The Ohio State football team has another matchup with a top-five team this weekend. Indiana comes to town looking for a signature win to punch their ticket into the College Football Playoff. They're catching the Ohio State Buckeyes at the right time too.
Seth McLaughlin just tore his Achilles, forcing the Buckeyes to reconfigure their offensive line yet again. Ohio State is now down their two best offensive linemen for the rest of the year because Josh Simmons has been injured since the Oregon game. The offensive line is going to be an issue.
With that being said, the Buckeyes still have better skill players than IU does. The receivers and running backs that Ohio State will trot out are better than what Indiana will bring to the game. The receivers in general will need to get open quicker because there's going to be pressure coming up the middle.
This is the second-to-last regular season game for the Buckeyes this season. Because it's another Big Noon Kick, anxiety won't last into the night for Ohio State football fans. They will either be really happy early in the day or disappointed. I tend to think it'll be the former.
As we always do, we have some bold predictions to give you for this game. The first bold prediction has to do with what Will Howard will do despite missing his starting center.
1. Will Howard will have his best game as a Buckeye
Over the last few games, Will Howard has really started to show that he's a great quarterback. He has had some great passes over the middle of the field that Kyle McCord wasn't able to make a year ago. His poise in the pocket has been outstanding, and he's putting up some good numbers.
Howard has 24 passing touchdowns and just five interceptions. He also has six rushing touchdowns. His legs are going to be very important in this game because the pocket is likely going to collapse more than a few times with McLaughlin gone. He's going to need to give himself more time.
Despite everything that has gone on in the last couple of days, Howard will have his best game as an Ohio State football player. I think he has 300+ yards passing and three touchdowns. He might even add a rushing touchdown in there. I think he's going to be the best player on the field.
Howard's level of responsibility will go up now that McLaughlin is down for the year. He's going to be asked to carry a bigger load. Running the ball is going to be harder without a guy up the middle who can get a reliable push into the second level of the defense. That means Howard is going to have to use his legs more and push the ball through the air.
If Howard is able to rise up and show that he can carry the load with his guys not giving him a lot of time to throw, he definitely deserves some Heisman love. The next bold prediction for the game is