The Return To Glory Begins Now!

In years past, the week leading into a game like this Saturday’s Ohio State vs. Wisconsin game would send the traffic on this blog off the hook. After about six or so years of blogging about the Buckeyes, you start to see certain patterns. A preview post early in the week that included a discussion of the point spread would get the traffic rolling. By mid-week, the excitement would be starting to swell as players and fans talked about the coming game and by Saturday morning, the hype train would be charging ahead at full steam and I’d write something about the glory of Ohio State filled with hyperbole about the field of honor that lays before them, the legends that will be watching and all that stuff.

This year though, things are different. Although the point spread post ranks on the first page of the Google search returns, Google’s keyword tool shows that there have only been around 110 monthly searches for the term “Ohio State Wisconsin Point Spread.” In past years, this very blog would bring in many many times more hits than that just on that search term alone.

I’m afraid that’s the world we live in folks. For the first time in years, we’ve dropped out of the national spotlight and Buckeye Nation is feeling the hit.

It all changes Saturday
For the first time in a long time the Buckeyes are underdogs in the Big Ten. However, following last week’s loss to Michigan State, a win over Wisconsin could put us right back into the hunt. If the Buckeyes get past Wisconsin, win out the rest of the season and toss in another Penn State loss for good measure and we win the Leade….Big Ten East Division title and play in the division championship. And don’t think for a minute counting on a Penn State loss will be a stretch. Not only are they Penn State but they have yet to face Illinois, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

Step one on the trip to Indianapolis – Beat Wisconsin. Keys to the Game.

Defense: We’ve been through this before. Once again, the defense will be the biggest key to beating Wisconsin. They need to play like they did for three quarters against Nebraska and like they did last week against Illinois. However, with the Badgers ranked 2nd in the nation in rushing, 1st in passing, 1st in total yards and 1st in scoring, this is not your basic Illinois team. Something tells me we have yet to see the best of this defense and if ever there was a time to turn it to 11, this is the time.

Run Boom Run
Want a fantasy tip, Boom Herron will get more than his fair share of touches. Question is, will he be able to do anything with them? The offensive line proved they can create rushing opportunities against Illinois even when Illinois threw everything into the box they could find to stop them. If nothing else, the Illinois game showed us that this offensive line can open doors for the back field.

Look for the short pass
This might also be a big game for Stoneburner. It’s hard to believe that there wasn’t some serious effort put into the passing game during the week off. Look for a short, safe passing game designed to pull the Wisconsin defense back enough to give Herron room to run. Miller will need to establish his confidence with a series of short, quick hits to set up the tone for the game.

And then there’s the uniforms

If nothing else, we’ve got those really cool uniforms again this year. I didn’t get the big Nike invite this year (enough with the last year stuff already) and to be honest, I really haven’t paid much attention to what is becoming an annual Nike campaign. Suffice it to say, the Buckeyes are wearing different uniforms against Wisconsin. In Nike’s defense, I don’t think they did near as much with the promotion this year.

The Fantasy Football Pool is wide open
We’ve only got a handful of registrations for tBuckeyeblog’s College Fantasy Football challenge which means that at the moment, you’ve got a better chance of winning money than not. Draft a team, win some bucks and talk some smack.

Click here for full info on the contest.

Click here to go straight to the registration page.