Ohio State Football: Buckeyes have toughest final stretch in CFB

No matter which metrics you use to evaluate the Ohio State football team through 10 weeks, one thing that is unavoidable is their dominance.

Ohio State football has been dominant all season long. So far, the Buckeyes are outscoring their opponents by 40.4 points per game and have yet to allow an offense to gain 300 yards on the season.

I fully expect to see the Buckeyes’ average margin of victory number grow over the next two weeks as neither Maryland nor Rutgers should gain 300 total yards of offense. However, in three weeks Ohio State begins what could be the most difficult three-game stretch of the college football season for any team.

The first matchup is against a currently undefeated Penn State team who should march into the Horseshoe at 10-0 like Ohio State. The potential top-four matchup will headline the Big Ten season yet again and will likely determine which team will advance to the College Football Playoff.

The Nittany Lions are a tough team to fully grasp as part of me believes they aren’t as good as they appear. Despite being undefeated, Penn State has been outgained on numerous occasions and the offense sometimes sputters.

Neither can happen against the Buckeyes if the Nittany Lions wish to pull off the upset in Columbus.

The following week is The Game in Ann Arbor. The positioning of the Penn State matchup throws a monkey wrench into the greatest rivalry in all of sports because neither team usually plays a premier game the week prior.

But like in 2015, Ohio State will finish the regular season with back-to-back big games with major postseason implications.

Michigan was left hung out to dry after the loss to Wisconsin, but since the second half in Happy Valley the Wolverines have been steadily gaining confidence. They rolled Notre Dame at home in the torrential rain and then handled Maryland last week.

I expect Michigan to enter The Game 9-2 and ranked in or just outside of the top 10, giving Ohio State their fifth ranked matchup of the season.

The Wolverines certainly won’t just roll over against the Buckeyes, especially after last season’s collapse in The Shoe. Jim Harbaugh will have his hands mighty full though, with an absolutely loaded and focused Ohio State football team and a brilliant head coach in Ryan Day.

After those two rivalry games, assuming the Buckeyes win both, Ohio State could be tasked with a rematch against Wisconsin or a matchup against a top-15 ranked Iowa or Minnesota team in the Big Ten Championship Game.

This would be Ohio State’s sixth-ranked game of the year and third in as many weeks, which would cap off the most grueling stretch of the season for any college football team.

If the Buckeyes can manage to run the table they will make CFB history and also clinch a berth in the College Football Playoff as the likely No. 1 ranked team in the country. No other team would even be able to shake a stick at Ohio State’s resume, especially if former Buckeye and now head coach Luke Fickell and his Cincinnati Bearcats continue to win.