The last speed bump before The Showdown in the ‘Shoe is finally here. Northwestern has had an extremely tough season this year, tragedy and all. They haven’t played exceptionally well and they draw the unfortunate lot of being OSU’s last opponent before the Michigan game. We weep for Northwestern.
So what about previews? What can we expect from Northwestern? The guys at Buckeye Planet have their preview up, along with the hardest working Ohio State on-line writer, Tony Gerdeman, has his game preview up at The O-Zone where he points out that history hasn’t been kind to Northwestern when OSU is ranked #1.
While I writing the rough draft for this post, I found I was mentioning Michigan more than Northwestern, but I realized there isn’t much to say about Northwestern. They’re having a down year, OSU is on top of the college football world. Northwestern has struggled mightily against the Buckeyes and this week shouldn’t be much different. In the end, we stand here and can clearly see Michigan in the distance and Northwestern is nothing more now than an afterthought. That’s not to disrespect the Wildcats, but let’s be honest here. OSU is in need of a tune-up after the lackluster game against Illinois and Northwestern is going to be a tackling dummy for OSU to scrimmage one last time. That hasn’t stopped the fans, though, as this game is a sellout. I would wager that OSU will be adequately represented by its fans at Ryan Field.
The odds makers put favor the Buckeyes by 23 points. What say you?
What about the offense? Is Tressel going to open the play book this week, or play it close to the vest again (I love saying that)? How many yards will we see OSU roll up on Northwestern? (o/u 450)
Speaking of offense, Pittman needs a good game to get back in the groove for next week. How many yards does he chew up NW’s defense for? (o/u 150)
Little Animal needs one more INT to tie the OSU record for INTs by a linebacker. Does he do it yet again?
How many times is November 18th/Michigan mentioned by the broadcast crew? (o/u 18 times)
el Kaiser’s predictions
Final score: OSU: 31 NW: 6 (Tressel shows compassion)
OSU Offense: over, 451 yards
Pittman: over, 220 yards (I’m hoping that Pittman is huge in this game)
Little Animal: No INT tomorrow, he ties and breaks the record next week.
Broadcast Crew: under, 8. I have a feeling they’ll be told to keep the hype to a minimum until the fourth quarter.
sportsMonkey’s predictions
Final score: OSU: 38, NW: 0
OSU Offense: under, 425 yards (Tressel will play it quite conservative, but still have plenty of success)
Pittman: under, 130 yards
Little Animal: Yes, the Butkus finalist will tie Chris Spielman’s season record (6) with at least one INT.
Broadcast Crew: over, 132 times.
Sylvester Yon-Rambo’s predictions
Final score: OSU: 56 NW: 0
OSU Offense: over, 621 yards
Pittman: under, 118 yards
Little Animal: 2 INT’s Breaks the record and dedicates 1 pick to Spielman.
Broadcast Crew: OVER they jst repeat it over and over the whole game and dont utter another word the whole game……63,179 times
Final: OSU…51 – Chicago’s Own…10
The Offense: After last week, there is no way we put up less than 500. Over.
Pittman: I’d like to see him have a really long TD run and put up 170. Over.
Lit’l: I don’t think he gets it this week. But he’ll have one.
ABC: They have a lot to talk about now with Rutgers and all, but there is no way we don’t hear about it less than 300 times.
Pretty juiced about next week. Yes I’m looking ahead.