Gophers Notebook: Louisiana-Lafayette 24-35 Minnesota

The Minnesota offense looked like a Minnesota offense — in a (mostly) good way. If P.J. Fleck could run the ball 50 times every game, you get the sense that he would. When his team gashes the opponent at a 55.3-percent rushing success rate, Fleck's head looks like it's in the right place.

The Gophers were down budding star Darius Taylor but didn't need him to overpower the Ragin' Cajuns. Zach Evans, the intriguing redshirt freshman, made his 2023 debut and was excellent as Minnesota's lead tailback. Evans averaged 5.7 yards per carry with outstanding vision, acceleration, and balance.

Sean Tyler's reintroduction was also positive, if less impactful. Bryce Williams will always have the coaches' trust, having been with the program since Rodney Smith was still on the roster, but Evans made a strong case to at least be the No. 2 once Taylor returns. Whatever happens, to have such depth at the position and the chance to implement a legitimate four-back rotation makes for a rare privilege.

Some chronic problems persisted, of course. Athan Kaliakmanis only threw the ball 14 times despite putting together a solid game, which is more of a big-picture concern but proved immediately problematic when the Gophers kept running into stacked boxes. Fleck and his offensive coordinators came out of a lengthy commercial break with seemingly no plan for their end-of-half 2-minute drill, using nearly a minute to run three plays. Kaliakmanis threw an atrocious interception before halftime, impatiently overthrowing Corey Crooms while also not leading him away from the deep safety in center field.

But in many ways this was an ideal execution of Fleck's typical offense. The Gophers were bigger and stronger up front, they took advantage of their talent in the backfield, and the passing game was highly efficient. What's more: the Gophers' short-yardage approach, at least for one day, looked evolved. Fleck went for all three 4th downs that he faced in opposing territory with 3 or fewer yards to go. He's shown flashes of aggressiveness before when his team has a advantage on the line, but a day like this counts as a major departure from tendency. Fleck has a long way to go to show he's changed, but it was nevertheless refreshing to see him do the right things on 4th down in this game.

What was most interesting was not Fleck's decisions, however, but those of his playcaller. On 3rd-and-1 in the first quarter, offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh went back to a Minnesota staple: trotting out backup and Wildcat quarterback Cole Kramer to run the ball out of shotgun. It didn't work. The Cajuns clustered eight men around the line of scrimmage, and a couple of them came from the back side to catch Kramer from behind.

On the next possession, the Gophers again faced 3rd-and-1 from their own territory. But rather than bring Kramer back, use their heavy package, or line up in an I-fomation, they stayed with basic 12 personnel: one running back, two tight ends, two wideouts. Kaliakmanis had his line break the huddle in a hurry, and they came out in this:

Rather than wait to let the Cajun defense get set (which they are all too willing to do in normal situations), the Gophers snapped as soon as they could. The two tight ends pushed Kaliakmanis ahead for an easy conversion. A few plays later, they scored.

Harbaugh later called for this sneak again on 4th-and-goal. It was again successful.

Minnesota had already been on board with the fad of pushing their quarterback from behind. Their established method had a couple flaws, however. The first flaw was a tell, where the tight end's motion gave away whether the sneak was coming and how soon the ball would be snapped. The other flaw was that the quarterback's initial push off the snap only came from one player, which against an powerful defensive front may be inadequate. Last November, Wisconsin showed how a little film study and a nose tackle like Keeanu Benton could negate the advantages of the play design.

Two keys to a successful sneak are the surprise and the amount of push the quarterback is getting. An offense can achieve both by snapping the ball quickly and and using multiple pushers. As the Eagles have shown in the NFL, this version of the "tush push" is exceedingly hard to stop. Now that they've cribbed the play, all the Gophers need now is their own nickname for it.

But as often as they went back to that play, it was not the only way Minnesota attacked these situations. Kramer's "Krispy" package returned on 3rd-and-short, even after its initial failure. Kaliakmanis ran a sneak without any pushers, and Bryce Williams got goal line carries from both the I-formation and the shotgun. In the fourth quarter, Harbaugh forewent running the ball at all, calling a well-timed pop pass to put the game out of reach.

The overall point is that Minnesota showed a lot of different ideas for short-yardage spots. That they've had success with all of them (especially with their new sneak) could encourage a more aggressive 4th down approach, force opponents to account for a larger array of possibilities, or just mean they will be more effective when they only need a yard or two to convert. Considering how things looked a few weeks ago, this is a positive development.

The Cajuns' traditional run game was mostly pedestrian. This is an area where we should expect the Gophers to generally perform well. The Gophers have fielded a great run defense for years, a product of both good players and a philosophy that prioritizes shutting down the run.

