Minnesota vs. Iowa 2012: Gophers blown away in 2nd quarter against the Hawkeyes

The Golden Gophers entered Saturday's game against a struggling Iowa side boasting a 4-0 record. They had a very poor showing, though, as the Hawkeyes rolled to a convincing 31-13 victory on the strength of a very good second-quarter performance. Iowa would score 21 points during that quarter, effectively ending the game before the half.

The good folks over at The Daily Gopher took a closer look at the game, and they did have a few positives to take away from the performance:

I would like to point out that apart from one quarter this was a relatively competitive game. But an anemic offense and a few big plays in the second quarter put the Gophers in a hole they were unable to recover from. We played OK, just OK, for three quarters and that might have been good enough to beat this average Iowa team. But Minnesota was awful for a full quarter and unfortunately that one counts as much as the other three.

They'd go on to take a look at who was at fault for the lopsided scoreline:

The Gopher defense did not play well but the Gopher offense was worse. Third downs were cryptonite all game, turnovers either put the defense in compromising positions or were returned for points. The offensive line was pushed around by the Iowa front. The receivers dropped a couple passes and Max Shortell was pretty bad.

Minnesota doesn't have a game next Saturday, so they'll have some time to work on the things they did poorly against Iowa. Next up for the Gophers will be a visit from Northwestern on Oct. 13. The Wildcats have started the season 5-0, but they'll have a trip to State College on Saturday to face the Penn State Nittany Lions before making the trek to Minnesota.