Needing a win to stay in the Big Ten title hunt, Michigan was dealt a blow when Denard Robinson was ruled out for the game. But no one told Devin Gardner that was a bad thing. After a slow start, the junior quarterback-turned-receiver-turned-quarterback put on a display that will ease concerns about next season’s quarterback situation.

Michigan 35 – Minnesota 13
	Final Stats
35	Final Score	13
6-3, 4-1	Record	5-4 (1-4)
389	Total Yards	275
155	Net Rushing Yards	128
234	Net Passing Yards	147
18	First Downs	21
1	Turnovers	1
7-69	Penalties – Yards	9-68
3-88	Punts – Yards	3-127
29:08	Time of Possession	30:52
7-of-12	Third Down Conversions	4-of-14
1-of-2	Fourth Down Conversions	2-of-4
1-4	Sacks By – Yards	3-23
0-for-0	Field Goals	2-for-3
5-for-5	PATs	1-for-1
3-for-3	Red Zone Scores – Chances	3-for-4

Gardner completed 12-of-18 passes for 234 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception, leading Michigan to a 35-13 win over Minnesota. It didn’t start out positively, however, as Michigan gained just nine yards on eight plays in the first quarter.

The Gophers got the scoring started with a 10-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Philip Nelson to tight end John Rabe. Michigan responded with a 12-play, 91-yard scoring drive that took seven minutes off the clock. The touchdown was a 45-yard pass from Gardner to Drew Dileo that seemed to be straight out of the playbook from a backyard football game. Gardner dropped back, stepped up, rolled to his right, then back all the way across the field to his left, and heaved it up to a wide open Dileo in the end zone.

After a Minnesota three-and-out, Gardner put together another long drive, marching 90 yards on 13 plays, capping it off with a two-yard Thomas Rawls touchdown run. It was the first time in Michigan history that the team scored touchdowns on consecutive drives of 90 yards or more, and just the third time it has ever been done in the same game.

Minnesota missed a 55-yard field goal as time expired in the first half and Michigan took a 14-7 lead into the locker room.

A Minnesota sack forced Michigan to punt away its first possession of the second half and the Gophers mounted a 10-play drive into the Michigan red zone. On fourth-and-16 from the 19-yard line, head coach Jerry Kill elected to call a fake field goal instead of kicking a 36-yarder. It failed miserably, gaining only five yards, and Michigan capitalized with an 86-yard scoring drive. Jeremy Gallon did the heavy lifting on this drive, catching a 47-yard pass and a 10-yard touchdown grab to give Michigan a 21-7 lead.

Michigan retains the Little Brown Jug for the fifth straight year (photo by Tom Olmscheid, AP)

Minnesota tried to fight back, driving to the Michigan three-yard line, but settled for a field goal to pull within 11. Michigan scored touchdowns on its next two possessions – a two-yard run by Gardner and a 41-yard run by Fitz Toussaint – to put the game away.

Toussaint led the Wolverines in rushing with 74 yards on 13 carries, but 41 of those came on that one play. Rawls had 43 yards on 16 carries for a meager 2.7 yards per. Without Gardner in the receiving corps, the receiving was well rounded. Gallon led the way with four catches for 72 yards, while Dileo had 69 and Roy Roundtree had 64.

For Minnesota, Nelson took a lot of chances downfield with little success. The best success he had was drawing a few pass interference calls against Michigan’s defensive backs late in the game. He completed 13-of-29 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown. It will likely be good enough to keep Michigan atop the national rankings in pass defense. Donnell Kirkwood rushed 16 times for just 61 yards and Michigan held the Gophers to 3.4 yards per carry.

It was a game that Michigan was supposed to win, even without Denard, and the Wolverines did just that. The talk coming out of the game will likely center around Gardner’s performance and question whether he should start the rest of the season. Any talk of that kind should stop right there. I’ll get to it more later this week and so will Chris in his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback segment, so stay tuned. But for now, enjoy the win and look forward to returning to the Big House against Northwestern next Saturday.

Read our preseason preview here.

This Saturday, Michigan looks to follow up a poor performance against Nebraska with a win over Minnesota. The Gophers are currently in last place in the Big Ten Legends division, while Michigan is in a battle for first with Nebraska. At this point, every game is a must-win if Michigan wants any chance of reaching the Big Ten championship game. Minnesota, meanwhile, is still fighting for relevancy.

