It was as bad a performance as we've seen from P.J. Fleck's Golden Gophers. The two teams might have been playing for a pig but it was Minnesota that was stuck in the muck Saturday.
After steamrolling Nebraska at home, Minnesota went to archrival Iowa and expected to have a shot for their first back-to-back wins in Iowa City since 1979 and 1981.
Instead, Minnesota left Saturday's blowout loss wondering what comes next. But Fleck says his team is ready to move past Saturday's 41-3 blowout.
They'll try and do that back in the friendly confines of Huntington Bank Stadium, where they are 5-0, when they host Michigan State.
"We have to be better in all facets, offense, defense, special teams, those three phases we have to continue to get better," Fleck said Monday. "And most teams continue that. We coach and always get better as the year goes on. That doesn't mean that you're not gonna have some really, really hard games that you really gotta swallow a tough pill, but the pill is not like it fixes tomorrow. Like, it's something that you have to get better at and you have to make a conscious choice to get better at."
It'll have to get a lot better than it did Saturday, after the Gophers barely showed up. It was ugly early, with a quick Iowa TD and field goal, then a pick-six from freshman QB Drake Lindsey making it 17-0 Hawkeyes before the Gophers knew what hit them.
It got worse from there. And it didn't help that a key piece, running back Darius Taylor, was injured again. Fleck didn't have an update on Taylor's status on Monday but the Gophers have really struggled to run the ball when Taylor hasn't been in the lineup the last two years.
Despite the issues in Iowa, Fleck says he trusts freshman quarterback and expects Lindsey to have a good week of practice after a rough outing.
"But that's part of the growth process and the more you can have, the more leather skin and the more scars you're gonna build as you keep going forward," Fleck explains. "And not to say we want that to happen on Saturday at all, I'm not saying that. But I am saying that is part of a journey, in a process to every single quarterback, I think, that plays their freshman season."
Saturday's game is set for 2:30 against the Spartans which will be followed by the second bye of the season for Minnesota.
The Gophers then wrap the season at #6 Oregon, at Northwestern, and home for Wisconsin. The Gophers will need to win one more of their remaining four games to become bowl eligible for the seventh time in Fleck's eight years.