MINNESOTA vs. IOWA ? November 19th, 12:00 PM EST
The Minnesota Golden Gophers opened their season with four consecutive wins and then ran into Penn State who brought them down to earth quickly by putting a 44-14 beatdown on them. In fact Minny has handled all of the lower thier competition this year but when it has come time to play the stronger teams in the Big 10, they lost to Joe Pa?s boys as well as to Wisky and to the Buckeyes. Last week against Michigan State, the Gophers were without star RB Lawrence Maroney but he was not missed as they beat the Spartans by a score of 41-18 as 3rd string RB Amir Pinnix rushed for over 200 yards.
Maroney will be back this week to add to his 1,345 yards rushing but considering that Iowa?s defense has been very successful against the run this year, Minny will probably have to have a phenomenal performance out of QB Brian Cupito if they hope to steal a win on the road in this long-standing rivalry game. Cupito is having a decent year but the strength of the team this year has been their running game. Unfortunately for the Gophers, Iowa is well prepared to defend this kind of offense as demonstrated by their performance last week against Wisconsin where they were able to hold Wisky RB Brian Calhoun to just 19 yards rushing. That is some accomplishment if you consider the fact that Calhoun was averaging 125 yard coming into that game.
Iowa QB Drew Tate is having a very nice year passing the ball and is averaging over 210 yards per game with 15 touchdowns and only five interceptions this season. The offensive attack of the Hawkeyes is nicely balanced by the running game of RB Albert Young with nearly 120 yards rushing per game and Young has now logged six straight games carrying the ball for over 100 yards. I was impressed by Iowa last week as they showed a lot of heart by coming out with a strong performance at Wisconsin after losing their previous two games by a combined four points to ruin any chance at the Big 10 title. The defensive effort against Wisky was nothing short of spectacular and I expect to see more of the same this week against Minny?s one dimensional offensive game. Teams that defend the run well such as Penn State and Ohio State have been the ones that have beaten the Gophers.
Gamblers have gone broke backing the visiting teams at Kinnick Stadium as it has proven to be the nation?s toughest home field and Iowa has been a covering machine at home. Over the past six years, the Hawkeyes are an incredible 27-5 ATS in home games. If that number does not impress, how about the fact that over the same six years, Iowa is 6-0 ATS in their home finale and those covers have been by 20, 13, 24, 6, 22 and 16 points.
The Verdict: IOWA (-5.5)
NORTHWESTERN vs. ILLINOIS ? November 19th, 12:00 PM EST
If this keeps up next year, we can expect to see the resurgence of the FireRonZook.com website that became so popular when the coach was at Florida. Illinois is at the end of their death spiral and lit seems nearly certain that they will finish the season without a single win in Big 10 play. For the second week in a row, the Illini failed to score a touchdown in a 37-3 rout at the hands of Purdue last week. This team has now been outscored 341-76 since halftime in their game against California on September 17th. In conference play, the ?Fighting Illini? have averaged only 10.4 points per game while allowing their opponents to score an average of 44.7 points and have lost each of those games by at least 17 points. In their last two games against Ohio State and Purdue, they were trounced by a combined score of 77-5. Ouch!
Northwestern will roll into Champaign this week averaging over 30 points per game against their Big 10 opponents. The Widcats? offense is led by QB Brett Basanez who is the 5th ranked passer in the country with 2,966 yards this season. Basanez was embarrassed last week at Ohio State who held him to only 121 yards passing when his average coming into Columbus was over 315 yards per game. The Cats had been averaging 535 yards per game before the Buckeyes stifled their offense and limited them to 251 total yards.
This is a perfect spot for a bounce back game by Northwestern as they face their in state conference rival in a game in which a convincing win will give them a decent bowl game berth. The ugly showing last week should provide plenty of motivation for the far superior team to roll in this one.
The Verdict: NORTHWESTERN (-14.5)
The Minnesota Golden Gophers opened their season with four consecutive wins and then ran into Penn State who brought them down to earth quickly by putting a 44-14 beatdown on them. In fact Minny has handled all of the lower thier competition this year but when it has come time to play the stronger teams in the Big 10, they lost to Joe Pa?s boys as well as to Wisky and to the Buckeyes. Last week against Michigan State, the Gophers were without star RB Lawrence Maroney but he was not missed as they beat the Spartans by a score of 41-18 as 3rd string RB Amir Pinnix rushed for over 200 yards.
Maroney will be back this week to add to his 1,345 yards rushing but considering that Iowa?s defense has been very successful against the run this year, Minny will probably have to have a phenomenal performance out of QB Brian Cupito if they hope to steal a win on the road in this long-standing rivalry game. Cupito is having a decent year but the strength of the team this year has been their running game. Unfortunately for the Gophers, Iowa is well prepared to defend this kind of offense as demonstrated by their performance last week against Wisconsin where they were able to hold Wisky RB Brian Calhoun to just 19 yards rushing. That is some accomplishment if you consider the fact that Calhoun was averaging 125 yard coming into that game.
Iowa QB Drew Tate is having a very nice year passing the ball and is averaging over 210 yards per game with 15 touchdowns and only five interceptions this season. The offensive attack of the Hawkeyes is nicely balanced by the running game of RB Albert Young with nearly 120 yards rushing per game and Young has now logged six straight games carrying the ball for over 100 yards. I was impressed by Iowa last week as they showed a lot of heart by coming out with a strong performance at Wisconsin after losing their previous two games by a combined four points to ruin any chance at the Big 10 title. The defensive effort against Wisky was nothing short of spectacular and I expect to see more of the same this week against Minny?s one dimensional offensive game. Teams that defend the run well such as Penn State and Ohio State have been the ones that have beaten the Gophers.
Gamblers have gone broke backing the visiting teams at Kinnick Stadium as it has proven to be the nation?s toughest home field and Iowa has been a covering machine at home. Over the past six years, the Hawkeyes are an incredible 27-5 ATS in home games. If that number does not impress, how about the fact that over the same six years, Iowa is 6-0 ATS in their home finale and those covers have been by 20, 13, 24, 6, 22 and 16 points.
The Verdict: IOWA (-5.5)
NORTHWESTERN vs. ILLINOIS ? November 19th, 12:00 PM EST
If this keeps up next year, we can expect to see the resurgence of the FireRonZook.com website that became so popular when the coach was at Florida. Illinois is at the end of their death spiral and lit seems nearly certain that they will finish the season without a single win in Big 10 play. For the second week in a row, the Illini failed to score a touchdown in a 37-3 rout at the hands of Purdue last week. This team has now been outscored 341-76 since halftime in their game against California on September 17th. In conference play, the ?Fighting Illini? have averaged only 10.4 points per game while allowing their opponents to score an average of 44.7 points and have lost each of those games by at least 17 points. In their last two games against Ohio State and Purdue, they were trounced by a combined score of 77-5. Ouch!
Northwestern will roll into Champaign this week averaging over 30 points per game against their Big 10 opponents. The Widcats? offense is led by QB Brett Basanez who is the 5th ranked passer in the country with 2,966 yards this season. Basanez was embarrassed last week at Ohio State who held him to only 121 yards passing when his average coming into Columbus was over 315 yards per game. The Cats had been averaging 535 yards per game before the Buckeyes stifled their offense and limited them to 251 total yards.
This is a perfect spot for a bounce back game by Northwestern as they face their in state conference rival in a game in which a convincing win will give them a decent bowl game berth. The ugly showing last week should provide plenty of motivation for the far superior team to roll in this one.
The Verdict: NORTHWESTERN (-14.5)