The Gophers picked up their first conference victory last Saturday, beating Purdue 44-28. You might remember that as being the same number of points Michigan scored on Purdue, though the Wolverines held the Boilers to just 13.

Michigan’s loss to Nebraska dropped the Wolverines to just 3-4 on the road in Brady Hoke’s tenure (not counting the neutral site loss to Alabama), so Michigan will need a win in Minneapolis to pull even in that regard. Does Minnesota have a shot at upsetting the Wolverines and dismantling their Big Ten title hopes? Or will Michigan keep those hopes alive? Let’s take a look.

On paper, Michigan and Minnesota look fairly similar – at least on offense. I never thought I would utter those words in a senior Denard-led offense, but that’s where we are eight games into the season. But while they look fairly even on paper, in actuality, Michigan has faced three of the nation’s top ten scoring defenses, while the best one Minnesota has faced is Wisconsin, which ranks 17th. In fact, the average scoring defense among the teams Minnesota has played is 56th, plus the 65th ranked scoring defense in the FCS. Conversely, Michigan’s is 51st.

The main discrepancy between the two teams is on defense. Michigan boasts the nation’s ninth-best total defense, 14th-best scoring defense and top pass defense, while Minnesota has the 43rd-best scoring defense and 27th-best total defense. The biggest mismatch may be in Michigan’s rush offene, which ranks 27th against Minnesota’s rush defense, which ranks 84th.

Freshman Philip Nelson has started the last two games at QB (photo by Andy Manis, AP)

The main playmaker for the Gophers is quarterback-turned-receiver MarQueis Gray. He started the season at quarterback, but made the move to receiver in favor of Max Shortell. Shortell then gave way to freshman Philip Nelson who has started the past two games and completed 61 percent of his passes for 395 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions. Against Purdue on Saturday, he went 15-of-22 for 246 and three TDs.

Gray is the team’s second leading rusher (from his time at quarterback) with 320 yards on 54 attempts and has caught eight passes for 89 yards since making the move.

Running back Donnell Kirkwood has rushed 132 times for 609 yards (an average of 4.4 yards per carry) and three touchdowns, while Nelson, having played in only the last two games, has rushed for 104 yards on 25 carries.

The receiving corps is pretty much a one-man show. Junior A.J. Barker has 30 catches for 577 yards and seven touchdowns. No other Gopher has more than 13 catches or 193 yards, however, 16 different players have caught a pass and 14 of those have caught at least two. The Minnesota passing offense is sixth-best in the Big Ten, just a few yards per game behind Nebraska, so Michigan’s top-rated pass defense will have its hands full once again.

The rush offense is also sixth in the conference, averaging 162.9 yards per game, but Wisconsin and Iowa held the Gophers to just 96 and 102 rushing yards, respectively.

Defensively, Minnesota allows just 159.9 yards per game through the air, good for seventh nationally and second in the Big Ten behind Michigan, but that is largely due to the success other teams have on the ground. Iowa’s Mark Weisman rushed for 177 yards on 21 carries, Northwestern’s Venric Mark gained 182 yards on 20 carries, and Wisconsin had two ball carriers with big days – James White had 175 yards on 15 carries and Montee Ball had 166 on 24. Needless to say, Minnesota’s rush defense has been anything but stout, and that’s good news for a Michigan offense that needs to get back on track.

Another area that Michigan seems to have a major advantage is on special teams. Brendan Gibbons has been getting quite a workout the past few weeks, and hopefully Michigan won’t need him much on Saturday, but he (and Matt Wile’s) 14-of-17 rate is far and away better than Minnesota kicker Jordan Wetterstein’s 9-of-16. In addition, punter Christian Eldred ranks ninth in the conference with an average of 37.4 yards per punt compared to Will Hagerup’s conference-best 45.9.

With Nebraska facing Michigan State on Saturday, this weekend is the beginning of a must-win four-game stretch for Michigan. Stay tuned for coverage throughout the week.

For the second consecutive week Michigan got off to a strong start, scoring on its opening drive en route to a dominating victory. This time, Minnesota was the foe, and while the Gophers aren’t exactly the class of the Big Ten, no other Michigan team has ever beaten Minnesota as badly as it did today.

