Minnesota Golden Gophers vs Michigan Wolverines Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 09/28/24

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are set to travel to the Big House in Michigan to try and upset the Michigan Wolverines. Minnesota is coming off a 31-14 loss against the Iowa Hawkeyes last Saturday. The Gophers gave their crowd hope early, bringing a 14-7 lead into the second half, but then proceeded to see all hope sail out the window as they got put in their place with 24 unanswered points against them in the second half. The Gophers allowed Iowa running back, Kaleb Johnson, to run all over their defense, rushing for a total of 206 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Gophers defense allowed the Iowa offense to put up 31 points despite limiting Hawkeye quarterback, Cade McNamara to 62 yards passing. Michigan was able to welcome USC to the Big Ten last week, defeating the Trojans 27-24. It was the Wolverine’s rushing tandem that put Michigan over the top. Running backs Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards combined for 233 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Junior quarterback Alex Orji started his first collegiate game for Michigan. He managed to run for more yards, 43, than he was able to gain throwing the ball, 32, but still managed to avoid turning the ball over. Michigan football has become controlling the game through the run behind big, future NFL offensive lineman, and this Michigan team is no different.

I do believe that the Wolverines are bound to get exposed this season. They are missing key and explosive elements offensively and may not be able to hang around if they fall behind. We saw this play out in the game against Texas. However, I don’t believe that starts this week though. We saw Minnesota struggle mightily against the run last week. In the second half they could not get the one-dimensional Iowa Hawkeyes offense off the field. This opens the door for Michigan to spend another week, pounding the ball on the ground and controlling the game through the run. Minnesota looked like they knew the run was coming last week but could do nothing about it. I think we will see the same thing this week in Michigan.

Michigan -9 available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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