Minnesota Vs. Illinois 2021 - Media Predictions

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IceBoxGopher

IceBoxGopher

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Here we go for Game 9.

Picks and Parlays has Minnesota winning 31-7
Illinois has struggled all year and will continue that trend against a much better Minnesota team. The Golden Gophers have hit their stride and will continue to roll in week 10. Look for Minnesota to dominate both sides of the ball in route to the 7th win of the year.

Sports Chat Place is taking Minnesota in the match up
Minnesota is finally getting some respect from oddsmakers despite many including myself writing them off when they went down through running back after running back and I think even with Illinois’ bowl eligibility hanging by a thread here, the Minnesota Golden Gophers just end up being too much and get the win and cover here.
 
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Urbandale said:
Many prognosticators seem to have enrolled in Dink Rehab Center and emerged as better people.
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Don't be so sure, I am guessing we will see plenty of dinks emerge again next week with the Iowa projections as I can't see a lot of them picking us on the road against Iowa.
 






College Football News folks just in with their prediction. 27-14 Gopher victory.
 

"Stagg fears Purdue." Always a good warning when a sure thing seems in the offing.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
Dink free so far. Plenty of week left to dink it up
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Guessing there will be very few dinks this week. Doesn't mean Illinois can't win the game but pretty unlikely that they will be picked to win. The one exception might be those that base their picks on the spread. I could see people picking Illinois to cover but still lose.
 


College Football News has Minnesota winning 27-14.
Turnovers. Illinois has to have them.

It hasn’t come away with one in either of the past two weeks – which was crazy that it beat Penn State despite being -3 in turnover margin – but it forced two in five straight games before that.

Minnesota lost to Bowling Green because of three giveaways – and because it just never got off the bus – but it doesn’t have a big turnover issue.

This will get mucky, and there won’t be anything aesthetically pleasing about this, but the Gophers will run through the Illinois D just enough to control the game and hold on late.
  • 19th Bowling Green reference.
 
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Blake Ruane with the Daily Gopher is predicting a 28-14 Minnesota victory
This is a dangerous Illinois team, as evidenced by their upset of Penn State. The Nittany Lions lost that game because they couldn’t sustain or finish drives on offense and failed to stop the run on defense, allowing the Illini to rush for 357 yards. Minnesota would do well to follow the blueprint laid out by Wisconsin in their 24-0 win over Illinois. The Badgers limited the Illini to 2 yards per carry, ran the ball with impunity en route to 391 rushing yards as a team, and dominated the time of possession (42:43 to 17:17).
 

IceBoxGopher said:
Blake Ruane with the Daily Gopher is predicting a 28-14 Minnesota victory
This is a dangerous Illinois team, as evidenced by their upset of Penn State. The Nittany Lions lost that game because they couldn’t sustain or finish drives on offense and failed to stop the run on defense, allowing the Illini to rush for 357 yards. Minnesota would do well to follow the blueprint laid out by Wisconsin in their 24-0 win over Illinois. The Badgers limited the Illini to 2 yards per carry, ran the ball with impunity en route to 391 rushing yards as a team, and dominated the time of possession (42:43 to 17:17).
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That's sound advice, of course, but hardly seems needed. Minnesota will continue to try to do what it did against Maryland and Northwestern. Only if that isn't working out will they depart from that strategy.
 

Black Shoe Diaries (Penn State SB Nation) has Minnesota winning 28-17.
I love the fact that despite all of the chaos, including a loss to Bowling Green, Minnesota is in the driver’s seat for the Big Ten West. Just makes me chuckle. Meanwhile, Illinois - not unlike Nebraska - needs to win out to get to a bowl. Somehow, I just don’t think the Illini have it in them.
  • 20th Bowling Green reference
At MLive, three writers are taking Illinois, two ar picking Minnesota.
The Gophers will be trying to maintain their surprise one-game lead in the Big Ten West, thanks to the conference’s second-best rushing offense, before playing Wisconsin and Iowa in the final three weeks of the season. Illinois, perhaps not surprisingly, couldn’t follow up on its win over Penn State when it fell to Rutgers at home.
 

I wouldn't venture to guess the score of this game, all I want is more points
than what they have. Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!
 

If we win 3-2, I'm happy for the win.
 


hungan1 said:
Do we have to worry when we are dink-free?
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Whew....3 writers at MLive apparently picked Illinois so we are no longer Dink Free. Not sure if they were picking against the spread or straightup but actually a little surprising to see 3 go against us for this one. But hey, I'm all for a continued lack of respect. Keep that crack on the shoulder large.

