Through three quarters on Saturday, Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan had completed just eight of his 18 passes for 80 yards.

In most games this season, that would’ve been all you needed to know about the Gophers chances of winning. But Minnesota’s No. 88-ranked defense put together one of its best performances of the season at Camp Randall Stadium.

So, Morgan took the field with 11:30 to play in the fourth quarter, having not completed a pass since the three-minute mark of the second quarter, trailing by only a touchdown, 17-10.

The ensuing drive would be Morgan’s best, completing three of four passes, scrambling for a game-saving conversion on fourth down and finding Mike Brown-Stephens in the end zone for a touchdown to tie the game.

It was the lone bright spot for a passing offense that looked anemic throughout the game. Despite that, the Gophers defense gave them a chance to win it in the fourth quarter, intercepting a Chase Wolf pass and giving the offense over a minute to score.

They couldn’t. Then in overtime, the offense managed just seven yards on three plays and kicker Anders Gelecinskyj missed a 36-yard field goal. The Badgers would win it 20-17 on the next drive with a 30-yard field goal of their own to claim the Axe of the second straight year.

“These kids never quit, never stopped playing and played their tail ends off,” head coach P.J. Fleck said. “It could’ve been anybody’s game. Wisconsin probably could’ve made more plays. We could’ve made more plays. It is what it is. It comes down to overtime and they executed. We didn’t.”

Arguably the offense’s biggest missed opportunity came early in the second quarter. With the Gophers on Wisconsin’s two-yard-line, Mohamed Ibrahim appeared to score his 16th touchdown of the season only for the play to get called back because of holding. On the next play, Morgan forced his pass into double coverage in the end zone and was intercepted. The Gophers would punt on their next four drives.

“You can’t do it. It brings back a touchdown, the next play is an interception,” Fleck said of the holding.

“It’s on me. I just got to eat it or throw it into the second window. It’s my fault,” Morgan said of the interception. “It was a critical error that can’t happen in the game.”

Morgan lost his biggest playmaker Chris Autman-Bell early in the third quarter after he was injured returning a kickoff, meaning he was down to his third and fourth options with star receiver Rashod Bateman opting out several weeks ago. Morgan finished 13-for-25 for 160 yards with two touchdowns and the interception.

“I’m not going to sit there and say it’s [Morgan’s] best performance, but it wasn’t his worst performance,” Fleck said. “There’s maybe two, three plays you’d like to see back … We just didn’t play well enough as a team to win.”

The result was a stagnant offense held up by its run game. Ibrahim, the Big Ten Running Back of the Year, provided much of the offense for Minnesota throughout the game, eclipsing over 100 yards for the eighth consecutive game – a new school record – and 1,000 yards for the season in just seven total games.

“I thought Mo carried the load for us today. He’s still beat up and banged up a little bit. He fought through that,” Fleck said. “Mo put the team on his shoulders and I thought he played like he normally does.”

Minnesota now awaits to see if it will have one more game left this season. Fleck said after the game that the team hasn’t decided one way or another if it would accept a bowl invite. If the team is offered an invitation, Fleck said it will be a decision made cohesively by the players, staff and administration.

Minnesota Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck has used one word more than any to describe his team’s performance this season: inconsistent.

For the defense it made sense. The unit saw seven players depart from last season, including four who were drafted into the NFL. Injuries and COVID absences have tested that depth even further.

But the offense’s problems were more confounding. Quarterback Tanner Morgan, running back Mohamed Ibrahim and receivers Rashod Bateman and Chris Autman-Bell all returned with four experienced offensive lineman to anchor the unit.

Yet still, the offense had struggled to recreate the successes of last season.

It was never more evident than last week, when the group managed just one touchdown in the Gophers 35-7 loss to Iowa.

But on Friday, the Gophers conjured up an offensive performance that felt much like the height of their historic 2019 season. The result followed suit, with the Gophers winning 34-31 over Purdue.

“This week we looked at it and had a lot of opportunities to grow from last week from the film,” Morgan said. “It’s all about doing it with each other. I had a lot of fun playing football with our offense tonight. At the end of the day that’s really all it’s about.”

Ibrahim continued his torrid start to the season, running for 102 yards and three touchdowns, including the eventual game-winner. Ibrahim has 13 rushing touchdowns this season, currently third-most in the country.

Ibrahim’s performance wasn’t the key, however. It was Morgan’s.

After having one of his worst statistical performances of his career last week, Morgan avoided the turnovers that plagued him, spreading the ball out to seven different receivers and regaining the confidence that was omnipresent last year.

While his play didn’t result in any touchdowns, Morgan threw for 264 yards and no interceptions and commanded the offense through several difficult situations.

