Cautious optimism reigns
The Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-1) open Big Ten conference play looking to rebound against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (3-1) at 11 a.m. CST on Saturday, Sep. 27, at Huntington Bank Stadium.
This Week’s Thoughts:
gopherguy05: If Minnesota can’t put up significant points on a Robb Smith-coached defense coming out of a bye week, well we’ve got some significant worries coming the rest of the season. Having Darius Taylor back would be amazing, but if he can’t go, it’s going to need to be a big game from Fame Ijeboi, and P.J. Fleck and offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. are going to need to let Drake Lindsey cook. Either way you need to somehow find a way to score a minimum of 30 points Saturday — freaking Iowa put up 38 on this defense. And that should be enough.
GopherNation: It is still early enough in the season that optimism reigns.
Blake Ruane: See my opponent preview.
GoAUpher: I have a friend whose cousin lived next to Robb Smith while he was coaching at Minnesota. By all accounts, he’s a great guy and a good hang. I wish him no ill will as a person or professionally. However, I also have nightmares from some of the “defenses” he put on the field at Minnesota and I would like it if the Gophers were to exorcise our fanbase’s bad memories by running up the score on Saturday. It’s only fair after I travelled to Nebraska in 2018 to watch the Gophers get cooked by a crap ass Husker team. P.J. should be undefeated against Nebraska, and Robb is the reason he isn’t.
zipsofakron: I feel like there is intense pressure to win this game to keep the season on the rails and I’m not convinced this particular team is up for the challenge after the Cal performance. A W here is going to be heavily reliant on stopping a good Rutgers offense with a quarterback who is highly motivated to play well.
Ustreet: It’ll probably suck!
mowe0018: Need to get some pressure on Athan Kaliakmanis to disrupt his rhythm. Would be nice if the offense could sustain some drives to keep the defense fresh. In the words of Coach Yoast, “YOU BLITZ ALL NIGHT!!!”
WhiteSpeedReceiver: This will not be a fun football game to watch.
wildcat00: I have a bad feeling about this one. Let’s hope I’m wrong. Fingers crossed.
Post your score predictions below!
Category: General Sports
