The Game, 2023

We’re only a few hours away from this year’s titanic clash of the Men of the Scarlet and Gray with That Team Up North. Number 2 versus Number 3. The winners take the Big Ten East crown, punch their ticket to the Big Ten championship game, and may end up in the College Football Playoff; the losers have to lick their wounds for another year. The stakes don’t get much higher than this, but that’s par for the course for The Game.

As is true every year, this year’s matchup has its own set of off-the-field storylines, with controversy swirling around TTUN and its program, and Ohio State and its coaching staff dealing with the pressure of trying to reverse a two-year losing streak. But I woke up early this morning, adrenalin surging, thinking about the football, not the surrounding distractions. Here’s my take.

I think the problem with predicting the outcome of The Game this year is simple: the Big Ten doesn’t have many multi-dimensional offensive teams. TTUN and Ohio State both fall into that category, but most of the other teams don’t. Ohio State has played a slightly tougher schedule, thanks to its win in South Bend, but that same one-dimensional issue was true for Notre Dame–at least, it was back when Ohio State played the Fighting Irish. There just aren’t that many Big Ten teams that can both run and pass effectively. Perhaps Maryland falls into that category, but that’s about it–and interestingly, the Terrapins gave both Ohio State and TTUN a game.

The novelty of facing a true multi-dimensional opponent means that, even though both teams have played 11 games already, today’s matchup will present a fundamentally different challenge for the defenses. I think we’ll get a sense early on as to whether the multi-dimensional aspect of the opponent poses problems for these two defenses, both of which have put up strong numbers. And don’t kid yourselves–this edition of The Game will boil down to which defense is stouter, and which defense can make the tough stops and avoid the breakdowns when The Game is in the balance. For the past two years, that is what TTUN has been able to do–perhaps aided by an unfair advantage–and what Ohio State has not been able to do. Today, the Buckeyes will try to change that result.

Can they do it? It’s the question every member of Buckeye Nation will be asking at noon today, when The Game kicks off in Ann Arbor.

Go Bucks!