Matt Tamanini
Guest
What do you think is the No. 1 key to Ohio State winning The Game on Saturday?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
I know this week often means that people are getting nervous about having to sit around a table with family members with polar opposite political views, or having to cook mountains of food, or having to withstand the hoards of people trying to get the best Black Friday deals, but for those of us in Buckeye Nation, all of the stress of Thanksgiving Week are about Saturday at 12 noon ET.
It is Rivalry Week, it is Hate Week, it is Beat
ichigan Week, it is The Game Week! So, since the turkey hasn’t yet been carved and the levels of existential dread haven’t yet reached their fevered pitch, we wanted to check in and take the fandom’s temperature on how they were feeling about things.
So, in this week’s fan survey, we’ve got a couple of questions about The Game; one about what you think is the most important key to OSU’s victory and the other predicting the final score.
Take a look below and make sure to register your vote in the survey. Then, if you have additional thoughts, hit up the comments at the bottom of the page!
I would honestly love it if the Buckeyes did every single one of these things on Saturday in Ann Arbor; if they did, I would feel really good about their chances to win the game. But, I didn’t make that an option in this week’s survey. So, I suppose that I will need to just pick one. I don’t want to prejudice your selection though, so I will hold off on sharing my thoughts until after the results are in.
But, I do think that there are some interesting things to consider here. Starting first at the 10,000-foot level, do you go offense or defense? While it seems counterintuitive following the first four years of Ryan Day’s tenure as head coach in Columbus, I feel far more confident in the defense’s ability to find answers this season than the offense’s.
So, I think I would have to go with something on offense, because even if the D doesn’t get pressure on J.J. McCarthy, or they don’t clog up holes in the running game, or they don’t get UM off the field on third down regularly, or they don’t limit explosive plays, I think that they have enough other answers to pick up the slack.
Therefore, I am going to eventually pick one of the offensive options, because I have far less confidence in that unit’s ability to overcome things that don’t go its way.
Personally, I am not yet in the proper headspace to make a score prediction on this game; that will come in our “Tailgate” podcast on Saturday morning (I’m going to try and put that off until the last possible minute). Obviously, I’m going to be picking Ohio State to win, but beyond that, I have no idea. So, let’s take a look at some data to see if we can start to narrow things down.
Advanced Analytic Projections:
Statistical Breakdown:
Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
I know this week often means that people are getting nervous about having to sit around a table with family members with polar opposite political views, or having to cook mountains of food, or having to withstand the hoards of people trying to get the best Black Friday deals, but for those of us in Buckeye Nation, all of the stress of Thanksgiving Week are about Saturday at 12 noon ET.
It is Rivalry Week, it is Hate Week, it is Beat
ichigan Week, it is The Game Week! So, since the turkey hasn’t yet been carved and the levels of existential dread haven’t yet reached their fevered pitch, we wanted to check in and take the fandom’s temperature on how they were feeling about things.So, in this week’s fan survey, we’ve got a couple of questions about The Game; one about what you think is the most important key to OSU’s victory and the other predicting the final score.
Take a look below and make sure to register your vote in the survey. Then, if you have additional thoughts, hit up the comments at the bottom of the page!
Question 1: What is the one thing that the Buckeyes have to do to beat their rivals?
I would honestly love it if the Buckeyes did every single one of these things on Saturday in Ann Arbor; if they did, I would feel really good about their chances to win the game. But, I didn’t make that an option in this week’s survey. So, I suppose that I will need to just pick one. I don’t want to prejudice your selection though, so I will hold off on sharing my thoughts until after the results are in.
But, I do think that there are some interesting things to consider here. Starting first at the 10,000-foot level, do you go offense or defense? While it seems counterintuitive following the first four years of Ryan Day’s tenure as head coach in Columbus, I feel far more confident in the defense’s ability to find answers this season than the offense’s.
So, I think I would have to go with something on offense, because even if the D doesn’t get pressure on J.J. McCarthy, or they don’t clog up holes in the running game, or they don’t get UM off the field on third down regularly, or they don’t limit explosive plays, I think that they have enough other answers to pick up the slack.
Therefore, I am going to eventually pick one of the offensive options, because I have far less confidence in that unit’s ability to overcome things that don’t go its way.
Question 2: What will the result of The Game be?
Personally, I am not yet in the proper headspace to make a score prediction on this game; that will come in our “Tailgate” podcast on Saturday morning (I’m going to try and put that off until the last possible minute). Obviously, I’m going to be picking Ohio State to win, but beyond that, I have no idea. So, let’s take a look at some data to see if we can start to narrow things down.
Advanced Analytic Projections:
- SP+ Score Projection: TTUN 26, OSU 20
- College Football Nerds Model Projection: TTUN 23.2, OSU 16.9
- NCAA Game Simulator Projection: OSU 24.1, TTUN 22.0
Statistical Breakdown:
Share your thoughts here:
Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Continue reading...