Minnesota brings the juice and takes home The Axe, beating Wisconsin 17-7

On a cold and snowy afternoon in Minneapolis, the Gophers beat the Badgers 17-7 to retain Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the fourth time in five seasons. It was a brilliant day for John Nestor on the defensive side of the ball and a balanced approach on offense to control field position en route to a huge win for Minnesota.

The weather created issues for both teams. With temperatures feeling like 15 degrees and snow falling throughout the game, footing, punting and holding on to the ball were challenges for everybody. But being stuck in bad field position is really what put the Badgers on their back foot early and often.

Typically, this team has allowed their opponents to jump out to early leads while the offense sputters. But the Gophers lost the coin toss and opened the game with the ball. They ran 10 plays, got three first downs and moved 35 yards before having to punt. Tom Weston punted, pinning Wisconsin inside their own 10. This began the field position battle they could not get out of.

Five plays into the drive, they fumbled, giving Minnesota the ball at the Badger 21. They gained only two yards, missed the 38-yard field goal and gave the ball back to Wisconsin at their own 20. Again starting deep in their own territory, Wisconsin could not get a first down and punted after three plays, giving the ball back to the Gophers after a decent punt to the 32.

Minnesota did not find a way to score on this possession, but they did move the ball again, this time to the Badger 37 and they punted again. Weston had another brilliant punt that went out of bounds at the 2-yard line.

On the afternoon, Weston punted five times with three of them pinning the Badgers inside their own 10.

Eventually the Gophers took advantage of this great field position and took a 3-0 lead on a Brady Denaberg field goal from 33 yards. And on the following possession, after an 11-yard punt, they took control of the ball at their own 45 and on the third play of the possesion Darius Taylor ran 49 yards for a touchdown.

Now up 10-0 and Wisconsin having just 47 yards of total offense, that two-score lead looked like it might be enough. But one 67-yard completion to Vinny Anthony II set the Badgers up for their only score of the game, right before halftime.

And then John Nestor took over.

The sophomore corner picked off Badger quarterback, Hunter Simmons on the fourth play of the third quarter after Maverick Baranowski tipped the pass. And on the next Wisconsin possession, Nestor picked off Simmons again, this time with great coverage and a break on the pass. He then returned that pick to the 16 yard line, setting up a Drake Lindsey touchdown pass to Jameson Geers. The 17-7 score stood for the balance of the game and Minnesota was able to storm the endzone for Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the fourth time in five seasons.

Taylor was able to get to 100 yards rushing on the day, Lindsey was 18/24 passing with eight different players getting receptions and Nestor had two TFLs to add to his two interceptions.

Now Minnesota waits to hear where they will play their bowl game after finishing 7-5 in the regular season.