Ohio State Football: Why Buckeyes will have success vs. Badgers

Another area where the Buckeyes will enjoy the upper hand is at the QB position and not because Justin Fields is night and day better than Jack Coan. The reason is because Day has saved Fields’ full mobility package for big games like Saturday. There’s little to no film on it and Paul Chryst and Wisconsin won’t be able to properly prepare or replicate the use of his legs in practice.

Fields has only had a handful of designed runs called because they haven’t been necessarily needed. Against the best defense in the country, however, all facets of his game will be needed and operating at maximum capacity. One thing Buckeye fans need to remember though, is the last time Ryan Day faced the top ranked defense in America.

The football intelligence of Ryan Day may very well be the biggest contributor to Ohio State’s success on Saturday against Wisconsin. When Day was faced with the seemingly daunting task of trying to script a game plan for Michigan’s No. 1 defense last year, he passed with flying colors.

Dwayne Haskins threw for 396 yards and six touchdowns and the Buckeyes also ran for 171 yards. The Wolverines were gashed by the potent Buckeye offense consisting of crossing routes than still wake up Don Brown and the state of Michigan.

Ohio State’s offense is even more versatile this season with the addition of the QB run and honestly could very well see similar results in The Shoe on Sunday.

Vegas has the spread at around two touchdowns, which seems lofty according to some, but that tells me somebody knows something. All week Day has had to listen about a top ranked defense coming into Columbus.

I believe the head coach and the offense will deliver a punishing attack to the Badger defense and finally pull away late in the third quarter.

This showdown will be Ryan Day’s official coming out party to the rest of the college football world proving he will soon belong among the coaching elites. Ohio State has also enjoyed much success against Wisconsin on the sport’s biggest of stages in recent years.

I expect the Buckeye defense to play tough and fast and slowdown Heisman candidate Jonathan Taylor keeping him under 100 yards en route to earning the full attention and respect of the national media and critics.