482 yards

That is what Oregon State has given up RUSHING in their first two games, including 291 to Portland State.

Opponents are averaging 5.8 yards per carry

Looking at this, I'd really like to see the Gophers hammer the ball Saturday. I'm thinking 45-50 carries seems reasonable and possibly seems light.

I don't know how good Portland States rushing attack is (or how good the Gophers is for that matter) but if the running game can control the ball and clock, the Gophers should win.

We were supposed to rush really well vs. Buffalo too...

OSU may make our OL look like they are coming along. I forgetting Buffalo. It is a win. The future of Gopher football starts this Saturday.

Remind me I am forgetting Buffalo next time I cry about the game.

Hoping for a little more than just a vanilla offense and run scheme. I understand why they did it. But, I am hoping this week the coaching staff can install a few more things they are confident about.

UpAndUnder43 said:

I don't know how good Portland States rushing attack is

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Portland State ran for 86 yards against BYU in their first game. BYU then proceeded to give up 296 to LSU on Saturday. So the answer is, their rushing attack is probably not that good.

That said, not sure how good ours is either. If it's anything close to what we expected going into the year we should see north of 200 yards on the ground.

Imo.... if we don't rush for a boatload, then I think it foreshadows the season quite easily. If we can't run against these guys, then we can't run against anyone.

Thomasthetank said:

Imo.... if we don't rush for a boatload, then I think it foreshadows the season quite easily. If we can't run against these guys, then we can't run against anyone.

Click to expand...

Agree, they may struggle to get bowl eligible if they drop this game. That would be discouraging, IMO.

Vegas usually isn't wrong. I've seen lines waivering from -1 to +1 for us. Also discouraging.

That said, I think this team comes out with its hair on fire after last week's performance. I'd like to see them work the option game, that was done frequently with Mitch, with Croft. If he can run it effectively, they should be able to steam roll them, especially if you can keep them honest with Johnson and Douglas with play action passes and fake reverses/sweeps (with a real one thrown in occasionally). Basically, how the offense was ran a few years ago.

Heracles said:

Vegas usually isn't wrong. I've seen lines waivering from -1 to +1 for us. Also discouraging.

Click to expand...

Not directed at you Heracles, but I see this posted a lot. I wonder...how true is it? Vegas was certainly "wrong" last week about Buffalo.

So I decided to look at how the Top 25 compared with the Vegas spread in Week One...
0.5 - Auburn (12) vs Georgia Southern
2.0 - Virginia Tech (21) vs West Virginia (22)
3.0 - Tennessee (25) vs Georgia Tech
6.0 - Oklahoma (7) vs UTEP
7.0 - Ohio St (2) vs Indiana
7.5 - Michigan (11) vs Florida (17)
8.5 - Georgia (15) vs Appalachian St
9.0 - Kansas St (20) vs Central Arkansas
9.5 - Alabama (1) vs Florida St (3)
10.0 - USC (4) vs Western Michigan
11.5 - LSU (13) vs BYU
12.0 - Washington (8) vs Rutgers
15.0 - Clemson (5) vs Kent State
15.5 - Oklahoma St (10) vs Tulsa
19.5 - Louisville (16) vs Purdue
22.0 - Penn St (6) vs Akron
22.0 - Wisconsin (9) vs Utah State
22.0 - South Florida (19) vs Stony Brook
24.5 - Stanford (14) vs Rice
28.5 - Texas (23) vs Maryland

Not particularly well... now this is just 1 random week and first week is probably toughest to predict, but very underwhelming results from Vegas (and yes I know Vegas is setting lines for betting public and not how they necessarily see the games playing out....).