Ohio State Football: Scarlet And Game Round Table, Predictions Week 1

Buckeye fans have been waiting for this day for far too many months but now the Ohio State football season is about to begin. The Scarlet and Gray will be back on the field playing on the road versus the Indiana Hooiers.

It is setting up to be an exciting season for the Buckeyes. Could it be another championship season for Urban Meyer and Ohio State?

Now that Game 1 is upon us, it’s also time for those of us who contribute to Scarlet And Game to give our predictions for the upcoming game as we did during the 2016 season..

We will begin with Thomas Scurlock’s predictions because he is the lone returner, besides me, from the 2016 football season.

Tom and I have become good friends over the last couple of years since he joined the Scarlet And Game team, but he still ticks me off sometimes. See, he is really good at analyzing the upcoming game and at times has a better prediction than me.

I didn’t keep track of whether Tom was better at predicting games than I was last season, but you can bet I will this year. Anyway, here we go with the S&G predictions for Game 1.

Thomas Scurlock: Offensively, it is difficult to imagine the Buckeyes’ running game not flourishing against Indiana. The SLOBS will dominate the line of scrimmage allowing J.T. Barrett, Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins to get yards at will.

More importantly, we finally get to see if Kevin Wilson improved the passing game and line protection.  The Hoosiers’ secondary is solid and will provide strong test for the new receivers.

I expect Wilson to get Barrett into a rhythm early with easier routes and then let him fire a few shots down the field.

The Hoosiers don’t have a go to running back so the Silver Bullets need to stop Indiana’s big-bodied wide receivers, Simmie Cobbs, Donovan Hale and Nick Westbrook, to control the game.   

Getting after quarterback Richard Lagow is the key.  He is prone to throw interceptions and not very fast.  Tyquan Lewis and Sam Hubbard will be in his face all night.

The Hoosiers have given Ohio State fits over the last few seasons, but I think that trend ends.  Buckeyes play well start to finish and win 51-17.

Next we will get to the new guys who will attempt to show Tom and me they can predict games better than we can. Let’s start with the one who has more courage than most, he is a Buckeye fan living in SEC Country.