Tasked with the colossal challenge of upsetting Ohio State, the Gophers on Thursday night showed they were game for the effort.
Gophers collapse under Ohio State's big plays in 45-31 loss; Mohamed Ibrahim injured
Ohio State scored on plays of 71, 56, 70 and 61 yards and also on a strip sack of U quarterback Tanner Morgan. Making matters worse for Minnesota, Mohamed Ibrahim left the game in a walking boot.
September 3, 2021 at 1:21PM
They led by four points at halftime and by three in the third quarter only to see the fourth-ranked Buckeyes, last year's national championship runner-up, escape a raucous Huntington Bank Stadium with a 45-31 victory.
In the end, the Gophers didn't have enough playmakers — and especially in the fourth quarter when Mohamed Ibrahim, the reigning Big Ten running back of the year, limped off the field and later to the locker room in a boot because of a leg injury.
"Hopefully it's nothing major, but we don't know that just yet," Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. "Just unfortunate, he got tangled up on a tackle."
In throwing a big-time scare into the four-time defending Big Ten champions — the Gophers trailed only 38-31 with 5:31 to play — Fleck's team showed resilience and grit but just not enough in the clutch moments against college football royalty.
"We've got to be better," Fleck said. "We didn't play well enough to beat the No. 4 team in the country [Thursday]."
The chance at pulling off one of the biggest upsets in program history hinged on three big, second-half plays the Gophers allowed.
First, Ohio State defensive end Zach Harrison sacked Gophers quarterback Tanner Morgan, forcing a fumble that Haskell Garrett returned 32 yards for a touchdown and a 31-21 lead with 2:18 to play in the third, separation that the Buckeyes relied on.
Next, after Matthew Trickett's 46-yard field goal pulled Minnesota to 31-24, redshirt freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud hit TreVeyon Henderson on a swing pass, and the true freshman took it 70 yards for a TD and a 38-24 lead with 9:43 left in the fourth quarter.
Finally, after the Gophers closed to 38-31 on a 2-yard run by Bryce Williams, Stroud hit wideout Chris Olave for the 61-yard dagger.
"There was a very small margin for error,'' Gophers linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin said. "Any slip-up they take advantage of.''
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Ibrahim rushed 30 times for 163 yards and TDs of 1 and 19 yards. Morgan passed for 205 yards and a TD for the Gophers. Transfer wideout Dylan Wright caught five passes for 57 yards and a 13-yard TD.
Stroud passed for 294 yards and four TDs in his first start, and Olave caught four passes for 117 yards and two scores.
In the first half, the Bank, with its sold-out crowd of 50,805, was rocking and jaws were dropping as the Gophers took a 14-10 lead into intermission. A couple of key fourth-down calls by Fleck, including one from the Minnesota 29-yard line, led to the two touchdowns and the hope for an upset.
Ohio State led 10-0 early in the second quarter after its first two possessions, the first capped by Miyan Williams' 71-yard TD run and the second on a 35-yard field goal by Noah Ruggles.
On the Gophers' next possession, Fleck took his first gamble, and it paid off in a big way.
Facing fourth-and-1 from their 29, the Gophers went for it with Morgan handing off to Ibrahim, who rambled 56 yards to the Ohio State 15. Two plays later, Morgan found Wright in the left corner of the end zone for a 13-yard TD completion that cut the Buckeyes' lead to 10-7 with 9:11 left in the half.
"We didn't come here to lay up,'' Fleck said in a halftime radio interview. "… I believe in our football team."
Added Morgan, "The look in the huddle was, 'We're going for it, and we're going to get it.' ''
On Ohio State's next possession, Gophers cornerback Terell Smith intercepted a Stroud pass and returned it 23 yards to the Buckeyes 37. That set up the next bold call, fourth-and-goal from the 1. Running behind a seven-man line, Ibrahim followed the blocks of Axel Ruschmeyer and Ko Kieft into the end zone for a 14-10 Gophers lead with 3:32 left in the first half.
The Buckeyes regained the lead 17-14 in the third quarter when Stroud found Olave for a 38-yard TD. Again, the Gophers responded, driving 75 yards and taking a 21-17 lead on Ibrahim's 19-yard TD run. Ohio State answered two possessions later when Stroud hit a wide-open Garrett Wilson for a 56-yard TD, going up 24-21, for good as it turned out.
Afterward, Fleck lamented the loss but found solace in his team's effort.
"Are they devastated? Yes," he said. "However, they're really confident in themselves, too, that they'll know how to respond."
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