The other half of the story was Wayne Knight. He finished with 109 rushing yards, and most of the damage came after halftime on runs of 31, 14, 16 and 15 yards. On a day that started at 42 degrees, that was the part that broke the game open. Once Knight started ripping off long runs, the low-possession game Minnesota needed was over, and UCLA scored 24 points in the second half.
Minnesota's problem was the same one it had at Indiana. Drake Lindsey went 14-of-26 for 143 yards with 1 touchdown and no interceptions. That's cleaner than his 120 yards on 37 throws in Bloomington, but it still isn't enough passing offense to keep pace once the other team starts hitting big plays. The Gophers needed this game to stay in the teens, and their offense never gave them room to survive a few defensive breakdowns.
Through 30 minutes the game went just the way Minnesota wanted. UCLA got 10 points in the 1st quarter, the Gophers answered with 10 in the 2nd, and it was 10-10 at the break. UCLA added 7 in the 3rd while Minnesota got shut out, which made it 17-10 going to the 4th. That's still a one-score game, and Minnesota had kept 4 of its previous 5 within one score. The difference was that Minnesota's 10 points in the 4th never got them closer, because UCLA scored 17 in the same quarter. Every time the Gophers scored, the Bruins answered with more.
That's 2 straight losses for P.J. Fleck's team, and Minnesota drops to 5-4 and 3-3 in the Big Ten. The defense has been good enough all season to keep games close against better teams, but this is the second week in a row it got close and couldn't finish. The offense can't come from behind, and that's been the case all year.
UCLA has now won 5 straight, and this was the road test the preview said the Bruins still needed to pass before anyone could call the run safe. The defense allowed 20, its most in the last 5 games, so it wasn't the clean performance the Wisconsin, Michigan State and Nevada games were. But a team that can't throw short because its receivers are out just won in the cold by going over the top, and its backup quarterback threw for 300 doing it. At 9-0 and 6-0 in the league, the Bruins have stopped being a team hanging on after the Iamaleava injury.
