Written by Mike Furlan

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Get 'em while you can! That's what Furls says should be the rallying call for the Buckeyes players this week as they line up against an overmatched Northwestern team. This year’s rendition of the “Mildcats” should be much easier to tame on the field than off, for lining up across from the Buckeyes are the next generation’s lawyers, agents, and tax auditors, that will undoubtedly be reaching into their pockets at some point. Furls previews the Buckeyes 3:30 tilt with the Wildcats in Columbus.

Get 'em while you can!

That should be the rallying call for the Buckeyes players this week as they line up against an overmatched Northwestern team. This year’s rendition of the “Mildcats” should be much easier to tame on the field than off, for lining up across from the Buckeyes are the next generation’s lawyers, agents, and tax auditors, that will undoubtedly be reaching into their pockets at some point. Should the Buckeyes need further motivation I guess Coach Tressel could show them the Ohio State vs. Northwestern game film from 2004, the Buckeyes first loss of that season, but I hope that all that film has been destroyed. That loss was Ohio State’s first to Northwestern in 33 years.

While it is true that Northwestern is grossly outmatched on the field the same could be said for Ohio State in the classroom. Northwestern is the only private school in the Big Ten and ranks highly across all areas of academic endeavor. As Big Ten fans, it may not be easy to see what a fantastic institution Northwestern is, but it is more a kin to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, than to its physically imposing, abusive Big Ten brothers. How small is Northwestern? With an enrollment below 8,000 it is about ¼ the size of the next smallest school, Iowa.

Without Further Ado: Here come the MILDCATS! Meow.

Northwestern from the Big Ten Preview:

11. Northwestern: Well at least they play close to Chicago so they should be able to get some pretty good pizza. That is about the only nice thing I can say about that program right now. While it is true that the Wildcats are returning 16 starters from last year’s roster, I am not sure that this is such a good thing given how they played last year. This will be Pat Fitzgerald’s first full year as head coach, including a camp, so it will be interesting to see what kind of changes he can institute, but in the end, the only thing that will prevent Northwestern from totally showing their asses this year is the fact that Wisconsin and Penn State are off the schedule. I am only writing about Northwestern because Swerb said I had to give everyone a trophy.

I stand by this blunt assessment today, even with a 2-1 record. Who did those two wins come against? Well, even more stunning, who did the one loss come against. The Mildcats went out of their way to add to an already embarrassing Big Ten non conference season. Not to be upstaged by Michigan in Big Ten sucktitude (new word), Northwestern went out of its way add to an already embarrassing Big Ten non conference season by ending Duke’s, and the nation’s longest IA, losing streak at 22 games. Yes, the Mildcats did what 21 teams failed to do, allowed the Blue Devils to win a football game.

In the Wildcats defense, they were without standout running back Tyrell Sutton, but still it was a loss to Duke in a game that did not feature Coach K or sticks with nets at the top. It is still a black eye for the “family,” and it makes you wish you could walk fast enough to ditch your nerdy little brother, who just got beat up by a girl, at the mall before everyone else can see him. (send anti-misogynistic hate mail here).

Somehow Northwestern seems to rise up every couple of years and deliver a stunning blow its big brothers, but this is not one of those years. This is not to say that they will not surprise a Big Ten team here and there, but to expect them to finish higher than 9^th would really be a stretch.

Northwestern was able to put up some pretty big numbers while losing to Duke, including nearly 400 yards in the air and another 150 or so on the ground without their star tailback, but come on, it is still Duke. C.J. Bacher has been pretty successful this year against inferior competition, inferior to Northwestern says a lot, but good numbers are still good numbers regardless of competition (ask Heisman Trophy candidate Brian Brohm). It looks like the awkward spread offense in Northwestern is a live and well.

The Northwestern defense looks porous and will definitely put some pressure on their offense. In a win against Nevada, Northwestern was scorched for over 200 yards on the ground. This does not bode well for a team that is going up against a Buckeyes team hell bent on getting the running game in order; a running game that has seemed to come alive over the last 6 quarters. I would place 200 yards as a conservative estimate for the Ohio State running attack today.

The Match Ups:

Ohio State Offense vs. Northwestern Defense: This is really not much of a match up anywhere on the field. Northwestern does not have the interior defense to stop the run, nor the outside rush to pressure the pass, nor the secondary to effectively defend the Buckeyes downfield. Will it be as bad as last year’s pasting? I doubt it because the Buckeyes are going to work on their running game which should artificially keep the score much more reasonable.

The key for the Wildcats will be their linebacker play. If they can fill gaps quickly and make tackles at the point of attack then they should be able to keep the score reasonable. If Beanie Wells and Maurice Wells are regularly getting to the secondary, well, it will be a long day for the men in purple. Can you really call any guy wearing purple a man? This is going to be a particularly tall order for a Northwestern team that lost its top two tacklers and linebackers from last year, Nick Roach and Demetrious Eaton.