Edit: Clicked the link, those picks are based on the point spread of -15. So makes sense, doubt anyone would pick Illinois to win straightup but can totally see picking them to cover the spread.
 
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IceBoxGopher said:
Black Shoe Diaries (Penn State SB Nation) has Minnesota winning 28-17.
I love the fact that despite all of the chaos, including a loss to Bowling Green, Minnesota is in the driver’s seat for the Big Ten West. Just makes me chuckle. Meanwhile, Illinois - not unlike Nebraska - needs to win out to get to a bowl. Somehow, I just don’t think the Illini have it in them.
  • 20th Bowling Green reference
At MLive, three writers are taking Illinois, two ar picking Minnesota.
The Gophers will be trying to maintain their surprise one-game lead in the Big Ten West, thanks to the conference’s second-best rushing offense, before playing Wisconsin and Iowa in the final three weeks of the season. Illinois, perhaps not surprisingly, couldn’t follow up on its win over Penn State when it fell to Rutgers at home.
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af2994a323cffa1a69a6d21f6a8c7ff7.gif
 

MNVCGUY said:
Whew....3 writers at MLive apparently picked Illinois so we are no longer Dink Free. Not sure if they were picking against the spread or straightup but actually a little surprising to see 3 go against us for this one. But hey, I'm all for a continued lack of respect. Keep that crack on the shoulder large.
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It is with the spread (-15).

BTW, every game had at least one writer pick the underdog.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Whew....3 writers at MLive apparently picked Illinois so we are no longer Dink Free. Not sure if they were picking against the spread or straightup but actually a little surprising to see 3 go against us for this one. But hey, I'm all for a continued lack of respect. Keep that crack on the shoulder large.
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Looks like ATS! The three writers for Illinois +15!
 


Both writers at Wolverines Wire (USA Today) have Minnesota winning
Trent Knoop, Minnesota 31-14: How crazy is it to think that Minnesota is leading the West division? After losing to Bowling Green earlier this year, the Gophers have won five (wrong, four) straight games and control their own destiny to get to the Big Ten Championship game. Minnesota should get another win here against the lowly Fighting Illini. After Illinois defeated Penn State in nine overtimes, it takes a bad loss to Rutgers last weekend – this just isn’t a good team.

Isaiah Hole, Minnesota 30-7: These are two teams moving in different directions and the Gopher defense will be much too much for the Illini to handle. While Illinois was able to run the ball and play defense against Penn State, I don’t expect another road upset as the Minnesota offensive front should be able to control the game.
  • 21st Bowling Green reference
 



Writers at The Champaign Room (Illinois SB Nation) have the Gophers winning.
Quentin Wetzel: Minnesota 27, Illinois 10. At this point in the season, I think we know who Illinois is. The Illini have a good, if not great, defense, but the offense is abysmal. Because of the strength of its defense, it’s hard for Illinois to get truly blown out à la 63-0, but the woeful offense makes it just as hard for Illinois to actually win games. And on the road against the 20th-ranked team? I know what Illinois did two weeks ago, but it’s probably not going to happen this time.

The passing game did finally show some signs of life last week, so if that continues and the Illini force a few timely turnovers, they have a real shot. When you’re counting on turnovers to win a game, though (again, I know what happened two weeks ago), you’re in a bad place. Minnesota wins a snoozefest.

Stephen Cohn: Minnesota 24, Illinois 9. Quentin said it best, saying we know who Illinois is by Nov. 6. And while Bret Bielema has given me more than enough reasons to think the Illini can be competent in the seasons ahead, a loss to Rutgers at home doesn’t give me hope that Illinois can pull off another upset on the road against a ranked team.

We know the newly extended PJ Fleck had Lovie Smith’s number for the most part, and I do think Bret can take PJ on and row his boat, but right now, the Gophers are seemingly playing for a lot more. And they’ll probably dominate this game. Let’s get a few field goals!

Hammer and Rails (Purdue SB Nation) has Minnesota winning 27-16
To me, Illinois is one of the more fascinating teams in the conference. They can look good for stretches and have a decent defense. They aren’t THAT far from 6-3 having blown games against Rutgers, Purdue, and Maryland because of a crappy offense. They went to Penn State and won.

They probably aren’t going to beat the Gophers, who have been a completely different team since the Bowling Green loss. Minnesota isn’t dropping this one when they have a real shot at winning the division.
  • 22nd Bowling Green reference

At Spartans Wire (USA Today), two writers have Minnesota winning while one is taking Illinois.

At Buckeyes Wire (USA Today), all three writers have Minnesota winning.
 

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