The Minnesota Golden Gophers have their backs against the walls and they are now in must win situations, this has made the Minnesota team a dangerous one and an attractive one for price per head oddsmakers and sportsbooks. You see sports betting fans just love it when teams reach crunch time and its put up or shut up. The Golden Gophers have ran out of time and if they are going to make an impact this season, this is the time to do it. They are the overall favorites to come out on top as the average line holds them as 7.5 favorites for this week’s game versus the Illinois fighting Illini.
The main issue is that the Gophers, even though they have played well and put up a hell of a fight in their last three games, they have lost all of them. Granted, they lost them against Top 15 teams, but in the end, losses are losses. Our rivals this week are the Fighting Illini, a team that is 5-5 this season and just two weeks ago gave Perdue a thrashing, but then lost to Ohio State only scoring 3 points. In other words, Illinois is a team that is capable of great and terrible performances. Their record of 5-5, is not enough to persuade sportsbooks and price per head betting software providers with enough reason to hold them to be the favorites going into this game… and that is fine by us.
The key to this game is for the Golden Gophers to rely on their offense and try to make them carry this team this game and the next one versus the #21 Wisconsin Badgers if they want to end up with a winning record. The problem is that the defensive line is hurting and missing Steven Richardson and Scott Epke, and it is worrying that it seems that Minnesota might have to play both these crucial games without them, this puts an extra amount of pressure on the offense as they MUST produce if the Gophers want to come out on top.
If the Gophers manage to escape this game with the win, it will definitely hold them in higher regard when next week they face the Badgers. It is a two game challenge that this team must sort out to save the season and close out with a positive record. Currently the oddsmakers in price per head bookmaking hold them as favorites to beat Illinois this week and that should count for something, at least as a morale boost in such a crucial moment of the season.