Minnesota beat Syracuse to win the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. What happened, who was the player of the game, and what does it all mean?
Minnesota 28, Syracuse 20 Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl What Happened, Player of the Game, What It All Means
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Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl What Happened
– Minnesota got up fast with two good drives for a 14-0 lead, but it needed to keep pushing. Syracuse kept hanging around with QB Garrett Shrader running for two touchdowns on the game and Andre Szmyt hitting two field goals, but down 14-10 and driving, the game turned for good on a Coleman Bryson 70-yard pick six of Shrader midway through the third.
– Minnesota starting quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis was knocked out for the game with an apparent leg injury. Veteran Tanner Morgan stepped in and hit Daniel Jackson for two touchdown passes including a 25-yarder late in the third quarter for some breathing room up 28-13.
– Mohamed Ibrahim ran for a four-yard touchdown to start the scoring. He finished with 71 yards on 16 carries, closing out the year setting the Minnesota single season and career rushing record.
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Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl Player of the Game
Coleman Bryson, S Minnesota
The big-hitting safety made seven stops – all solo – and changed the game around with his 70-yard pick six in the third quarter.
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Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl Fun Stats
– Minnesota linebackers Cody Lindenberg and Mariano Sori-Marin combined for 21 tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss.
– Syracuse QB Garrett Shrader completed 32-of-51 passes for 330 yards with a pick. He also ran 14 times for 38 yards and two scores.
– Total Yards: Syracuse 477 – Minnesota 215
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl What It All Means
It wasn’t as easy as it should’ve been, but the Gophers were able to overcome a lack of offensive punch, the loss of the starting quarterback, and a few too many missed moments by the defense against a depleted Syracuse team, but it’s a bowl win. With it, they closed the year winning five of the last six games.
It’s the second straight nine-win season for Minnesota and three years of nine or more wins in the last four – the outlier was the seven-game 2020 campaign. And with this victory, Minnesota has won six straight bowl games after losing seven in a row.
Syracuse kept on fighting. It was missing way too many key players, the defense was banged ups, and yet the team hung around and didn’t let Minnesota get comfortable. However, losing this means the team closed losing six of its last seven games.
The Orange were on a bowl run before this. Granted, 2018 was the previous bowl, and 2013 was the bowl before that, but they won four bowls in a row before dropping this.
