A week after almost pulling the Michigan game out of the fire, Minnesota inexplicably went for a touchdown on fourth and goal against USC with the game tied at 17 with under a minute to play.It caught a whopper of a break by the replay officials - there was no definitive view of the ball crossing the goal line - and no one on the Gopher side in Huntington Bank Stadium cared. It was a win over USC, it got Minnesota to 3-3, and now hopes of going to a bowl game are back on.
UCLA is still looking for its first Big Ten win, and its first victory of any kind since slipping past Hawaii in the season opener. It's the last home game for the Bruins until November 8th against Iowa.It's only the fourth meeting between the two. The two last played in 1978 - a 17-3 UCLA win . The Gophers won the previous season, and took home the 21-3 win in the 1962 Rose Bowl.
The defense hasn't been perfect - Iowa ran for days in its win over the Gophers, and USC marched up and down the field - but it has yet to allow more than 200 passing yards and held everyone so far to under 375 in total yards.UCLA hasn't been able to get to 300 yards since the Hawaii game.The Bruins are having a hard time moving the ball, and they're last in the nation in third down stops. Minnesota will grind, and grind some more. But ...
Why UCLA Will Win
The UCLA run defense hasn't been bad.The Bruin pass defense is the bigger issue - especially on third downs - but Minnesota is at its best with the ground game works. It's 3-0 when running for more than 100 yards, 0-3 when it's under that, and UCLA was able to hold Penn State to 85 rushing yards last week.As much as the Bruins have struggled, they've been able to hang around in most games. The Indiana loss got out of hand, but if the UCLA offense could finally get off to any sort of a good start ...
Minnesota vs UCLA: Who Will Win
Minnesota leads the nation in pass defense, but that's because the teams with a decent attack - Michigan and USC - ran. UCLA can't do that.The Bruins have yet to hit the 100-yard mark, but that's partly because it hasn't had time to commit to the grind. They have yet to run 30 carries, and that's almost everything here. When it comes to that 0-3 stat for Minnesota when the run D allowed 100 yards, those were the three times the other side ran at least 40 times.UCLA won't run 40 times.