Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from statement victory over Minnesota

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Oct 24, 2020; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach P. J. Fleck looks on during the first quarter against the Michigan Wolverines at TCF Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /

2. Minnesota’s special teams put them in a bad spot

Special teams usually goes under the radar. We only scream at the kickers when they miss important kicks and punters when they shank punts. And sometimes we fail to recognize how important they can be.

Tonight really showed how badly a team can be devastated when missing their starting kicker, punter, and kickoff specialist. Here was Michigan’s starting positions for every drive excluding the final kneeling drive:

MICH 30
MICH 30
MINN 45
MINN 8
MICH 23
MINN 29
MINN 47
MICH 32
MICH 4
MICH 13
MINN 30

As you can see, Michigan only started a drive within their own 25 just three times in 11 drives. This put the defense in a bad position all night long as Michigan did not have to travel far to score.

The starting punter tonight was Matthew Stephenson, who was a holder coming into this game. His first two punts went for a combined 49 yards. This isn’t to criticize him as he is playing out of position, it is just the unfortunate hand that Minnesota was dealt with for tonight.

The kickoffs were handled by backup kicker Brock Walker, who struggled to send the ball deep and resorted mainly to sky kicks.

Minnesota tried to work around these struggles, going for a fake punt deep inside their own territory. This made things go from bad to worse as Michigan stuffed it out and took over in prime position to extend the lead.

The offense and defense were not great either, as Tanner Morgan was not on his A game. But, special teams seemed to be the biggest unit holding the Gophers back from competing in this game.

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