This weekend gives the Ohio State football team a really tough test. They have to travel to Penn State this Saturday in what will be another top-five matchup for the Buckeyes. Just three weeks ago, the Buckeyes traveled to Oregon and lost in a hard-fought game 32-31.
The vibes were much higher heading into that game for the Ohio State Buckeyes. They are so much worse heading into this one. That's because of how poorly the Buckeyes played last week coming off a bye week. They barely held on against a Nebraska team that isn't very good.
A 21-17 victory over the Cornhuskers didn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in Ohio State football fans. The offensive line was particularly worrisome. Still, the Buckeyes are arguably the most talented team in the country. They can still easily win this game.
Ohio State has won the last seven matchups against the Nittany Lions. They are Penn State's Achilles Heel. James Franklin has been criticized heavily for not being able to beat the Buckeyes. He's trying to change that narrative this weekend, just as Ryan Day is trying to change the narrative that he can't win big games.
As we do every week, we have some bold predictions for this game. This game is a little tougher to forecast because of some variance when it comes to injuries, but we still have a good list. The first bold prediction deals with what kind of production Ohio State will get out of the ground game.
1. The Ohio State football team will rush for less than 100 yards
The Buckeyes had an issue running the ball against Nebraska last week. They ran it for just 2.1 yards per carry and were well short of the 100-yard mark. It was quite a debacle for a team that has made running the ball well their identity. Neither running back played well.
A big reason for that was the lack of push up front. The Buckeyes weren't able to move anyone at the line of scrimmage. The offensive line had by far its worst game of the year. They're now down to their third-string left tackle, which might be Donovan Jackson shifting over to that spot.
I fully expect to see a lot of offensive line shuffling for this game. That is likely going to be a negative when it comes to running game production. I don't see the Buckeyes running for over 100 yards in this game. Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson can only do so much by themselves.
That means that a lot more pressure is going to be put on Ohio State's passing game. We'll get into that more later. This is a game that could get Justin Frye fired at the end of the year. The offensive line has not been good for quite a while. As we've seen with the lack of depth up front, the recruiting has been bad too.
The second bold prediction we have has to deal with the passing game that we mentioned earlier.