Analysis: Gophers flip the script — and season — with statement victory over No. 25 Nebraska

As the final seconds ticked off the clock of the Gophers’ 24-6 victory over No. 25 Nebraska on Friday night, a decent-sized chunk of the announced 48,549 fans at Huntington Bank Stadium began to make their way not toward the exits but instead toward the field.

They began pouring down from the stands and gathered to make a mini mosh pit at the M at the middle of the field.

Yep, the Gophers had themselves a field storming on their hands — not of the magnitude of Penn State, 2019, or even USC, 2024, but an impromptu celebration by the fans to say, “Hey, we beat a ranked team!”

As coach P.J. Fleck left the field with his wife, Heather, they ran into one of his star players, sophomore safety Koi Perich. The Esko, Minn., native, who famously picked the Gophers over Ohio State, was curious about what he was seeing.

“He said, ‘Coach, they stormed the field, but isn’t that the expectation?’ ” Fleck said. “That’s my guy. That’s why I came here.”

A year earlier, it was Perich hoisted upon fans’ shoulders during a field-storming after the Gophers’ 24-17 victory over No. 11 USC. Saturday, the Gophers earned another triumph over a ranked former blue blood in the Cornhuskers.

“Ranked wins are important,” Fleck said. “Ranked wins deserve that.”

Though Nebraska was favored by a touchdown or more, depending on the oddsmaker you frequent, the victory was the Gophers sixth in a row over the Huskers and improved Fleck to 7-1 against Big Red. Since beginning Big Ten play in 2011, the Huskers are 5-9 against Minnesota.

Friday’s victory over Nebraska was thorough.

The Gophers held the Huskers to field goals of 33 and 30 yards, with the six points being the fewest Nebraska has scored vs. Minnesota since 1949. This is from a program that hung 84 on the Gophers in the Metrodome in 1983.

The victory also wasn’t expected, given the Gophers’ recent run of play.

They overcame a 14-0 deficit to beat Rutgers 31-28 in the Big Ten opener and rallied back from a 10-point deficit to top Purdue 27-20 last week on Perich’s late interception return for a touchdown. Those teams are a combined 0-6 in Big Ten play.

The Gophers defense had given up an average of 174.6 rushing yards in Big Ten play coming in. They held the Huskers to 36.

Of course, Nebraska lost 63 yards off their rushing total on the nine sacks that quarterback Dylan Raiola absorbed.

The nine sacks were the most in a single game in Gophers history since 1977, when records were first kept.

Anthony Smith, the leader of the line, and emerging third-year sophomore Karter Menz had 2½ sacks each. Jaxon Howard had two sacks. Tackle Deven Eastern and linebackers Maverick Baranowski and Matt Kingsbury had one each. Kingsbury’s sack, on a blitz, might have been the prettiest. He blew up running back Emmett Johnson before hammering Raiola.

What’s more impressive about those sacks is how they were spaced out.

“Everybody gets a sack,” Smith said. “It was like Oprah Winfrey out there.”

The most important of those sacks might have been Howard’s 9-yard drop of Raiola on the Huskers’ first possession of the third quarter, with the Gophers holding a one-point lead.

That led to a punt, and the Gophers offense took that possession and went on a 14-play, 98-yard drive that ate 8:43 off the clock and ended with Drake Lindsey’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Le’Meke Brockington to put their team up 14-6.

The drive appeared to take the will away from the Huskers to the point that coach Matt Rhule called timeout 10 plays in to allow his defense to stop the bleeding.

“That’s Gopher football right there,” Fleck said. “… Nothing makes me more proud than that drive."

Fleck is not a believer in momentum, but his team certainly will have some wind at its back entering next Saturday’s game at Iowa.

By beating Nebraska — a team whose only loss before Friday was a three-point setback against Michigan — Minnesota put a charge back into a season that many had assumed would end somewhere around .500.

That, of course, still could happen, but there’s also a route to a 9-3 campaign if things go well for the Gophers in either Iowa City or Eugene, Ore.

They have five more opportunities to write their script.

Friday, they added an interesting twist to the plot.