The real world intrudes on my blogging, thus the Wisconsin/Ohio State preview comes a little early…Saturday, at 9am PT the Wisconsin Badgers travel to Ohio Stadium to play the Ohio State Buckeyes. Vegas has installed Ohio State as favorites with a 15.5 point spread as of Tuesday, October 30. That line may move around a little in the next few days as Wisconsin RB P.J. Hill’s status for the game becomes clear. As always, the good folks at Bucknuts will post a game data article telling you everything you ever wanted to know about the upcoming game and prior history.
Here are a couple of interesting things to know. Wisconsin is the only Big 10 team that Jim Tressel has posted a losing record against during his tenure at Ohio State, he’s 1-3 with two home losses. Do you think that’s relevant? Only if you’re looking for motivation… Wisconsin was highly regarded at the beginning of the season sporting a Top 10 ranking and picked by most to finish first or second in the conference. Well, the boys from Madison are a good football team, but haven’t quite played to that expectation level struggling against “inferior” competition at the beginning of the year (though they did manage to win…) and suffering back-to-back losses against Illinois and Penn State. The Illinois game was close, a 5 point loss. The Penn State loss was a blow out in Happy Valley with a 31 point margin.
Since the Buckeyes just went into Happy Valley and kicked the Nit’s can by 20, does that mean we’re going to see a 51 point victory Saturday? If you think that, I want what you’re smoking…Again, we have what looks to be on paper the makings for a blow out. But this is why they play the game, to see what actually happens vs. what should happen based on analysis. My predictions have been so wrong the last couple of weeks, I’m not sure I even want to try this week other than to say the Buckeyes win this one because their offensive performance appears stronger than Wisconsin’s defensive performance, because the Buckeye defensive performance appears stronger than the Badgers offensive performance. To top that off, it’s a home game for the Bucks and Coach Tressel would like to get the record moving in the other direction against Wisconsin. So the intangibles favor the Buckeyes.
Somehow though, Wisconsin seems to play above their heads in games like these. Except at Happy Valley this year. Hmm. Last week I expected a close game and got a blow out. This week, if I expect a blow out, will we see a close game? Oh, to have such power of prognostication! I think both teams will know they’ve been in a game come Sunday morning, it will be physical. I think the Bucks control the game early on and win 31-13. As usual, post game we’ll get an entry out there to see just how wrong this prediction was. Go BUCKS!
Good read! I think with the Buckeyes being back at home any doubts about them being able to pull this one out should be cleared up. Its going to be a good one but Bucks come out on top. This game should look pretty good for the Big 10.
Thanks BucksInsider, I agree. Should be a good one and will be good watching. Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Though I hope the bucks win and win big. This just might be the one game the bucks don’t take as seriously. With all the hype early on with Wisconsin and then them not performing most of the season. I think we could see a very different badger team take the field, one with something to prove. After all, the badgers have nothing to lose and would like to be the team who knocks off the number one team! Remember every team has at least one game that they fumble. Could this be that game? Let’s all hope that I’m very wrong.
Tom, I hope you’re wrong. I tend to view Illinois next week as more of a trap game than this one…but this season has been so unpredictable, who knows?
[…] If you saw a box score that showed that Wisconsin was held to 13 net rushing yards, forced two fumbles, and sacked the quarterback 10 times, you would expect complete domination in a game. Yet, that’s not quite what transpired. The Buckeyes trailed 17-10 mid-third quarter and you could sense that the momentum had changed after halftime. The Badgers had 3 scoring opportunities and the Buckeyes had some adversity. The last 1.5 quarters, the Buckeyes asserted their will on both sides of the ball and surged to a 21 point win. I predicted a 31-13 win, so it wasn’t so far off from reality…. […]
[…] If you saw a box score that showed that Wisconsin was held to 13 net rushing yards, forced two fumbles, and sacked the quarterback 10 times, you would expect complete domination in a game. Yet, that’s not quite what transpired. The Buckeyes trailed 17-10 mid-third quarter and you could sense that the momentum had changed after halftime. The Badgers had 3 scoring opportunities and the Buckeyes had some adversity. The last 1.5 quarters, the Buckeyes asserted their will on both sides of the ball and surged to a 21 point win. I predicted a 31-13 win, so it wasn’t so far off from reality…. […]