3 of last 5 vs Nebraska! Let's make it 4 of last 5 vs Northwestern!

And then get the Axe back!

Yes, let’s do that.

Gotta believe! Everything starts with a dream...

If they play like they did against Nebraska, then a win in Evanston is possible. But it will be much more difficult to pull off.

MnplsGopher said:

If they play like they did against Nebraska, then a win in Evanston is possible. But it will be much more difficult to pull off.

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All games are difficult if you don't play your own game. This team has the capabilities of beating Northwestern if they play their game.

#2Gopher said:

This team has the capabilities of beating Northwestern if they play their game.

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Yes, but it will be much more difficult doing that against NW than it was against Nebraska. Only two Big Ten teams have allowed us to "play our game."

What is "their game" for the Gophs?

As long as they score more points that the opposing team, I don't care if they do it running backwards.

In order to win at NW, the Gophers are going to have to either 1) get more passing yards, or 2) get good opportunities from special teams, or 3) get good opportunities from the defense, or 4) some combination of the three. NW has been very consistent at keeping our rushing offense to modest levels over the past four years:

Year Yards Yards per Carry
2013 176 3.6
2014 121 3.1
2015 74 2.2
2016 131 3.1

The earliest two games were very close Minnesota wins. The winning score in one of them was a touchdown kick return. The third was a NW blowout. The most recent was a more-comfortable-than-expected Minnesota win but Mitch threw for 197 yards in that one.

We didn't have a running QB like Croft during those games!

bottlebass said:

We didn't have a running QB like Croft during those games!

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OK, but we threw for 123 yards, 153 yards, 99 yards (blowout loss), and 197 yards in those games. Again, it took a touchdown kick return to pull it out in one of those first two games. I'm not counting on one of those two games in a row.

Northwestern isn't going to give up the amounts of rushing yards we got against Nebraska and Illinois. In their 7 big Ten games, only two teams have rushed for more than 100 yards against them. Wisconsin got 109 and Nebraska got 112. In five of the seven games, they held their opponents to under 3.0 yards per carry. Michigan State averaged 3.2 yards per carry and totaled 95 yards rushing against them (that was a triple overtime game). Michigan State rushed for 4.9 yards per carry and 245 yards total against us.

Yes, I agree that Croft's just discovered ability with the read option could help a lot but getting anything close to 200 yards would be something no other conference team has done against NW this year. In contrast, Nebraska has given up 200 or more yards rushing in 5 games this year and 199 yards in a 6th game. We rushed for more than anyone else against them but Wisconsin's 353 yards rushing against them wasn't that far behind.