Tanner Morgan began the game with an 11-yard connection to Daniel Jackson but soon had his pass tipped at the line of scrimmage and intercepted by Tarique Barnes at midfield.
Illinois capitalized off of that turnover with an Isaiah Williams two-yard touchdown run. 7-0 Illini.
Led by Chase Brown, Illinois closed the first quarter by dominating the ground game. The Gophers defense has only allowed on average 92.9 opponent rushing yards per game, Illinois ran for 93 in the first quarter.
On the first play of the second quarter, Brandon Peters found Tip Reiman in the corner of the endzone for a 15-yard touchdown. Illinois took a surprising 14-0 lead.
Boye Mafe talked postgame about the difficult first quarter on defense.
“You can’t always enact from scout and watching film exactly how it’s going to be in the game,” said Mafe. “In the first couple drives we got to see exactly what it was like and learned what small adjustments we had to make.”
Minnesota on their next possession turned the ball over on downs with a failed 4th and one. Cole Kramer kept the ball for no gain. Kramer on the drive had two rushes for 13 yards and completed a 20-yard pass down the sideline to Ko Kieft.
The rest of the second quarter was a defensive slugfest as neither team scored. Illinois repeatedly went three-and-out every drive. The Gophers attempted a 45-yard field goal before halftime but it hooked wide left.
Thomas Rush made a key sack on the Illini’s first drive of the second half to force a punt. Illinois was driving near midfield and clicking on offense, unlike at the end of the first half.
Chris Autman-Bell on the next possession got injured after going up for a pass in traffic between two defenders that took him out of the game. It appeared that his head hit hard on the turf but he walked off under his own power.
To end the drive, Morgan was sacked by Owen Carney Jr. on 4th down for a loss of seven.
The Illini offense started to cook again on the next drive with Peters completing a 23-yard pass to Casey Washington, followed by a 12-yard run by Chase that would take the game to the end of the third quarter.
That Illinois burst proved to be all for naught as the Illini punted the ball back to the Gophers as the two teams traded three-and-outs.
“It was a combination of protection and drops,” Fleck said on the Gophers’ passing struggles. Fleck also said Illinois was implementing good blitz packages where they were inserting gaps and coming in from different depths and directions.
On the next drive, Morgan and the Gophers offense finally found their groove. Morgan went 7-9, throwing for 76 yards.
Morgan capped off his impressive drive with a fake hand-off and rushed to the left for a touchdown. After a Matthew Trickett extra-point miss, it was 14-6 Illinois with five minutes remaining.
Time oozed out for the Gophers on the next Illinois drive as they punted the ball down inside Minnesota’s 2-yard line with 72 seconds left.
Minnesota started the drive strong with Dylan Wright hauling in a 36-yard catch. Everything went downhill after that huge play.
Isaiah Gay sacked Morgan for a loss of 11 yards. Following that loss, Kerby Joseph intercepted Morgan’s pass intended for Brevyn Spann-Ford to seal the game.
“When you face adversity there’s two roads you can go down, said Mariano Sori-Marin. “You can go down the blame game or you can come together. I know how resilient we are, and I know when we come in tomorrow, we’re going to get down to work.
Minnesota plays No. 22 Iowa next Saturday in Iowa City.
If the Gophers win out they still have a chance to play in the 2021 Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis. “When you get to November, the goal every year is to be in the hunt,” said Fleck. “We’re still in the hunt.”
