Tale of the Tape: Minnesota

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Many fans would be surprised to know that once upon a time that the Minnesota football program was among the nation's best. The Gophers claim seven national championships, including the 1940 and 1941 championships, the year before Ohio State won its first in 1942. Six of those championships were before the Gophers were part of the Big Ten and were a member of the Western conference.

Minnesota's last claimed championship was in 1960 and since then it has been slim picking in Dinkytown. Since that championship the Gophers have finished first (tied) in the BIg Ten (1967) only once and Minnesota has been a fixture in the bottom half of the league for a majority of those seasons.

Any hopes of a league crown in 2018 are gone for Minnesota (3-2, 0-2) this year but a bowl game is still very much on the table for P.J. Fleck's squad but this week likely won't be the week that the Gophers take another step toward six wins.

The Gophers put up some good numbers in the first three games of the season but the last two have not been very good with a 42-13 loss at Maryland followed up with a 48-31 home loss to Iowa last weekend.

Things won't get any easier with the Buckeyes this week for the Gophers, Ohio State holds a 44-7 record in this series and the No. 3 ranked Buckeyes know that they cannot take their eye off of any opponent. The Buckeyes may have been a little flat last week against Indiana and still put up 49 points. Minnesota has given up 40-plus points in its last two games. This game has all the conditions of an Ohio State offensive explosion.

We are going to the Tale of the Tape to learn a little bit more about the Gophers and look closer at this match-up and try and make sense of the upcoming game.

What is there left to say about the Ohio State passing game at this point? Sure, Dwayne Haskins had two interceptions last week against the Hoosiers and while they will count on his record, he was also under serious duress with each of those throws and while it may have been more prudent to just take the sack and live to play the next snap on offense, it is all part of the learning curve for a first-year starter. This first year starter however is putting up career type numbers in year one for the Buckeyes with 25 touchdowns against four interceptions, 1,919 yards and a completion percentage of better than 71-percent. Haskins in just six starts in 2018, completing the 2017 Michigan game and some mop-up time is now 16th on the Ohio State career passing lists with 2,484 yards. He just recently passed Cardale Jones, Cornelius Green, Kirk Herbstreit and Rex Kern all on the career passing list. If Haskins passes just at his season average (319.8 YPG) against Minnesota, he will move past Don Unverferth and Stanley Jackson and will be right behind the likes of Todd Boeckman and Terrelle Pryor. Not bad for a less than a season's worth of work. But, back to the game... Who will have the big game for the Buckeyes in the receiving game? Parris Campbell has been the hot hand as of late and is coming off of a nine reception, 142-yard, two touchdown game. Terry McLaurin has six touchdowns on the year but keep an eye on Binjimen Victor who seems to have finally turned a corner in his development and has become a much more important piece of the offense and could be rewarded once again with a few more targets.

Losing Antoine Winfield Jr. was a crushing blow to the Minnesota pass defense. The Ohio State-legacy was easily one of the best players on the Minnesota roster, regardless of offense/defense and the Buckeyes know all-too-well what it is like to lose a difference maker like that with the loss of Nick Bosa for the foreseeable future. Iowa's passing offense went off for 314 passing yards last week as Nate Stanley went 23-39 with four touchdowns at TCF Bank Stadium as the Gophers could not stop Iowa's offense for the entire game in a 48-31 loss. The Gophers have a mixture of veteran players along with young guys including Terell Smith, who has been thrust into duty. This season the Gophers have only gone against one top-40 pass offense, Fresno State and did a decent job of holding the Bulldogs in check with 212 passing yards and two scores in a 21-14 win, but that was with Winfield in the lineup. The Buckeyes will bring the nation's No. 3 passing game to the table so as long as the weather conditions are not horrible, the Buckeyes should be able to pass at will in this game.