All things Gophers Football, Big Ten and more. Kent Youngblood is no stranger to football. His first full-time beat was covering the Green Bay Packers for the Wisconsin State Journal for six seasons starting in 1992. In 1998 he came to the Star Tribune, where he covered the Vikings for five seasons. Having grown up in Minnesota, Kent is also old enough to remember raking the leaves in his yard while listening to Ray Christensen describe the Gophers' 16-0 victory over No. 1-ranked Michigan back in 1977.
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Halftime update
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Well, the Gophers have a bit of an uphill climb after some pretty poor first-half execution.
A week after a wonderful performance against Michigan State, Gophers quarterback Adam Weber is again struggling. Part of it might be the fact that his receivers aren't getting open like they did last week. And there was one drop of a potential TD pass by Da'Jon McKnight.
Other than that? Weber was sacked three times, At least all but one due to his holding onto the ball too long. Then there was that floater to John Hoese in the flat that was jumped by Terry Hawthorne and returned 44 yards for a touchdown.
Either receivers aren't open, or Weber isn't finding them. When there is someone open Weber's ball have been floating, long.
A question: Why come out throwing so much against a run defense ranked so low?
Meanwhile, the Gophers defense has allowed backup quarterback Jacob Charest to find his comfort zone.
Put it all together and you have a very, very ugly 28-7 Illinois lead. I find it alomst impossible to believe the Gophers, at home, could come out so flat in this game after playing so well last week.
Frankly, the Gophers deserved the boos that followed them off the field at the end of the half. There was poor execution on both sides of the ball, another costly penalty and no trace of the emotion so evident last week.
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