College football week 5 and the Cincinnati Bearcats will travel to Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes. The game has a start time of 6:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on the Big 10 Network. Current Vegas odds have the Buckeyes listed as 17.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 60.5.
Analysis: The Cincinnati Bearcats parlayed a soft schedule into a nice 9-4 season, but they did struggle at the end of the year when the schedule got tougher. Now the Bearcats are in the 2nd year of Tommy system and with plenty of talent returning they should be ready to take the next step and that would be the American Athletic Conference Title. The Bearcats have started off the year at 2-0, with a blowout win over Toledo and then a rather lackluster win over Miami- Oh last week. Gunner Kiel has been awesome behind center for the Cats as he has completed 65.8% pf his passes for 689 yards with 10 TDs and just 2 INTs through 2 games so far. He is the reason why Cincinnati comes in ranked 9th in the nation in passing at 353.5 ypg. Overall the Bearcats are 37th in total offense (477 ypg) and 14th in points allowed (44.5 ppg). The defense played much better in the win over Miami than it did vs Toledo, but still they rank 109th in total defense (463.5 ypg) and 92nd in points allowed (29 ppg).
The Ohio State Buckeyes went 24-0 in Urban Meyers 1st 24 games, but coming into this year they have now lost their last 2 games in a row, after losing in the Big 10 title game to Michigan State and then in a thrilling Orange Bowl game to Clemson. The Buckeyes have to rebuild some on offense, but this is still a very team that is more than capable of making it to the new NCAA playoffs. Their task of making it to the playoffs has been made tougher with their home loss to the Hokies a couple of weeks ago. The Buckeyes did bounce back with a big 66-0 win over Kent State last and are now 2-1 on the year. JT Barrett has not been all that solid behind center for the Buckeyes as he has completed 59.5% of his passes for 757 yards and 9 TDs but he has made mistakes with 5 INTs as well. He is just not the same threat at QB that Miller was. The Buckeye offense is rather average overall, ranking 47th in total offense (458.3 ypg) and 30th in scoring (40.3 ppg), while their defense has been exceptional as always, ranking 13th in yards allowed (278.7 ypg), 3rd vs the pass (99.3 ypg) and 21st in points allowed (17.3 ppg).
Pick: Gonna look to the Over in this game. Gunner Kiel has burst on the scene with a couple of very nice outings this far and I see him and this very strong Cincinnati offense being able to score on this Ohio State defense. The Bearcat defense struggled big time in their opener vs Toledo and then followed that up with a bad showing last week vs Miami-Ohio. I see the Buckeyes putting up plenty on this defense. 41-24 sounds about right for this one.
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