MINNEAPOLIS — These are rowdy times in the Twin Cities.

It’s the best weather we get up here — plenty of sun, but not too hot. Just another couple weeks on the lake before boats start getting winterized.

The United States’ largest state fair is in full swing for another weekend after a one-year, COVID-induced hiatus. Most schools start back up in person — albeit with varying levels of mask mandates — next week. College kids are coming back to campus, and several thousand of them helped a sellout crowd at Huntington Bank Stadium make the place rock Thursday night.

Last week, across downtown at the Twins’ Target Field, more than 35,000 alternative rock fans sang along as Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong belted out “I’m Still Breathing.”

So, it turns out, is Minnesota football.

There are no moral victories, not even when you hang with the No. 4 team in the country, a roster that’s loaded with 5-star and future NFL talent. But the Golden Gophers showed a stadium full of folks ready to celebrate and a national television/streaming audience more than faint signs of life in their 45-31 loss to Ohio State.

“This team knows how good they are,” coach PJ Fleck said afterward. “I compared it to the Daytona 500 because that is the Super Bowl of racing, but it is only Game 1. We didn’t win the Daytona 500 today, but that doesn’t mean you cash this in for the cup at the end.

“We showed what type of football team we can be, that we will have to use a lot of players and that everyone is going to have to contribute to this team.”

First, the question overshadowing everything: When, if at all, will Mohamed Ibrahim be back from the apparent lower-left leg injury he suffered in the third quarter?

It’s too early to say. And that’s OK. Armchair doctors on Twitter can’t make an accurate diagnosis simply based on how the reigning Big Ten Back of the Year spent 15 minutes in a medical tent and then left the premises in a boot.

In a world where we don’t wait more than 5 seconds for gratification, we’re gonna have to let the actual medical professionals who work for the university weigh in on this one.

Losing Ibrahim would seriously downgrade the Gophers’ chances at a division championship, no doubt. But even his absence brought forth some positive developments.

College football’s most experienced offensive line is really, really good. Whereas last year, Ibrahim had to do a lot of the work himself, Thursday he had ample cutback lanes akin to the ones Minnesota consistently paved in 2019. Before his exit, Ibrahim carried 30 times for 163 yards.

Backups Treyson Potts and Bryce Williams showed some pop, as well. 

And how about quarterback Tanner Morgan? Against one of the Big Ten’s best secondaries, the young man hoping to honor the memory of his father — who died of cancer during the offseason — strung passes into tight windows. He also showed why he’s one of the country’s smartest guys at the position, baiting Ohio State into a couple of pass interference penalties on downfield throws.

Also, if you hadn’t heard of Dylan Wright before Thursday, that’s OK. He didn’t record a stat at Texas A&M before transferring to Minnesota.

His debut included 5 catches for 57 yards and a highlight-reel, Randy-Moss-esque jump ball in the end zone for his first career touchdown.

“Throwing the ball to him is a gift every single day,” Morgan said.

Now imagine Wright lined up opposite fellow wideout Chris Autman-Bell, who’s still week-to-week after warming up but not playing Thursday.

The results? A near 2-to-1 time of possession advantage, a 50/50 split in run and pass production, and the stones to go for it on fourth down in your own territory against a defense that returned a lot of talent from last year’s national championship game participant.

“That just shows how [Fleck] believes in us and obviously we got a big, explosive run off of it,” Morgan said of Ibrahim’s 56-yard run on 4th-and-1 from Minnesota’s 29-yard line. “The look in the huddle was, ‘We are going for it and we are going to get it.’ So there was a ton of belief in there and there was not an ounce of doubt.”

Goldy even appears to have found a kicker. Kent State transfer Matthew Trickett looked comfortable on his 46-yard field goal to bring Minnesota within a score early in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, the Gophers got after quarterback CJ Stroud in his first collegiate start. The redshirt freshman would settle in, but Minnesota made some plays against perhaps the nation’s top receiving corps.

Work remains against the run. Ohio State gashed the Gophers for 7.7 yards per rush.

“There are some things that we have to clean up as a defense, there are ways we can play better,” defensive end Boye Mafe said. “You can never play a perfect game but just take things away, like those big plays, and find ways to make them better and clean up the things we need to clean up and come back and respond next game.”

The talent disparity was on display when Haskell Garrett returned a Morgan strip-sack fumble 32 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. Near perfection is needed to pull of a mammoth upset, and Minnesota admittedly didn’t achieve that Thursday.

“Next week, the standard of how we play needs to improve,” Fleck said. “This is not good enough.”

Moving forward, so much depends on Mohamed. But a MAC-PAC-12 sandwich of Miami (Ohio), Colorado and Bowling Green presents an opportunity for further development for a team that showed it can hang with the best of them.

“I am proud of their fight and proud of how hard they played,” Fleck said. “I am proud of our fans and thankful for everyone coming out. That was special, especially our student body. It was good to have that football feel back, but comparing it to the Daytona 500, it is now time for our next race.”