I'm really not sure what to think of this game. It is still early enough in the season such that the optimistic and pessimistic views of both teams are wildly divergent:
Ohio State optimistically:
Up until the Toledo game the defense looked very stout and maybe it is fair to chalk the Rockets' three TD's up to being up by a LOT. Offensively maybe ND's defense is actually pretty good or maybe that game was just some first game jitters and not having everyone healthy. In the Toledo game the offense looked a lot like the unit that set a slew of records on Pasadena a while back.
Ohio State pessimistically:
Notre Dame gave up more points to Marshall and almost as many to Cal all while scoring only marginally less. Is tOSU really an approximate equal of Marshall and Cal? The run defense looks to be improved but there is a somewhat troubling pattern of giving up big plays in the air. Maybe the 77 points against Toledo were just a fluke or a product of Toledo's D being worse than we thought. The 21 against ND was enough but it isn't impressive and 45 against ArSt is only one more than Memphis scored on them.
Wisconsin optimistically:
The Badgers looked fine in their tune-up games against bad teams and they won everything but the final score against WSU. Maybe that was just one of those fluke things that happens from time-to-time.
Wisconsin pessimistically:
IlSt and NmSt are so bad that you can't read much into performances against them so Wisconsin is 0-1 against the only non-corpse on their schedule.
IMHO, all four of the above are plausible views of the teams in question.
I *THINK* tOSU is a better team and I also think that none of Wisconsin's options are all that great. Simply "being Wisconsin" and bashing the ball against the tOSU front seven (or eight or nine as necessary) is probably playing to the strength of this year's tOSU D but slinging the ball all over the place and turning this into a track meet just doesn't seem like a plan that will end well for the visitors. Does Chryst really want this game to come down to Mertz vs Stroud?
