MI State at Ohio State

But “ifs” don’t matter, because the Spartans lost. Defeating the Buckeyes in Columbus will be no easy task. The Buckeyes looked very sloppy, and many time careless with the basketball. So it’s not going down there in any kind of disrespect, they just want to play well. You know they’ll come with a young team, but it was alarmingly excessive against a team like UT Arlington. Not that the Mavericks are at the bottom of Division-I college hoops, but defenses aren’t going to get easier once the Buckeyes get into the meat of their schedule.

Eighteen players will have that opportunity Saturday when the No. 2 Buckeyes (10-0, 6-0) welcome the ninth-ranked Spartans (9-1, 5-1) to Ohio Stadium. Defensively, Ohio State may pressure MI State quarterback Connor Cook in hopes of exploiting his shoulder injury that caused him to miss the entire second half of last week’s game.

Overall, the Buckeyes give up 126.8 rushing yards per game.

The Spartans have the receivers to challenge the Buckeyes’ secondary. MI State is coming off an embarrassing loss against Nebraska last week. Last year, J.T. Barrett made those throws.

With the passing attack producing a season-low 121 yards last week against Maryland, MSU’s rushing unit came through with 141 yards, seventh best out of 10 games but still good enough to secure a 24-7 win. Running back Ezekiel Elliott has literally carried the Buckeyes offense this year, with 1,425 yards and 16 touchdowns on the season.

Meyer said assigning blame is hard, noting, “It’s not just one thing, because sometimes we get our tight ends involved in it, and they weren’t great Saturday”. “They pride themselves on being able to pound the ball up front and we pride ourselves on our front seven as well so, I’m expecting a really good battle on Saturday”. As we all know by now, Ohio State went on to win the national title.

The visiting team has covered the number in 6 of the past 7 games between the two teams. Losses have effectively ended the chances that Baylor, Stanford, Utah, and LSU could make the top 4, but there are plenty of marquee matchups in the next two weeks that could make picking the top 4 teams nearly impossible. “Certainly that’s been our goal, but I’m not sure we’ve achieved that yet”. And a shot at a playoff berth appears to be on the line once again.

“It’s a long season and we’ll bounce back”, Tate said. That’s all you can ask for. If either the Horned Frogs or Bears win, then their game the Friday after Thanksgiving will still be relevant in the conference and national championship races. Despite last week’s win at Stanford, OR needs to win its remaining two games and hope the Cardinal fall at least one more time to claim the Pac-12 North championship.

“That’s the only things that we can control right now”.

You could spin it as a teachable moment for a young team but for right now it’s a bad loss.

Braxton’s swan song: We’ll see something special this week and next, but I’m looking forward to No. 1’s best efforts at home.

But if MI State can beat Ohio State for the second time in three years and end another 20-plus-game winning streak for Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes, the blemishes will be hardly noticeable.

“I have a lot of friends that I went to high school with that attended the university”. “My shoulder is good”, Cook said at a press conference. Cook is third with 248.2 yards per game, is tied for first with 21 touchdown passes and has thrown just four interceptions (only Iowa’s C.J. Beathard and Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg, with three each, have fewer interceptions). MI State linebacker Darien Harris, who earned a journalism degree in May, is a huge Michael Wilbon fan and said: “I can talk sports – any sports – and love to voice my opinion”.