Vincent Smith scored a rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown, and threw a touchdown pass to lead Michigan to a 58-0 win, its first shutout since beating Notre Dame 38-0 in 2007, and its first shutout of a Big Ten opponent since a 20-0 victory over Penn State in 2001.

#19 Michigan 58 – Minnesota 0
	Final Stats
58	Final Score	0
5-0	Record	1-4
580	Total Yards	177
363	Net Rushing Yards	73
217	Net Passing Yards	104
32	First Downs	8
0	Turnovers	2
3-24	Penalties – Yards	9-74
2-75	Punts – Yards	10-363
36:22	Time of Possession	23:38
6-for-11	Third Down Conversions	0-for-11
0-for-0	Fourth Down Conversions	0-for-0
3-16	Sacks By – Yards	1-8
3-for-3	Field Goals	0-for-0
7-for-7	PATs	0-for-0
8-for-9	Red Zone Scores – Chances	0-for-1

Denard Robinson hit Jeremy Gallon for nine yards to start the game. On the next play Devin Gardner came in and handed off to Denard, who then pitched it to Fitz Toussaint for a three-yard loss. Toussaint, however, made up for it two plays later when he busted through the line for a 35 yard rush. Three plays later, Vincent Smith punched it in from 3 yards out to put Michigan ahead 7-0.

After a three-and-out by Minnesota, which was forced by a third-down sack by Ryan Van Bergen, Michigan took over at its own 25. Denard drove the Wolverines 67 yards in four plays to get inside the Gopher 10. Two plays later, Denard took it in.

Minnesota suffered through another three-and-out before punting it back to Michigan. Nine plays later, two of which included a pass to Devin Gardner and a 15-yard run by Gardner, Michigan found itself in the endzone again. This time it was a Smith touchdown pass to Drew Dileo on a beautifully disguised play that had the entire state of Minnesota thinking it was a sweep play.

Minnesota managed to get their first first down of the game on its next play, but when faced with a third-and-one, took a three-yard loss when Jake Ryan sacked Max Shortell.

Michigan picked up where it left off with Fitz Touissaint rushing for 24 yards and Junior Hemingway catching a nine-yarder. After an offside penalty, Denard rolled right and found Vincent Smith wide open on a screen to the left. Smith, doing what he does best, found a seam and took it to the house from 28 yards out.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, with 9:38 left in the second quarter, Vincent Smith had a rushing TD, a passing TD and a receiving TD. Smith became the first major college running back to score on the ground, through the air as a passer and a receiver since Clemson’s C.J Spiller in 2009.

After a seven-yard rush by David Cobb, Jibreel Black introduced himself to Shortell for a sack. Black was the third Wolverine in the mix after Jake Ryan and Mike Martin laid their hands on Shortell to slow him down.

Michigan “stalled” on its next drive and settled for a Brendan Gibbons 25-yard field goal to go up 31-0.

Freshman Drew Dileo catches a touchdown pass from Vincent Smith...I think he was a tad bit open (photo by the Detroit News)

Minnesota used its next drive to march into Michigan’s side of the field for the first time (I guess the Gophers weren’t in a hurry to score). Unfortunately for them it was short-lived as Brandon Green was stripped by Blake Countess and Carvin Johnson recovered it. On the play preceding the fumble we had a Will Campbell sighting in the backfield as he bull rushed the center and laid a huge hit on Shortell as he let go of the pass. It took a bit longer than I would have liked but at least we’re beginning to see glimpses of the what the former five-star recruit can do. Hopefully he can make a habit of sitting on the quarterback a la former Wolverine Alan Branch.

Michigan proceeded to move the ball 36 yards before Denard hit a streaking Kevin Koger for a touchdown to put the Wolverines up 38-0. Minnesota ran out the clock for halftime.

Michigan outgained Minnesota 384-69 in the first half alone.

The second half was more of the same as Minnesota struggled to move the ball and Michigan moved almost at will. After Michigan scored to go up 45-0, Minnesota showed some life, taking the ensuing kick off 96 yards for a TD. However, it was called back for an illegal block and the Gophers had to punt the ball away.

