| This game is nearly impossible to predict, as far as what the score is going to be. Northwestern's offense gets the the brunt of the criticism, but the defense is also #78 in SP+ and have the 2nd worst special teams in all of the FBS. They just made Iowa's offense look decent. Ohio State's defense looks much improved, and the offense is always the offense. So this is a "pick your score" game. Ryan Day isn't particularly noted for calling the dogs off. C.J. Stroud was still passing the ball in the fourth quarter of all four of Ohio State's blowout conference wins. But the pace certainly changes, as does the personnel. So would it surprise me if the Buckeyes put up 70? Nope. But this is closer to being an FCS game than a Big Ten game. So I don't think anyone is aided by Stroud doing that here. While these teams have played in the Big Ten Championship Game twice, the series is ridiculously lopsided. Northwestern's last win in the Horseshoe was in 1971, and their only series win since then was in 2004. Evan Hull is Northwestern's lone weapon, ranking top 10 in the FBS in all purpose yardage. But as it's become more and more clear that he is the entirety of the Wildcats' offense, he's found things much tougher. He had 174 combined rushing and receiving yards in the opener against Nebraska, 278 against Duke, and 157 against Southern Illinois. In the five games since, he only exceeded 100 once, against Maryland, and needed 24 touches to do it. It's supposed to be very wet and windy, on natural grass, a combination that resulted in Northwestern keeping it surprisingly close against Penn State in Happy Valley a few weeks back. But the Nittany Lions contributed there by turning the ball over 5 times. The Buckeyes are one of 17 teams in the nation averaging less than 1 giveaway per game. |