Minnesota Golden Gophers head football coach P.J. Fleck and his crew fell at home, 49-24, to the Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday night.
The Gophers were without their starters at right guard and right tackle in redshirt sophomore Curtis Dunlap Jr. and junior Daniel Faalele, respectively. The absences may have impacted his team's ability to get enough time for quarterback Tanner Morgan to find receivers down the field, with the redshirt junior completing 18-of-31 passes for 197 yards, one touchdown and one interception and gaining just 6.4 yards per passing attempt.
"It's a combination, but no excuses whatsoever," Fleck said postgame. "I mean, it's 2020. Everybody's playing with what you have. Some [absences] are worse than others, but there's no excuses whatsoever. Those two guys that started last year, they're not here. That's hard, but the other guy's got to step in to step up."
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U-M's defensive front wreaked havoc in the backfield, and was able to sack Morgan five times on the night.
"I didn't think we protected well tonight," Fleck said. "I'm going to go back through and look at the protection. But again, nobody protects really well, as I think the one team that protected really well against Michigan was Alabama and Ohio State. I think those are two people I've watched protect well against that front, against [U-M defensive coordinator] Don Brown defenses."
A bright spot on the Gopher offense was junior running back Mohamed Ibrahim, who churned out 140 rushing yards on 26 carries (5.4 yards per rush) and two touchdowns. Fleck was satisfied with the way his team ran the ball.
"That's a really good front," Fleck said. "They're not the biggest linebacking corps we've faced, but they might be one of the fastest. That defense is fast. They're athletic and their linebackers can run sideline to sideline. They tackle well. They're aggressive, and Mo having 140 yards tonight is what we needed."
The Wolverines also had plenty of success running the ball the entire night, racking up 256 of their 481 total yards on the ground against a Gopher defense that returned just two starters from last season in the front seven.
When asked whether his team's struggles defending the run were due to scheme or personnel, Fleck said it was "a combination."
"I told you guys earlier in the week that about 60 percent, you know what they're going to do, and 40 percent, you don't know what they're gonna do. Well tonight, it was the complete opposite. 40 percent was what we knew they were going to do, and then 60 percent we didn't. They went to all that two-back stuff. I don't know if you saw that.
"You got a true freshman linebacker starting. You got a bunch of other freshman or redshirt freshmen who haven't played a ton of football yet. You got people on the back end, who haven't played a ton of football yet at the safety position that are filling holes and filling gaps, and it was hard. I think some guys are trying to do somebody else's position at times, but we didn't tackle well.
"And when we did fit it, they somehow sprung out of it. But we'll look at the film, but there's a lot of inexperience and youth on that side. 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."
Minnesota plays at Maryland on Friday night, Oct. 30, while U-M is set to take on rival Michigan State in Ann Arbor on Oct. 31.
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