Ohio State wins if…
PeTe Fiutak
It swags up and acts and plays like it’s the best team in college football. Ohio State is better than Michigan, Ohio State is better than LSU. Ohio State is better than every team in the country, and it needs to have the same sort of mindset and attitude that it had going into last year’s game.
Matthew Lounsberry
The Buckeyes will win this game if they continue to play the way they have all season. That might sound awfully simple, but Ohio State has scored the most points in the country, and allowed the fewest points in the country this year. The Buckeyes were dominating Penn State last week, 21-0, before being hit with the turnover bug. If Ohio State plays clean football on Saturday, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where they don’t wind up on top.
Dan Hope
It plays up to its ability. While Michigan is a surging team and one of the best teams Ohio State has played all season, the Buckeyes are arguably the best team in the country. They’re performing at an elite level in just about every phase of the game, and they have a talent advantage over Michigan on both sides of the ball. Ohio State is beatable if it makes sloppy mistakes like it did with its three lost fumbles against Penn State, but if the Buckeyes bring their A-game to Ann Arbor, they shouldn’t lose.
Brandon Knapp
They play as they have in the first nine games. Against Penn State, we’ve seen some kind of weakness in the Buckeyes and if that was against Michigan, the Wolverines could’ve won the game. Penn State was playing with their backup quarterback for most of the game and that was a gamechanger as well. Ohio State needs to get back to not turning over the football and just pushing the ball down Michigan’s throats and scoring over and over again as they did in 2018.
Phil Harrison
It limits the big play from Michigan. The Wolverines have gotten much better on offense because they have all of a sudden found the ability to utilize some of the skill players in space and on the outside. It no longer looks like a round beg trying to get into a square hole as Shea Patterson and his playmakers are starting to figure things out, and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis seems to have a better handle on what this team does well. OSU is much improved in that category compared with last year, and you know it all starts with Chase Young and that D-line getting pressure and push in the Michigan backfield.
Isaiah Hole
Its playmakers make big plays.
I’m, of course, talking about Justin Fields, J.K. Dobbins and Chase Young. None of the above have really been stopped all year, and if they can continue to move the ball at will and create havoc on defense, the Buckeyes could ultimately cruise in this game.
Honestly, it’s as simple as that.