Jeremy: Outdueled in Happy Valley

As I was working throughout the Gopher Football game on Saturday I received periodic text message comments on my cell phone about the game from my cousin who was watching on t.v.
"Garbage."
"D no show."
"Death to Cupito."
"Death to the D."
"Death to the Gophers."
"They would have done better with a no show."

Even though it wasn't much prettier trying to listen to it on the radio while at work, in a sad way I was glad I wasn't able to watch the game. Since he was able to watch the entire game and since he obviously had a strong opinion on how things went I offered him a guest blogging opportunity on Midwest Sports Rubes. I present to you now, the best man in my wedding next June, my brother, my friend, my cousin... Josho. (edited for content and strong language)

There are two ways a team can lose a football game: either they can be beaten or they can beat themselves. There are also two ways a football team can win a game: they can play better then the other team or they can get lucky.
Today the Minnesota Golden Gophers lost to the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State played flawlessly. This is the major contributing factor to the Gopher’s loss. As much as critics of Glen Mason hate to hear it when he says it, Penn State is a good football team; the [Gophers] were simply outplayed by better student athletes.
Penn State made plays; the Gophers did not. The Gophers made mistakes; Penn State did not. As a fan of Minnesota football I expected today to see a good match where two good teams met on a battlefield of turf to see who was stronger.
In the end, it was very clear that Penn State was stronger. Minnesota ran into a buzz-saw today. Sure, both teams were undefeated going into this game. Both teams were getting national respect for their level of play recently, but in the end only one team could win. It is just too bad that it wasn’t even close.
As Gopher fans, we are accustomed to speculation and wishful thinking. “If only the Gophers could do (fill in the blank) then we would have acompetitive team.” If only the Gophers would have (fill in the blank) then we would have won the game.” Sometimes we are lucky enough to be able to pinpoint with relative accuracy just exactly what went wrong and what may be a good reason for why the game ended up the way it did.
Even when the Gophers pull through and win important games we hear speak of this nature coming from the celebratory lips of even the most faithful of maroon and gold supporters. Gopher fans can always speculate: “What if Cupito was better? What if the defensive line was stronger?” But today none of those things mattered. This game today was just so cut and dry there is very little room for editorial commentary.
Look at the numbers put up for both teams in this game. Minnesota's defense could not stop Penn State. The Penn State defense had Maroney perfectly dialed in. Cupito and the Minnesota offense could not make anything work against Penn State. The end result: Penn State outplayed Minnesota and was victorious.
That is the end of it. I wish there was more.