Gopher Update: Forever Gold and Now Ranked

Jerry Kill summed it up best, "You've got to find a way to win sometimes."  It wasn't always pretty but the win moves the Gophers to 6-1 (3-0).  To put this in perspective, the last time the Gophers started the Big Ten season 3-0 was in 1990.   A win this week against Illinois would actually give the Gophers their first 4-0 start since 1967 which is the last time they claimed a share of a Big Ten title in football.  With Iowa losing to Maryland, the Gophers are now in sole possession of first place in the Big Ten West.

The win also moves the Gophers in to the Coaches poll at #24 and grants them bowl eligibility for the third straight year.

"Doh" exclaims Purdue Pete as Cedric Thompson dives for the end zone after intercepting a pass on the first play of the game.  Thompson was called out of bounds but David Cobb followed with a TD on the next play.

Advanced Game Stats: Study Hall

Updated Big Ten Projections: #2 behind Nebraska.  Coming in to the week, Minnesota was a slight favorite in the division.  Despite winning, Minnesota's projection took a small hit and Nebraska's impressive victory at Northwestern moved the Huskers to the top of the division.  Considering we play the Huskers in Lincoln, I always felt they should be projected as the division favorite despite an early loss to MSU.

Look ahead: Illinois

Tim Beckman (1-18 in B1G play) appears to be a dead man walking in Champaign-Urbana.  It is too bad because the man is Tim Brewster v2.0 and it is a lot funnier to listen to idiotic things coming from someone else's coach.  Here are some of his quotes from just this season:

“You take out 21 points on three plays and we’re in this football game. You take away those 21 points and the final score is 23-19.”

“If we take out ten plays in that football game, it’s a different game.”

This again?

“If you look at the second half, we won.”

“I thought he played well. He didn't grade out, but no one on defense did.”

After losing to move to 3-4 (0-3) and 1-18 in B1G for his career with 6 B1G games remaining, “If we run the table, we end up with nine wins.”

Fingers crossed.

The Gophers are a 6.5 point favorite and -213 on the moneyline which translates to about a 68.6% favorite to win.  The computer models seem even more favorable to the Gophers with ESPN estimating the Gophers as a 70% win probability and Bill Connelly from Sports Nation calling a Gophers win an 89.3% probability.

In the Gophers favor are that the Gophers are a run-first (and second) team and Illinois ranks #122 in the country against the run at 271.1 yards per game.  David Cobb, who has already rushed for 1015 yards in 7 games which ranks #4 in the country, should be licking his chops.  Offensively, Illinois has been a good passing team but their starting QB, Oklahoma State transfer Wes Lunt, broke his leg a few weeks ago so the Illini are mixing in two back-ups in his place.  This is a game that the Gophers should win which would set up a potentially epic November in Dinkytown with Iowa coming to town after a bye week.