The Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini 25-17 in PJ Fleck’s first victory against Bret Bielema. Minnesota has won four in a row and will be bowling come the post-season. More importantly, the Gophers move up the Big Ten standings and will be carrying momentum and a four-game winning streak next weekend when they travel to New Jersey to face Rutgers and Athan Kaliakmanis.
The Gophers defense employed everyone’s favorite defense throughout the afternoon, the bend-but-dont-break defense. Illinois struggled in the red zone but had no trouble moving the ball between the 20s. Minnesota has playmakers on the defense. Jah Joyner’s strip sack in the final minutes and Justin Walley’s forced fumble (Altmyer landing on his head looked nasty) were big defensive plays today. On offense, Darius Taylor is unreal and only going to get better. He’s going to be a Sunday player come 2026. Max Brosmer can dissect a defense and has fully acclimated to the Big Ten. Might be a top 5 QB in the Big Ten.
I dislike conservative play-calling so I was all for the fake punt run by the Gophers. One of the Illini players made a hell of the play. Hopefully the Gophers get to use that fake again later in the season cause it worked pretty well. Crawford has a rugby background so let him run some guys over again (hopefully in a blowout, not one score game).
Regardless, 6-3 and get to play Athan in NJ next Saturday. Can’t wait.
