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The Gophers football team found an answer for its feeble passing game.
Don't throw the ball.
Almost literally, don't throw it.
The Gophers didn't attempt a single pass in the first quarter of Saturday's 24-7 victory over San Jose State.
They had a grand total of ZERO passing yards in the first half.
They had ZERO completions after three quarters.
Hey, if something is broke, why even acknowledge it exists? Brilliant! Seriously, who knew the forward pass was so unimportant in modern football?
"All I care about is winning," coach Jerry Kill said.
Forced to play Chris Streveler in place of injured quarterback Mitch Leidner, the Gophers offered up a throwback game plan that would've made ol' Bernie Bierman giddy with pride.
They completed one pass. Yep, one. That magical moment occurred with 6½ minutes left in the game, a 7-yard completion that drew a cheer from the few thousand fans who returned after an hourlong weather delay.
Here's a snapshot of the Gophers dynamic game plan: run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
Their strategy was so absurdly retro that Kill joked he received a congratulatory phone call from former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, a wishbone disciple.
"All we did was run option football," Kill noted.
The Gophers kept feeding workhorse tailback David Cobb the ball, and he delivered, rushing for 207 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries. At this rate, the Gophers are going to drive Cobb until his wheels fall off.
The first person to catch one of Streveler's passes wore a San Jose State uniform, a fourth-quarter interception inside the red zone. See, they should've known better than to deviate from run, run, run, run, run, run.
"That's my fault," Kill said.
What coach famously said three things can happen when you put the ball in the air and two of them are bad? Kill probably went to bed last week repeating that mantra in his head over and over.
In all seriousness, their one-track mind was effective, if not entirely goofy, but this unbalanced approach is not going to work once the Big Ten season starts next week.
Somehow, the Gophers better discover a passing attack of some efficiency. And fast.
They can subsist on a running game alone against San Jose State and Middle Tennessee and Eastern Illinois. Who knows, the Big Ten looks so atrocious that maybe the Gophers can even win a few games by shunning the forward pass as if it's leftover meatloaf.
But this is not a sustainable model, not against tougher defenses and better athletes. They're not going to win too many Big Ten games completing only one pass. They won't average 6.6 yards per carry, as they did Saturday.
This was an anomaly, not a blueprint.
The Gophers own one of the worst passing offenses in college football, and that was before their 7-yard invisible performance. Kill doesn't act outwardly concerned, but his passing game should cause him to lose sleep.
The Gophers create turnovers on defense, and Cobb runs with heart. But their passing game is a mess.
Leidner threw the ball erratically in the first three games, and the coaches declared TCF Bank a "no passing zone" with Streveler in relief.
"It doesn't matter who we play," Kill said, "we've got to take what they give us."
OK, we'll concede he has a point. San Jose State couldn't stop Cobb and Streveler (161 yards rushing) so the Gophers didn't feel compelled to throw the ball.
But the Gophers failed to establish any semblance of a passing game in four nonconference games. That's concerning because what's Plan B once teams stop their running game?
The Gophers reacted with such amazement on their first pass play Saturday that they had a false-start penalty. Apparently, they were a little jittery at the thought of seeing the ball in the air.
The Gophers enjoyed a 10-point lead at halftime despite their quarterback going 0-for-2 on passes. Streveler avoided a dubious 0-fer when he finally completed a short pass in the fourth quarter.
"It feels good to just go out there and help the team get a 'W,' " he said. "I don't really care whether I do it running or passing or whatever it may be."
Some of both would be ideal. The Gophers have only half of the equation and that won't suffice, no matter how weak the Big Ten appears.
Chip Scoggins • chip.scoggins@startribune.com