Downfield the key match up will be Sherrick McMannis vs. Brian Robiskie. McMannis proved to be a capable coverage man last year, but one man does not a secondary make. Even if McMannis is up for the task, someone else will have to step up to cover Hartline and company. I just don’t think Northwestern has the horses in the secondary to get it done.

Ohio State Defense vs. Nortwestern Offense: Northwestern still plays a lot of the single back spread option, and does so with moderate success. Unfortunately, this type of offense requires consistent execution in the passing game, and frankly, I don’t think that is something that they can count on against this Ohio State defense. In order to be effective, the ‘Cats are going to have to take the 3-5 yards that the defense gives them and they will have to hold on to every ball just to move the sticks.

The Buckeyes defense has played with great lateral speed this year and the corners have proven to be at least capable open field tacklers on the outside. This does not bode well for an offense that will rely on three step drops, quick patterns, and yardage after the catch. Now if the Wildcat’s were built to throw the ball down the field, things would be a lot more interesting since Malcolm Jenkins and company are still relatively untested downfield this year. It would be nice to have some idea how good the corners are in coverage prior to their first real test at Purdue.

Tyrell Sutton could cause some problems for the Buckeyes running between the tackles and that is an important part of the Northwestern offense. Spread the field, throw to the outside, or run up the middle. Thus far this year, the Buckeyes run defense has looked very impressive everywhere on the field except up the middle where it has looked just average. While facing a spread offense the onus on stopping the run will put an even greater magnifying glass on the play of the Ohio State defensive tackles.

Up until now, the Buckeyes new defensive tackles have proven capable, but they are performing nowhere near the level of last year’s standout captains, Quinn Pitcock and David Patterson. That is not a big surprise, but if the Buckeyes are going to seriously compete for the Big Ten title this year, this unit is going to have to get a little better. Specifically, they are going to have to do a better job maintaining their gaps. Watch the interior runs today, behind every good running play Northwestern has, you will see a defensive tackle get turned out of his gap. The tackles are going to have to get that pad level down to get better leverage to maintain their respective gaps.

What to watch for:

What time is the Penn St. vs. Michigan game?

There really isn’t much to watch for in this one. I guess some interesting things will be the defensive tackle play as discussed above and the corner play on the outside. Additionally, it will be interesting to see how well the Buckeyes linebackers defend the short pass routes that will almost certainly be coming.

Due to an undisclosed injury, rumored to be a soft tissue knee injury, Brandon Saine will not play today. The origin of the injury has not been disclosed, but according to Saine’s mother he had his knee scoped and is expected to be out 3-4 weeks. Maurice Wells will now be pressed into service as the second tailback. This is a much bigger loss than a lot of people realize, but if the initial reporting is accurate than Saine should be back in time for the difficult portion of the Big Ten schedule.

Should Wells stumble out of the gate or if either Wells’ suffer an injury it will be interesting to see where the Buckeyes go for another back. Will it be Boom Herron, whom it appears they were trying to redshirt, or will it be walk on Marcus Williams? High drama for the Buckeyes indeed, who was the last non scholarship Buckeye to tote the rock as a running back? I have no idea, if you know shoot me an email, and I will get you some props in my wrap.

Don’t Be Surprised If:

-Mark May and company are unimpressed by the Buckeyes putting a 30 point whipping on the cats. Tressel is just not the kind of guy to toss 60 on a team to impress media members and pollsters (yes, I am talking about you Bob Stoops). If the Buckeyes put up big numbers it will because their third string was good enough to score 20.

-Beanie Wells puts a big hurting on the ‘Cats, somewhere on the order of 200 yards and five devastating secondary stiff arms.

-The Buckeyes have a bad statistical defensive performance that is not reflected in the score. Bear with me a second. I expect to see the Wildcats complete a fairly high percentage of short passes and to chew up some yardage in doing so, but I do not expect them to be able to sustain long drives with consistent execution. Something like 250 yards of offense (150 in the air 100 on the ground)

-Tyrell Sutton goes over 100 yards. He is a very good football player (former Ohio Mr. Football). He has good speed and vision, and great burst through the middle.

If I were a gambling man:

Ohio State and the Over. Buckeyes –24 should be a fairly easy cover, but I am more concerned with the over under. I am not sure if the Buckeyes are going to do enough to put the game over by themselves, and I don’t think that Wildcats will give them more than 14 points of help in covering the over, so I am banking on 2-3 late trash time TDs to put the game over (one from NW and two from the Buckeyes).

This is your last shot to earn Props as the Prognosticator of the Week. If you are the best you will get your props in my wrap. Enter here. There is no prize accept knowing that you are smarter than everyone else, isn’t that enough?

Final Score: Ohio State 45 Nortwestern 13.