Minnesota Vs. Maryland 2021 - Media Predictions

IceBoxGopher

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Picks and Parlays has Minnesota winning 31-17
Minnesota is the better team in this game and have begun to string the wins together as of late. Look for the Golden Gophers to control the ball and clock throughout this game relying on the home crowd to secure an important conference win on Saturday. Final Score Prediction, the Minnesota Golden Gophers win and cover ATS 31-17.

Odd Shark has a predicted score of 29-23 in favor of the Gophers
Minnesota will win, cover the spread, and the total will go under.

Doc Sports is taking the Gophers -5
The Golden Gophers come into this game with a record of 4-2 this season. For their last game, the Golden Gophers went home victorious with a score of 30-23 when they played the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Bryce Williams carried the rock 17 times for 127 yards, walking away from the game with 7.5 yds per carry for Minnesota. Tanner Morgan (2 touchdowns) finished the contest with 209 yds on 20/24 passing while his quarterback rate was 167.3.
 
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Bleacher Report has Maryland wining 34-28
Maryland has already been drilled by both Iowa and Ohio State and still has November games remaining against the league's other three top teams, so the Terps' odds of becoming bowl-eligible would take a huge hit if they can't get this road win. But I like Taulia Tagovailoa to have a bounce-back game against a nothing-special Minnesota secondary.

At Athlon Sports, Steven Lassan and Mark Ross are picking Minnesota while Ben Weinrib is going with Maryland

YardBarker is picking Minnesota to win
This is the old case of two teams headed in the opposite direction. Minnesota knocked off Purdue and Nebraska by seven points apiece after falling at home to Bowling Green. The Gophers are getting it done with a defense that's allowed 76 points over the last five games. Maryland, meanwhile, has been outscored by Iowa and Ohio State 117-31 while losing its last two games -- but it's had two weeks to potentially regroup.
 
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Bleacher Report did pick us to win last week....24-21. But they also pick Purdue to win two weeks prior.....24-21.

Seems to me that they throw darts and hope it hits.
 




Some are better than others. Looking at the "predictions for every game" that BR has....all they muster is final score predictions for many of the games. Make me wonder if there is any analysis behind it at all. Or just a spin of the wheel.
I've found a lot of the analysis usually gets focused on the Blue Bloods and other teams in the Top 25. Unless it's regional writers/sportscasters, the predictions are probably just based on current records going into the games, along with points against and points scored.

The throwing darts at the wall thing isn't that off with the Gophers this year, though. After Miami, who could've guessed Minnesota would have destroyed Colorado the way it did? After that game, who could have predicted a four point loss to Bowling Green? Gopher games this year have been tough to predict.
 

College Football News is predicting a 24-20 Minnesota victory
Can the Terps get their groove back?

If the offense works, they have the speed and upside to set a pace the Gophers can’t keep up with.

However, the home team D is too good against the run, it’ll come up with three key takeaways, the offense will hold on to the ball for close to 40 minutes, and it’ll be another very shaky, very ugly win.
 






The Minnesota Golden Gophers aren’t nearly as good as they’ve been in years past, and their inconsistent offense has allowed average to below average teams to hang around. The Maryland Terrapins have had an extra week to prepare for this game, and they bring in a top-20 pass offense to test a Minnesota secondary that’s struggled at times. Maryland can certainly hang around in this game with a bounce back performance from Tagovailoa. Give me the road dog.

 

Bleacher Report did pick us to win last week....24-21. But they also pick Purdue to win two weeks prior.....24-21.

Seems to me that they throw darts and hope it hits.
That’s just changing the bread on the Dink Sandwich they normally serve.
 




Tressel ball worked!!!
Nick Saban realized that in order to win you had to ditch the game manager offense and score points regardless of how great your other two phases are. Tresselball will not lead anyone to championships any more.
 

Nick Saban realized that in order to win you had to ditch the game manager offense and score points regardless of how great your other two phases are. Tresselball will not lead anyone to championships any more.
You just need to score more than your opponent.
 


College Football News is predicting a 24-20 Minnesota victory
Can the Terps get their groove back?

If the offense works, they have the speed and upside to set a pace the Gophers can’t keep up with.

However, the home team D is too good against the run, it’ll come up with three key takeaways, the offense will hold on to the ball for close to 40 minutes, and it’ll be another very shaky, very ugly win.
Takes like this are just lazy. We literally just got done playing a Nebraska team with as much speed as Maryland (and if you count healthy bodies, more speed than Maryland). We struggled with Ohio State/s speed, guess what, everyone does but outside of that this is not the slow plodding MN D of years past.

Anybody heard of Samori Toure? You might not have heard the name much last Saturday but he is the burner receiver Nebraska has that has been torching defenses. Bell from Purdue racked up some yards against us, how many times did he find the EZ?

Look, we could absolutely lose to Maryland. But if we bring any semblance of an offense to the game we will win and it probably won't be close. Maryland has lost a number of playmakers on the offensive side and their bad defense lost one of their best players as well.....if we show up and play to our capability we win this game.
 

