Indians clinch home field and Browns moral victories – WFNY Podcast No. 536
October 3, 2016WFNY introspection and Danny Brown’s brilliance: While We’re Waiting
October 4, 2016After making it look easy in their 58-0 shutout win over Rutgers in their Big Ten opener, the Ohio State Buckeyes remain No. 2 in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls following Week 5 of the college football season.
The Buckeyes have taken care of business, including their first game of the conference season. With the Big Ten much better than recent years, the scarlet and gray will face plenty of tests the rest of the way, including at Wisconsin (October 15), home against Nebraska (November 5), at Michigan State (November 19),1 and The Game (November 26).
Set to host the Indiana Hoosiers in Week 6, many may think that it should be another easy win for the Buckeyes. But, don’t forget, Indiana just beat Michigan State Saturday night, who were ranked nationally and thought to be among the conference elite earlier this season.
There are three other Big Ten teams in the Top 25, all three of which Ohio State plays later in the season: (AP poll, Coaches poll)
- Michigan: No. 4, No. 4
- Wisconsin: No. 11, No. 13
- Nebraska: No. 12, No. 12
Through four games this season, the Oklahoma Sooners are the Buckeyes’ best opponent and found themselves back in the Top 25 after beating TCU this weekend. They are No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 22 in the Coaches poll. Don’t forget, the scarlet and gray beat them handily in Norman, Oklahoma in Week 3.
Until the 2015 national champion Alabama Crimson Tide lose, they will remain atop the polls. This means that if the Buckeyes remain undefeated, they are already the highest rank they possibly can be. The beauty of the College Football Playoff system is that while they cannot be ranked No. 1 unless Alabama loses, the Buckeyes control their own destiny the rest of the way. If they continue to beat their opponents, there’s no question they will be in the College Football Playoff following the regular season.
- Maybe? What happened against Indiana guys? [↩]
22 Comments
I think the committee has shown they will buck poll trends (Clemson being #1 almost the whole way last year…). If OSU keeps demolishing teams (and beats the likes of Wisconsin on the road and Nebraska at home) while Alabama slogs through, I could see them getting some #1 overall consideration from the committee.
As for MSU, I said it last week and I’ll say it again: Sparty. Is. BAD. They scare me none. Their offense cannot consistently move the ball against even a semblance of good defense, and their defense is not what it once was. Malik McDowell is a monster. After that? Meh.
Assuming Michigan can avoid any more big injuries (back to back weeks now with a strong starter going down to season-ending knee injuries), I like their chances to be 11-0 heading into 11-0 OSU. Regardless of allegiances and outcome, isn’t that what we’ve all always hoped for every year?
UM needs to get their kicking problems sorted. Harbaugh’s desire to maintain Nordin’s redshirt, my bite him in the arse. They missed all three FGs vs Bucky. 43, 40, 31.
Newsome barely won the LT job. The OL is soft with or without him. I’m looking at you Hoke…
I won’t be surprised to see either Braden or Cole move out to LT. Kugler can play center (albeit not as well as Cole) and Cole has a ton of experience at LT already. That said, Bushell-Beaty didn’t look horrible against a very good defensive front seven. They’ve got a few weeks to get the OL up to speed (Rutgers, bye week, Illinois).
I’m not worried about the kicking game over the next few weeks. There isn’t a team coming up that can keep up with them offensively enough that it’s going to come down to a FG. My hope is that by the time they get to MSU–and more specifically OSU–they’ll have it figured out. I think Allen being asked to do EVERYthing was a mistake this year. He’s been very good as a punter and KO specialist, but it’s clearly messed with his rhythm/timing/mechanics as a PK. Hopefully Tice can settle in if Nordin is actually injured.
I always root for an 11-0 tOSU team to put the final nail in the coffin of an 0-11 UM team.
Outside that dream scenario, yes. Having both be true collegiate football forces (and not the product of a weak conference & scheduling — why hello past few years of BigXII football) is what the sports landscape wants from The Game.
Re: scheduling… I never dreamed that Colorado win might look like one of the best wins on the schedule when the schedule came out. One could look at the AP poll and make the argument that UM’s win over CU is almost on par with OSU’s win over Oklahoma.
