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Ohio State Football: Three predictions for the Big Ten Championship

By Frank Teriaca

COLUMBUS, OH - NOVEMBER 23: Head Coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes and his team prepare to take the field before a game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Ohio Stadium on November 23, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH - NOVEMBER 23: Head Coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes and his team prepare to take the field before a game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Ohio Stadium on November 23, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images) /
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The Ohio State football team takes on the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday afternoon for the Big Ten Championship. Here are three predictions for the game.

The Ohio State football team is back in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game against Northwestern. It’s a noon kickoff, which breaks a bit of championship game tradition. The game is usually at night.

The Northwestern Wildcats come in at 6-1 on the season most recently knocking off Illinois 28-10 last weekend. The Buckeyes were off last week after Michigan’s Covid-19 concerns.

The Buckeyes enter as 20.5 point favorites and need to make a statement to solidify itself as a College Football Playoff team. Here are three predictions for the big game.

No. 3: Northwestern’s defense is for real

Pat Fitzgerald has a heck of a defense. Led by coordinator Mike Hankwitz, who is retiring at the end of the season, the defense is only allowing 14.6 points per game. Only allowing 192 yards per game passing, this defense has been able to shut down opposing offenses all season.

Senior linebacker Paddy Fisher is the backbone of this defense. He’s the leader, gets them set and in position on every snap. He’s also a heck of a tackler and does a great job stuffing the run. Fisher is Northwestern’s version of Tuf Borland.

They also have a very solid secondary led by safety Brandon Joseph who leads the conference and NCAA n interceptions with five.  The redshirt freshman also registered 38 tackles on the shortened season.

With a few good playmakers on this defense, I predict that they will slow down this Buckeye offense early in this game. This is clearly the best secondary the Buckeyes have face all season long. The only question will be can they generate enough pressure to fluster Justin Fields.

I think Hankwitz will have something up his sleeve for possibly the last game he ever coaches as Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson will have to make some adjustments at half time to figure it out.

Look for the Buckeye offense to struggle early, but can they figure it out later in the game?

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