Jim Souhan: Gophers' day in sun reduced to another dark moment

On Saturday, the American landscape was strewn with dramatic college football.

On the small scale, there was St. John's and St. Thomas renewing hostilities in Collegeville, Minn. On the grand scale, there was Stanford and Oregon putting their top-10 rankings and disparate styles on the line. On the epic scale, there was Alabama and Florida and the two best coaches in the game matching wits if not witticisms.

If you weren't aware of the context -- that Tim Brewster was coaching for his job, and that his Gophers might be headed for a one- or two-victory season -- Northwestern's visit to TCF Bank Stadium would have served as a tasty appetizer for those resolute Minnesotans who have remained college football fans.

The game began at 11 a.m. amid cool air and sharp sunshine in Dinkytown's ambient horseshoe, and for much of the contest, the Gophers looked well-coached.

Their running game wore down the Wildcats, and they took advantage by slipping tight end Eric Lair into the secondary for two touchdowns.

They broke running back Duane Bennett free down the sideline for an uncontested touchdown pass. They forced turnovers and took advantage of Northwestern's mistakes to overcome an early 14-7 deficit and take a 28-20 lead in the fourth quarter.

A victory at home against a non-power such as Northwestern wouldn't alter the outcome of the season, but it would have given Brewster a chance to sneer at those of us who believe this will be his last season in maroon.

Given a chance to show off in the final two minutes, to guide his team to a dramatic victory on a beautiful day for college football, Coach Brew blew it.

The two-minute drill offers the clearest window into a football operation. It requires intelligent preparation, cohesiveness, verbal and nonverbal communication, and spur-of-the-moment creativity. It is football's intelligence test.

What we saw in the last two minutes on Saturday was bad play-calling and worse time management, leaving a senior quarterback angrily gesturing to his sideline.

The two-minute drill should be a coach's Showtime. Instead, the Gophers gave us Slowtime.

After Northwestern kicked the go-ahead field goal, the Gophers took over with 2:07 remaining, on their 38, with two timeouts.

Adam Weber, the senior quarterback, threw a short pass for 4 yards, then scrambled for 4. On third-and-2, with the clock running, Weber scrambled to line up the offense and call the play, and finally handed to Bennett, who lost a yard.

Brewster called time with 1:02 remaining as Weber waved his hands in frustration and the marching band played "Living On A Prayer."

To recap: The Gophers burned 65 seconds and one of their timeouts while running three plays for 8 yards.

Then Brewster and his staff made a savvy call, ordering a naked bootleg, with Weber running 16 yards to the Northwestern 39 with 55 seconds left.

The next play call: Another up-the-middle run from Bennett, another 1-yard loss, another mad scramble at the line as Weber tried to organize the offense.

Second down: An incompletion thrown toward Lair, with the Gophers looking disorganized.

Third down: An incompletion thrown toward Da'Jon McKnight.

Fourth down: Weber rolled right and, under pressure, threw an interception on a pass tipped by his receiver.

So Brewster and his staff took what most coaches would have considered a favorable situation -- at home, senior quarterback running the offense, ball on the 38, two timeouts and 2:07 remaining, facing a tired defense, needing only 30 or 40 yards to set up a game-winning field goal -- and turned it into a clinic on how to lose a game.

Weber expressed his frustration on the field; he was not made available to the print media following the game.

Brewster said: "I felt great about us moving the ball in the two-minute and kicking the field goal to win the game."

Didn't the inside handoffs waste too much time? "No, we were in great shape, timewise," he said. "We felt like if we got to the 30-yard line we felt like our guy was going to be good. Anything inside the 30 would have been better."

By the end of the season, it won't matter much whether the Gophers have one or three victories. Saturday, though, they blew a rare chance at a day in the sun.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m. to noon and weekdays at 2:40 p.m. on 1500ESPN. His Twitter name is Souhanstrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com