I’m really, really curious to see what Wisconsin can do to slow down OSU’s offense. Beating them is nice and a great win for the resume, but I really have no idea how good the Badgers are. If they can slow down OSU’s offense (and I still think OSU wins by two scores, mainly because I don’t think Wisconsin is balanced enough on offense to keep up) it’ll feel more legit.
I don’t think that will be the case by the EOY, but right now sure.
The Badgers are always scary for the Buckeyes. For whatever reason, they have been our main B1G nemesis.
Bucky has zero offensive firepower. Zero.
Barrett will be far less bothered by their pressure than Speight.
Unless SUoO has a mass case of bad brats, it’ll be ugly.
Yeah, I’ve just learned to not expect such in this matchup. What is fun is that it is one worth watching even if we do crush them.
I’m still trying to figure out the B1G hierarchy this year as I think the media was too quick to proclaim the conference was good again (see: Iowa, MichSt, PSU). Maybe Nebraska is the 3rd team this year?
It’s so hard to project, but I wonder what’s more impressive: Oklahoma going, say, 7-1 in the Big 12 or Colorado going 6-2 in the Pac 12? We’ll know more about Colorado in three weeks after they go to USC and to Stanford. Right now, they look a lot better than I thought they would. Depending on how good Nebraska might be, Colorado looks to be on par with them based on their games against a shared opponent.
The Huskers are intriguing, but they’re in Columbus, so they have no chance.
And Urbanator will be inflicting violent retribution on Sparty.
It’s not so much Barrett and the pressure as: can Wisconsin slow down Weber and Samuel at all? Their secondary is OK enough that if they can make OSU one-dimensional (relatively speaking) they can hang around. I’m just not sure that, without Biegel, they have enough horses to get it done. Those LBs can play, though.
I hope everyone in the conference inflicts violent retribution on Sparty. Whiny, wanna-be-entitled clowns.
Sparty and Iowa embarrassed the B1G last bowl season.
Iowa’s doing a good job of embarrassing the B1G right now.
USC is terrible. I mean wretched. Sark ignored the LOS and they are still suffering for it. They get manhandled at the point of attack.
I would say 7-2 Pac12 is more impressive than 8-1 BigXII (9 gm schedules)
I don’t know if I see two losses on CU’s schedule in the Pac12. If USC is as bad as you’re saying (I admittedly haven’t watched them), they will get manhandled by Tupou up front and shut down by Colorado’s secondary. Only Stanford looks to be a tough test until they (potentially) play Washington in the conference championship. They get UCLA at home.
Oklahoma and Baylor might combine for 120 points.
Arizona State could get them caught up in a scoring fest
Stanford is tough
UCLA is a tossup & might just be better
Utah – same
and, USC did wake up and smack the Sun Devils, so maybe I’m being overly critical on them (but, man have they looked bad).
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I am rooting against Baylor more than any other team this year – yes, including yours. Just disgusting the actions and rhetoric with how the administration and football team has handled themselves in the wake of their scandal.
Totally agree. I would have loved to have seen them lose to Iowa State.
Utah lost to Cal.
!!!
More than State Pen?
I know – the Pac12 has some very BigXII type teams, which makes those games hard to predict (Cal, ASU the two most obvious)
Denizens of Happy Valley are in their bubble and trying to convince themselves that their old grandpa JoePa was too dumb and naive to know anything was going on. It’s bad, but…
Baylor:
-Demoted President (who later resigned)
-Fired Head Coach (though they almost passed a motion this summer to bring him back after the season)
-Eventually fired AD (after he hired a new coach)
They left the entire infrastructure throughout the university and specifically in the football program in place. Pepper Hamilton noted the culture was unsound there — Baylor counters w/ not having a cultural problem on the football team.
The current head coach continues to give tone deaf comments about how nothing is an issue, move along, while allowing some of those arrested and alleged criminals back in the locker room after games.
They had a woman who was sexually abused by Oregon State players come talk to the team this summer. Of course, couldn’t let her leave without taking her into a room and criticizing her and giving her a frustrated speech about how it was hogwash she was even there and there was no issue (to what end there?).
Baylor wants to win some football games. They are going to win some football games. But, it is so, so, so dirty the way they are going about it. Even for college football.