The Little Brown Jug will likely be on the road on Saturday afternoon at Michigan Stadium because the Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-2, 0-1) tackle the No. 12 Michigan Wolverines (3-1, 1-0).
The Goldden Gophers will look to rebound from a 31-14 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes final Staurday, a recreation during which the Gophers allowed 272 speeding yards. A poor omen for P.J. Fleck’s program when they are going to be dealing with a Wolverines offense that’s anticipated to be considerably run heavy on Saturday.
Additionally going in opposition to the Gophers favor on this one is Michigan’s 30-1 file in convention play for the reason that starting of the 2021 season, their solely loss in that point span coming to rival Michigan State. The Gophers in that very same time span are 14-14 however have struggled for the reason that starting of final season with a 3-8 file.
On the alternative aspect line, the Michigan Wolverines defeated the USC Trojans final weekend 27-24 to open up Huge Ten play, a significant win for the Wolverines seeing {that a} loss would’ve already been their second of the season and placing them getting ready to potential playoff elimination regardless of it nonetheless being early within the season.
The Wolverines are of their first 12 months beneath former offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore who took over this system after Jim Harbaugh took the Los Angeles Chargers’ head teaching job.
The Wolverines this season, lacking a big chunk of their roster and training employees from final season have strong however removed from the juggernaut that they have been over the previous three seasons.
Now that the stage is about, let’s make our choose for this afternoon’s recreation.
There is just one manner that the Gophers win this recreation, slowing the Michigan speeding assault. Sadly, the Gophers since final season have proven in Huge Ten play that they wrestle to do exactly that. Over the Gophers final 4 convention video games they’ve allowed 200+ speeding yards in 4 straight video games, opponents averaging 276 yards per recreation and 6.5 yards per carry. Unsurprisingly, the Gophers misplaced every of these 4 video games by at the very least two scores.
Assuming Alex Orji is the quarterback for everything of Saturday’s matchup, the Michigan passing assault is not going to be a menace. He threw for simply 37 yards in opposition to USC final weekend on 12 makes an attempt. Backup quarterback Davis Warren is a greater passer however will not gentle it up both, he has a 66.7% completion proportion this fall for 444 yards in three video games whereas additionally throwing two touchdowns and 6 interceptions.
In a variety of methods it is similar to final week’s 31-14 loss to Iowa. Cade McNamara is a shell of the previous quarterback he was and early on the Gophers have been capable of decelerate the Iowa speeding assault, nonetheless within the second half, they turned undisciplined defensively and Kaleb Johnson was off to the races.
The excellent news for the Gophers maybe is that this Michigan protection, whereas nonetheless harmful, has not performed to the identical degree because it has in years previous, at the very least but this season. The Wolverines are permitting 20.8 factors and 323 yards per recreation this season together with opponents passing for 246.5 yards per contest.
That quantity is not a fluke both, that was inflated by Texas and USC as Fresno State and Arkansas State additionally had success by the air with 235 and 222 passing yards respectively of their losses to the Wolverines.
That being mentioned, the Wolverines are excellent in opposition to the run this season, permitting simply 3.1 yards per carry and have stored three of 4 opponents beneath 100 yards for a recreation although USC did common 4.6 yards per recreation final weekend. Both manner, the Wolverines energy defensively this season is actually their run protection as a substitute.
With all that being mentioned, on Saturday, our choose to win is…. the Michigan Wolverines.
The choose comes right down to the Gophers incapacity to decelerate convention speeding assaults relationship again to final season and Michigan’s speeding assault is simply as harmful, if no more harmful than the Iowa Hawkeyes. The Wolverines haven’t only one however two harmful tailbacks in Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards.
Whereas we expect this one could possibly be shut and we expect the Gophers offense will discover some success, we’re simply unsure that the Gophers have sufficient expertise within the passing assault to efficiently beat Michigan’s secondary on a routine foundation Saturday. If they will win, Max Brosmer must have his greatest recreation but this season.
Prediction: Michigan 27 – Minnesota 16