Ohio State vs Michigan State prediction, game preview, how to watch. Week 6, Saturday, October 8
Ohio State vs Michigan State How To Watch
Date: Saturday, October 8
Game Time: 4:00 ET
Venue: Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI
How To Watch: ABC
Record: Ohio State (5-0), Michigan State (2-3)
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Ohio State vs Michigan State Game Preview
Why Ohio State Will Win
Michigan State is having issues.
Last year CJ Stroud and Ohio State created magical performance art in one of the all-time most impressive first halves on the way to a 56-7 win over the Spartans.
This time around this bunch is playing at that same high level whenever it needs to.
Granted, rolling up Wisconsin now is about as difficult as ordering a latte, and blowing away Rutgers, Arkansas State, and Toledo is hardly a reason to crown the Buckeyes national champs, but everything is working.
Everything is very much not working for a Spartan team that appeared to forget how to play college football somewhere over the Dakotas on the trip to Seattle in a 39-28 loss that wasn’t even that close.
Minnesota was almost flawless against the Spartans, and Maryland came up with a 27-13 win last week.
What’s the big problem? The running game has gone bye-bye.
The offensive line actually hasn’t been that awful, but the pass defense glitch from last year is back, and it’s not getting any help from a ground attack that’s failing to control the clock.
Why Michigan State Will Win
Fine, is there anything on this ship that’s not broken?
Again, the offensive line has been okay. It’s not generating enough of a push, but it’s been okay at keeping defenses out of the backfield.
The punting game has been strong, QB Payton Thorne has been okay, and the pass rush is good enough to at least bother Stroud a bit.
The biggest plus here is the pressure – there isn’t any.
Last year the Spartans went into Columbus 9-1 with a win over Michigan and a chance to all but sew up the Big Ten East title. And then things went very, very wrong.
The expectations for this are below zero. Michigan State is supposed to get torched. Ohio State is supposed to be amazing. There are enough good players on the home side to not just hold up, but to frustrate Ohio State just enough to get this deep into the second half and …
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What’s Going To Happen
CJ Stroud is about to be wonderful again.
Michigan State really does have just enough to make this a ballgame, but the secondary has been abysmal over the last three weeks.
Michael Penix Jr. was all of a sudden a Heisman candidate after the Washington game, Tanner Morgan hit 89% of his passes – over 90% if you could the one interception – in Minnesota’s easy win, and Taulia Tagovailoa and company rolled for well over 300 yards in the Maryland victory.
There will be a few moments when this will seem like it could be interesting, and then bam, bam, bam – Stroud will hit a few good throws and that will be it.
Ohio State vs Michigan State Prediction, Line
Ohio State 44, Michigan State 20
Line: Ohio State -26.5, o/u: 64
ATS Confidence out of 5: 3
Ohio State vs Michigan State Must See Rating (out of 5): 3.5
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