Before every Ohio State football game, Matt Tamanini will get you ready with all of the information that you need for that day’s game on the “Land-Grant Tailgate” podcast.
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No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes (-25.5) vs. Illinois | over/under 41.5
Game Date/Time: Saturday, Oct. 18 at 3:30 p.m. ET
Location:
TV: Fox
Radio: 97.1 FM/1460 AM
Wisconsin is bad at football, and you genuinely hate to see it, because it will likely cost beloved Buckeye alum and former
coach Luke Fickell his job. After traveling to Eugene to face the Ducks next week, the Badgers have an off week, and short of pulling off an upset in one — or maybe even both — of his next two games, I find it hard to believe that Fick will be employed come the Tuesday of that bye week.
The problem is that his team has no identity. Wisconsin used to always be grounded by a stout and reliable defense and a powerful running game. However, neither of those things is true this season. And yes, a brutal schedule and injuries have only made that worse, but there is nothing positive that Fickell can hang his hat on, so unfortunately for one of Buckeye Nation’s favorite sons, his time in Madison is almost certainly approaching an end.
On the other side of the field, with a bye coming up next week for the Buckeyes, I think that Ryan Day and company might want to work on a few aspects of their game this afternoon, in order to get it on film, so that they can have a clearer picture as to what they want to focus on heading into Improvement Week.
OSU has been overly focused on the running game in recent weeks, as that is where the team has been relatively deficient, and they have been intent on repping it in games. However, Wisconsin is No. 110 in the country in passing yards allowed per attempt, and I think that will lead to Julian Sayin having the best passing outing of his career, going for 375 passing yards and four total touchdowns, including four passes of 40+ yards.
But I think what will make this game a laugher is the fact that this Buckeye team has a lot of pride, and they have made it clear since the moment the clock went to 00:00 that they do not like the way that the fourth quarter went last week against Illinois. I also think that some of the national media’s talking points that it is actually Indiana who is the best team in the country likely won’t sit well with them.
Wisconsin gave up 210 rushing yards to Iowa last week and 382 passing yards to Alabama in Week 3. I think that Ohio State will eclipse both of those numbers, and Silver Bullets will want to erase the bad taste of Illinois’ two touchdowns by pitching a shutout.
Matt’s Predictions: Ohio State 45, Wisconsin 0
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