Nobody should complain about the Gophers' 34-24 loss at Wisconsin on Saturday, not with the Maroon and Gold coming closer to winning a Big Ten title than just about any point since their last one in 1967.

The Gophers wound up 8-4 in the regular season for the second year in a row under Jerry Kill. This year, though, they won five Big Ten games for the first time since 2003 under Glen Mason, and they entered the final week of the season with an opportunity to win the conference crown.

Kill and his capable coaching staff won road games at Michigan and Nebraska, a feat that didn't seem possible only a few years ago. Remember that they went 3-9 in both 2010 and 2011, with 2011 the first year of the program under Kill.

There will be a reward for the Gophers, who are expected to get a New Year's Day bowl invitation. If so, it would be their first Jan. 1 bowl game since the 1962 Rose Bowl.

And remember, the Gophers are competing with facilities that are far inferior to most of their opponents, including the team they lost to on Saturday.

Second quarter turning points

Kill made it clear before the game that for his team to win, it would have to not turn the ball over and not be the subject of key penalties.

But the Gophers had chances to expand their lead beyond the 17-3 point it got to but failed to execute, leaving the Badgers in the game.

The Gophers had two drives in the second quarter that were big turning points. Leading 14-3 with about 11 minutes left they drove to the Wisconsin 10-yard line, setting up a third-and-5. Mitch Leidner took a broken play and dove headfirst to set up what looked like first-and-goal from the 5, which would have given the Gophers a good chance to go up 21-3 early. But Tommy Olson was called for a personal foul, a hands-to-the-face penalty — a call that is never made. The penalty moved the Gophers back to the 22-yard line and they had to kick a field goal.

Then later in the quarter, the Gophers were putting together a very nice drive to end the first half. They had gone 10 plays and 44 yards in 4:21 when Leidner and David Cobb tried to run an option, and miscommunication led to a fumble at the Wisconsin 30 that the Badgers recovered.

Instead of a field goal or touchdown at the end of the half for the Gophers, Wisconsin completed two passes from Joel Stave to Alex Erickson for 49 yards and kicked a 38-yard field goal for the final play of the half, cutting the score to 17-13.

Second half was tough

In the second half, the Gophers looked like a completely different team as Wisconsin outscored them 21-7. On the season the Gophers had been outscoring their opponents 166-109 in the second half, and they had only been outscored twice after halftime this season — in a victory over Middle Tennessee State, and again in a loss to Ohio State two weeks earlier.

One reason the Gophers lost is that they couldn't contain the Badgers rushing game. The great Melvin Gordon was held to 55 yards in the first half but went for 97 in the second. Meanwhile, on offense, while David Cobb played great after not practicing all week, he ran for 95 yards in the first half but only 23 in the second.

And perhaps the biggest difference, Stave threw for 250 yards for Wisconsin, including 160 to Erickson. Leidner threw for only 95 yards on 5-for-18 passing, and 53 yards came on one fourth-quarter pass to Maxx Williams.

Still the Gophers had their chances. Leidner scored a TD with 7:32 to go to cut it to 27-24, but the Badgers managed to come back and get another score to put the game out of reach.

Zimmer focuses on Sunday

The Vikings are 4-7 and in last place in the NFC North with no hopes of making the playoffs. Coach Mike Zimmer was asked if the team can still build for the future while not winning consistently.

"I don't know, I guess that's for everybody else to decide," he said. "I just know what I want it to look like at the end, and that's what I focus on. When we get to where I want to be, how is it going to look? There's obviously some things we're doing better and a lot of things we could be doing a lot better. It's still about preaching the mindset and the message every day."

Zimmer, an NFL coach for more than two decades, was asked if he ever was involved in a season where his team lost so many starters, the way the Vikings have lost so many on offense.

"I was in Atlanta the year that Michael Vick had the dog issue, and in Dallas we had quite a few things happen," Zimmer said. "The big thing is you learn how to survive and fight through it and I think it helps to build character."

Asked how he keeps morale up with so many missing, he said: "The biggest thing for me is I make sure that I keep them focused on the bull's-eye that we have each and every week. I can't let them feel sorry for themselves. I can't feel sorry for myself. I have to keep going."

Sid's Jottings

• Bud Grant's biggest fans and cheerleaders, the 40 members of his immediate family including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, will be there when they dedicate a street to him outside of the new Vikings stadium on 9th Avenue between 6th Street and 7th Street on Monday, a road previously known as Carew Drive. "They are very excited about this," Grant said about his family. "And that's what makes me the most happy about what the Wilf family and the City Council have decided to do."

• The Gophers football team might have the hardest first two games of any team in the Big Ten next season. They open the season against Texas Christian, which thumped the Gophers earlier this year and is currently ranked No. 6 in the country, and follow that by playing at Colorado State, which saw a nine-game winning streak end in a loss to Air Force on Friday. Their final two nonconference games are against Kent State and Ohio University at home.

• Interesting that the Wild and Timberwolves visited Minnesota's former NHL and NBA franchises on the same night on Friday, when the Wild beat Dallas 5-4 in overtime and the Wolves edged the Lakers 120-119.

• Michigan Tech men's hockey coach Mel Pearson, who played at Edina in the 1970s under Willard Ikola, had the Huskies ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time since 1976, but just for one week, as the Huskies were swept by Minnesota State Mankato last weekend, dropping Tech to No. 6 in this week's poll. Incidentally, Pearson's father, Mel, played with the Minnesota Fighting Saints in the 1970s.

• While the Vikings have offensive line problems with Brandon Fusco and Phil Loadholt on injured reserve and Matt Kalil playing with a bad knee, Sunday's opponent Carolina has five offensive linemen on IR.