![]() How the Buckeyes’ offense has ranked each year under Urban Meyer in rushing and passing, 2012-2018 Season Ohio State has gone to the air this season For a program largely recognized by its rich tradition in the backfield - Ezekiel Elliott, Eddie George, Archie Griffin and Maurice Clarett, to name a few RB standouts - this year has been an anomaly. However, that yardage can be found through the air, with the Buckeyes passing the ball on 51.5 percent of team plays, well above their average of 40.6 percent from 2012 to 2017. Dobbins and Mike Weber, his two leading tailbacks from 2017, this season’s squad has fallen out of the top 50. He had never had a rushing attack rank outside the top 20 in yardage. ![]() In his previous six seasons with the Buckeyes, Urban Meyer typically favored an offensive blueprint shaded toward the run game. Ohio State’s pass-at-all-costs offense squaring off against Michigan’s solve-your-problems-with-aggression pass defense is about as ideal a strength-against-strength, identity-against-identity matchup as we can get. Here are two keys that could decide the outcome this year: Will Michigan’s pass defense lock down Ohio State’s throw-heavy scheme? Among the nine other epic showdowns in the top 10, the results have been mostly spilt: Ohio State winning five, Michigan winning four. ![]() It’s the best matchup between the schools during the College Football Playoff era. This year’s chapter, which pits twin 10-1 programs against each other, checks in with the fourth-highest harmonic mean, trailing only the 1975, 20 showdowns. The best Michigan-Ohio State games based on the harmonic mean of each team’s pregame Elo rating 2 Few Michigan-Ohio State games have been bigger So to check this game’s true matchup power, we looked back at the Elo ratings for Michigan and Ohio State at the time of each meeting since 1897, and we averaged those Elo ratings using the harmonic mean. Like nearly every entry in this rivalry, the stakes Saturday are high - and there will be no shortage of talent on the field. Additionally, of course, the winner of the game will play for a conference championship. This one features a cornucopia of College Football Playoff implications: The winner’s playoff chances will spike to between 59 and 67 percent, according to our model, while the loser will be virtually eliminated from contention. Saturday’s matchup is the 115th installment of one of college football’s richest rivalries. In fact, according to our Elo ratings, no team has improved more since the preseason than the Wolverines. Some have already designated the upcoming game a referendum on his tenure, even though no program this season has rewritten its post-Week 1 narrative more than Michigan has. 1 Expectations loom large for Harbaugh and his team, which may be the more talented squad for the first time in more than a decade. Las Vegas sportsbooks installed the Wolverines as 4-point favorites, despite the fact that Michigan has won just two of its past 17 games against its rivals to the south. ![]() But he has fumbled each of his three chances at the Buckeyes. To some degree, Harbaugh must have returned to his alma mater for games like Saturday’s. Ever since the consummate Michigan Man made good on his guarantee in 1986, the maize and blue have largely been muzzled by the scarlet and gray. It’s been 32 years since Jim Harbaugh last led the Michigan Wolverines to a win over the Ohio State Buckeyes. ![]()
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