Basisphilosophie » Cobb has picked

Madison, WI (SportsNetwork.com) - With a spot in the Big Ten Conference Championship Game on the line, the 22nd-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers and 14th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers meet in the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon. The winner of his bout will play in the leagues title tilt as the West Divisions representative. East Division champion Ohio State has already secured its place. Minnesota has quietly made a name for itself this season, as coach Jerry Kills club sprinted out to an 8-3 record, and with its 5-2 league ledger, is just a game back of the Badgers, who come in at 9-2 overall and 6-1 in conference. With wins over Michigan, Northwestern and Purdue to open conference play, the Golden Gophers were high on the fact that they could actually challenge for the division title, but losses in their next three games raised some doubt. Fortunately, UM responded by battling back to knock off nationally-ranked Nebraska, on the road no less, last Saturday, 28-24, to set up this weeks showdown with Wisconsin. The Badgers have enjoyed another stellar campaign, but they put themselves in this precarious position after suffering a 20-14 loss at Northwestern back on Oct. 4. They bounced back to post six straight victories, with the latest being a 26-24 decision at Iowa last Saturday. With a win in this contest, Wisconsin will play in the Big Ten Championship Game for the third time since its inception in 2011. The Badgers won the first two in defeating Michigan State (42-39, 2011) and Nebraska (70-31, 2012), respectively. Minnesota leads the all-time series with Wisconsin, 59-56-8, but the Badgers have closed the gap by winning the last 10 meetings, including a 20-7 decision in Minneapolis last season. This game boasts a pair of punishing rushing attacks, although Wisconsins has certainly been more productive. Still, the Gophers have a talented back on which to rely, as David Cobb has picked up 1,430 yards while scoring 12 TDs in helping the team average 228.9 ypg on the ground. With Cobb handling much of the heavy lifting, QB Mitch Leidner (1,445 yards, 10 TDs, eight INTs) hasnt had to do a whole lot, other than run the offense as efficiently as possible. Maxx Williams is the leading receiver, but with only 28 grabs for 418 yards, although he has caught seven TD passes. As for the Minnesota defense, it has performed admirably in permitting just 22.5 ppg, which ties it with Ohio State for the fifth-lowest scoring yield on average in the Big Ten. The Gophers are among the league leaders in turnover margin (+11). Damien Wilson is the teams top tackler with 103, which is 35 more than his closest teammate. Leidner simply wouldnt led the Golden Gophers quit last weekend at Nebraska. Trailing 21-7 at halftime, the visitors stormed back to earn the thrilling victory, as UMs signal caller rushed for a game-high 111 yards and two TDs. His passing exploits (8-of-17, 135 yards, two sacks) left quite a bit to be desired, but with the ground game doing its thing, he didnt need to air it out much. Cobb generated 80 yards and a score on 15 carries before exiting with a hamstring injury, while Williams and KJ Maye combined for five catches and 95 yards. The Minnesota defense did a solid job of keeping Nebraskas Ameer Abdullah from single-handedly taking control of the game as it held the talented RB to 98 yards and a TD on 20 totes. In all, the Cornhuskers finished with 397 total yards, but lost a pair of fumbles, suffered four sacks and lost the time of possession battle by nearly 10 minutes. DeVondre Campbell paced the Gophers with 11 tackles. Coach Kill praised the attitude his team displayed as last weeks game wore on, and how it was a reflection of the spirit in which the Gophers have attacked the season. They are mentally tough, we talk about mental toughness throughout the season and to be physically tough. Today our kids were mentally tough and just hung in there and played hard. The nations leading rusher wears a Wisconsin uniform, as Melvin Gordon has enjoyed a record-setting campaign. Gordon, a bona fide Heisman contender, set the new FBS single-game rushing record on Nov. 15 against Nebraska with 408 yards, but that benchmark lasted all of one week, as Oklahoma freshman Samaje Perine topped it by 19 yards last Saturday against Kansas. While Gordon is disappointed to lose the record so soon, he wont let it deter him from the task at hand. In fact, he followed his record-setting performance with another outstanding effort in last Saturdays narrow win at Iowa, as he rushed for 200 yards and a pair of TDs to become the 17th player in FBS history to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a season. He reached the mark faster than anyone in FBS history, doing so on 241 carries, and his effort also tied former UW star Ron Daynes Big Ten single-season rushing record (2,109 yards). Wisconsin almost blew a 16-point lead to the Hawkeyes, but with Gordon towing the line, it held on for the narrow win. The yardage totals in the game were almost dead even (405 for UW, 412 for UI), but of course the rushing yards were skewed heavily in favor of the visitors (266-101). Joel Stave was efficient in hitting 11-of-14 passes for 139 yards, but he is rarely asked to do more than steer the ship, so to speak. The UW passing attack is an afterthought for the most part, as it accounts for only 141.7 ypg. Stave and Tanner McEvoy have taken the majority of the snaps, combining for just over 1,500 yards, 11 TDs and 10 INTs. Alex Erickson leads the receivers with 39 catches for 491 yards, and he has three TD receptions. With pass plays being few and far between, its no wonder Wisconsin leads the league in fewest sacks allowed (eight). The Badgers rank second nationally in scoring defense (16.1 ppg) and third in total defense (259.3 ypg). Their effort