Gophers Notebook: Michigan 52-10 Minnesota

There's a saying after a loss like this: Burn the film. When you cannot learn anything from the way your team was so thoroughly beaten, because there are no adjustments you could have made to affect the result, throwing the tape in the fireplace would serve you just as well as watching it again.

Because I'm not a coach, I do not know how literally coaches ever follow this axiom. I'm sure, because they're workaholics and because it is literally their job, they always go back and watch it for themselves or as a staff. But when reviewing it with the players, what can they say?

Because Saturday was not about one "something" that Minnesota can fix between now and the next game. It was not only about playcalling, game management (though P.J. Fleck still has not learned how to run a 2-minute drill in over a decade of being a head coach), mental errors stemming from inadequate or incomplete position coaching, or players quitting. Michigan is just a better team than Minnesota: stronger, faster, and more skilled at just about every position.

Was Athan Kaliakmanis good? No. His two interceptions were two different ways to fail at essentially the same throw, trying to hit an intermediate target at the sideline. The first time, he overthrew Daniel Jackson trying to not put it in the path of the slot defender.

The second time, Kaliakmanis either didn't see or disregarded the underneath defender.

At the same time, this loss was not about Kaliakmanis. His receivers couldn't get open consistently, and Minnesota's offensive line could not handle Michigan's pass rush. The Gophers tried moving the pocket to give their quarterback more time, but it didn't help. They tried leaving more players in protection, but that only made fewer the options available downfield. (See both interceptions.) Kaliakmanis had to run, throw the ball away, or take a hit from an arriving Wolverine.

The stadium wanted a late hit called, but it was not even a hit.

This is all without covering the passes that Michigan batted at the line, nor how Minnesota's run game faded after a promising start. Kaliakmanis did not have a chance.

J.J. McCarthy, meanwhile, had plenty of options. As was the case everywhere else, Minnesota's victories in pass defense were temporary. Even though the Gophers were not universally bad in straight man-to-man, Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore created confusion in other forms of coverage.

On the following play, Minnesota was in Cover 3. Tre'Von Jones did his job manning his deep third, staying home but calling out Roman Wilson as he crossed into the middle of the field. The problem: on the other side, Justin Walley was running with Cornelius Johnson. Walley didn't hand off Johnson to Tyler Nubin in the deep middle, either because he didn't see Wilson coming into his zone or because he was dead set on keeping up with his man. Either way, he was running too fast to turn back around and pick up Wilson. Maverick Baranowski, the middle linebacker, was all alone against one of the best wideouts in the Big Ten.

A few plays later, Minnesota should've given up a touchdown. Earlier in the game, the Wolverines had had some success throwing out of formations with stacked receivers: They sent one guy inside and another outside, and even if the defensive backs knew their responsibilities, they were stretched.

With two tight ends to their side, Nubin picked up that Michigan was going to run a similar concept. Just before the snap, he pointed this out to Jones, telling him he had the second receiver from the sideline, Colston Loveland. Nubin would take A.J. Barner.

At the snap, Loveland delayed his route a tick to let Barner go in front of him — the kind of delay you take if your teammate is supposed to clear out a defensive back so you can move into the space he opens. Nubin recognized this and told Jones again to go with Loveland if he crossed inside.

Loveland indeed crossed inside, running a post. Jones didn't go with him, instead creating double coverage on the lesser receiver of Michigan's two tight ends. Only a ball-dislodging hit from deep safety Craig McDonald saved the Gophers.

Not long after that coverage screwup, Michigan had 2nd-and-goal. Here, Minnesota demonstrated another one of their problems: holding the edge. Michigan was effective but not extraordinary between the tackles. They broke off their biggest runs, however, to the outside. Blake Corum and Kalel Mullings had plenty of space, but so did McCarthy.

With end Anthony Smith and the linebackers caught in traffic, McCarthy had a one-on-one here with corner Tariq Watson. Watson had help inside with Darius Green. But he got baited by McCarthy's stutter-step and didn't stay outside, which was enough for the speedy quarterback to score.

After that, the Wolverines scored again when rush end Chris Collins had to cover Loveland on a wheel route. Then came Kaliakmanis' second pick-six, and in came the backups.

Every team in the Big Ten West would have suffered some form of this fate. (Nebraska has already; Purdue will in just under a month.) Currently, the Wolverines are a freight train, and anyone they come across that cannot match that same brute force is a mid-90s Honda Civic whose engine died on the tracks. This was never going to go a different way.

The week off comes at an ideal time for Minnesota. Fleck talks every year about using the bye to "self-scout." Most of the time, the Gophers come out with a new wrinkle on offense in their next game. After two weeks off in 2020 (due to player shortages forced by COVID), the defense improved dramatically to finish off the season. Every team makes changes when they don't have to play, but the truth is that this team needs it.

Cody Lindenberg has been "questionable" on availability reports and described as "close" to returning for so long, it's fair to wonder whether he'll play this season at all. But however far he, Chris Autman-Bell, and Darius Taylor are from playing again, at least they won't spend next Saturday ambling around a sideline in street clothes, wishing they were in pads. Maybe those three — plus Jack Henderson, who went down early in the third quarter — will be good to go for Iowa.

The fans also need a break. I will not bother venturing into the Gophers Internet, which like any online community can be grotesque and nihilistic and overreactionary. However, I think I got a taste of the fan base's general mood from my friend who was apoplectic in the fourth quarter about a game that Minnesota had long lost. We need some time away to breathe, to enjoy the Twins in the postseason, and to celebrate the return of Minnesota's national championship-caliber hockey programs. Or maybe to disassociate from sports completely. Whatever keeps one's relationship to football healthy.

This season is beginning to resemble 2018. Minnesota is not a talentless. With so many players still finding their feet in the Big Ten, with so many injuries, and with such a tough schedule, the path to a bowl will nevertheless be hard. We will not have answers until next year on whether the Gophers gain anything from this experience, and whether Fleck's program can sustain itself through a reset period. To keep fans onside going into 2024, however, he needs to deliver proof of concept as if he was a second-year coach again. If he doesn't, this could get ugly.