Ohio State Football: Preview, prediction, live stream vs. Illinois in Week 12

Ohio State football will look to continue its rise in the College Football Playoff rankings in Week 12. Here’s what you need to know about the Illinois matchup.

Ohio State might be the most interesting team in college football right now. They win one of the best games one weekend, get manhandled the next and dismantle a team the following week — in order Penn State, Iowa and Michigan State to go 2-1 against those three isn’t a bad feat, but when you are the Buckeyes don’t expect to let anybody hang 50-plus on you.

Now with the season winding down, they have to take care of Illinois they can’t look past them at one of the biggest rivalries in the nation in Week 13.

If Ohio State wins out, it will face possibly an undefeated Wisconsin in the Big Ten Title game if Ohio State just splits the next two games they will represent the East as Wisconsin is a lock for the West. If they can win out and beat an undefeated Wisconsin team, can they back door the College Football Playoff? With some more chaos, who knows.

Illinois has had a rough season, coming into the game 2-8 overall and 0-7 in the Big Ten, these guys are looking for their first conference win if they could knock off Ohio State that would be like them winning the Rose Bowl this year. With two games left, they have two ranked teams to get into the win column with.

Here’s how you can watch Saturday’s Ohio State vs. Illinois game:

Date: Saturday, Nov. 18
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Columbus, OH
Venue: Ohio Stadium
TV: ABC
Live Stream: BTN2Go

Next: NFL Mock Draft 2018: First round after Week 11 edition

Prediction

One word for this game: pain — in the great word of Clubber Lang (Rocky III reference, YouTube if you need to). Lovie Smith hasn’t assembled the talent yet to battle with Ohio State, Jeff George Jr. and the crew on offense won’t be able to move the ball on a talented defense. I also expect running backs J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber to have nice games again. JT Barrett has been in a slump after having an amazing game against Penn State, but six interceptions in the last two weeks will be something he wants to get fixed and everybody expects that to be done in Week 12.

Final Score: Ohio State 59, Illinois 10