Gophers' reluctance to embrace passing game remains baffling

The symmetry of the moment is impossible to ignore. Tanner Morgan is returning to the site where he produced his greatest statistical game as Gophers quarterback coming off his worst performance in a Gophers uniform.

Remember Purdue 2019? The offensive game plan?

It went something like this: Pass, pass, pass, pass.

Morgan turned slant passes into fine art in a brilliant performance. He completed 21 of 22 passes for 396 yards and four touchdowns.

Fast forward two years. Morgan is a senior fourth-year starter. And the Gophers treat the passing game as an inconvenience.

In four games, Morgan has thrown the same number of touchdown passes — three — as he had by halftime against Purdue in '19.

The Bowling Green debacle last week was jarring in its imagery, with Morgan completing only five passes for 59 yards wrapped inside a play-calling strategy that made little sense.

P.J. Fleck noted that he doesn't want to "overreact about one game's data," but a trend is forming. His offense is showing as much balance as an ant riding a seesaw opposite an elephant.

Only four FBS teams (out of 130) have attempted fewer passes than the Gophers: Michigan and three service academies — Navy, Air Force and Army. The academies present no illusion about wanting to throw the ball.

The Gophers rank No. 7 nationally in rushing attempts per game. Again, the top three are service academies.

That's an average of 18 passes per game versus 48 runs.

That math doesn't work.

Fleck won't ever deviate from his identity — ball control, power running — but to minimize the passing game to this degree makes the offense wholly predictable.

If Fleck and offensive coordinator Mike Sanford Jr. don't trust a veteran quarterback and the most experienced offensive line in college football to be effective throwing the ball, that's a serious problem that cannot be mitigated by simply calling more running plays.

Fleck gave an odd answer this week to a question about the offense's struggles against Bowling Green. He noted that No. 1 receiver Chris Autman-Bell left the game with an injury after two plays, and that "most of the game plan was directed toward him, to get him very involved in it."

OK, so no flexibility to adjust?

When Morgan failed to connect on a few passes early, Fleck and Sanford essentially bailed on the passing game and tried to win with a one-dimensional approach. And when that didn't work, they lost to a 31-point underdog.

"When you miss those [passes], all right, we've got to get pretty simple pretty quick," Fleck said. "I think the simpler we were, the better chance we were going to have to win the football game."

Simple, predictable, vanilla offense puts too much pressure on the running game to thrash and dominate. That's a lot to ask, against any defense.

Fleck has shown a propensity to be ultra-conservative in nonconference games and then lean more on the passing game in the Big Ten schedule. Perhaps that's his plan again. One thought: Try some quick-hitting passes — slants and screens — to get Morgan and his receivers into a rhythm and boost their confidence.

And if they miss a few passes early, show patience in sticking with it.

"We've got to be able to complement the run and the pass game," Sanford said. "[They] can totally play off each other."

That responsibility falls on players, too, not just the play-caller and not solely on Morgan. It's on the offensive line to protect better and receivers to get open. The entire operation has to be better.

The Gophers are a hard team to figure out so far. Fleck called their wild swings in performance an "inconsistent spectrum." The good news is that the Big Ten West looks pedestrian, at best.

Iowa, the division's lone undefeated, entered Friday ranked 70th nationally in scoring — the highest ranking of any West team. All seven teams in the East averaged more points. Not a lot of offensive firepower on display in the West.

The self-reflection required of the Gophers offense this week was probably uncomfortable and frustrating, but the takeaway should be obvious. The passing game cannot be an afterthought.