Midweek Madness

Welcome to the madness who will we get we don't know 

We have arrive at midpoint of the week and I though "Let's put myself outside of my comfort zone and predict a game from any team in the power 5 conferences." So that's what I did. And what do you know our first contestant just so happens to be in the B1G and they are the gophers of Minnesota. and their week 2 opponent is Fresno State so lets get started

Minnesota 
2018 Record: 1-0 (won against New Mexico State)


Minnesota struggled early against the aggies last Saturday but got into a rhythm late and torched NM State on both offense and defense. The Gophers offence was slow to start but under true freshman QB Zack Annexstad the gophers had 220 passing yards and 2 TD's which is overall not that bad. The issue I see here is Zack's accuracy. he threw 16/33 with a 48% completion accuracy. And I get it he's a new quarterback but this kid needs to get better other wise it will be a long game for their defense. The run game for the gophers was not that bad with 295 yards and 3 TD's on 47 carries. The players that are a must watch is Mohamed Ibrahim who had 101 yards on 9 carries as well as Rodney Smith who had a modest 156 yards on 24 carries.
The Defense on the other hand was slow to start but had huge numbers on the stat sheet. The gopher's defense allowed 233 yards on 29 attempts. so while they did give up more yards than what they threw offensively. They brought the pressure forcing 4 sacks and a pick off of a tipped ball. The defense squashed the run game allowing only 38 yards on 20 attempts, which is pretty impressive

Fresno State
2018 Record: 1-0 (won against Idaho)


Fresno State took care of an Idaho team that looked liked a really bad FCS team last week and had huge gains on offense. Fresno's offence had 207 passing yards  on 19 completions under Mcmaryion. But the light shone on the rushing game as the bulldogs had 247 yards with 7 TD's on 44 carries. four players had over 40+ rushing yards during the game.
While the offence had their moments, it was all about the defense. The defense picked apart every inch of Idaho's offense they allowed 202 yards through the air as well as 5 INT's with one being ran all the way back for a TD.  and the run game they allowed 119 yards on 32 carries. defense on special teams was something Fresno had 2 block kicks both by Jaron Bryant who ran them down for 2 TD's

Verdict

This will be a tight game but I'm gonna have to lean with Fresno State on this even though they played a really bad Idaho team they looked competitive by getting pressure on the quarterback which can be used to make Annexstad make some terrible plays that can hurt the gophers.