THE OFFICIAL RUTGERS-MINNESOTA PREDICTION THREAD
- Thread starter bac2therac
- Start date
Would be nice if we can score 2 or more TDs and Minny strays under 6.
Second best would be to get more first downs than them.
Second best would be to get more first downs than them.
With almost everyone expecting a loss at Minny it will be interesting to see what the fan reaction is after a loss. Anger and vitriol is what I would expect from Many RU fans. Having said that,
Minny 31 - Knights 10
Minny 31 - Knights 10
Not sure if we will see a great deal of anger over a loss. Most realistic fans knew this was a tough year going in.
More Gio and more Hicks & Martin, less Turnovers or turnovers on downs by RU.....Gophers overlooking RU here....
Gophers 28, Rutgers 20....
Gophers 28, Rutgers 20....
I didn't get the score right last week, nor the winning team, but everything I said based on Team Stat comparison of Iowa with Illinois, along with SOS, was spot-on:
- we'd be able to move the ball better on O
- both teams have lousy ST's
- it would come down to execution, penalties, and TURNOVERS
...lo-and-behold our TO's, while only leading to 7 of their points, absolutely killed us last week. Probably 21 points (7 to them, 14 not to us) combined.
Anyway Minny has a good D. GOOD, not great, or even close to great, because despite being in the mid-30's across the board they've played the 69th most difficult schedule in the nation thus far (or 59th easiest if you'd like...). So:
Total D - 35
Pass Eff D - 33
Run D - 33
SOS - 69 (RU 10th, btw...)
...so I believe they're D is more in line with those of Iowa and Illinois than those #'s bear out right now. Can we score on them this week? IMHO, despite our woes on O against Mich and OSU, we've proven we actually CAN get up-and-down the field - somewhat - against both Iowa and Illinois. The problems related to scoring in those 2 games, however, were execution(Iowa) and TO's(Illinois).
ST's appear to be a push and penalties, well, they're one of the best...at piling up the yardage....Unfortunately they're also one of the best when it comes to turnover margin.
Tough one here BUT if we hold onto the ball we make a game of it into the 4th quarter:
Gophers 27
Knights 17
- we'd be able to move the ball better on O
- both teams have lousy ST's
- it would come down to execution, penalties, and TURNOVERS
...lo-and-behold our TO's, while only leading to 7 of their points, absolutely killed us last week. Probably 21 points (7 to them, 14 not to us) combined.
Anyway Minny has a good D. GOOD, not great, or even close to great, because despite being in the mid-30's across the board they've played the 69th most difficult schedule in the nation thus far (or 59th easiest if you'd like...). So:
Total D - 35
Pass Eff D - 33
Run D - 33
SOS - 69 (RU 10th, btw...)
...so I believe they're D is more in line with those of Iowa and Illinois than those #'s bear out right now. Can we score on them this week? IMHO, despite our woes on O against Mich and OSU, we've proven we actually CAN get up-and-down the field - somewhat - against both Iowa and Illinois. The problems related to scoring in those 2 games, however, were execution(Iowa) and TO's(Illinois).
ST's appear to be a push and penalties, well, they're one of the best...at piling up the yardage....Unfortunately they're also one of the best when it comes to turnover margin.
Tough one here BUT if we hold onto the ball we make a game of it into the 4th quarter:
Gophers 27
Knights 17
The comparisons of Minny's Defense to that of Iowa and Illinois is a fair one to infer that we will move the ball on Saturday vs the Gophers.
But what you omitted is that RU is on the road in a hostile B1G environment on Saturday vs being home at HPSS against Iowa and Illinois.
Big difference IMO.
A B1G road start for Gio is a tall challenge for the team at this point. But if we are in the game at halftime then I will feel a lot better about our chances.
I did forget to discuss...however I'll say this about the "environment"...this is an 11AM start on what is expected to be a perfect day, weather-wise, for their Homecoming...I'm not so sure how "hostile" the environment will be, at least early in the game/1st half, for a game against a lousy Rutgers team...but I'd fully expect it to be much more so in the 2nd half SHOULD we keep in close through q's 1 and 2.
or I could be wrong ugh...
Another loss for RU that will wrongly be blamed on inappropriate players for the RU system. Time for Ash and Drew to adapt to what we have got. Waiting for his system to take hold is a joke.
