Big Ten week 5 power rankings: The East, including Penn State, is dominating

Penn State Nittany Lions defensive tackle PJ Mustipher (Mandatory Credit: Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports)
Penn State Nittany Lions defensive tackle PJ Mustipher (Mandatory Credit: Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports) /
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Minnesota Gophers head coach P.J Fleck (Mandatory Credit: Harrison Barden-USA TODAY Sports) /

team. 852. . 2-2 (0-1). Previous: 9th. Golden Gophers . 12

No one in the Big Ten had a more embarrassing loss than Minnesota this past week.

The Golden Gophers fell to Bowling Green 14-10, at home, despite being 30.5 point favorites.

Yikes.

A week after playing their best game of the season, and probably their best overall game in a few years, Minnesota just came out flat against Bowling Green and never got going. Quarterback Tanner Morgan was bad, going 5-13 for 59 yards and two interceptions. Running back Trey Potts continues to be a bright spot though, with 141 yards on the ground.

The Golden Gophers scored the same amount of points against Bowling Green as Murray State did, and they were the road team, not a great showing at all.

This was just an overall horrible performance by P.J. Fleck’s team and it came just as it looked like the team was putting that tough opening loss to Ohio State behind them. The good news is, the defense played well for the second straight week, and that was the side of the ball where a lot of the concern had been.

So, Minnesota now has a defense that has seemed to figure itself out, but the offense is now lost. Not an ideal situation heading into conference play. They head to Purdue this week.