Ohio State vs. Illinois Prediction, Game Preview

Ohio State vs. Illinois Game Preview

Broadcast

Date: Saturday, Nov. 14
Game Time: 12:00 pm
Venue: Memorial Stadium, Champaign, IL

Network: ABC

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Why You Need To Care

Ohio State looks bored. It looks like a defending national champion that’s better than everyone else – with the possible exception of Alabama – and is waiting for something to make life interesting again. That’s coming up soon with Michigan State and Michigan up next, but going to Illinois would be a dangerous landmine to get over. This hasn’t been a great year resume-wise, but it’s not OSU’s fault that it didn’t have to play Iowa, Northwestern or Wisconsin from the West. The schedule is the schedule, and despite all the concerns and all the scrutiny, the Buckeyes are blowing through it. But now it’s time to really and truly turn it on.

Illinois has come up with a very nice season considering it lost its head coach ten minutes before the season began. Beat Ohio State, and that very nice season becomes a special year with bowl eligibility to go along with coming up with the win to stop the defending national champs’ win streak. But which team will show up? Will it be the team that didn’t show up in a 39-0 loss to Penn State, or the one that dominated Purdue 48-14?

Why Ohio State Will Win

Forget about the quarterback situation – the defense has taken care of business as it’s jelling at just the right time. It might have given up a few passing yards and scores to Minnesota to make last week’s game interesting, but the secondary has been terrific – it’s not giving up much of anything deep. The Illinois offense scored more than 27 points just three times this year – against Kent State, Western Illinois, and Purdue – and Ohio State has yet to allow more than 28. Illinois isn’t going to make this a firefight.

Why Illinois Will Win

Can the Illinois defense attack enough to dominate at times in the backfield? J.T. Barrett is back at quarterback for OSU, and his rushing element is a problem, but Illinois might have the ability to slow him down with plays behind the line, coming up with six or more tackles for loss against everyone by North Carolina, while coming up with three sacks in each of the last three games. Considering the Buckeye offense has stalled a bit too often, Illinois could come up with several key third down stops.

Player Who Matters

Since when did Illinois get a running game? The ground attack did next to nothing for most of the year, and it failed to crank out more than 55 yards in any of the previous three games, and then, from out of nowhere it ripped off 382 rushing yards and three scores against Purdue. Freshman Ke’Shawn Vaughn has become a find, leading the team with 665 yards and six scores ripping off 180 yards and two scores on just 16 carries against Purdue. He’s not going to have the same holes to run through against Ohio State, but he and Josh Ferguson looked good enough to keep feeding the ball.

What’s Going To Happen?

This could be a dangerous moment for the Buckeyes. The offense will hum just fine with Barrett under center, and OSU won’t be in any true trouble, but Illinois will make this a close battle to force a little bit of stress.