Talk about making a statement. Ohio State came into Ryan Field and, from the kick-off to the final whistle, absolutely dominated the Northwestern Wildcats. Starting with the Laurinaitis caused-fumble-that-wasn’t to the Boeckman QB draw for the final touchdown, it was all Buckeyes.

This game was a HUGE statement by the Buckeye D. With five take-aways, the defense came out and man-handled the Wildcat offense. Couple that with a huge game from Troy Smith and Ohio State reminded the nation why they’re ranked #1.

Everyone that played looked solid. Pittman got his thousand yards for the season, Beanie Wells almost broke a hundred and dispelled any doubts that he was in the doghouse, Mo’ Wells played solid clean up time, picking up 50 total yards himself. Brian Hartline is a jack-of-all trades, one week blowing things up on the special teams, this week catching three passes for two touchdowns. And what more can be said about the way Troy Smith played? Passing 12 for 19, 4 TDs and running at will. Ohio State’s offense definitely shook off last week’s poor performance to score seven touchdowns on their way to the showdown next week.

Thankfully, Michigan did not have a letdown against Indiana, setting up the game of the century.

So yeah, there’s this game next week in The Horseshoe. You might have heard of it — Ohio State versus Michigan. You might want to tune in. (You’ll also want to tune in to Men of the Scarlet and Gray, as we’ll be serving up the Michigan smack all week).

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

As we were worried about yesterday, the weather looks to be terrible for this game. The rain that has been steadily falling for the past 48 hours has stopped, but the damage has probably been done on the Shoe’s terrible “grass” (otherwise known to football players as “dirt painted green”). It looks more and more like OSU is moving to field turf at the end of the season.

It’s an odd afternoon. Many places in Ohio are under a high-wind warning. Sustained winds in Columbus are 29 mph, with gusts to 50. The Sun comes out for 20 minutes, then a hard five minute rainshower follows. November weather, without the cold or snow (it’s pretty warm at ~50 degrees).

I’m expecting short punts, a rough passing game, and problems with FGs. Still, OSU should own Minnesota’s defense today… so I don’t think the weather will affect anything other than the final score (might be a bit lower than usual).

End of First Half
Score: 17-0
OSU is dominant, even through a pretty sloppy effort offensively. Six drives, three scores, no punts. Two drives stopped by sloppy fumbles, one by an offensive penalty when OSU was preparing for another score right before the half.

Pittman is an animal – I don’t have his stats right now, but he’s got near 100 rushing already, plus about another couple of dozen receiving.

Disgusting how the broacasters “blamed” Ray Small for being on the bad side of the helmet-to-helmet hit. “Yes, it was helmet-to-helmet, but Ray has to get his head out of the way.” WTH?!?! If that wasn’t the worst logic of the century, the analyst went further by blaming Troy Smith for it! “Smith should have been the eyes for Ray Small.” Vomitous. It’s been years since I’ve seen Tressel so angry at the officials.

Defense dominant as always. I doubt Minnesota has any positive rushing yards. Getting it done in the middle, on the ends, and in the secondary.

End of Game
Final Score: 44-0

Wow. The past four games or so, the OSU defense has come within one play or so of a shutout, and it was great to see it finally happen today.

Five rushing TDs today. Troy Smith, Pittman (2), Wells, and Zwick. Those who “complain” about the lack of Troy Smith’s passing numbers should consider that today’s game plan was all about the rush. Still, Smith had another “Heisman highlight-reel” moment when scrambling for his TD rush. He totalled 226 yards & 2 TDs (one pass, one rush).

The best moment of the second half was the elation on Smith’s face when backup Justin Zwick rushed for a TD. He cheered & hollered for Zwick, who, after leading a flawless, long (mostly on the ground) drive using only second/third stringers, dived across the line for the last TD.

Still, I feel the Bucks were a little sloppy on offense overall, but it’s hard to tell how much of that was due to the weather.

