Gophers ride the turnover wave to successes, failures

The math was quite simple for P.J. Fleck.

"The magnitude of the score is five turnovers — seven times five equals 35," the Gophers football coach said after his team's humbling 39-0 loss at No. 23 Northwestern on Saturday.

The Gophers committed five turnovers, three interceptions thrown by quarterback Demry Croft and a lost fumble each by running backs Kobe McCrary and Rodney Smith. The Wildcats gladly accepted Minnesota's generosity, converting four of those takeaways into touchdowns.

"The game got out of hand pretty quick," Fleck said, pointing out Northwestern's 25-point second-quarter barrage that saw the Wildcats start TD drives at the Minnesota 36- and 15-yard lines because of turnovers and another at their 49 because of a 27-yard punt into the stiff wind.

With those five turnovers, the Gophers went from plus-4 in turnover margin, which ranked second in the Big Ten, to minus-1, which is eighth.

From their season-opening victory against Buffalo through Saturday's giveaway fest, turnovers and the ability to cash in on opponent's miscues have weighed in heavily on the Gophers season, both good and bad. They have thrown 11 interceptions and lost seven fumbles, and the timing and proximity to either their goal line or the opponent's end zone has been troublesome.

Against Buffalo, Conor Rhoda's interception at the goal line late in the second quarter thwarted a chance for the Gophers to build on a 14-7 lead. Instead, the Bulls hung around until the Gophers got separation with a field goal with 2:05 left in the fourth quarter in the 17-7 victory.

The Gophers lost their Big Ten opener against Maryland 31-24, and a second-quarter sequence proved key. With the score tied 7-7 and Minnesota at the Terrapins 15, Rhoda threw a third-down interception at the 5. With that momentum, Maryland marched 92 yards for a TD. The Terps never trailed.

The 31-17 loss at Purdue on Oct. 7 showed what can happen if a team doesn't fully capitalize on an opponent's giveaways. The Boilermakers coughed it up four times in the first half, and the Gophers scored TDs after two of them but got nothing from the other two, enabling Purdue to hang around and eventually pull away.

In the 31-27 loss to Michigan State, the Gophers rallied late, but a first-quarter fumble by Rhoda at the Minnesota 8 lead to a Spartans TD, and Croft's second-quarter interception stopped a promising drive that reached the MSU 35.

The Gophers were minus-1 in turnovers against Illinois, with the Illini converting a Smith fumble and a Croft interception into 10 points. But Gophers linebacker Jonathan Celestin had a fourth-quarter pick-six for a 24-10 lead in the 24-17 victory.

The Gophers were plus-1 in turnovers against Iowa, but Nate Wozniak's short route on a fourth-and-1 incompletion from the Hawkeyes 7 cost Minnesota points, as did Croft's interception at the Iowa goal line on the next series. Iowa led 7-0 at the time and went on to win 17-10.

Then came Saturday, when the Wildcats feasted.

"It's unfortunate. It hurts. It's not pretty, whatsoever," Fleck said of the loss. "There's no excuses for it, and it 100 percent falls on my shoulders."