The throwing darts at the wall thing isn't that off with the Gophers this year, though. After Miami, who could've guessed Minnesota would have destroyed Colorado the way it did? After that game, who could have predicted a four point loss to Bowling Green? Gopher games this year have been tough to predict.

Yes, and that's actually developed into a media narrative of sorts for our team this year: you never know which team is going to show up. I guess the good thing about that is that the Gophers are now considered interesting enough to have a media narrative instead of just being ignored.
 

Nick Saban realized that in order to win you had to ditch the game manager offense and score points regardless of how great your other two phases are. Tresselball will not lead anyone to championships any more.
I think that's true to an extent, but Saban has found sort of a balance between the two, in my opinion. While Saban's offenses have become more dynamic, I think there's still a philosophy at Alabama that winning the battle in the trenches is the real key to success.

On offense, their line often overpowers opponents. It gives their quarterbacks a ton of time to make good decisions and the running game to be effective. With the latter, I think it's part of the reason running backs like Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, Derrick Henry and Najee Harris had such success.

On defense, meanwhile, it's the same story. The defensive line can be suffocating, making it hard to run against and putting pressure on the quarterback. In 2018 they nullified Kyler Murray and Oklahoma until the game was out of reach.
 

Bell from Purdue racked up some yards against us, how many times did he find the EZ?

Good point. Normally, if you said "We held their top receiver to 6 catches and 120 yards!" people wouldn't think that's so impressive. But, compared to 11 catches for 240 yards against supposedly one of the nation's best defenses, Minnesota's effort was almost lock-down.
 

At MLive, the predictions are split. Two writers taking Minnesota and two others going with Maryland
No team has hit the wall harder than Maryland, which started the season 4-0 then lost two games by a combined 86 points. Take that inexplicable Bowling Green loss away and Minnesota’s having a pretty decent season and enters this one off of back-to-back wins over Purdue and Northwestern.

All three writers at Buckeyes Wire (USA Today) are going with Minnesota

Blake Ruane of The Daily Gopher (SB Nation) has Minnesota winning 27-21
The recipe for success here is simple: Keep Tagovailoa in the pocket, never let him get comfortable, and force him into making poor decisions. Expect defensive coordinator Joe Rossi to dial up a similar game plan to the one he deployed against Nebraska, which focused on making Adrian Martinez uncomfortable in the pocket and keeping him from beating the Gophers on the ground. Minnesota also needs to continue to get Tanner Morgan into a rhythm in the passing game like he did in the first half against the Cornhuskers. Maryland has shown themselves to be vulnerable to big plays through the air.
 

Nick Saban realized that in order to win you had to ditch the game manager offense and score points regardless of how great your other two phases are. Tresselball will not lead anyone to championships any more.

Saban's record at Michigan State:

34-24-1. 23-16-1 in the conference.
 


Accurate guess. I didn't see how Nick Saban's record from '95-'99 had anything to do with the conversation being had. Pray tell, how does it?

We were comparing Saban to Tressel, I believe. At least, you were. Just thought an objective fact or two might be illuminating.
 

I think that's true to an extent, but Saban has found sort of a balance between the two, in my opinion. While Saban's offenses have become more dynamic, I think there's still a philosophy at Alabama that winning the battle in the trenches is the real key to success.

On offense, their line often overpowers opponents. It gives their quarterbacks a ton of time to make good decisions and the running game to be effective. With the latter, I think it's part of the reason running backs like Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, Derrick Henry and Najee Harris had such success.

On defense, meanwhile, it's the same story. The defensive line can be suffocating, making it hard to run against and putting pressure on the quarterback. In 2018 they nullified Kyler Murray and Oklahoma until the game was out of reach.
Good point. I should have been more clear as I didn't meant that Nick has embraced the air raid or anything. Merely that he has turned his offense into one that can win a game throwing the ball 50 times, but only if he has to do so.
 

Good point. I should have been more clear as I didn't meant that Nick has embraced the air raid or anything. Merely that he has turned his offense into one that can win a game throwing the ball 50 times, but only if he has to do so.

Honest question: how many games has Saban won throwing the ball 50+ times? I say honest question, because I have no idea what the answer is.
 

Ahh. I apologize for my original post going over your head. I was talking about the reinvention of Saban's offense at Alabama. He generally had game manager quarterbacks and played a Tresselball like style on offense. He had since changed that philosophy, to some extent, and that has lead to an even more dominant Alabama (in my opinion). The objective fact of Saban's record at Michigan State had nothing to do with the discussion of his pivot from pure Tresselball.

Mmmmm....

Are we assuming that playing in the SEC in, say, November is exactly the same as a November game in the B1G?
 

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that one of Tressel's typical Ohio State teams is going to play one of Saban's typical Alabama teams in a November game at the Horseshoe.

Without knowing anything else, who would you pick?
 





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