This BYE week could not have come at a better time for the Gophers

We have had a lot of Injury's on this team already, everyone has Injury's but we just do not have the depth to overcome key Injuy's right now.
We had our starting QB out playing our backup, three of our offensive lineman playing yesterday were back-'ups to start the season and our Right guard is now playing center.
Our tailback Kirkwood got dinged up during the game, and we were missing our starting strong Safety on defense for almost all plays with a hurt knee, and are starting
Nickel corner Shabazz was out. For Wide receivers we have lost time one out for the season in Harbison, and Mcdonald to the knee infection and health problems.
The point is we need some time to heal up and we went into Iowa with high expectations and played a bad game. Realize this we just are not at a point in time
where we can get so many people hurt and expect to come out and roll on the road in a hostile Rivalry game and win. The O-line problems and Shabazz and Vareen being hurt
are hurting this team. We will win a game or two we are not supposed to and lose a couple we are not supposed to. It isn't going to be a phenomenal year but
we are making progress. It's not going to be an exceptional season but we will flash at times and look bad at times, were just not a program with a lot of margin of error
to win. Yes it was dissapnting to lose the Pig and to Iowa, but we will see this program get better as the red-shirts and the program grows.

Very good points...

Even though the OL is limited, we need to get the first liners healthy. Northwestern will score at least 3 TD's against us, so we need all our offensive guys healthy. Grey, Kirkwood( he was dinged up a tad yesterday), etc. to put points on the board

Kill & staff proved last season that they know EXACTLY how to take advantage of an off week. This very young team will learn from this. I knew if they just got to halftime they would be fine, and the second half proved that this coaching staff knows how to make halftime adjustments as well as any.

The Gophers are a nice, young, developing team that will likely sneak into a minor bowl this year. I wasn't expecting to win at Iowa, but I do expect 2-3 wins the rest of the way.

NW #24 AP and #22 Coaches. If they win at PSU (a big if) the Gophers will be presented with the chance to beat a top 20 team to move to 5-1. Not all is lost.