The top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes welcome in the Northern Illinois Huskies in college football action on Saturday. The game is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. start time and it will be televised live on ABC or ESPN2, depending on the market. Currently the betting odds for the game have the Buckeyes favored by almost five touchdowns to pick up the victory.

Ohio State cruised last week, beating up on Hawaii after claiming a victory over Virginia Tech in the opener. The Buckeyes look once again like the best team in America and they should once again have no problems against Northern Illinois. Ohio State had just 363 total yards against Hawaii last week, though, as they didn’t hammer down on the Rainbow Warriors and did what was necessary to come out with a solid victory.

The Huskies are 2-0 as well, beating UNLV and Murray State while scoring a lot of points, averaging almost 48 points in those wins. Northern Illinois has gotten awesome play from quarterback Drew Hare, who has completed better than 78 percent of his passes and thrown for more than 700 yards and six scores so far this season. The Huskies have also been running the football well, averaging 5.2 yards per carry and scoring six touchdowns, five coming from Joel Bouagnon. 

The Buckeyes will rely on Ezekiel Elliot and whatever quarterback they decide to throw out there. Between Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett, Ohio State has a nice problem in deciding who to give the snaps to. Ohio State has solid special teams as well and the defense has been solid through the first two games of the season, they’re going to have to slow down the Northern Illinois offensive attack that has been consistently been able to pile up the yards in years past. 

This is the second meeting all-time between the schools, Ohio State won 35-12 back in 2006. Northern Illinois has knocked off a pair of Big Ten opponents in recent years on the road, beating both Iowa and Northwestern. Urban Meyer certainly knows about that and the abilities of Husky QB Hare, the Buckeyes should be ready to go. But five touchdowns is quite a bit of points, Northern Illinois can move the football and they should be able to score some points.

Free Pick: Northern Illinois plus the points

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