Why West Virginia Will Win The Guaranteed Rate Bowl
The run defense might not have the bulk, but it should be able to hold up.
This isn’t a high-octane Gopher team that’s going to come out and wing it all around the yard. There’s little guesswork to what the team wants to do.
The Mountaineer D has been run on at times, but it hasn’t be gouged. It allowed 239 yards to Iowa State – and won. It allowed 203 yards to Texas – and won. The team had a much bigger issue this year against the teams that could throw well and force takeaways.
Minnesota isn’t that big on forcing turnovers and the passing game is mostly along for the ride. Tanner Morgan might be a veteran quarterback, but the ground game has to rumble for the Gophers to win.
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Why Minnesota Will Win The Guaranteed Rate Bowl
West Virginia is missing its star back with Leddie Brown – over 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns – opting out. There are plenty of other options – Minnesota certainly knows how to win football games with backup running backs – but Brown was the star of the ground attack.
The Mountaineers don’t have a huge turnover problem, but they don’t force enough takeaways and they seem to struggle more than most to pull off wins when they make mistakes.
Minnesota is good at keeping the ball, better at controlling the clock, and as long as it doesn’t have to press and force anything big, it should be able to make West Virginia play at its level.
The more of a grind this gets, the better it is for the Gophers. They want to rely on their giant offensive line to take over in the fourth quarter for long, tough drives.