Seeing the Golden Bear “dotting the i” with tears in his eyes is a historic Buckeye moment. I was hoping he would take a golf club & make a few practice swings, but his simple wave & tip of the hat was unbelievably classy. Not many outside of Columbus know this, but it was Woody Hayes who told Jack Nicklaus to stick to golf, and supported him by attending when Nicklaus played his US Opens. Hayes even served as a sports reporter for Jack when he played competitively, since papers weren’t sending reporters to follow OSU’s best golfer! Hayes served as Jack’s journalist, sending reports and updates to the local papers.

Back to OSU, it’s great to see another Tressel defense peaking toward the end of the year. This team keeps getting better every week, and it’s refreshing.

Ohio State is ready to take on the Golden Gophers in the “Prepare-for-Michigan” part of their schedule. Minnesota comes in the Horseshoe heavy underdogs, arriving for Homecoming and right onto the tracks of the incoming bullet-train that is the Ohio State offense. Troy Smith will continue his assualt on the Big Ten, going up against one of the worst defenses in college this year (Minnesota is currently ranked 97th in total defense). Minnesota can’t stop the run, which should bode well for Pittman, looking to rack up some serious yards in game where Tressel will lean heavily on the run once Troy puts the Bucks up by a few touchdowns in the middle of the second quarter. Look for a heavy dose of Pittman, Wells, and Wells. Should be a good day for the OSU Offense.

You want previews? As always, Buckeye Planet and The O-Zone deliver the goods. We usually take a look around the blogosphere for some additional commentary, but there’s not a lot for the Minnesota game. Bloggers are already ramping up their Michigan previews and prognostications, so it’s rather quiet on the Minnesota front.

That’s not to say this week will be interesting. Aside from the fact that this will be a statsheet-stuffer for the offense, there will be some really cool festivities at halftime as Jack Nicklaus get’s to dot the I in script Ohio. (Ironic that the Golden Bear dots the I when his alma mater is playing the Golden Gophers, innit?) Homecoming is also this week, which means the introduction of this year’s homecoming King and Queen. Much to the dismay of the females all around campus, el Kaiser is not one of the nominees for Homecoming King. Sorry ladies, he’s taken.

Hopefully you’ve seen sportsMonkey’s post about the possibility of a streak of winning nine games by a margin of victory of 17 or more points. The line is currently 27 points. What say you?

Minnesota usually sports a potent running game, and this year they’re averaging over 160 yards a game. They gained 108 vs. the vaunted Michigan defense. Can OSU’s defense (who replaced nine starters) hold them under an hundred yards?
Little Animal (Lauranitais) hails from Minnesota. How many tackles does he account for? (o/u: 12)
Antonio Smith was a beast last week. Does he outdo himself and take a pick to the house?

Add your predictions in the comments!

el Kaiser’s predictions:
Final Score: OSU: 47 Minnesota: 10
Minnesota’s rushing: over, 129 yards.
Little Animal: over, 16 tackles
Antonio Smith: as much as I’d like to see it, no endzone for Smith. (Antonio, that is)

Sylvester Yon-Rambo’s predictions:
Final Score: OSU: 56 Minnesota: 3
Minnesota’s rushing: under, 68 yards.
Little Animal: under, 7 tackles
Antonio Smith: 1 int and 2 TFLs and 0 TDs
Comments: I know the buckeyes are going to put up 50 points eventually this year…..I hope it is against that stupid idiotic team up north. Minnesota will try to pass the ball on saturday a lot and wont be able to run while trailing so much. Little Animal wont get enough def plays to get more than 12 tackles as they will have a lot of 3 and outs. Smith will of course earn a reputation as a ball hawk and will be everywhere on Sat.

sportsMonkey’s predictions:
Final Score: OSU: 45 Minnesota: 7
Minnesota’s rushing: over, 101 yards.
Little Animal: even, 12 tackles
Antonio Smith: 1 INT
Comments: I really think the Bucks want a shutout, and this could be the game. Field conditions should be the worst all year, though; Columbus is getting about 36 hours of straight, steady rain from Thursday night to Saturday morning. The field will be muddy and slippery, so that might keep the Bucks out of the 50s in scoring (unless the defense &/or special teams pitches in a TD or two). Minnesota really only has two weapons – the pounding rush and their wideout Payne, who had a field day with the Michigan secondary earlier this year. The Little Animal and his friends should be able to control the former, Antonio Smith the latter.