The Little Brown Jug remains in Ann Arbor (photo by the Ann Arbor News)

It was at this point, a little more than midway through the third quarter, that Denard’s day was over. Devin Gardner came in and drove Michigan down to the Gopher 15 and Gibbons kicked a 32-yard field goal to put the Wolverines up 48-0.

After another Gopher three-and-out, Michigan took over on its own 20. After a mix of plays, including runs by Gardner and 38 total rushing yards on the drive by Thomas Rawls, Michigan found itself forced to kick yet another field goal. Gibbons connected on a 38-yarder and Michigan topped the 50 point mark for the first time this season.

Two drives later, after Minnesota took over in great field position, David Cobb took the hand off and ran 28 yards to the Michigan 20. It appeared as if the Gophers would finally get on the scoreboard. Cobb took the ensuing hand off and ran right, but Michigan defensive lineman Nathan Brink came from behind and popped the ball out. It bounced right into the hands of Courtney Avery who took it to the house for an 83 yard fumble return TD. 58-0.

Minnesota went three-and-out its next drive and Michigan ran out the final 3:09 of the game. Rawls grabbed another 34 yards rushing and Gardner added another 15 to his total as well.

Denard was 15-for-19 for 169 yards, 2 touchdowns and most importantly, no interceptions. He also added another 51 on the ground and a rushing tuchdown.

Fitz Touissaint rushed for a career high 108 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown and true freshman Thomas Rawls gained 73 on 10 carries.

All-in-all, it was a great day to be a Wolverine. While Minnesota is not the cream of the crop by any stretch Michigan still showed significant improvement. The defense was getting good pressure and didn’t seem to be out of place too often. Borges finally got really creative with his play-calling and put Denard and the offense in position to make some nice, easy throws. There weren’t many down-field tosses by Denard, but he managed the passing game well and should have gained some confidence in his arm and decision making ability as Michigan heads to Evanston, Ill. next week to take on Northwestern.

Last week, we all underestimated Michigan’s defense and overestimated both offenses. We all predicted high-scoring games, but in reality, Michigan dominated, holding San Diego State’s high-powered offense to just seven points.  Josh was the closest, just three off Michigan’s score and 20 high on SDSU’s, so he wins the Kyle Turley SI and the Indian healing clay. Lucky him.

This week, the winner gets this singing and dancing gopher (because really, is anyone actually intimidated by a gopher?) and a brown jug so he can paint his own Little Brown Jug replica.

The Picks:

Photo credit: MVictors

Justin: This game has all the makings of a blowout. With quarterback MarQueis Gray out with a toe injury, Minnesota will rely on true freshman Max Shortell. He has seen action in three of the first four games, but tomorrow will be his first career start. In the Big House no less. While it won’t be as rocking as it was for the Under the Lights game against Notre Dame, it’s still an intimidating place to play for an opposing team, especially for a kid who was going to prom a few months ago.

Minnesota has a fairly stout run defense, but is giving up 278.5 yards a game through the air. This will be the perfect game to allow Denard Robinson to gain some confidence with his arm and some rapport with his receivers before diving into the meat of the schedule.

Without Gray, Minnesota is lacking a true playmaker on offense – certainly one that can hang with Michigan. The Gophers have recorded one sack defensively and allowed 11. This one will be over early, Denard will have another 150-150 game, and Devin Gardner will get some playing time in the fourth quarter.

Michigan 42 – Minnesota 17

Josh: Minnesota opened the season looking like a pretty good team, rallying from a 13-0 deficit before eventually losing 19-17 at USC. After that, the Gophers proceeded to lose 28-21 to a New Mexico State team that went 1-11 last season, and last week suffered a shocking loss to FCS North Dakota State 37-24. Sandwiched between their last two losses was a 29-23 win over Miami (OH). Their quarterbacks have combined for five touchdowns and five picks and are completing less than 49 percent of their passes.

Minnesota has given up 400-plus yards twice, to New Mexico St. and Miami (OH), and gave up 300-plus yards passing to USC and Miami (OH). Their rush yards against look good on paper but considering they’ve allowed teams to pass for over 278 yards per game, the rush defense probably hasn’t been tested all that much. Regardless, Minnesota is not a very good team on defense giving up 383 yards per game overall.