“He was tough tonight. He had an edge to him. He played gritty,” Fleck said. “He was accurate and had a complete understanding of the offense.”

Facing a 4th-and-8 on the Purdue 34 yard-line leading 21-17 early in the third quarter, Fleck opted to keep Morgan and the offense on the field. Morgan solidified the decision, throwing a jump ball up to Autman-Bell who came down with it on the one-yard line.

“When I saw Chris out there one-on-one, man, that was a great feeling because I knew he was going to come down with the ball,” Morgan said.

One play later, Ibrahim punched it in to extend Minnesota’s lead.

Autman-Bell’s progression has been much needed for a Gophers offense that lost its most productive receiver in program history, Tyler Johnson. Autman-Bell caught five passes for 129 yards, both career highs. All of Autman-Bell’s receptions were caught for first downs.

“He’s a special player, special dude,” Morgan said. “He did a phenomenal job this week and has done a great job this year for us.”

Now, to strip the offense of its self-proclaimed “inconsistent” tag, Morgan will need to string together performances like Friday. The Gophers play Wisconsin and Northwestern in the next two weeks, both of whom are ranked. Minnesota is confident they have the right man leading them towards it.

“I see toughness and edge from Tanner every day,” Autman-Bell said. “He’s a leader on this football team. One of the best leaders in the country.”

In P.J. Fleck’s four seasons as head coach, the Gophers have beaten every team in the Big Ten West… except one.

That team, the Iowa Hawkeyes, proved to be a thorn in the side of Fleck and Minnesota again on Friday, beating the Gophers 35-7 at TCF Bank Stadium and retaining the Floyd of Rosedale trophy. It’s the Gophers’ largest margin of defeat since they lost to Maryland 42-13 on Sept. 22, 2018.

“A lot of things we did tonight is uncharacteristic of our football team,” Fleck said. “I told the team, ‘We have an identity, we know who we are, and we win games a certain way, and tonight we were basically the complete opposite of that.’”

Minnesota hasn’t beaten Iowa since 2014 and has won just five matchups against the Hawkeyes since 2000. Iowa hasn’t trailed in a game against the Gophers since 2016.

The Hawkeyes’ scoring started midway through the first quarter when wide receiver Nico Ragaini scored on a jet sweep handoff from the one-yard line to give Iowa an early 7-0 lead.

Iowa extended its lead in the second quarter, this time on a seven-yard rushing touchdown from Tyler Goodson to make it 14-0. Goodson would tack on another touchdown late in the game.

The Gophers looked ready to cut that two touchdown lead in half in the opening moments of the third quarter. But on third-and-six with the ball at the Iowa 20 yard line, Minnesota opted to hand the ball off to Mohamed Ibrahim which resulted in just a one-yard gain. They then attempted a 39-yard field goal, which they missed.

“We were gonna go for it on fourth down… that’s why we ran the ball,” Fleck said of the third down play call. “When we lost the yard there was no way I was going to go for it now.”

The Gophers offense, which averaged 36 points through three games, was a shell of their normal selves. Iowa’s top-15 run defense stifled Ibrahim and Tanner Morgan continued a string of uncharacteristically bad performances.

Morgan threw for 167 yards, completing 16-33 attempts for one touchdown and two interceptions.

“Obviously we have to play better,” Morgan said. “That starts with me right here, and I most certainly will do that.”

Without a strong offensive performance, Minnesota tried to rely on its provenly unreliable defense to keep it in the game. They didn’t fare much better.

The Gophers rush defense, which ranked 112 out of 123 FBS teams entering Friday, struggled again. Goodson ran for over 140 yards and powered a unit that ran for seven yards a carry. Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras threw for 111 yards, completing 9-18 for one touchdown and one interception.

“Our whole football team was inconsistent. Offense, defense, special teams,” Fleck said. “We didn’t earn the right to get the pig back. We didn’t play well enough to get it.”

Minnesota was also called for 80 yards worth of penalties, the most notable of which was a targeting penalty on linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin that led to Sori-Marin’s ejection.

Minnesota will try to correct its sloppy play and get back on track when it hosts Purdue next week on Friday Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m.

“It’s a tough loss. We definitely didn’t expect to lose like this,” cornerback Coney Durr said. “But we got a whole season left.”

The Minnesota Gophers lost two games all of last season. Two weeks into the 2020 season, they’ve matched that.

The Maryland Terrapins and quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa ran rampant on Friday night, overcoming a 17-point fourth quarter deficit to upset the Gophers 45-44 in overtime. Tagovailoa threw for 394 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another two, the last of which — a two-yard run — was the game winner.

