P.J. Fleck has talked constantly this season about the importance of playing complementary football. Offense, defense and special teams all working together, each unit doing its part to help the others win football games.
The defense has been doing its job. There are a couple of notable exceptions, but in five of the last six games, the defense has been very good. Saturday’s game at #4 Indiana was no exception. This 2026 Indiana offense is not what it was a year ago, but it is still talented. And
the Gopher defense held them to one touchdown and won the turnover battle.
Special teams was absolutely dominant on Saturday at Indiana, partially because Indiana’s special teams stunk. But another blocked kick and Luke Drzewiecki was special again.
You cannot reasonably ask much more
The problem is that there has been nothing complementary about Minnesota’s offense and it might be time to have difficult situations. On Saturday afternoon, the offense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain.
And this is no longer a one-game problem.
For the third consecutive game, the Gopher offense has managed just one touchdown. And that lone touchdown at Indiana was the result of a trick play after the Indiana punter shanked his punt, giving the Gophers excellent field position.
So where do the problems lie? Well, the problems are at every level. The head coach’s ultra-conservative mentality, the offensive coordinator’s head-scratching play-calling and the quarterback’s mistakes and missed throws are proving costly. The offensive line has struggled, especially in the run game and the wide receivers aren’t helping their quarterback out.
We can talk about Lindsey, who has not remotely lived up to the NFL Draft hype from the off-season. Currently, Lindsey ranks 11th in the Big Ten in yards per game; he’s 16th in efficiency, 10th in touchdowns, 10th in completion percentage and tied for the third most interceptions. And I realize that stats do not always tell the whole story, but what’s more is that at no point has his play elevated the offense in any meaningful way.
And the excuses that we are playing really good defenses are wearing thin. Nebraska’s Anthony Colandrea threw for 264 yards against this Indiana defense. Northwestern’s Aiden Chiles was 22/29 for 293 and 2 touchdowns.
And we’ve heard the Iowa defense is really good (it is). But Washington’s backup quarterback came off the bench to throw for 251 yards and three touchdowns. Michigan’s defense is really good (it is) and yet even Iowa’s Hank Brown threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns. Yes, we are facing good defenses. But at some point, the coaching staff has to be able to trust Lindsey to make throws and Lindsey has to execute. This is not happening nearly enough.
There’s no questioning that Lindsey has talent, and there’s no question that he should be taking every snap. Nobody should expect him to be flawless, but we shouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge that he is not playing nearly as well as was expected. He seems to be getting less comfortable and the offense is less productive as the season progresses. This leads to reasonable questions about his development and leads to more uncomfortable questions about the offensive game plan and schemes to counter what defenses are taking away.
And this is where our biggest frustrations should lie. Lindsey has not been living up to expectations, but eventually the responsibility of this offense works its way up.
Greg Harbaugh Jr. is now in his fourth season as offensive coordinator, and I would like to describe the results as mixed. But the numbers make even that difficult.
His best offense came in 2024 with Max Brosmer at quarterback, a healthy Darius Taylor, Daniel Jackson at wide receiver and a second-round NFL Draft pick at left tackle. Even with that collection of talent, Minnesota finished 80th nationally in scoring offense, 107th in total offense, 109th in rushing and 76th in passing.
That was the high-water mark. Most of his offenses have finished in the bottom third of the FBS, as Blake outlined in the preseason.
The entire offense has been a problem, and it continues to be.
Through eight games, the Gopher offense ranks 130th in total offense and 89th in scoring out of 138 teams, but that scoring rank is falling fast, as it is bolstered by 59 points against Eastern Illinois and 41 against Akron. The other six games are against P4 teams and the Gopher offense has cracked 20 points only twice. In four of those six games, the offense has scored one touchdown or less.
The results speak for themselves, but the journey to get to these results is maddening. Harbaugh and the offensive staff had all week to come up with their game plan to attack the Indiana defense. They scripted their opening drive and then plan to adjust accordingly. Their opening script produced nothing.
- Pass to Roman Voss in the flat for 0 yards
- Pass to Darius Taylor in the flat for -1 yard
- Pass play with immediate pressure and a throwaway
The plan was obvious: get the ball out quickly, attack the edges and use Taylor in space. Indiana immediately took it away. Minnesota kept calling it anyway. Lindsey started the game completing nine of his first 11 passes. This would appear to be a great start, but six of those completions were for one yard or less; four of them were for negative yards. Lindsey’s 9/11 start netted seven yards passing. The plan was not working and it wasn’t adjusted until the third quarter.
In the Iowa game, the offense started with the ball on the Iowa 13, following the blocked punt. The offense managed zero yards and settled for a field goal.
Frustrations abound. At this point, if the talent is part of the problem, that’s on the offensive coordinator. If the game plan is the problem, that’s on the offensive coordinator. If adjustments to the game plan are a problem, that’s on the offensive coordinator. If scoring consistently lags, that’s on the offensive coordinator.
Fleck continually talks about playing complementary football and playing with consistency. This team is not playing complementary football; the defense and special teams are doing more than their share while the offense lags. The only thing consistent about the Gopher offense over the last four seasons is that it consistently lags.
I’m not sure what it would take in the final four games of the regular season to see Harbaugh back for his fifth season, but I don’t think we’ve seen anything to indicate that changes and improvement are on the horizon.
