Minnesota at Nebraska 11/5/22 - College Football Picks & Predictions

The Nebraska Cornhuskers host the Minnesota Golden Gophers for a Big Ten West Division battle on Nov. 5. Minnesota has won four the last five games against Nebraska.

The Gophers are 5-3 this season, 1-2 on the road. They have the same records against the spread. The Cornhuskers are 3-5 overall and 2-3 at home. Against the spread, they are just 2-6 overall and only 1-4 at home.

Both teams are 2-3 against conference opponents and are tied with Wisconsin in third place in the Big Ten West Division behind 4-1 Illinois and 3-2 Purdue. Northwestern and Iowa round out the division at 1-3.

Minnesota shut out Rutgers, 31-0, on Saturday to stop a three-game losing streak. The Gophers scored 14 in the second quarter and 17 in the fourth quarter. The Golden Gophers defense held the Scarlet Knights to 134 yards total offense.

Mohamed Ibrahim led the way for Minnesota, running for 159 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries. Rutgers had one of the top run defenses in the country entering the game, but Ibrahim was able to maintain his streak of 16 consecutive 100-yard rushing games. Golden Gopher quarterback Tanner Morgan completed 14-of-21 passes for 122. Six of those completions went to Daniel Jackson for 51 yards.

Nebraska was beating No. 17 Illinois, 9-6, with 9:38 remaining in the second quarter but never scored again as the Illini got their sixth-straight victory, 26-9. The top defense in the country held the Cornhuskers to just 248 total yards and only 60 rushing. Nebraska gave up 367 yards, 188 on the ground including 149 and two touchdowns to the Illini’s Chase Brown.

Nebraska quarterback Casey Thompson suffered an injury to his throwing arm in the second quarter. The Cornhuskers turned to Logan Smothers to finish the first half, but Chubba Purdy took the reins from there. Thompson had completed 7-of-15 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown, but also had two interceptions. Smothers was 1-for-1 for a yard in his short outing.  Purdy threw just eight passes, completing three for 15 yards in the entire second half.