The Gophers were an extra point from tying the game in overtime following a Seth Green two-yard touchdown run, but kicker Brock Walker missed the kick to seal Minnesota’s fate.

“That is not the reason we lost this football game,” head coach P.J. Fleck said of the kick.  “There was plenty of blame to go around.”

A week after giving up 49 points and 481 yards to Michigan, Minnesota’s defense showed little signs of improvement. Maryland, which mustered only three points in its loss to Northwestern last week, totaled 675 yards of total offense and failed to score on just four drives on Friday.

“It’s unacceptable. With that many yards and that many explosive plays. There’s got to be a lot of accountability that goes around, but that starts with me,” Fleck said. “Everything starts with me.”

The struggles started early for Minnesota. Maryland scored touchdowns on its opening three drives of the game, including a 39-yard touchdown scramble by Tagovailoa and a 76-yard pass from the sophomore quarterback to Jeshaun Jones on back-to-back offensive plays.

Minnesota’s defense appeared to right the ship momentarily in the second and third quarters, holding Maryland scoreless and forcing an interception and fumble. But, the inexperience and youth showed up again in the fourth quarter. Maryland scored 17 consecutive points to tie the game and then scored again on its first drive of overtime.

“We don’t really point fingers on this defense,” said Boye Mafe, who tipped the pass that led to the interception. “We’re ready to fight for the next play. That’s the biggest thing that we can take away from this game. We were ready to fight.”

Much like the defense, which repeated many of its problems from Week 1, Minnesota’s offense replicated many of its successes on Friday. Mohamed Ibrahim ran for 207 yards and four touchdowns, which tied the program record for most rushing touchdowns in one game. Ibrahim’s play kept the Gophers within striking distance in the first half, even leading to a 28-21 Gophers edge at halftime.

“Mo did a phenomenal job,” quarterback Tanner Morgan said. “He ran extremely hard and was able to do a lot of good things for us.

Yet, like the Michigan game, the offense struggled in key moments. Minnesota failed to score in any of its three fourth quarter drives, any of which would’ve put the game out of reach.

“We just have to finish the game better as an offensive unit,” Morgan said.

Coming into the season ranked inside the top-25, expectations were high for another historic year. Now, Minnesota must pick up the pieces of its season following two trying losses. The Gophers head to Illinois next weekend in what is now a must-win game for their Big Ten title hopes.

“We got to get better, and we can’t wait to get back to work,” Fleck said. “Last year doesn’t matter.”

With a roster full of newcomers, the Minnesota Gophers thought at least one position group, the offensive line, would be able to provide continuity and stability in this abbreviated season.

On paper, they were set to return all five starters from a year ago. But like many things in 2020, that didn’t go to plan.

The Gophers were without their starting right tackle Daniel Faalele and starting right guard Curtis Dunlap Jr. in Saturday’s 49-24 loss to the Michigan Wolverines.

Dunlap was seen prior to the game with a hard cast on his right foot, signaling he’ll miss considerable time this season. Meanwhile, Faalele’s absence is less clear. He was not seen at any point on Saturday and head coach P.J. Fleck gave no indication of whether that was due to injury, COVID-19 or something else.

“Those two guys who started last year aren’t there,” Fleck said. “That’s hard, but the other guys got to step in and step up.”

As a result, four positions shifted to accommodate the loss. Redshirt junior Blaise Andries, normally the Gophers starting left guard, moved to right tackle in place of Faalele. Starting center and redshirt senior Conner Olson moved to right guard, and backups John Michael Schmitz and Axel Ruschmeyer filled in at center and left guard, respectively. Only left tackle Sam Schlueter stayed in his normal position.

Minnesota’s depth at offensive line has strengthened in recent years; Fleck said there were just four offensive linemen on the entire roster when he was hired. Yet, after the game, Fleck noted he still feels the team is “a year to two away” from the depth he wants.

“The way we recruit, it’s going to take awhile to be able to get that,” Fleck said. “Now, we had it with five or six guys last year, and we stayed healthy, and that’s key to it. And if we didn’t, we had one other guy who could sub in and we were good with five. Well when you lose two of those, and you sit there and look at who’s next then you lose another guy that gets hurt. Other guys got to step in and go. No excuses whatsoever though, we have to be better.”

The Wolverines provided constant pressure on the Gophers, especially in the passing game, causing Tanner Morgan to have one of his worst performances in recent memory. His passer rating of 115.6 was the second worst of his career as a starter, only eclipsing his performance against Northwestern in 2018.

The redshirt junior threw an interception and had a fumble returned for a touchdown. He was sacked five times.

