BTN: Northwestern & Minnesota are each emerging as BT West contender

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per BTN:

This is a light week of action with just five games—all Big Ten affairs–as Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio State and Rutgers are off. But there are several good games, headlined by Northwestern at Minnesota. Yes, I said Northwestern at Minnesota, not Penn State at Michigan. The Wildcats and Gophers are surging and look to be factors in a West race that could be wide open.

See my Week 7 previews and game rankings below:

1. Northwestern (3-2, 2-0) at Minnesota (4-1, 1-0). This suddenly has become a big game, as each is emerging as a potential contender in the Big Ten West. Northwestern has won three games in a row after opening 0-2, sitting atop the division with a 2-0 Big Ten mark, following surprising wins at Penn State and vs. Wisconsin. Minnesota was off last week after winning two games in a row, the latter of which had encouraging signs from the passing game. Both of the teams are anchored by strong defenses. That means whichever offense can get traction figures to win. The Golden Gophers stole one in Evanston last season, however the Wildcats won their last three trips to Minneapolis.

http://btn.com/2014/10/07/week-7-big-ten-previews-wildcats-at-gophers-is-mighty-big/

Go Gophers!!
 

I know this is the exciting narrative right now, and I like it, but reality is we've played 1 conference game. I'm all in on calling us a West Division Contender if we go into November 7-1 (which seems eminently possible, but not certain) as then we'll have a better feel for what work is in front of us for the challenging final 4-game gauntlet of November.
 

I bet Antonio Thompson has a big factor on the outcome of the game. :cool:
 


BleedGopher said:
The Golden Gophers stole one in Evanston last season
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Why the hell does Dienhart always say this? Every time he talks about the game he says the Gophers snuck away with it late in a game they should have lost.
 


Not that this is a big deal, but just curious. How is Northwestern so much above us in the BTN power rankings when all they have really done is beat an overrated Penn St team and Bucky with no passing game? Add 2 losses to that mix. The only game I can see the Gophers losing is against Ohio St. That is only because JT Barrett is looking like a stud.
 

Busky said:
Not that this is a big deal, but just curious. How is Northwestern so much above us in the BTN power rankings when all they have really done is beat an overrated Penn St team and Bucky with no passing game? Add 2 losses to that mix. The only game I can see the Gophers losing is against Ohio St. That is only because JT Barrett is looking like a stud.
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Biggest reason, IMO, being that NW has two wins on their resume that are better than any of our wins (Penn State and Wisconsin) and those came in the last two weeks. We're still a relative unknown, since Michigan truly and completely blows this season, it's tough to know how we'll fare against decent B1G teams. Are we going to see more Michigan performances or more TCU performances? Like most things in football, it's probably somewhere in the middle, but Saturday is our first chance to show it.
 

The Gophers are better than NW and Leidner is getting healthy. Wish we could have that TCU game back......who look crazy good by the way. Good thing I'm rocking this rad shirt saturday from involvedtees.com!
 




That TCU loss looks much better now (especially since it was an away game) now that we know they are legit after beating Oklahoma. Honestly, I think Leidner is coming around, and we need to just keep feeding the beast that is David Cobb. We are a contender! Not to get overly optimistic, but I think we beat NW by at least 10 on Saturday.
 

Busky said:
Not that this is a big deal, but just curious. How is Northwestern so much above us in the BTN power rankings when all they have really done is beat an overrated Penn St team and Bucky with no passing game? Add 2 losses to that mix. The only game I can see the Gophers losing is against Ohio St. That is only because JT Barrett is looking like a stud.
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tOSU comes to TCF. We will have a frantic 12th man by then and that will seal the difference. TCU is now a legit national contender.
 

matt said:
Why the hell does Dienhart always say this? Every time he talks about the game he says the Gophers snuck away with it late in a game they should have lost.
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Excellent point. I guess a 7-7 tie at the half, and a 20-10 lead with 5 to go in the 4th equates we stole one.

No Tom, it's what a good team does on the road to win a game. The only time we played from behind was for a stint in the 1st half. "Stole one"? Gimme a break.
 

I think this defense has been way underrated. Kill said it before the season started....deepest secondary they've ever had. Are they elite? No. But losing Vereen and Hags...they are physical and quick. TCU was so much more the offense than the defense. Hard to put that on these guys. They're are a team and you can sense it. More than they've ever been. Even if they stumble against the big 4 at the end... they just need to show improvement. These next games are crucial to recruiting....we're getting noticed and with other big ten teams in disarray, this could be are huge opportunity for this program. Stay positive my friends. #GnawEmDown
 



#GnawEmDown said:
TCU was so much more the offense than the defense. Hard to put that on these guys.
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Quoted for truth. Our defense played TCU far better than Oklahoma's did. We held TCU to fewer total yards than OU did (427-469) while also holding them to 2-12 on 3rd downs, while OU's D allowed them to go 10-18 on 3rd down conversions. OU allowed them 8.2 yards per pass, while we held them to 5.6. The difference in the game of course was our 5 turnovers, which the Horned Frogs converted into 20 points while racking up 120 yards on those post-turnover drives. So yeah, that sad result in Fort Worth rested almost entirely on the shoulders of our offense, our turnovers and our terrible difficulty to simply even advance the football.

And obviously along with that goes credit to TCU, as at this time they are the #1 ranked defense in college football. It'll be interesting to see that defense going up against Baylor, which is averaging 51 PPG this season. Wow..
 



Seany said:
Quoted for truth. Our defense played TCU far better than Oklahoma's did. We held TCU to fewer total yards than OU did (427-469) while also holding them to 2-12 on 3rd downs, while OU's D allowed them to go 10-18 on 3rd down conversions. OU allowed them 8.2 yards per pass, while we held them to 5.6. The difference in the game of course was our 5 turnovers, which the Horned Frogs converted into 20 points while racking up 120 yards on those post-turnover drives. So yeah, that sad result in Fort Worth rested almost entirely on the shoulders of our offense, our turnovers and our terrible difficulty to simply even advance the football.

And obviously along with that goes credit to TCU, as at this time they are the #1 ranked defense in college football. It'll be interesting to see that defense going up against Baylor, which is averaging 51 PPG this season. Wow..
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Well said man... #GnawEmDown
 

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