Week #5: Minnesota Open Thread

Welcome to the Open Thread of week 5, where the Buckeyes will meet the Gophers in the Metrodome for the last time.

Minnesota has been its own worst enemy this season. Of the eleven teams in the Big Ten, ten of them have turnover margins ranging from plus 5 to minus 3. The eleventh, Minnesota, has a margin of minus 12. The Gophers also lead the conference in penalties. And defense, you ask? Let’s put it this way: as bad as Northwestern’s D looked against the Buckeyes last week, Minnesota’s is even worse, across the board.

However, no one is quite sure how good Minnesota’s offense could be if it didn’t turn the ball over so often. They run a spread offense, and are a second-half team (the Gopher offense has outscored opponents 111-62 in the second half this season). They play with a nothing-to-lose mentality until the final whistle. Clearly, this is a team that the Buckeyes must score a lot of points on early.

In short, though, this should be a easy tune-up game for the Buckeyes, and give them an opportunity to practice some “away-game-at-night” skills for the real competition coming up in the next month or so.

Enough analysis – the Gophers don’t deserve it. If you still crave analysis, head to BP or 11W.

This week’s questions for the MotSaG crew:

• Final Score?
• # of total TOs earned (or caused by) the Little Animal?
• Do you prefer kittens, or puppies?
• What side of the spoonage with V. Gholston would you prefer? (Acceptable answers are Spoon or Spooned By.)

sportsMonkey
Final score: OSU, 50-13 with close to 600 yards of offense
Lil’ Animal TOs: 2
Kittens/Puppies: Puppies
Spoonage: Hmmm… Tough one. I guess “Spoon.” That way I could leave if it got weird. Otherwise I’m locked in a crushing Gholston snuggle singularity from which light can’t even escape.

Sylvester Yon-Rambo
Final score: OSU, 34-3 Buckeyes with 400 yards offense cause we play Tressel Ball which means great Field Posistion.
Lil’ Animal TOs: 1 Forced Fumble and 2 sacks. So 1 TO
Kittens/Puppies: Puppies for sure……Kittens SUCK
Spoonage: This is an easy one for me I want to be spooned by ARMS. I want him to whisper sweet nothings to me about Buckeye victories and killing people with his Biceps. I want also see on a side note……VG SPOONING Little Animal……while his dad is in the background in full face paint talking about thier spooning posistions………I think I have said to much about my dreams.

el Kaiser
Final score: OSU, 48-0 with at least 500 yards of offense. I doubted the Buckeye firepower last week, but not this time. D pitches a shutout.
Lil’ Animal TOs: I’m going with 2 as well, but one he takes to the house.
Kittens/Puppies: Kittens all the way. I hate those cute little dogs with their floppy ears and the wet noses. They can bite it!
Spoonage: I’m going to abstain from the spooning question. I feel it’s time to inject some testosterone back into MotSaG.