Minnesota at Michigan State
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
This Saturday the Michigan State Spartans will look to get back on track when they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Spartans suffered their first loss of the season last week, and it wasn’t pretty, losing 37-6 at Iowa. The Golden Gophers also come in off a big loss, as they fell to Ohio State 52-10 for their eighth straight loss. Michigan State has struggled against Minnesota lately, losing three straight and six of the last eight. If you are thinking about betting on the game this weekend, the current odds have the Spartans favored by 24.5 points over the Golden Gophers at home.
Minnesota (1-8, 0-5 Big Ten): The Golden Gophers are struggling to do much of anything on either side of the football right now. Last week against Ohio State the Golden Gophers managed just 232 yards of total offense, were just 2-11 on third down conversions, and turned the ball over three times. The defense wasn’t much better, as Ohio State racked up 507 yards of total offense, including 263 on the ground.
Deleon Eskridge is starting to really run the ball well, as he backed up a 116 yard performance against Penn State with 79 yards and a touchdown against the Buckeyes. The majority of the offense has mainly came in the passing game behind quarterback Adam Weber, but he managed to complete just 9 of 20 for 162 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. It was the first time in the last seven games that Weber didn’t throw at least two touchdowns.
Defensively the Golden Gophers are terrible. They come in allowing just over 34 points a game and 417 yards of total offense. The main struggle has came against the run where Minnesota allows just under 202 yards a game.
Michigan State (8-1, 4-1 Big Ten): The Spartans simply need to forget about what happen last week at Iowa and focus on winning their final three games of the season.
The Spartans went into Iowa City with one of the better rushing attacks in the country, as they still average 175 yards a game, but they managed just 31 against the Hawkeyes. The passing game wasn’t much better, quarterback Kirk Cousins completed 21 of 29 for 198 yards and a touchdown, but had three costly interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown.
It was the third week in a row that the Spartans fell behind early, and last week it got ugly in a hurry. Iowa poured on 30 first half points and seemingly did anything it wanted. Minnesota is going to challenge this defense, and if the Spartans come out thinking this is going to be a cake walk, they could be in for a major disappointment.
Looking at the Odds: As bad as Minnesota has been this season, there is no way the Spartans should be favored by four scores in this game. Michigan State hasn’t won a conference game all season by more than 20 points and while the Spartans will likely score at will against the Gophers, I think Minnesota is going to have some success on offense throughout the game. My final score prediction is Michigan State 41, Minnesota 24.
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