against the run yields fewer than 100 yards per contest, while they lead the Big Ten in pass defense (162.2 ypg). Michael Caputo heads the team in tackles with 81, and he recorded 11 stops, both forced and recovered a fumble, and broke up a pass against Iowa. Like Kill for Minnesota, Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen heaped praise on his team for standing tall in the face of some adversity last weekend. Im so proud of these kids and the way they kept fighting. All three phases contributed which was great to see, but just the fight when things dont go your way you have a lead that you feel pretty good about and all of a sudden its right back in. Shea Patterson College Jersey . -- Michael Phelps is 0 for 1 in his comeback to the pool. Devin Gardner College Jersey . But Josh Bailey scored the shootout winner to lead the Islanders to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens in a battle of the Eastern Conferences two worst teams. http://www.cheapmichiganjerseys.com/?tag=michigan-taylor-lewan-college-jersey . The veteran fighter will be squaring off with Henderson in a five-round lightweight bout as part of another network televised card at the United Center on Saturday night. Wholesale Michigan Jerseys . -- Zach Johnson is like most players at the World Challenge, not sure whether hes still playing in 2013 or if hes in the middle of the new wraparound season that officially started in October. Jabrill Peppers College Jersey . The St. Louis Cardinals were scheduled to arrive in Boston in time for a workout on Tuesday afternoon. Much of Mondays discussion focused on Bostons lineup considerations as the series progresses, specifically when the venue shifts to St. VANCOUVER -- John Tortorella was shocked by what he had witnessed, but he wasnt the only one. The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period. "This is a kick in the teeth," said Tortorella "Its certainly going to take a little bit more than normal coachs speak (to get) by this game." Matt Martins goal at 10:04 of the third proved to be the winner as the Islanders rallied with seven third period goals, including four in the first 6:22. New Yorks first three goals came on power plays and its fourth came one second after another Vancouver penalty had expired. "A 3-0 deficit going into the third period, we were pretty deflated," said Martin. "The coaches came in and made it clear we didnt do enough in the second period and we didnt play for one another, and if we didnt pick up our game in the third period theyd have no problem taking guys out of the lineup and not dressing everybody." Josh Bailey, Ryan Strome, Calvin de Haan, Frans Nielsen, Anders Lee and Cal Clutterbuck also scored for the Islanders (25-33-9). "Ive never been in a game like that as far as seeing a period like that, because we were playing so well going in," said Tortorella. "In between periods, we talked about the things we needed to do to nail that game down, but we really put ourselves in a jam with some bad penalties and they gained momentum a" His voice trailed off and then he continued: "What could happen, happened. And, its been going on for a little while here, since eternity. But, somehow, weve gotta try and put it behind us." Chris Higgins, Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler and Chris Tanev scored for the Canucks (29-28-10), who suffered their 12th loss in the past 14 games. "We just took some bad penalties and they had some seeing-eye shots that went in and got the momentum," said Higgins. "We battled back to tie it up and they scored that fifth goal." Rookie Nicklas Jensen was in the box for New Yorks first two goals. The first penalty, a slaashing infraction late in the second period, prevented a goal.dddddddddddd But the second one was a holding call in the offensive zone. The penalties spoiled what could have been an extremely memorable night for Jensen as he recorded his first NHL point with an assist on Sedins goal. New York converted four of eight man-advantage opportunities while Vancouver was good on two of four. Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov made 20 saves for the win as Eddie Lack stopped 21 shots for the Canucks. "Its was a very weird third period," said Lack. "Its not only the (penalty killers) fault, its my fault, too. I need to stop the puck and I didnt tonight." After Bailey put the Isles on the scoreboard 1:13 into the third, Strome, on a five-on-three, and de Haan scored seconds apart to create a 3-3 tie. Nielsen put the Islanders ahead 4-3 just under three minutes later as he put in a shot from the wing. The crowd let out a huge roar of relief after Tanev brought the Canucks even at 9:54 of the third. Martin, however, gave the Isles the lead only 10 seconds later on a backhand from the slot, and Lee padded New Yorks lead just a minute and 44 seconds later. A disappointed Kesler said the Canucks have to start playing like they still want to make the playoffs. "Being up 3-0 and the blowing it like that, its embarrassing," he said. Notes-Alex Burrows drew an assist on Keslers goal, earning his 300th NHL career point. a The Islanders had seven rookies in their lineup.a The Isles lost Michael Grabner, a former Canuck, to an upper-body injury late in the second period following a collision with Vancouver defenceman Tanev. a Canucks winger Zack Kassian served the second of a three-game suspensiona The game was rare in that it featured three Denmark natives - Jensen and Jannik Hansen of the Canucks and Nielsen of the Islanders. All three of them earned points. Only seven Danish players have suited up in the NHL this season. a Monday marked the ninth anniversary of the Aquilini Investment Groups purchase of the Canucks from former owner John McCaw. a Islanders defenceman Thomas Hickey is the only player to suit up for all 67 of their games this season. 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