Ohio State Football: 3 bold predictions for Buckeyes vs Oregon

Two top-ranked teams in the country will clash on the field in Columbus when Ohio State football hosts the Oregon Ducks. Here are three bold predictions for Ohio State.

Both Ohio State football and Oregon come into this showdown undefeated on the season as each were able to handle their business and come away with victories in Week one. Come late Saturday afternoon one team will not be able to say they are undefeated though.

Even though Ohio State football and Oregon both won their matchups they each struggled to an extent in their openers last week. Every team outside of Alabama seemed to struggle at some point during their first game of the year if we are being honest.

For Ohio State, it all starts at quarterback. Coming into this year Ohio State had to replace a key playmaker in Justin Fields under center. We all got our first look at C.J. Stroud as the starter for the Buckeyes. You could tell that Stroud was a little anxious out there and probably had a lot of butterflies for good reasoning.

Stroud was on the road for his first start ever in college, under the lights, and also taking on a conference opponent in front of a sold out crowd in Minnesota. The talent freshman quarterback had an okay first half as he had some overthrows early on, but in the second half looked like a totally different quarterback which the Buckeye faithful loved to see out there.

Stroud finished the night throwing for 294 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. C.J. Stroud was not the only freshman out there on the field making plays for Ohio State.

Fellow freshman running back Miyan Williams also made sure the college football world knows who he is as well.

Miyan Williams had a small sample size last year playing in four games during the 2020 season rushing for 64 yards on 10 carries. Since only playing in four games he remains his freshman  status. Williams in one game has already almost doubled his yards from last year in one game as he rushed for 125 yards on nine carries last week against the Gophers.

No offense to the Minnesota Gophers, but the Oregon Ducks have a more talented roster and the Buckeyes will need to play four strong quarters on Saturday in the Horseshoe.

Like Ohio State, the Ducks struggled at stages during their week one matchup. Oregon won the game on Saturday 31-24 over Fresno State. It was a lot closer than the experts predicted but the most important thing is that the Ducks avoided the upset to a hungry Fresno State team.

If Oregon is going to go on the road and pull off the upset against Ohio State they will need to play better on offense, especially at the quarterback position with Anthony Brown.

I’m sure Anthony Brown will be the first one to tell you that he needs to play better. Brown finished the game only passing for 172 yards and one touchdown through the air. He had 16 rushes for 56 yards and one score on the ground as well.

Brown cannot play this way at Ohio State on the road. It was clearly enough to beat Fresno State but will not be enough to beat the Buckeyes. Maybe Brown just had some nerves with it being the first game of season. The Ducks faithful is hoping that is the case or it could be a long afternoon for the Oregon Ducks.

One major storyline that is going to be monitored all the way up to kickoff is the availability of star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux and if he will be able to suit up. Reports as of Wednesday are that Thibodeaux is still day to day and no official decision has been made yet on whether he will be able to play or not in this game on Saturday.

You never want to see injuries happen, not to mention the stars of the sport and also this early in the season. We all want to watch the best players play, especially in big out of conference games like this one this week.

Hopefully the star pass rusher in Thibodeaux is able to get the treatment and be able to suit up for Oregon on Saturday in Columbus. At the same time, you also do not want to rush back too early and possibly make the injury even worse.

If Thibodeaux is not able to suit up the Ducks still have a lot of talent on their defensive line and on defense in general. One guy that had a huge opener is fellow teammate Justin Flowe.

The linebacker recorded a team high 14 tackles in the win over Fresno State. The Oregon defense as a unit was able to force three turnovers and get to the quarterback with four sacks on the day.

Let’s dive into three bold predictions for Ohio State in week two.