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.