Minnesota played its game. Northwestern played the same game they’ve been playing most the year, too.

The result was the Golden Gophers’ third straight win and the Wildcats’ ninth straight loss.

Mo Ibrahim ran for 178 yards and three touchdowns and the Gophers used their punishing, methodical ground game to dominate the Wildcats, 31-3.

To make matters worse, Northwestern lost its top two quarterbacks in the process, as starter Brandon Sullivan and backup Ryan Hilinski were both knocked out of the game – though the contest was already in the Golden Gophers’ hands before that. Four Wildcat quarterbacks saw action in all.

Minnesota was playing without its starting quarterback, too, as Tanner Morgan didn’t play due to an injury. Backup Athan Kaliakmanis didn’t do much for the Gophers – he threw for just 64 yards – but he didn’t have to as the Gophers rolled up 302 rushing yards and more than 40 minutes of possession time.

"It starts up front, they're patient," head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "They bleed the clock. They're gonna shorten the game. They do a really good job of getting in the ideal play with the system they run."

Northwestern’s offense, on the other hand, couldn’t get anything going against the No. 7 defense in the nation, generating just 278 yards and failing to reach the end zone for the first time all season. It was the third straight week the Wildcats fell short of 300 total yards.

The normally reliable Evan Hull scratched out just 54 yards on the ground. In the passing department, Sullivan (9-11 for 94 yards), Hilinski (3-11, 68 yds., 1 INT), Carl Richardson (2-7, 37 yds., 1 INT) and Cole Freeman (1-3, 7 yds.) combined for 206 yards but also threw two interceptions. The lone bright spot offensively was wide receiver Malik Washington, who had six catches for 97 yards.

Ironically, Northwestern made the first big play of the game when Sullivan hit Marshall Lang for a 37-yard strike down the numbers to the Minnesota 25 in the first quarter. But the Wildcats’ short-yardage offense killed the drive just a couple plays later.

On third-and-2, Hull gained only a yard. Then, on fourth-and-1, Fitzgerald passed on what would have been a 33-yard field goal attempt to go for the first down. Hull lost a yard, running up the middle again, and the Gophers took over on downs. It turned out to be the first of three failed fourth-down attempts for the Wildcats.

Minnesota, which had gone three-and-out on its first two possessions, then seized the opportunity and cranked up its ground game. They went 82 yards in nine plays, seven of them runs, to take a 7-0 lead with 3:04 left in the first quarter. Ibrahim had 40 of those yards, including the six-yarder for the score.

The sixth-year senior was just warming up. On the Gophers’ next scoring drive, Ibrahim carried the ball on nine of the 11 plays and scored the 50th rushing touchdown of his career halfway through the second quarter to give the Gophers a 14-0 lead. That drive was aided by a questionable pass-interference call against Devin Turner on a third-and-7 incompletion that gave the Gophers an automatic first down.

Ibrahim wound up cinching his 18th straight 100-yard game by halftime.

Northwestern got its only points of the game on its last drive of the first half. Sullivan hit Washington for 27 yards on a throw from his own end zone. But Sullivan took a shot from Kyler Baugh on the play and left the game.

Hilinski came on in relief, and on his first play he threw a strike to Washington over the middle. Washington spun out of trouble and rumbled all the way to the Minnesota 17-yard line for a 49-yard gain.

But once again, the Cats stalled in the red zone. After three straight Hilinski incompletions, Adam Stage came on to kick a 35-yard field and cut Minnesota’s lead to 14-3 just 1:27 before the half.

Northwestern got a chance to further reduce Minnesota’s lead to start the third quarter, but Hilinski threw an interception directly at Tyler Nubin on the second play of the second half, and he returned it to the NU 25-yard line. The Wildcat defense stiffened, helped by a holding call against the Gophers, and Minnesota had to settle for a Matthew Trickett 41-yard field goal to make it 17-3.

Sullivan came back out for one series but couldn’t move the offense. Coaches decided to keep him on the sideline after that.

"After maybe a couple plays, I got alerted that Sully is actually clear to come back into the game," Fitzgerald said. "Watching that first drive, it looked like was just uncomfortable physically. The medical team felt like it was in the best decision to go with Ryan."

Northwestern’s defense created an opportunity when Turner’s hit forced a Dylan Wright fumble and AJ Hampton recovered to give the Wildcats another possession. Hull busted one up the middle for 23 yards on a third-and-5 for the Wildcats’ first third-down conversion.

But Hilinski bounced a couple throws and then missed an open Hull on fourth-and-1 at the Minnesota 40 to extinguish another drive.

Minnesota then put the game away, going full Gopher Ball on a 12-play drive that ended with – what else? – an Ibrahim touchdown run to make it 24-3 on the first snap of the fourth quarter.

Hilinski took a low hit from Nubin on the next possession and appeared to injure his left leg. Nubin picked up a roughing-the-passer penalty, while Hilinski was carted off the field and replaced by Richardson.

The Gophers added one final touchdown when Zach Evans ran it in from six yards out with 4:24 left in the game to provide the final margin.

Northwestern, which has now lost 15 of its last 16 games, goes on the road to face Purdue next week, and then closes the season at home against Illinois. The Wildcats will have to win one of those games to avoid an 11-game losing streak that would be the longest since the 1989 Wildcats went winless.