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Trap game? ESPN analyst gives two keys for Ohio State to avoid letdown against Northwestern
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Ohio State enters Friday’s road trip to Northwestern as overwhelming favorites, but nothing is ever guaranteed during a B1G road game. Especially against Pat Fitzgerald and the scrappy Wildcats.
At this point, there would seem to be no cause for concern that the Buckeyes would lose in Week 8. With a mostly healthy team coming off of a bye week, Ryan Day and company should be well prepared for the task at hand.
RELATED: Northwestern releases final injury report, depth chart ahead of Ohio State game
However, upsets usually come when you least expect them, and avoiding a letdown usually comes to simply executing in all the little things. ESPN analyst David Pollack addressed the matchup during SportsCenter, and he gave two keys for Ohio State to make sure they come away with the win.
Garrett Stepien with Bucknuts shared Pollack’s comments:
“You know, sometimes you’re going to have bad weather — especially in the Big Ten — and inconsistency,” Pollack said Friday on SportsCenter. “There’s a couple of things that hold true — run the football, if you can run the football and you can line up and you can always be physical. And J.K. Dobbins has been dominant…”
“And then guess what? Defense always travels,” Pollack said. “We talk a lot about Chase Young and that defensive front for Ohio State, Okudah in the secondary — they’ve been locking people down. And the secondary’s consistent. They can play man, they can play zone, they’re always going to bring it.
“Listen, defense has to travel. Run game has to travel. You don’t want to have any kind of scares or any kind of upsets. And I don’t expect it, but we also didn’t expect upsets last time they happened (to Ohio State).”
Thankfully, those are two areas that Ohio State has been thriving at this season. Kickoff is set for 8:30 pm EST on BTN.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.