Getting field goals — or less — when marching inside an opponent's 5-yard line is a recipe for disaster for a college football team when facing an opponent that has made a habit of springing upsets.
Gophers grind out 25-6 victory over Eastern Michigan to move to 2-0
A clock-draining running attack and a stingy defense helped the Gophers pull away Saturday night at Huntington Bank Stadium. True freshman Darius Taylor rushed 33 times for 193 yards and a touchdown.
September 10, 2023 at 5:13AM
Such was the case Saturday night at Huntington Bank Stadium, where the Gophers left a potential 15 points on field in the first three quarters against an Eastern Michigan program that has beaten four Power Five teams since 2017.
But a solid, clock-draining running attack and a stingy defense will mask a lot of blemishes, and the Gophers used both during a dominant second half in a 25-6 victory over the Eagles in front of an announced 48,101.
True freshman Darius Taylor rushed 33 times for 193 yards and a touchdown, Sean Tyler carried 17 times for 93 yards, and the Gophers defense gave up only two field goals and 152 total yards. Athan Kaliakmanis completed 10 of 15 passes for 117 yards and scored on a 1-yard sneak.
The Gophers rushed for 296 yards, holding the ball for 39:34 to Eastern Michigan's 20:26. The Eagles ran only six offensive plays in the third quarter, eight in the fourth and gained only 4 yards in the second half.
"I love how we're getting to the point of when we win by 19, and some of us will say that we didn't win by enough," Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. "And that tells a coach there's a lot of room for improvement because we could have put a lot more points on the board."
The victory moved the Gophers 2-0 entering Saturday's game at No. 17 North Carolina, which edged Appalachian State 40-34 in two overtimes. The Eagles (1-1) weren't able to add Minnesota to their recent upset list that includes Purdue, Illinois, Rutgers and Arizona State.
With a display of what Fleck calls complementary football — the offense keeping the ball and keeping the defense on the sideline, plus special teams contributing with Dragan Kesich's three field goals and a punt block for a safety by Eli Mau — the Gophers showed they can win by either the pass, as they did against Nebraska, or the run, as they did Saturday.
It helped when Taylor, the highly sought-after recruit from Detroit, seized his moment. Taylor's rushing total of 193 yards is the second-most by a Gophers true freshman, trailing only Darrell Thompson's 205 in 1986 against Bowling Green.
"I came in knowing that whatever I could contribute, I would," Taylor said. "And I feel like the coaches put me in a good opportunity to make plays."
Said Fleck: "We were committed to the run game tonight. Period."
That came from the start when the Gophers, with Tyler starting at running back, drove to the Eastern Michigan 2-yard only to have Kaliakmanis stopped for a 2-yard loss from the 1 on a fourth-down bootleg.
"We've got to execute down there," Kaliakmanis said. "… I've got to see the film, but that will be better."
On their second possession, the Gophers drove to the Eastern Michigan 5 but had to settle for Kesich's 24-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter.
After the Eagles tied it 3-3 on Jesus Gomez's 20-yard field goal, the Gophers marched 93 yards in 11 plays, taking a 10-3 lead on Taylor's 2-yard touchdown run with 3:57 left in the half. By that time, Taylor was getting the bulk of the carries over Tyler.
"That's why he was such a big recruit for us," Fleck said.
Leading 10-6 in the third quarter, the Gophers started to pull away behind Taylor, who had 25 carries for 149 yards in the second half. First came a 15-play, 74-yard drive that ate 7:29 of the clock, highlighted by Taylor's eight runs for 45 yards and his 11-yard reception. Still, they settled for Kesich' 19-yard field goal for a 13-6 lead. The drive stalled when Tyler was stopped for 2 yards on third-and-goal from the 3.
"It used to be: Give it to Mo [Ibrahim], and we'll just rhino right ahead and get it in there," Fleck said. "I don't know if we have that rhino, put your head down and carry four guys into the end zone. We've got to be a little bit more creative than that."
Kaliakmanis' 1-yard QB sneak made it 20-6 late in the third quarter, Mau's blocked punt added two points, and Kesich closed the scoring with a 20-yard field goal with 29 seconds to play.
Fleck embraced the result but acknowledged that there's work to be done.
"We're going to look different [from last year]," he said. "There's new pieces out there. And that's where we've got to grow up in a lot of areas really quickly.''
The fifth set required extra points to settle the clash of top-20 teams.
