The Ohio State football team is coming off their biggest win of the season. They were able to take down Penn State 20-13 in what is Ryan Day's biggest win of his career. He needed that win in the worst way and Ohio State now feels like a national championship contender again.
That win over the Nittany Lions helped the Ohio State Buckeyes move up to third in the polls. After all of that excitement, it's hard not to have a letdown when you have to play one of the worst teams in the Big Ten in your next game. That's exactly what this team faces on Saturday.
Purdue comes to town, and they are a truly terrible team. They are just 1-7 on the season. Their only win came against Indiana State in the first game of the year. They also fired their offensive coordinator in the middle of the year. So what can the Buckeyes expect from them?
The Ohio State football team needs to beware of a letdown against Purdue
When you have such an emotional win, it's hard to focus on an opponent this bad. That's what Ryan Day is tasked with getting his team to do this week. Jeremiah Smith won't have too much trouble doing that as a freshman. He just broke Cris Carter's freshman receiving record.
Expect Smith to get more yards in this game. There's really no way that the Boilermakers can keep up with Ohio State on defense. The Buckeyes should be able to get pretty much whatever they want offensively. Purdue is going to struggle as well.
This is a game where we should see the backups get plenty of playing time in the second half. I would be shocked if they didn't start putting in some backups in the third quarter. Ohio State opened up as a 38.5-point favorite. It could get even higher as the week goes along.