The Ohio State Buckeyes are the only team in the Big Ten to still be undefeated at this point of the season, and they are going to hope to keep that perfect mark intact when they invite the Nebraska Cornhuskers to Columbus for the very first time.
OSU doesn’t have anything to play for this year but a perfect season, and if it can accomplish that, it will solidify that it is the best team in the Big Ten going into next season and the only one that can probably legitimately contend for a National Championship in the next few years. Nebraska knows that it needs all the wins that it can get in the Big Ten Legends Division, the division that is clearly the tougher of the two in this conference. As it is, they find themselves listed as 5-point underdogs heading into Saturday night’s showdown.
1. Why Nebraska will cover the spread: Nebraska will cover the spread if it can find running room on the Ohio State defense. Good luck with that. The Huskers do have some massive runners though, and five players have at least 184 yards on the ground in five games this year. All five are averaging at least 6.0 yards per carry. Leading rusher RB Ameer Abdullah has 486 yards to go along with his five trips to the end zone.
2. Why Ohio State will cover the spread: The Buckeyes will cover the spread if they can stretch the field just a bit. QB Braxton Miller doesn’t have to do much, but he does have to at least pose the threat of getting up the field to WRs Devin Smith and Philly Brown, both of which have the potential to be explosive. This is a great team, but the offense isn’t quite where the defense is yet, and that simply has to improve for Head Coach Urban Meyer’s club to run the table. (Check out ElevenWarrior’s.com take)
3. Total Talk: This is going to be a great battle between a Nebraska team that has scored 30 points in all of its games this year and an Ohio State team that ranks 26th in the country allowing a mere 17.0 points per game. Four of the five teams that have taken on the Buckeyes have been held in the teens, and that can’t happen to Nebraska if this one is reaching the ‘total’. Nebraska has played five of its last seven Big Ten games ‘under’ the closing number, while the ‘under’ is 5-0 in Ohio State’s last five home game against teams with a winning record.
4. Betting Trends for the game: There isn’t a lot of history between these two teams, knowing that this is just the second meeting between these two as members of the Big Ten. Big Red scored a 34-27 win in Lincoln last year, but the Bucks got the better of the ATS proceedings. October has belonged to the Buckeyes, as they have gone 21-8 ATS in their last 29 in this month. They also check in a rock solid 43-18-1 ATS in their L/62 Big Ten tussles. Meanwhile, Nebraska is just 1-4-1 ATS in its last six gridiron battles against teams with a winning record and have failed to cover its L/4 away from Lincoln.
Ohio State 30 – Nebraska 20
