The Gopher Nation has been waiting for a convincing victory for over a year.  Last year, Florida Atlantic defeated the Gophers 42-39.  Not this year.  Saturday’s win over Florida Atlantic by a score of 37-3 was long overdue.  The Gophers had a solid offensive performance, but more importantly exhibited improvement on defense. 

The Gopher defense held the Owls to 3 points, 175 yards passing and 101 yards rushing.  When was the last time that the Gophers had four interceptions in a game?  As noted in this Big Ten Network article, it was a “pick party.”  The revamped Gopher secondary finally appears comfortable working together.  In the past, it seemed as if the Gophers would wait for a pass to be caught and then react.  With the added speed of new players, pass plays are being broken up before a completion is made. 

As I predicted after the first two games of the season, Tramaine Brock continues to be make an impact on both pass and run defense.  Traye Simmons had his second interception of the year and broke up several pass plays that may have been completed last season.  Marcus Sherels nearly had a pick on a long bomb from Rusty Smith, and linebacker Simoni Lawrence outran a FAU wide receiver while taking an interception to the house for a touchdown.  This link is to a Star Tribune article about Traye Simmons and Marcus Sherels.

Rusty Smith had a few dropped passes by his FAU receivers, including one that would have been a touchdown.  There is a video of Rusty Smith and other FAU players reacting to the loss at this link.  Adam Weber also gave up his first interception of the year on a pass that he tried to force to Eric Decker in the end zone.  Otherwise, the Gophers look to be an improved football team from last week.  Adam Rittenberg of ESPN sums up the Gophers’ performace in this blog entry:

“A new-look secondary continues to come up with big plays, as Minnesota has eight interceptions and 33 pass deflections this season. The offense continues to roll behind quarterback Adam Weber and wideout Eric Decker, and Minnesota heads into league play with plenty of momentum.”

The Gophers are a young team and should continue to improve throughout the year.  Next week’s challenge versus Ohio State is a story unto itself that I will review on Tuesday.  For now, savor the undefeated record and enjoy this Youtube video of the University of Minnesota Marching Band’s halftime performance: