson had tailback Ronnie Rivers.

When the slot receiver went in motion, the assignments shifted. Martin became the robber; Barber was man-to-man on Rivers; and Williamson took the motioning receiver.

When the receiver crossed in front of Reyna, Reyna flashed a quick fake, which caused Barber to step up while Rivers went by him on a wheel route. Meanwhile, Williamson came down to follow his swinging man into the flat. Howden followed Rice on a post, and Winfield moved to help.

Rivers had a running start on Barber, who isn't as fast. The safeties worried about Rice's post, leaving an open space for Rivers. The play developed just quickly enough for Reyna to throw before Winston DeLattiboudere could hit him.

On another red zone play in the third quarter, Barber could not keep up with Rice on a corner route. Fortunately for Minnesota, Reyna overthrew his tight end with Carter Coughlin in his face.

Throughout the game, Joe Rossi deployed Martin and Oliver as the two linebackers in obvious passing situations. Perhaps the lankier Oliver will provide some speed that Barber lacks, but the redshirt freshman's inexperience could lead to some mistakes.

4. Boye Mafe hasn't made a tackle this season, but he played a crucial role in two plays on Fresno State's last drive of regulation.

On second down, he dominated right guard Quireo Woodley and nearly sacked Reyna, forcing him from the pocket. Reyna could only scramble for 2 yards.

Ignore that Mafe put his hand in Reyna's facemask. (The officials did.)

On third down, Mafe bull rushed through right tackle Syrus Tuitele and again hit the quarterback. This time, he disrupted the throw and gave Williamson a chance at an interception.

The Bulldogs might not have scored on this drive, but Mafe's efforts made sure they didn't.

5. The Gophers got to the quarterback more than they did in Week 1.

Coughlin got his first sack of the year without doing anything fancy or making any moves on tackle Dontae Bull. He just was too fast for Bull.

Sam Renner's sack was not too different: He outperformed his blocker, and that was it.

The Gophers' other two sacks of the night were more interesting, however.

Rossi has called some blitzes for his defensive backs in these first couple games. Here, he sent Williamson and Barber from one side while Coughlin twisted from the other, overloading the offensive line. Williamson took advantage.

Against South Dakota State, Winfield had a chance to bring down J'Bore Gibbs in the backfield but jumped instead of tackling him. Gibbs scrambled for a first down.

Against Fresno State, however, Winfield didn't miss.

Minnesota also got burned by a safety blitz in the fourth quarter. Winfield came down from the secondary, and Jared Rice ran into the space he normally occupies on a delayed route, scoring a go-ahead touchdown.

But that can happen when you leave five defenders to cover five receivers. I like that Rossi is calling these blitzes, especially for positions that don't often blitz. Coughlin is the only consistent pass rusher on the Gopher D-line, so if the Gophers can bring more pressure from different places on the field, I can accept the occasional time it backfires.

6. Rashod Bateman and Tyler Johnson combined for 11 catches for 186 yards on 14 targets.

Last week, Johnson had an underwhelming game, and Bateman stepped up. Bateman led the Gophers in both targets and receptions again Saturday, but it was more of a joint effort from the team's leading receivers.

Kirk Ciarrocca got Johnson involved in other ways (more on that later), but Johnson got the bulk of his yards with routes that he has done well on before: slants and a comeback.

Bateman's catches had a little more diversity. His first was on a slant (off of a run-pass-option):

He scored Minnesota's first touchdown crossing the field on a shallow route from the slot out of an empty set.

And he made one of the game's biggest catches on this dig (Morgan's best throw of the night):

Johnson and Bateman have 41 percent of the Gophers' targets this year — which is down significantly down from their combined 69 percent target rate last year, but it's early enough to expect that figure to climb with more data. Those two remain this offense's preferred weapons in the passing game. They continue to come through.

7. This space is reserved for absurd touchdowns by Gopher receivers.

After Rashod Bateman's one-handed catch last week, Chris Autman-Bell put forth this early submission for Minnesota's catch of the year. On 4th-and-13 and with the game on the line, there's probably a better option than a contested fade to the back pylon. But as Fleck explained in his post-game press conference, Fresno State was going to take away Bateman and Johnson, which left Autman-Bell one-on-one with a shorter defender. Morgan and Autman-Bell executed it perfectly.

8. Morgan's running ability and skillful play fakes make read option, play-action, and run-pass options more viable in the Minnesota offense.

Morgan doesn't always take the ball when he should on read option, but he makes the defense account for him by delaying the handoff for as long as he can to freeze backside defenders.

This isn't his finest work (and I don't think there is a read), but you can see how the safety and middle linebacker each committed to stopping Morgan on the edge. His mobility makes him a threat.

Here, Morgan maybe should have run it himself, but you can see how long he waited to actually give Ibrahim the ball. Ibrahim got past the crashing linebacker easily and picked up 14 yards.

And on the crucial touchdown in overtime, Morgan made the perfect read. Tight end Jake Paulson left the outside linebacker unblocked to block down with the O-line. When that linebacker chose Ibrahim, Morgan pulled the ball away and scored.

9. Ciarrocca introduced a new wrinkle to the offense: fly sweeps to Johnson.

Early results are mixed, but Ciarrocca only called two of these plays. The first would have gone for more yards with better blocking; you can see space downfield for Johnson to run to the sideline. (Pulling guard Blaise Andries and tight end Jake Paulson both failed to account for the linebacker who made the tackle.) The second was good for an 8-yard gain.

With defenses devoting so much attention to Johnson as a route-runner, it makes sense that the Gophers would look for different ways to get him the ball. He's quick and agile enough for this to be a good addition to the offense.

10. After missing a PAT (albeit one moved back by a penalty) in his first college game, Michael Lantz was error-free in his second.

I usually do not speculate about aspects of sports I cannot observe. I see no point in trying to psychoanalyze athletes from a distance when I have never met them and when I usually watch them through a TV screen. Often, high-level athletes fail and succeed for no other reason than that sometimes they fail, and sometimes they succeed — and their opponents sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. There does not have to be any deeper meaning in any single action or performance on the field. Athletes train to think less than they do to react. Their emotions and thoughts become less of a factor as they continue training and playing.

But Lantz deserves some extra credit for making an important, hardly automatic field goal in double overtime — and hitting all five of his extra point attempts — in front of more than 34,000 people while two time zones away from home. (He was three time zones away from his hometown, Fayetteville, Georgia.) It was a big night for the true freshman.

Next Game

Hopefully, Gopher fans can relax a bit this Saturday, when Georgia Southern visits Minneapolis. The Eagles were entirely dominated by LSU in Week 1 and then held on for a win against Maine last week in Statesboro despite fumbling seven times and facing a late Black Bears surge.

If starting quarterback Shai Werts can play, Southern shouldn't look as sloppy. If he cannot, backup Justin Tomlin is still a dangerous ballcarrier, even if the redshirt freshman is a bit rusty running the option.

Against an Eagles defense with a small front seven, an inexperienced safety group, and a scheme that concedes space near the line of scrimmage to prevent big plays, the Gophers should have success running the ball and throwing quick passes.

Southern won 10 games last season and should not be overlooked, but they likely do not have the athleticism to keep up with a Big Ten opponent. If Minnesota plays a cleaner game, they will be 3-0 going into the bye week.