Buckeyes Come Up Big in Evanston

Ohio State's Big Ten schedule did not start off easy for them. The Buckeyes began with two primetime games against Wisconsin and Northwestern, two top 30 football teams.  They won them both as the Buckeyes beat the Wildcats, 40-30, in a game much closer than the scoreboard reads and one where Ohio State fought through wet, tall grass, poor quarterback play to win this game. Ohio State lightens up in the upcoming weeks so the question remains, how long will this team stay undefeated?

Northwestern came into this game with a Super Bowl mentality against Ohio State. The crowd was packed, College GameDay led off the day and people felt like this one could be a classic. It honestly lived up to the billing. Northwestern came out with a furious pace taking control of the game with forcing turnovers and taking the lead heading into halftime. But the problem with the Wildcats is they could not find the end zone rather settling for multiple field goals. If Northwestern found a way to get touchdowns, this might have been a Wildcat rout and we are talking about Northwestern's ceiling. 

Ohio State found a way to win this game with Braxton Miller having arguably his worst game since his freshman year of college. Kenny Guiton started to warming up almost like a reliever in baseball getting himself ready but instead, head coach Urban Meyer trusted his quarterback to win this game. Meyer deserves a ton of credit for the win. Miller did not look good but if Meyer pulls him out of this game, I would worry about Miller going forward with his confidence. Now I feel like he knows Meyer is behind him 100 percent and for some quarterbacks, football players, that is great reassurance. 

Carlos Hyde deserves many Buckeye stickers. He played great on Saturday night pounding the football down Northwestern's throat. Hyde rushed the ball 25 times on 168 yards with three touchdowns. Ohio State realized Hyde and the Ohio State offensive line were monsters compared to the Wildcats front seven. Miller is the go-to player on the Buckeyes, but Hyde definitely needs to be used more by Ohio State especially when Braxton is off his game.  

Many people are saying the Buckeyes will be the odd team out if there are three teams to go undefeated, but right now given the strength of the Big Ten, they have the best shot at doing it. Ohio State gets a week off before consecutive home games against Iowa and Penn State. Ohio State should roll in those two and they have a couple sneaky tough road games in November before heading to Ann Arbor the final game of the season. Those sneaky tough games are Purdue and Illinois. Hear me out about Purdue, the Boilermakers are awful but they ALWAYS play Ohio State tough then Illinois is much better than people are giving them credit for, anything is possible. 

The Buckeyes look like a more complete team and they do not seem interested in losing their 18 game winning streak.

Charlie.