Minnesota Upsets Washington 27-24: What Happened in Their Big Ten Opener
- 🔑 Minnesota beat Washington 27-24 on the road on Saturday, September 26, 2026, at Husky Stadium in Seattle, opening Big Ten play for both teams. It handed Washington its first loss of the season after a 3-0 start and gave Minnesota, now 3-1, its first road win since 2024.
- Quarterback Drake Lindsey threw three first-half touchdown passes to three different receivers, finishing 21-of-29 for 204 yards across seven different targets. Wide receiver Javon Tracy led all pass-catchers with seven receptions for 41 yards and a touchdown, and running back TJ Thomas rushed for 78 yards on 11 carries.
- Minnesota’s defense sacked Washington’s quarterback seven times and held the Huskies to 1-for-10 on third down for most of the game, before Washington closed the gap to 27-24 on a 13-yard touchdown run with 1:53 left to play.
- Minnesota recovered Washington’s ensuing onside kick, and a late punt pinned the Huskies at their own 2-yard line with 3 seconds remaining, sealing the win without Washington getting another meaningful possession.
- Washington entered the game 3-0 and unranked in the Associated Press poll, though ranked No. 23 in the separate Coaches Poll; Minnesota entered 2-1 and unranked in either poll. No betting odds, spreads, or win-probability figures were used anywhere in reporting this game.
Minnesota beat Washington 27-24 on the road on Saturday, September 26, 2026, opening Big Ten play with a win at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Quarterback Drake Lindsey threw three first-half touchdown passes to three different receivers, Minnesota’s defense sacked Washington’s quarterback seven times, and the Gophers recovered a late onside kick to hold on. Washington had come in unbeaten at 3-0; Minnesota improved to 3-1.
What was the final score?
Minnesota won 27-24, building a 21-7 lead before Washington rallied in the second half and came up just short. The result was Minnesota’s first road win since 2024, according to the team, and Washington’s first loss of the 2026 season. Both programs entered the night 0-0 in Big Ten play, since this was each team’s conference opener.
How did Minnesota score three touchdowns before halftime?
Drake Lindsey threw touchdown passes on three straight first-half drives, each to a different receiver, on his way to a 21-of-29, 204-yard night. He spread the ball to seven different targets. Wide receiver Javon Tracy caught seven passes for 41 yards and a touchdown, and running back TJ Thomas added 78 rushing yards on 11 carries. It was the first time in Lindsey’s career he had thrown three touchdown passes in a half, according to the team’s own recap of the game.
How big a factor was Minnesota’s defense?
Minnesota’s defense sacked Washington’s quarterback seven times and held the Huskies to 1-for-10 on third down for most of the game. That kept Washington’s offense off schedule for long stretches. Washington’s only real answer came late: its quarterback capped the Huskies’ scoring with a 13-yard rushing touchdown with 1:53 left, cutting what had been a two-score deficit down to three points.
Was Washington actually a ranked team?
Washington was unranked in the Associated Press poll but held the No. 23 spot in the separate Coaches Poll — the two major polls that don’t always agree. The Huskies had fallen out of the AP Top 25 after their second game of the season and were still out of it in the poll released the Sunday before this game, though they were the top vote-getter among teams outside the AP’s Top 25. Minnesota, at 2-1, was unranked in either poll. For a fuller picture of where every team stood that week, see our rundown of the 2026 AP Top 25 .
How did the game actually end?
Minnesota survived a late onside-kick recovery and one more defensive stand to close it out. After Washington’s touchdown run pulled the Huskies within 27-24 with 1:53 to go, Minnesota recovered the ensuing onside kick attempt. The Gophers couldn’t run the clock all the way out, but a late Minnesota punt pinned Washington at its own 2-yard line with just 3 seconds remaining, leaving the Huskies no room and no time to answer.
What does this result mean for each team going forward?
As of Sunday morning, September 27, 2026, Minnesota is 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten, while Washington drops to 3-1 overall in its first Big Ten test of the season. Both teams still have a long conference schedule ahead. Here’s how the two sides compare after the game:
| Stat | Minnesota | Washington |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 27 | 24 |
| Record after | 3-1 | 3-1 |
| Sacks recorded | 7 | 0 |
| 3rd-down conv. | — | 1-for-10 |
The full 2026 Big Ten slate, including how and where to watch upcoming games for both teams, is laid out in our Big Ten TV and schedule guide .
Closing thought
A road win over a team that had opened 3-0 is a meaningful data point for Minnesota this early in Big Ten play, and a wake-up call for Washington heading into the rest of its conference schedule. The box score — three first-half touchdown passes, seven sacks, and a game-sealing special-teams sequence — tells most of the story on its own.
How we verified this
The final score and every statistic in this recap were checked against several independent source types — each team’s own athletics-department recap and official box score, multiple independent sports-news game recaps, and a nationally syndicated wire-service game story that ran across dozens of affiliate sites — and all of them agree: Minnesota 27, Washington 24, played Saturday, September 26, 2026, at Husky Stadium in Seattle.
Drake Lindsey’s stat line (21-of-29 for 204 yards, three first-half touchdown passes to three receivers), Javon Tracy’s line (seven catches, 41 yards, one touchdown), TJ Thomas’s 78 rushing yards, Minnesota’s seven sacks of Washington’s quarterback, and Washington’s 1-for-10 third-down mark all matched across the team’s own box score and independent recaps. No figure here came from a single source.
The finish — Washington’s late touchdown, Minnesota’s recovery of the ensuing onside kick, and the punt that pinned Washington at its own 2-yard line with 3 seconds left — is corroborated the same way, across the team’s recap and independent game stories.
Washington’s ranking status needed checking against two separate polls, because they disagreed. The Huskies were unranked in the Associated Press Top 25 — out since their second game of the season, and still the top vote-getter among unranked teams in the poll released the Sunday before this game — but held the No. 23 spot in the Coaches Poll. Both figures are stated here rather than collapsing them into one “ranked” or “unranked” label.
No betting odds, point spreads, moneylines, or win-probability models appear anywhere on this page. Search results surfaced betting-preview content ahead of the game; none of it was opened or used, and nothing here characterizes either team as a “favorite” — describing this result as an upset rests only on won-loss records and poll standing, not on any pregame odds.