Minnesota went to Purdue on October 10 and lost 41-13. Purdue ran the ball at will, and the Gophers' only touchdown came after the game was already slipping away.
Minnesota trailed 27-6 in the third quarter when Drake Lindsey found wide receiver Jalen Smith downfield for a 42-yard touchdown. Before that, the offense's points had come from kicker Luke Drzewiecki, who made field goals from 49 and 37 yards. He's now 10-for-10 on the season. After Smith's score, Purdue kept running the ball and pulled away.
The man doing the damage was a familiar one. Running back Fame Ijeboi, a Minnesota transfer, carried 31 times for 195 yards and 3 touchdowns. Both the yardage and the carries were career highs, and Purdue said the 195 yards are the 15th-best single-game rushing total in program history. Quarterback Ryan Browne added 159 passing yards and 81 rushing yards and accounted for 2 touchdowns. In all, Purdue ran for 305 yards and gained 458 total yards to Minnesota's 273.
The Gophers had no running game of their own. Minnesota finished with 27 rushing yards, which Purdue said is the fewest it has allowed in a Big Ten game since 2004. Purdue had 25 first downs to Minnesota's 10 and ran 69 plays to Minnesota's 51. The Boilermakers scored on all 6 of their red zone trips and didn't turn the ball over. Linebacker Jojo Hayden made 6 tackles and picked off a pass, the first interception of his career.
The loss stands out because of who handed it out. Purdue moved to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten. The program said this was its first time winning back-to-back conference games since the end of the 2022 season, and its largest margin of victory in a league game since 2021.
Minnesota falls to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten, so the season is far from lost. Saturday still exposed problems on both lines. The defense couldn't get off the field against a downhill rushing attack, and the offense couldn't run at all.
The good news is there's time to fix it. Minnesota has a bye week, then returns to Huntington Bank Stadium on October 24 to face Iowa for Floyd of Rosedale. Iowa will want to run the ball, and the Gophers have 2 weeks to figure out how to stop it.
