Northwestern 29, Minnesota 28

The Gophers lost a winnable game today to Northwestern 29-28, to drop to a 1-4 record for the season.  By winnable, I mean they had a lead late in the game then gave up a late field goal.  The Gophers are just not a good football team, they were lucky to be as close as they were as Northwestern turned the ball over 3 times as they were marching down the field.  Other observations?  1) The defense played terrible once again, they gave up 486 total yards and had trouble stopping Northwestern on 3rd down all afternoon.  2) Special teams again did not help, Ellestad was very erratic on his kickoffs, Oreske was just plain bad on his punting, the return games did nothing.  3) Clock management was atrocious by the Gophers late in the game, call a timeout, down the ball, don't run the ball, it's all taught in Coaching 101.  4) Play calling late in the game was also atrocious, you do not call a draw play with less than a minute to go when you are nowhere close to field goal range. 5) Adam Weber is just not a clutch QB, despite having more experience than any other QB on any other BCS team, he still struggles in clutch situations, he seems to panic, he moves around too much, doesn't set his feet, locks in on one receiver, it's just plain ugly watching him back there.  6) Where was MarQueis Gray?  Not only did he once again get no snaps at QB, he only had 1 reception, he's the most talented player on either side of the field, this is inexcusable, get the ball in his hands already.  7) I think it's time to make the switch to Gray at QB, actually it's long overdue, what they are doing now isn't working, they need a spark.  8) On the positive, DeLeon Eskridge had a good game running the ball, he gained 119 yards on 22 caries. 9) Eric Lair caught 2 TD passes, nice to see them work him into the game plan.  8) I just don't see how Brewster can return next year, he seems to have lost support of everyone with the possible exception of his players (and that could be slipping away too).