Dominant defense leads Gophers to victory over Buffalo

A quick look at the statistics of the Gophers football team’s season opener against Buffalo on Thursday night might cause someone to assume Minnesota won in a blowout, not in a tougher-than-it-looks 23-10 victory.

After all, the Gophers had 443 yards to the Bulls’ 151.

Minnesota had 27 first downs to Buffalo’s eight, holding the opponent to 1-for-11 on third-down conversions.

And the Gophers possessed the ball for 38 minutes, 28 seconds to the Bulls’ 21:32.

Yet there the Bulls were, trailing only 13-10 with 4:32 left the third quarter and getting the ball back with a chance to take the lead if they could mount a long drive. Could Buffalo, a 17½-point underdog, steal a win out of Huntington Bank Stadium as Mid-American Conference cousin Bowling Green did as a 31-point underdog in 2021?

Nope.

The Gophers defense made sure of that, stringing together three consecutive three-and-outs to close the game while the Minnesota offense produced 10 fourth-quarter points, capped by quarterback Drake Lindsey’s dagger of a 60-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Smith in a connection of redshirt freshmen.

The Gophers needed that character, too, because they too often left points on the field. They had four possessions that reached the Buffalo 25-yard line or better but resulted in only a field goal (three times) or no points (once).

Lindsey, making his first career start, completed 19-of-35 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. Darius Taylor rushed 30 times for 141 yards. And Brady Denaburg kicked field goals of 38, 29 and 25 yards as Minnesota turned back Buffalo in front of 47,774. The Bulls were 9-4 last year and are picked to finish fourth in the Mid-American Conference by the league’s coaches.

“I’ve coached in that league, and this is their Super Bowl,” Fleck, who led Western Michigan for four years. “We got everything that that they had. … They threw everything at us."

The Bulls benefitted from a crazy play that turned the game’s momentum in the second quarter.

With the Gophers up 7-0 on Lindsey’s 9-yard TD pass to tight end Jameson Geers early in the second quarter, Minnesota looked poised to extend its lead. The Gophers reached the Buffalo 39 on Lindsey’s 27-yard pass to wide receiver Javon Tracy. Two plays later, Geers fired off the line and was knocked to the ground by Bulls linebacker Mitchell Gonser as Lindsey released a pass to Geers. The ball hit Geers’ foot and popped into the arms of Gonser, who was off to the races. Taylor, though, ran him down and dived to make a shoestring tackle that knocked Gonser off balance at the Minnesota 23.

The Gophers defense held Buffalo to a field goal, but Fleck raved about Taylor’s effort.

“That’s ‘how.’ That’s Gophers football,” he said.

Minnesota drove 50 yards in 1:15 to stretch the lead to 10-3 with 2 seconds left in the second quarter, settling for Denaburg’s 38-yard field goal after Lindsey was sacked for an 11-yard loss. “The execution has got to be better,” Lindsey said, blaming himself.

Tracy, the transfer from Miami (Ohio), came up big on the Gophers’ first play of the second half, when he turned what would have been a 15-yard connection into a 35-yard gain by spinning and shaking off a couple of would-be tacklers. The possession led to another Gophers field goal and a 13-3 lead.

Buffalo responded, though, getting a 40-yard TD pass from Ta’Quan Roberson to Victor Snow, who beat Gophers safety Kerry Brown on a double move to make it 13-10.

The response included another Denaburg field goal early in the fourth quarter, followed by the touchdown dagger from Lindsey to Smith.

“I thought overall, the offense did a great job,” Lindsey said. “We’ve just got to keep getting better.”

The Gophers closed the game with some flexing by their offensive line. After Minnesota’s defense produced its sixth three-and-out of the night, the Gophers offense took over with 9:45 left. Sixteen plays, 58 yards and five first downs later, Taylor for rushed 3 yards to drain the final seconds off the clock.