2 Ohio State faces 5 Michigan on Saturday in a top 10 tie with the Big Ten East Division championship in a straight line.
Kickoff is scheduled for 12pm. ET at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. The match will be televised on FOX.
Ohio State (10-1) jumped to second after a 56-7 Open Open win over Michigan State in Week 12. The Buckeyes lead FBS with an average of 47.2 fouls per game, and CJ Stroud Heisman’s favorite is to throw for a worldwide-receiving trio that includes Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Third-year coach Ryan Day has yet to lose a single Big Ten game.
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Michigan (10-1) is trying to break an eight-game losing streak against the Buckeyes in The Game, and this is the sixth time coach Jim Harbaugh has struggled as head coach. Wolverines are seventh in FBS with a defense allowing 16.7 points per game. Defensive finish Adian Hutchinson and David Ojabo have 10 sacks each, but will Werewolves have enough attack power to entice the bad guys?
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The stage is set for another classic between long-standing Big Ten rivals, one that will affect the ranking of the College Football Playoff heading into the final week. With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know to bet on the Buckeyes vs Wolverines match.
Ohio State vs. Michigan
- Transmitted: Ohio State -8.5
- On lower: 63.5
- Cash flow: Ohio State -310, Michigan +240
Three trends to know
– The Buckeyes are drawing 2-2 ATS on the road this season, but all those odds are double digits. Ohio State is winning 8-0 against opponents below Day, and they win those games by an average of 23.1 points per game. Maybe that’s why the line is up 1.5 points from the opening time.
– Michigan is 0-5 ahead of Ohio State under Harbaugh, but that’s not the surprising part. The Buckeyes won those five games with an average of 19 points per game. The only game decided by single digits was Ohio State’s 30-27 overtime victory in 2016.
– Michigan is also 2-1 against top 10 opponents under Harbaugh, and the most recent loss was a shock 37-33 to Michigan State earlier in the season. Harbaugh is 2-4 at home in those top games. Two wins are against Wisconsin (2016) and Notre Dame (2019). Three of the four losses have been to Ohio State, but this is the first time Michigan has delivered a 10-1 home game record against the Buckeyes under Harbaugh.
Three things to see
– How to slow down Stroud? Stroud continues to grow around an NFL-caliber receptive legion featuring Olave (848 yards, 13 TDs), Wilson (939 yards, 11 TDs) and Smith-Njigba (1,132 yards, 6 TDs), and that should do. Michigan’s defensive stress coordinator Mike Macdonald. Hutchinson and Ojabo face side pressure, and Josh Ross will have to be a factor at full-back. Ohio State chopped Don Brown’s defense in its most recent two meetings. What else can Macdonald do to slow down Ohio State?
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– Michigan’s Running Game. Michigan ranks 15th in FBS with an average strike speed of 218.4 yards per game. Hassan Haskins (1,063 yards, 13 TD) is back in the lead, and Blake Corum (778 yards, 10 TD) could return after missing the last two games with a leg injury. The Wolverines are an inside work team, but will be checking the perimeter more like Oregon did on September 11? The Buckeyes have only been allowed to charge for 74.2 yards per game since that loss to the Ducks. Haskell Garrett’s defensive save (7.5 TFL, 5.5 bags) was at the heart of that change. Who wins on the interior?
– Who makes the difference? TreVeyon Henderson of Ohio State is an indoor hitman the Werewolf has never seen, and he could be more dangerous in space than Michigan State’s Kenneth Walker III, who had five TDs against Michigan. JK Dobbins has 211 yards of charge, 49 yards of receive and a total of 4 TDs in the last meeting. On the other hand, Harbaugh had to trust defender Cade McNamara to strike ahead of the Buckeyes defence. In the last five meetings, Michigan’s QB have hit 59.6% of their passes at 253.2 yards with eight TDs and seven interceptions. How much will werewolves combine with freshman quarterback JJ McCarthy? That is also worth seeing.
Important Stats
Ohio State leads FBS with 7.9 yards per play. Michigan at 6.2; Just like Michigan State. That won’t work for the Wolverines on Saturday.
Here are the disparities in the three most recent meetings since Day joined the Ohio State staff in 2017.
| YEAR | OSU PLAY | YARDS | YDS / PLAY | PLAY MICH | YARDS | YDS / PLAY |
| 2017 | 63 | 360 | 5.7 | 68 | 295 | 4.3 |
| 2018 | sixty seven | 567 | 8.5 | 78 | 401 | 5.1 |
| 2019 | 77 | 577 | 7.5 | 69 | 396 | 5.7 |
Michigan is 10th in the FBS for yards per play allowed at 4.5. Ohio State is 16th with 4.8. Watch this statistic as the game progresses.
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Ohio State predictions vs. Michigan
This is Michigan’s best shot to end the drought since 2016, but there are striking differences between the teams since 2016. The Wolves have a new-style defense that has worked with a coordinator first year, and Buckeyes has moved away from the game power that is running away from the shotgun.
It’s Michigan’s problem for it to be a four inning game, and that’s going to be tough given the many ways Ohio State can attack opponents. Look for Henderson to be an early X-factor. Michigan will hover if the game is running click, but McNamara will have to play his beat game during the season.
In the end, Ohio State is simply too much. The Buckeyes advance to the Big Ten championship game for the fifth year in a row with a chance to return to the CFP for a third time in a row with Day.
The last point: Ohio State 38, Michigan 26