Even taking into account Jacob Kibodi's 52-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter and a few other bad plays, Minnesota held their opponents to a 26.9-percent success rate on the ground. That's easily the lowest mark they've allowed this season far below UL-Lafayette's usual level of efficiency: In each of their first three games, the Ragin' Cajuns more than doubled that mark,. This is an offense that usually runs the ball well, and they did not remotely look like it.

Anthony Smith and Jack Henderson were two of the day's best performers. You can see how they contributed on the below play, where the two were responsible for shutting down a Zeon Chriss sweep. Smith pushed back left tackle Nathan Thomas into the backfield, despite giving up about 50 pounds in the matchup, and stayed on Thomas' outside shoulder. Henderson, meanwhile, furiously came down to meet the lead blocker and set the edge. Chriss couldn't go outside of Henderson into the flat. Smith fought off Thomas. The two combined for the tackle. Even if they'd missed, a couple teammates were there to clean up.

Gap discipline, aggressively rallying to the ball, and sound tackling are what have made the Minnesota run defense so effective for so long. This group is still a bit behind previous ones. Maverick Baranowski is getting better every week but still is well short of the injured Cody Lindenberg's standard; it was Baranowski's missed tackle that led to Kibodi's explosive run. Darius Green and Devon Williams are still getting up to speed as first-time starters. Opponents rarely go backwards running the ball and still have yet to come up short on a "power" run attempt. There is plenty of room for improvement. At the same time, the Gophers had a good showing that hints at this group's potential.

Chriss' running gave the Ragin' Cajuns a boost. This is an area where we are used to the Gophers struggling. Jeff Sims and Drake Maye caused the Gophers problems as runners earlier in 2023, and other passers did the same in 2022. They have not always struggled to maintain rush lanes and contain a mobile quarterback, but right now, the Gophers do.

Chriss was the latest player to demonstrate that. By Pro Football Focus' tracking, Chriss faced pressure on 14 of his 30 dropbacks, even while not facing much of a blitz. Despite getting into the backfield so often, the Gophers could only sack Chriss one time, and he scrambled for 44 yards. Additionally, the Gophers' edge rushers couldn't chase Chriss down when ULL moved the pocket. He had ample time to make plays.

Even though designed quarterback runs were a mixed bag (and sometimes defended very well), it's clear that the Gophers still have trouble with dual-threat quarterbacks.

It was an impressive showing for ULL's redshirt freshman. In addition to his running, Chriss showed again the flaws in the Minnesota pass defense. Even so, the Gophers rebounded. No individual player deserves the most blame for the first half, since everyone in the secondary got caught flat-footed at points — even the best player on the team.

After making into the red zone on their opening drive, Cajuns receiver Peter LeBlanc ran a deep crosser and got past Tre'Von Jones. Tyler Nubin dropped to help out, but he turned the wrong way and lost the ball, which allowed LeBlanc to make an uncontested (but still difficult) touchdown catch.

In the second half, Minnesota cleaned up a bit. The pass rush became more effective, not registering a sack but getting into Chriss' face more. Coverage downfield got a bit stickier, and Chriss' line after halftime was a poor 5-for-13 with 71 yards and two interceptions. It wasn't a perfect 30 minutes (Green allowed a 32-yard completion to Jacob Bernard), and concerns about the secondary remain after the first half and the disaster at Northwestern. But unlike at Northwestern, the pass defense was key to closing out the game.

It didn't cost Minnesota too dearly, but the special teams unit was a bit shaky. I don't want to pick on Quentin Redding (or any other player for that matter), but he has made bad errors in back-to-back weeks that have cost the Gophers field position. As the first Cajuns kickoff of the day sliced toward the boundary, Redding fielded the kick within 5 yards of his own end zone and stepped out of bounds. Fleck suggested after the game that Redding's head might have been in the right place, since if he had jumped to make the catch, he could have landed out of bounds and forced an illegal kickoff penalty against ULL. It was a quick decision in an unusual situation that Redding probably doesn't practice much, and he didn't get right.

Another return error could have hurt Minnesota far more than it did: When ULL tried an onside kick in the fourth quarter, Nubin muffed it. The ball kept going past him and into the arms of Coleman Bryson, fortunately, but Nubin could have given the Cajuns a lifeline if there was a bad bounce.

Mark Crawford also had a disappointing day. He had two punts from inside his own 15 yard-line, and they each only barely cleared midfield. In situations he needed more distance, he was short. And when he needed precision, he was too long: Crawford's one other punt of the day went 52 yards for a touchback.

Not that it was an entirely poor day on special teams. Dragan Kesich was perfect on PATs and had five touchbacks on six kickoffs. The one time Kesich didn't get a touchback, Zylan Perry came out of the end zone from 5 yards deep. The Gophers swarmed and easily stopped Perry for at the 17-yard line.

For the most part, special teams have not been a struggle for Minnesota this season. For the last five quarters, however, it's sometimes been dicey.