This Saturday, September 22nd, the Northwestern Wildcats travel to Ohio Stadium in Columbus to battle the mighty Buckeyes. This marks the 4th game of the season and the last in the YAWN series (Youngstown State, Akron, Washington, and Northwestern.) A detailed technical preview of the game with data, records, statistics, lineups, etc is available at Bucknuts.
Northwestern started off at 2-0 with victories over Northeastern and Nevada (in the last seconds) and had something of a let down last weekend with a loss to Duke in the final seconds, yes, that’s the same Duke that was carrying the nation’s longest loss streak. Offense hasn’t been a problem thus far for the Wildcats, they’ve averaged 451 yards and 27 points per game over that same stretch. The defense has been stout surrendering only 17 points per game, but allowing 366 yards per game. Second year coach Pat Fitzgerald is working to improve the performance level, but there’s still some work to do.
Northwestern runs the spread offense and will rack up some yards between the 20’s during this game. Wildcat QB Bacher is a player, RB Tyrell Sutton has been out with an injury, and the rest of the supporting cast is just that, a supporting cast. Considering how the Ohio State defense has been playing (giving up 7 points per game) it’s going to be a long afternoon for the NU. The Buckeye offense had a coming out party at Washington last week and is averaging 420 yards and 30 points per game. Look for that trend to continue Saturday afternoon.
How it’s going to play out, I think this might be close for a quarter, but while first team is playing first team, it’s tough to see the Wildcats making much hay on either side of the ball. I think this one is over early as the Buckeyes start fast and won’t relent during the game. Barring a turnover fest on the Buckeye side, I see a final score in the neighborhood of 44-0 with contributions from the defense, special teams, and offense. The spread at this time is 22 points with the Bucks as favorites, I say they cover and win comfortably at home.
As has been the case this season, I’ll post a review after the game to see just how wrong this prediction was. GO BUCKS!
