Well, this next week for the Golden Gophers will determine how the rest of their season will turn out. The Gopher will have to win out on their final two games to make it to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship. It will not be an easy task since they have to go to both Nebraska and Wisconsin, but they are both winnable. Before I get ahed of myself and start talking about Wisconsin; Minnesota needs to get past an angry, but still banged up Nebraska team.
Nebraska was blown out by Melvin Gordon, and the rest of the Badger team 59-24. Ameer Abdulla was virtually non-existent in that game, but that could be because of his injury. Also, Tommy Armstrong did not have the best outing ever, and looked like Mitch Leidner back their (lol). Additionally, Nebraska's defense could not do anything to stop Gordon, especially outside the tackles. I'll be honest I turned off this game after halftime. Despite the blow out last week Nebraska has a couple advantages coming into Saturday. First, Nebraska is at home, and Memorial Stadium is an extremely difficult place to play. Second, they are coming off a terrible loss, which means that they are coming out angry, and fired up. Finally, they can score a lot of points, average 38.8 points a game, which might be hard for Minnesota to keep up with.
Minnesota had a pretty close, and competitive game against the now ranked #6 Ohio State Buckeyes, and that gives me a little faith that Minnesota could storm into Lincoln and take this game. But, their are still some things that need to happen for the Gophers. This might be beating a dead horse here, but the Gopher offense has to have more than 85 total passing yards. Mitch Leidner will have a heavy impact on this. He cannot overthrow his receivers, and he cannot try to force the ball to Maxx Williams, and be completely dependent on him (which is what it seemed like for the majority of game against Ohio State). For the first three quarters he did not look comfortable in the pocket until the last five minuets when the Gophers were driving down the field to get a field goal. Cobb should have a fantastic game, he should be able to get more than a couple big gainers up the middle, and outside the tackles. If Cobb is having a hard time breaking the big ones on the outside; Minnesota can always throw in Berkley Edwards, a absolute speed demon, to break a big one on the outside. Additionally, one of Minnesota's newly discovered play is the read sweep to KJ Maye, which should be able to exploit Nebraska's ineffectiveness on the outside, and in the open field. Minnesota should not have to worry about their defense. They have one of most underrated defenses across the Power 5 conferences, there is no lack in size, and talent. When the come motivated, and with a chip on their shoulder they are a tough defense to match up with. We'll see how things turnout, but hopefully Minnesota shows up to play, and looks like they want to go to the Big Ten Championship game.
Each team has their advantages, and playing at home for Nebraska is one of the biggest. Minnesota has a hard time winning on the road, except for winning in the Big House. But I believe, since I am at the practices, that this team is motivated and they want this win. My predication is inherently biased but...
Minnesota 27
Nebraska 20
Ski-U-Mah
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