Hartman: Gophers played Buckeyes tough but made mistakes

Yes, you could say that the Gophers had a chance to score one of the biggest upsets in Maroon and Gold history, but this was a day where the men of Jerry Kill beat themselves with turnovers and the lack of a passing game, which is necessary to beat the Buckeyes.

Like defensive back Briean Boddy-Calhoun, who set up one of David Cobb's three touchdowns with a big interception, said after the game, "We proved today against Ohio State that we can play with the best teams in the country."

The confidence the Gophers gained in playing Ohio State as tough as everybody but Virginia Tech, which beat the Nittany Lions, and Penn State, which forced the Buckeyes into overtime, should help them in preparing to go to Nebraska next week and Wisconsin in the final game of the season. Those will be competitive battles.

Ohio State scored one touchdown following an interception, another on broken coverage, and made a field goal following a pass interference penalty. That's 17 of the 34 points they scored in beating the Gophers 31-24.

Kill praised the Gophers for the way they competed against a great team but at the same time he added: "We made three or four just critical errors, and against Ohio State you can't make them. I said all along, all throughout the week, you have to play football, you can't make those mistakes, and we did.

"I think we could overcome an interception or two, but what we can't overcome is a quarterback sneak situation where you get a penalty or three or four other things. We had a coverage situation in the game, and I'm not going to blame to the kids, because we were trying to get a timeout, I was trying to switch over, and it was so cold our headsets wouldn't switch over. That's a unique situation and the first time that has happened in my coaching career.

"Not the kids' fault. Just made some errors, and you can't do that against a great football team. They have great players and they're well coached and I can congratulate them. We have to move on. It's like I told the kids, no hangover, back to work on Sunday, and we control our own destiny. So we need to move onto the next one."

Again the Gophers let the opposition get big early leads. Ohio State scored two touchdowns within six minutes in the first quarter, the first an 86-yard touchdown run by J.T. Barrett that came on third-and-1 with 10:14 left in the first and then a 57-yard touchdown pass from Barrett to Jalin Marshall with 4:33 left that came on third-and-7.

Those two plays totaled 143 of the Buckeyes' 354 total first-half yards. The Gophers, by comparison, had just 133 first-half yards, less than Ohio State gained on just two plays. Giving opponents big leads early in the game has haunted the Gophers this season, but like in other situations the defense did the job in the second half, when the Buckeyes gained just 135 yards while the Gophers had 170 yards, What did hurt the Gophers in the second half was that quarterback Mitch Leidner threw two interceptions, after not committing a turnover in the first half,

On the day, Barrett completed 15 of 25 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns while Leidner completed seven of 19 passes for 85 yards without a touchdown. That comes just one week after Leidner was nearly perfect in throwing for four touchdowns and no interceptions in the Gophers' win over Iowa.

However, Leidner was missing two of his top receivers in Marcus Jones and Drew Wolitarsky. And Maxx Williams, who had a great day against Iowa, caught only three passes for 47 yards, and one of those was for 36 yards.

The Vikings haven't won in Chicago against the Bears since 2007. And Vikings coach Mike Zimmer will head onto Soldier Field on Sunday recalling that as the defensive coordinator for the Bengals a year ago, his team lost to the Bears in Chicago.

Did he bring up that defeat to his current Vikings squad?

"No, they hadn't won a road game last year either, I don't think," Zimmer said. "It's a different team, but no, I have not brought it up. We talk about a lot of other things, but not that."

The Bears, who have not won a game at home this year and have allowed a total of 106 points in recent losses to the Patriots and the Packers, are a 2½ point favorite despite their recent poor performance.

• The city of Minneapolis will announce this week that it will change the name of Carew Drive to Bud Grant Way, after the 18-year Hall of Fame Vikings coach who led the team to four Super Bowls. The road will run right in front of the new Vikings stadium, and a road near Target Field will be named Carew Drive. Grant was praised by Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, who said, "As we prepare to open the future home of Vikings football, it only makes sense to dedicate a street near the new stadium to the most prominent individual in Vikings history."

• One of the top junior recruits in the state is J.D. Spielman, son of Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman. In Eden Prairie's 13-7 playoff victory over Maple Grove on Friday, he rushed for a 14-yard touchdown. The week before in a playoff win over East Ridge he had touchdown runs of 80 and 52 yards and played the entire game at safety on defense.

• Pete Hagan, who at one time was comptroller in the Gophers athletic department and has the same title at Ohio State, reported that the athletic budget is $150 million at Ohio State, compared to $95 million at Minnesota. That's a good reason why the Buckeyes win.