| I'm sure this is exactly what Jim Delany was going for when he sold the Big Ten's soul for Friday night games. Moving his conference's showcase program to BTN, on a Friday night, buried under a Yankees game, and...well, it being Friday night against a team so boring they make Michigan State look like Washington State. The last time these two met, a Big Ten title was on the line, so maybe they were hoping for a hyped rematch? Northwestern is so far from where they were a year ago that I honestly forgot until I was nearly done with this writeup that it was a Championship Game rematch. Really, all coach Ryan Day can hope for out of his squad in this one is for his boys to come out and look sharp. They had a home game, under the lights, with their special black alternates, against a ranked Michigan State team, but with a bye week last week, this Friday night game in Evanston is their only real football in the 20 days between that game and when #6 Wisconsin comes calling next week. The Northwestern defense perhaps has a chance to at least hold Ohio State within striking distance, if Ohio State makes mistakes? The Wisconsin offense took care of the supposed elite defenses of Michigan and Michigan State, but Northwestern actually did a solid job containing them. Northwestern has already lost three games (Stanford, Wisconsin and Nebraska) where they only allowed one touchdown. Problem is the dismal Northwestern offense allowed a total of three touchdowns over those games. So not only does Northwestern's defense has to keep doing what it's doing, the Northwestern offense has to not just start doing something, but stop giving away points. Against Wisconsin, the Wildcats were able to hold Taylor somewhat in check and Coan wasn't able to beat them. Ohio State simply has too many weapons to try and shut down just one part of it. And this Ohio State defense is unlike anything we've seen in Columbus since the Jim Tressell years. It's the improvement there (#4 in SP+ Defense) that has led to most computer naming the Buckeyes as the best team in the country. This feels like a punt of a breakdown, and I'm a little bummed that this is what we have in mid-October, but we saw a better version of Northwestern, in Michigan State, take a stab at the Buckeyes, seemingly not even play that poorly, and still come up way short. I just don't see how Northwestern scores close to enough points to even hang with a C Ohio State effort. |