On offense they have managed to put up some yards, averaging 353 yards per game, but have yet to find an identity at quarterback. MarQueis Gray is most likely out this week so Minnesota will have to rely on Max Shortell to lead them. They have had a balanced attack on offense so far, but like Michigan are very reliant on one player to produce the bulk of the yards. Gray accounts for 218 of their 353 yards per game (61.7 percent). With Gray out, this will hurt Minnesota tremendously, so don’t look for them to top 300 yards again.

Michigan is 19-1 against Minnesota in its last 20, and has only lost to the Gophers twice since 1986. The teams haven’t played the past two years but if the 2008 Michigan team can beat them using a non-spread quarterback to run the read option, then this team certainly can manage a win. The defense should be able to get some good pressure to force Shortell into some bad decisions and since he is not a threat to run like Gray is Michigan should be able to contain the Gopher offense.

Freshman Max Shortell has completed 46 percent of his passes for 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions while filling in for MarQueis Gray (photo by Stephen Dunn, Getty Images)

There have been notable improvements for Michigan each week on defense and this game should be no different. Look for Michigan to force a few turnovers and to capitalize on most of them. On offense, look for offensive coordinator Al Borges to try to work out some of the kinks in the passing game and maybe run more under center stuff to help Denard get more comfortable. Minnesota will almost assuredly stack the box to ’stop’ the run, which should open up some space downfield. Despite that, I still think Michigan will rack up 175-plus yards rushing. This one will be a good game until shortly after kick off. Hopefully some of the younger guys and Devin Gardner can see some mop up duty late in the game.

Michigan 49 – Minnesota 6

Chris: I have been dreading this all week: making my pick for Week 5 and at the same time knowing that I was going to have to eat major crow for picking against the Wolverines last week.

So here it is. I screwed up. I admit it. I doubted our defense’s ability to contain the San Diego State offense. I didn’t think that the Michigan offense could out-score SDSU to win the game. Boy was I wrong.

Last week was the best that I have seen the Michigan boys play all year so far. The defense was way better than I anticipated, coming up with some big turnovers. Of course, I was glad to get the pick wrong and slightly ashamed for my lack of faith in our guys. But I do know how to admit when I was wrong.

Now on to Week 5. Short prediction this week as I’m writing this while sitting next to a pool in Phoenix mentally preparing to take on TPC Scottsdale tomorrow morning.

Bottom line: Minnesota doesn’t have enough on offense or defense to compete with the Wolverines. Denard Robinson will get an opportunity to do some things through the air against a weak Minnesota secondary and I expect the offense to move the ball at will.

Defensively, Minnesota quarterback MarQueis Gray presents a challenge (if he plays) because of his ability to run the ball, but all the Michigan coaches need to do is look at last week’s film versus FCS North Dakota State. They held Gray to 23 yards on 13 carries. If he doesn’t play, freshman Max Shortell will have his hands full with Michigan’s pass rush.

There will be some emotion in this game as it is a rivalry game, but Michigan wins to open up conference play on the right foot.

Michigan 31 – Minnesota 10

Congratulations to last week’s winner, myrick55. His highest deviation was just 29 (on Ronnie Hillman’s rushing yards). He was only six away from correctly picking Denard’s total yards, which is where most other contestants gained a lot of points (remember, this is like golf: low score wins).

Only one person, bluwolf77, correctly guessed Michigan’s first quarter points. Surprisingly, nobody picked Michigan to score no points in the first quarter, even though the Wolverines hadn’t scored a first quarter point in the first three games. TrueBlue88 was the most confident, picking Michigan to win by 18. Only one, chris12qb, actually picked Michigan to lose (by one).

Myrick55 gets to relive the thrilling comeback win over Notre Dame with a commemorative Under the Lights game program. It comes with a “never-before-heard 30-second compilation of TV, radio and sideline clips from Howard’s famous 1991 touchdown catch against Notre Dame.”

This week, Michigan hosts its fifth consecutive home game when Minnesota invades Ann Arbor. The Wolverines will be looking to hold onto the Little Brown Jug against the 1-3 Gophers. Minnesota features one of the nation’s worst pass defenses and the nation’s eighth-best punter. Here are this week’s questions: