Rating the Spartans on a scale of 1-10

Offense

Kirk Cousins just made a schoolyard-worthy play for a 26-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 14-10. You get the ball back, pinned at your own 9-yard line.

And you put in Keith Nichol for his first action in three weeks.

Really?

The quarterback situation remains a mystery. The running game was a bigger problem in this game. It did not exist in the first half (10 carries, 10 yards) against the Big Ten's No. 10 rushing defense.

Big plays? Yes. Goal-line execution? No.

Rating: 5

Defense

In a word, brutal.

The Spartans made the Big Ten's least-productive offense - playing without its only star, receiver Eric Decker - look like a high-flying machine all night.

The Gophers couldn't get much on the ground, but MSU's secondary played its worst football in weeks. All those unknown receivers were running free all over the place. An early injury to safety Danny Fortener definitely hurt.

MSU did force two turnovers and appeared to have a third, but the replay official made a call that was hard for the entire press box to understand.

Rating: 2

Special teams

Hello, Keshawn Martin. The sophomore receiver showed special speed on his 93-yard kick return for a touchdown to open the second half. It was MSU's first since Demond Williams did it in 2005 against Indiana.

On the other side of the coin, kickoffs and kick coverage are a significant weakness for this team, and there's no reason to think that will change.

Aaron Bates had a costly shank in the first half, setting up Minnesota's third touchdown. Then Kendell Davis-Clark ran into Minnesota's punter to kill MSU's chances.

Rating: 6

Overall

Early on, it looked like MSU had no interest in playing this game. The Iowa letdown had come to pass.

The Spartans hung in there and fought back into the game, to their credit. To their chagrin, they were the victim of another unbelievable call from a Big Ten replay official. What's up with these guys?

Still, MSU should look at itself first. The defense made a bad offense look great, and the offense couldn't score from the 1-yard line if it had a police escort.

Rating: 5

Bottom line

The Big Ten remains an unpredictable and often unsightly collection of football teams. Early in the day, the Spartans were watching Indiana take it to Iowa and imagining a brand-new race.

Thanks to an Iowa surge and some interesting replay reviews, those thoughts were put to rest emphatically.

Meanwhile, lowly Illinois bombed Michigan, 38-13. Penn State looked good at Northwestern, Ohio State is improving and Iowa is living a charmed life.

Those three stand above, but if the Big Ten is lucky this bowl season, it will have this many teams in BCS bowls: 1