To me, the most interesting thing about this week’s game is that OSU will finally get to see a rushing attack that’s similar to Michigan’s. Not as good, of course, but similar. Nothing fancy, just a big junior RB pounding away down after down, with an occasional pass to a talented WR. It’ll be a good learning experience for the OSU defense, as they begin to prepare for UM and Hart.

Zeke’s predictions:
Final Score: OSU: 38 Minnesota: 6
Minnesota’s rushing: under, 95 yards.
Little Animal: under, 10 tackles
Antonio Smith: No pick six for Antonio

Welcome to another Open Thread, where we get hyped up about this week’s opponent, look at strengths and weaknesses, we look at match-ups, which ones will give the Buckeyes trouble, which ones we can exploit, and … wait a minute, we’re playing Indiana this week? Okay, nevermind about weaknesses and matchups. Let’s talk about more important things, like where the heck am I going to watch this game?!

If you are interested in looking at Indiana in detail, Buckeye Planet and The O-Zone are always great places to start. Sure, Indiana just had a HUGE upset (for them) over Iowa, but Keith reminds us that Iowa wasn’t exactly 100% last week. Good for Indiana, but come on now. The Glenville Tarblooders could have beaten that injured Iowa team.

Let’s be perfectly honest: there’s not a snowball’s chance Indiana comes into the ‘Shoe and does anything but lose by five touchdowns. Troy Smith and Antonio Pittman are salivating right now, thinking of the numbers they are going to put up on this team. Ginn wonders if he can back-pedal a punt return and still make people miss. Pitcock and Gholston are betting who can make Kellen Lewis cry harder. Kirk Barton is discussing which side of the offensive line is prettier (no, I’m being serious)

Kirk on which side of the offensive line is better: “Me and (right guard) T. J. (Downing) are better looking than the left side. They’re younger and they’re obviously going to be very good players, but right now me and T. J. have the looks department locked down.”

I’d have to agree, they’re a couple handsome men.

So yeah, no one’s really worried, right? Vegas has us favored by 30 points. What say you?

What about the defense? How many yards do we surrender to the Hoosiers? (o/u 275)

Ted Ginn Jr, a punt, and the endzone. All in the same play?

How many TDs does Troy Smith account for? (o/u 4)

Does Laurinaitis get a pick this week?

el Kaiser’s predictions:
Score: OSU: 45 IU: 9
Defense: under, 274 yards
Ted Ginn Jr: no, but he gets one close
Troy Smith: over, 5
Laurinaitis: He returns to his thieving ways, grabbing a pick in the third quarter.

Zeke’s predictions:
Score: OSU: 41 IU: 6
Defense: under, 229 yards
Ted Ginn Jr: Yep, 2 weeks in a row
Troy Smith: under, 3
Laurinaitis: Not this week

Sylvester Yon-Rambo’s predictions:
Score: OSU: 56 IU: 0
Defense: under, 118 yards
Ted Ginn Jr: yes, He gets 2 returns for TDs
Troy Smith: over, 6
Laurinaitis: I believe he gets 1 pick and 2 FF with 1 recovery and 2.5 TFL

sportsMonkey’s predictions:
Score: OSU: 45 IU: 6
Defense: under, 175 yards
Ted Ginn Jr: If they punt to him at least three or four times, then yes, he’ll take one to the house. But I don’t think they’ll punt to him more than once or twice.
Troy Smith: 4
Laurinaitis: Yes, 1 pick. Something tells me the Little Animal will have a Butkus-like day tomorrow.