Ohio State Football: Buckeyes and Wolverines are on a collision course

Following a Saturday full of upsets and top teams going down, the Ohio State football team and the Michigan Wolverines both got out of the weekend alive.

The two rivals always circle The Game on the calendar, but this year the showdown will return to the pinnacle of the sports world as the Buckeyes and Wolverines appear to be on a collision course.

Ohio State started the year hot as they earned wins away from home against TCU and Penn State. Dwayne Haskins has taken the offense to new heights with his potent aerial attack which has placed him near the top of the Heisman race.

The Buckeye quarterback has already thrown for 2,331 yards and 28 touchdowns, including back-to-back 400+ yard showings through the air. Through seven games he is on pace to break all kinds of school records.

The downsides to this explosive Ohio State offense are ones that were unexpected in the preseason and are quite frankly head-scratchers. The offensive line has played inconsistently over the past few games and allowed teams to get continual pressure on Dwayne Haskins.

The young yet poised quarterback is at his best when he has time to dissect the defense and get through his progressions. Unfortunately, Haskins has not always been given enough time as of late as he has had to evade pressure and either force throws or make them off-balance which throws off the rhythm and fluidity of the offense.

Another area the play of the offensive line is affecting is the running game. The Buckeyes have yet to fully establish their usually efficient and effective ground game. In fact, Ohio State seems to be regressing each week in that area of the game.

For example, the Buckeyes were held to less than one hundred yards rushing this weekend versus Minnesota. No disrespect to the Golden Gophers, but there are more talented teams defensively in the Big Ten which is why that statistic should be a major concern for the Ohio State coaching staff.

Defensively speaking, the Buckeyes have struggled in an odd way. The Silver Bullets have given up three plays of 80+ yards as well as countless other big plays on a weekly basis which is unprecedented for an Ohio State defense.

The oddity of all of the defensive struggles are that despite giving up multiple chunk-yardage plays per game and allowing more yardage than usual the Buckeyes are not surrendering a ton of points, especially in the second half.

The absence of arguably the best player in college football, Nick Bosa, has certainly proven large as the Ohio State defense misses his presence, play-making ability and leadership which seems to be lacking on that side of the ball for the Buckeyes.

As Ohio State enters the home stretch of the season, they will need to clean up the big plays and need someone like Dre’mont Jones to step up and lead and motivate this defense to play to their fullest potential. The Silver Bullets need to play as though their hair is on fire until Bosa is able to return.

A few hundred miles north in Ann Arbor, Michigan the Wolverines were quietly piecing their offense together to pair it with Don Brown’s stout defense until last night. Michigan’s offense exploded for thirty-one points on the Wisconsin defense en route to a 38-13 dominating win in the ‘Big House’.

Beating the Badgers in blow out fashion has proven to the country the Wolverines are not the same football team they were in Week 1 when they lost in South Bend.

How will they fare on the road in a hostile environment against a ranked team? Michigan will get a chance this Saturday night in East Lansing against in-state rival No. 24 Michigan State who just pulled off a colossal upset in Happy Valley in the final seconds.

For the past four years, Michigan has boasted one of the top defenses in all of college football, but the quarterback play had been inconsistent. The narrative has now been changed with Ole Miss transfer Shea Patterson at the helm.

It took the Wolverines a few weeks but they are starting to find their identity on offense and are now executing the power spread attack well featuring a heavy dose of running back Karan Higdon.

More from Ohio State Football

• Ohio State Football: How Denzel Burke has bounced back so far this season
• Ohio State Football rolling into form at the perfect time
• How Ohio State football has done historically versus new Big 12
• Ohio State Football: We need to see “Killer Ryan Day” at South Bend
• Ohio State Football vs. Notre Dame Prediction, Odds, Spread and Over/Under for College Football Week 4

The defense will keep them in every ballgame and always give the offense a fighter’s chance. If Michigan can beat Michigan State the Wolverines will head into Columbus for ‘The Game’ with everything on the line against the Buckeyes, much like 2006 and 2016.

Likewise, if Ohio State can escape the House of Horrors in West Lafayette and then conquer Michigan State, the Buckeyes will enter rivalry week undefeated for the first time since 2013.

Ohio State and Michigan, led by Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh, are headed fast down a road only one of them (likely) gets to stay on as both programs are working toward a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game and College Football Playoff.

The greatest rivalry in sports does not get any better than when both teams are at their best, operating at maximum capacity and eventually colliding giving the world a matchup for the ages.

On Thanksgiving weekend, get ready for yet another chapter of the greatest sports novel ever written as The Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines take the field in the Horseshoe  The stakes are at their peak as everything will be on the line.