“I just have to be better. Period. It’s my fault. It’s not anybody else’s. It’s me,” Morgan said after the game.

While Morgan didn’t shift any of the blame to the offensive line, Fleck did.

“I didn’t think we protected well tonight. Nobody protects well against Michigan,” Fleck said. And on the performance of his quarterback, “There was some really good, there was some really bad. There was some inconsistency, but the fumble is not necessarily on him except there’s a few different reads we got to make better.”

Still, silver linings can be found.

Only one player on the offensive line, Ruschmeyer, lacks significant experience. Olson and Andries have started in every game of their college career. Schleuter has started 27 games over four seasons, and Schmitz appeared in every game last season.

Running back Mohamed Ibrahim ran for 140 yards and two touchdowns averaging more than five yards per carry, signaling that even if pass protection struggles, the running game can be successful.

Michigan will also be one of the toughest defenses Minnesota plays all year. The Wolverines ranked 10th in passing yards allowed, 11th in total defense, 21st in sacks and 25th in points allowed in the country last season.

Minnesota’s next opponent, the Maryland Terrapins, ranked outside the top-100 in each of those statistics last season, except for sacks which it ranked 94th.

“It was one game. The sky hasn’t fallen on the season, and we don’t look at it like that,” Morgan said. “We have to be better and we will be better. We will digest this film to get a lot better from it, learn from it and grow from it. Then, we will move on to next week.”

Last season, the Minnesota Gophers defense ranked ninth in the nation in yards allowed per game.

But this is not last year’s defense.

Fielding seven new starters on that side of the ball, No. 21 Minnesota couldn’t contain No. 18 Michigan’s offense all game long. The result… a 49-24 drubbing by Michigan. The Gophers have now lost 17 straight home games to the Wolverines.

“You got a bunch of other freshmen or redshirt freshmen who haven’t played a ton of football yet,” head coach P.J. Fleck said. “You’ve got people on the back end who haven’t played a ton of football yet at the safety position who are filling holes, filling gaps. It was hard. Some guys were trying to do somebody else’s position at times. We didn’t tackle well and when we did fit it, they sprung out of it.”

The Wolverines racked up 481 yards of offense, averaging 8.6 yards per play. They were forced to punt just once, which came on their opening drive. From there, it was touchdown after touchdown, with their only unsuccessful drives coming in the form of three missed field goals and a turnover on downs in garbage time.

It was Minnesota’s worst performance since it gave up 55 points to Illinois in 2018. The next day, the team fired then-defensive coordinator Robb Smith.

“There’s a lot of youth and experience at that side,” Fleck said. “Again, not an excuse, we just have to be able to coach it better and it starts with me. We got to get it better and I know we will as we continue to go through the year.”

While Saturday’s performance was reminiscent of Illinois, the circumstances are different.

Normally, these opening game warts would be worked out against far lesser teams than Michigan. Minnesota struggled at times at the beginning of last season, surviving scares against South Dakota State, Fresno State and Georgia Southern by sheer talent. With the schedule exclusively Big Ten opponents, that won’t be the case this season.

“We’re much better than what we showed tonight,” junior linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin said. “The communication, the guys doing their jobs, wasn’t where it needed to be tonight.”

The Gophers also lost four defenders to the NFL — safety Antoine Winfield Jr., linebacker Kamal Martin, defensive end Carter Coughlin and cornerback Chris Williamson — an atypical occurrence for the program.

But inexperience reared its ugly head in more than just the defense. The special teams unit was depleted because of COVID-19.

Starting punter Mark Crawford and starting kicker Michael Lantz were both out due to positive tests, Fleck revealed after the game. Backup kicker Brock Walker was forced into action despite still recovering from a sports hernia issue, which limited his ability. Backup punter Matthew Stephenson averaged just 35 yards per punt, including a 18-yard punt. The Gophers also attempted a fake punt on 4th-and-4 from their own 31, which failed and set up an eventual Wolverine touchdown.

“[COVID-19] hit the specialists pretty hard and it hit them at different times,” Fleck said. “That’s why there’s certain decisions made that maybe people agree with, maybe they don’t agree with, but at the time they seemed like the best decision… we were playing catch up.”

The lack of a traditional offseason plus the wealth of talent Fleck has brought in recruiting over the past several years provides hope that this can be just a blip on the radar with more time to grow. Yet, for a team that had hopes of competing for a Big Ten title, any more results like Saturday could sink their season’s hopes quickly.

“We just have to be better, we will be better,” redshirt junior quarterback Tanner Morgan said. “We’re going to take this and learn from it and move forward.”