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How you doin’.... Ohio State Buckeyes - Bucky's 5th Quarter (buckys5thquarter.com)
How you doin’.... Ohio State Buckeyes - Bucky's 5th Quarter (buckys5thquarter.com)

How you doin’.... Ohio State Buckeyes - Bucky's 5th Quarter (buckys5thquarter.com)
How you doin’.... Ohio State Buckeyes - Bucky's 5th Quarter (buckys5thquarter.com)

It is weird how the playoff nationally and the divisional structure locally have changed a game like this. This article's mention of a lack of pressure for Wisconsin brought that to mind.

This game matters for both teams but might not matter depending on what happens the rest of the way.

For Ohio State:
A loss here would severely limit the Buckeyes' margin for error but they'd still likely effectively control their own destiny for all of their goals. A 12-1 B1G Champion Ohio State with a September loss to Wisconsin would still almost certainly get a CFP invite.

For Wisconsin:
Losing this game wouldn't prevent the Badgers from getting to Indy. That said, the CFP hasn't taken a two-loss team yet and the first one isn't likely to be an 11-2 Wisconsin team that lost at home to a mediocre WSU so a loss here would end any plausible chance Wisconsin had at the CFP. It would also obviously impact Bowl positioning in the not unlikely event that Wisconsin doesn't win the B1G. If Wisconsin ends up losing the B1GCG to tOSU, PSU, or M, a win here would be a good argument for them to replace the B1GCG winner in the RoseBowl assuming that team makes the CFP. A loss here substantially increases the chance that the RoseBowl would just take one of tOSU/PSU/M as a replacement for one of the others.

Also, Wisconsin has a particularly difficult crossover schedule so stealing a win here would help them keep up in the B1G-W.

I think UW's defense is better than ND's defense.

I think UW's defense is better than ND's defense.

I don't disagree. The reason I think that tOSU will score more against Wisconsin than they did against Notre Dame isn't because of the relative strength of the opposing defenses. Instead the reason is several things:

• I'm assuming that tOSU's WR corps will be closer to full strength instead of missing two of the top-3 guys for effectively the whole game, and
• I think that Day spent a lot of the Notre Dame game more-or-less feeling out the Notre Dame defense because it was something of an unknown, and
• I think that tOSU probably could have scored more against Notre Dame. For example, the Buckeyes ended the game with three drives of mostly chewing up clock running the ball. These resulted in a go-ahead TD, a clinching TD, and running the clock to 00:00. If the Buckeyes had needed to score quickly and if JSN and Fleming had been available I think they could have and I'm assuming that UW's offense will put up more than 10 so in a similar situation this weekend I'm assuming that the Buckeyes would need and get the points, and
• As referenced in point #3, I expect Wisconsin to score more than 10* so I expect that tOSU will not be comfortable with only 21.
• I frankly think that the Ohio State offense simply didn't have a very good game against Notre Dame.

*If I'm underestimating tOSU's defense and/or overestimating UW's offense and the Badgers don't score more than 10 then I could see Ohio State scoring less than 28 simply because additional points would be unnecessary.

as you've noticed, I don't wear out the keyboard

I feel like Day paid the Badgers the ultimate compliment yesterday at his press conference.  

he said that “ Wisconsin is the epitome of Big Ten Football. “

He also said that they are not easy to scout because they are way more multiple than you think. He mentioned that they have an identity that had been solid for years- which is a tribute to coaching.  They are not going to deviate from it- and why should they when it is so successful, but knowing in general what their identity is does not mean you can stop it.