The Gophers' first 10 possessions of the season produced six punts, two turnovers, a missed field goal and just a single touchdown drive. There were a lot of culprits, from dumb penalties to poor field position, but one major weakness stood out in particular. Probably because he stands 6-5.
"If we had lost that game, it was because of me," MarQueis Gray said of the Gophers' 30-27 triple-overtime victory over UNLV. "Without me overthrowing those guys last week, we could have had tons more yards and more touchdowns."
In other words, accuracy was a problem. Accountability was not.
Gray owned his mistakes Tuesday, bluntly finding himself guilty of strangling the Gophers offense with bad throws and missed connections.
He could have fallen back on statistics that paint a more charitable picture of his difficulties; as coach Jerry Kill pointed out, Gray's 269 passing yards (and even his 234 in regulation) represent the second-most prolific day of his Gophers career. His 56.7 percent completion rate has been better only three times before.
And Gray could have shrugged off his misfires as irrelevant, given that he rallied the Gophers to victory in overtime. Instead, he blamed himself for the fact that Minnesota managed only seven points in the first 48 minutes Thursday.
"I missed like four more touchdowns through the air. I was just anxious out there," the senior quarterback said. "I've [thought] about it all week -- I see all those other teams putting up big points, and [without] those overthrown balls, we could have been up in that area."
Thinking about "that area" might have been part of the problem, offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said.