USC 32, Minnesota 21

The Gopher lost to USC 32-21 today.  I honestly wasn't expecting a victory over USC, anybody who was is kidding themselves.  The fact that they had a 14-13 lead with 5 minutes or so left in the 3rd quarter was a positive sign though IMO.  The kickoff return for a TD by Robert Woods right after the Gophers had taken that 14-13 lead seemed to really take the wind out of the Gophers.  It was a winnable game though against a ranked team, that has to be a positive sign coming off last weeks disaster.  Other observations?   1-The offensive is really vanilla, I know they wanted to simplify things from last year but they seem to be going overboard, USC had 8 in the box most of the game and the Gophers still tried to pound it down their throat, USC is too good for that, most of the Big Ten is also, open the playbook up already.  2-Donnell Kirkwood looked good once again (40 yards on 10 carries).  3-Even though MarQueis Gray continued to look good at WR, I'd love to see what he can do at QB.  4-Kyle Theret seemed to make a huge difference at DB, they seemed much more organized with him in the secondary.  5-The hype on punter Dan Orseke really seems to have been overblown, he was not very good today.  Overall, I saw some positives, they will need to play better going forward though.


**** Wisconsin 20, Arizona St 19****
The Sun Devils lost a very winnable game today in Madison, a blocked extra point was the difference.  Their offense is much improved from last year.  I think they'll be okay.