Minnesota 44, Purdue 31

The Gophers knocked off Purdue 44-31 today in Minneapolis.  Minnesota improves to 7-2 on the season with this win (and 4-2 in the conference).  They are beating the teams they are suppose to beat, they may not look pretty doing so but they are raking up the wins.  A ranking can't be far away at this point.  The next 3 games (@ Nebraska, home against Northwestern and @ Wiscsonsin) will really answer the questions about what type of football team this Gopher team is.  It should be an interesting finish to the season for the Gophers.

Observations:

• Yet another big game from Rodney Smith.  It's getting commonplace. 
• Those big plays early by Purdue were just killing the Gophers.  
• The Gophers defense really toughened up in the second half. 
• I liked that the Gophers threw deep to start the game. 
• Don't tell me that Emmit Carpenter can't hit the deep field goal. 
• Duke McGhee may be the most underrated Gopher player this season. 
• For a 5th year senior QB, Mitch Leidner's throwing mechanics are horrible. 
• It was nice to see Eric Carter out there contributing again. 
• Second Half scoring:  Minnesota 21, Purdue 3
• Turnovers:  Purdue 3, Minnesota 1
• Rushing Yards:  Minnesota 235, Purdue 23
• It was nice to see Blake Cashman get some meaningful playing time. 
• Lots of good intentions with the targeting rule but I really don't like it. 
• Why were the Gophers throwing the football at the end of the first half?
• Running Leidner is much better than throwing Leidner. 
• It's not often that the Gophers win 4 conference games in a row. 
• Purdue obviously was playing with nothing to lose. 
• Let's hope that P.J. Fleck doesn't wind up at Purdue. 
• This was the definition of a trap game for the Gophers. 
• Up next?  @ Nebraska next Saturday night.