The Minnesota Golden Gophers improved to 5-3 on the season on Saturday afternoon with an impressive 48-23 win over the Maryland Terrapins, one of the more impressive victories in recent years for the Gophers. Gophers Nation offers five takeaways from the win below.

In our prediction for Saturday's game, we mentioned the possibility of Max Brosmer having his best game of the season against Maryland. The Terrapins' secondary has been the weakest part of their defense all season, and the Gophers, led by Brosmer, did just that. The transfer quarterback completed 26-of-33 passing attempts for 320 yards and four touchdowns. The Georgia native continues to put together a strong season overall, completing 69.5% of his passes for 1,776 yards and 12 touchdowns with just four interceptions.

The Golden Gophers did see Darius Taylor break away for a 51-yard touchdown run on Saturday afternoon against Maryland, but outside that run, it was a pedestrian day for the Gophers' rushing attack. The Gophers had 28 carries for just 72 yards outside Taylor's touchdown run, an average of 2.5 yards per carry. If you're looking for a silver lining, this is the second time in three games that the Gophers were able to rush for 100+ yards, as they also ran for 193 yards against USC earlier this month.

I think there's too much being made about the Gophers' defense giving up touchdowns on each of their last two drives after Maryland put in backup quarterback MJ Morris. Yes, you'd prefer your defense to have a full 60-minute effort, but despite the fourth-quarter effort which saw Maryland score 13 points and total 155 yards of total offense, it was a strong defensive effort from the Gophers. Through three quarters of play, in which starting quarterback Billy Edwards had played for the Terrapins, the Gophers held the Terrapins to just 10 points and 272 yards of total offense. Maryland couldn't get anything going on the ground, averaging just 3.4 yards per carry, and they kept a dangerous passing attack in check, allowing just 201 yards on 19-of-35 passing from Edwards. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty that the Gophers have to get cleaned up from that fourth quarter, but I think the strong first three quarters severely outweigh the poor fourth-quarter performance from the defense. The biggest takeaway from the first three quarters from the Gophers' defense, for myself, was only allowing Maryland to go 4-for-12 on third down. That was a major key to victory in our lead-up to Saturday's game, and the Gophers did a great job of checking that box.

I get that P.J. Fleck wanted to see a "full four quarters" from his team on Saturday, but there was no reason for the starters to be in that game in the fourth quarter. The game was already well out of reach; the Gophers found themselves leading 41-10. It would've had to take a miracle effort from Maryland to win the game. Rarely in conference play do you get the opportunity to get depth pieces extensive playing time and experience, and I thought the coaching staff failed to do that, not to mention risking unneeded injury to key players. The Gophers did see Aidan Gousby and Jah Joyner leave the game banged up; we'll see how severe either injury is. The fourth quarter especially would've been a great chance to see true freshman Drake Linsdey get playing time. After all, he's just one Max Brosmer injury away from seeing the field. Not to mention risking unneeded injury to key players. The Gophers did see Aidan Gousby and Jah Joyner leave the game banged up; we'll see how severe either injury is. Part of building a winning program is building depth, and you can do that in practices, but it still doesn't match the in-game experience the Gophers could've got a quality chunk of their roster late Saturday.

It's safe to say there weren't too many high expectations for Minnesota coming into this season, especially nationally. But after Saturday's win, their third straight, the Gophers find themselves at 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Big Ten play with four games left. A once potentially daunting stretch of Illinois, Rutgers, Penn State, and Wisconsin suddenly, however, looks a bit more navigable after Week 10.

Illinois is a quality program but is one that the Gophers could absolutely beat if they play like they did on Saturday against Maryland. That being said, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema is 10-0 against Minnesota all-time. Rutgers is significantly banged up and is spiraling out of control with four straight losses after a 4-0 start. Their November 23 matchup against No. 3 Penn State is still going to be a big uphill battle for the Gophers and by far their longest shot of winning, but their regular season finale against Wisconsin on November 29 is very much a winnable game for Minnesota as well. The Badgers have been playing quality football as of late, but one could easily make the argument that the Gophers have been the better program throughout the course of this season.

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