{"id":19651,"date":"2021-10-30T00:51:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T00:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=19651"},"modified":"2021-10-30T00:52:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T00:52:01","slug":"college-football-preview-ohio-state-buckeyes-vs-penn-state-nittany-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/ncaaf\/college-football-preview-ohio-state-buckeyes-vs-penn-state-nittany-lions\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Preview \u2013 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Penn State Nittany Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been on a rampage over the last month. Since an underwhelming start to the season, the Buckeyes have blasted four straight opponents. That has led to Ohio State being close to a 20-point favorite<\/a> in its showdown with the Penn State Nittany Lions this weekend. The Nittany Lions were once ranked in the top five but have fallen after consecutive losses to Iowa and Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, October 30, 2021, the Penn State Nittany Lions will travel to Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio to face the Ohio State Buckeyes at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

College Football Betting Odds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penn State +19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State -19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total 61<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nittany Lions started the season with a win over Wisconsin and also knocked off Auburn at home. However, they fell to Iowa on the road after Sean Clifford was knocked out of the game. Last week\u2019s loss to Illinois was extremely frustrating though as the Nittany Lions repeatedly failed to score from the three-yard line and lost in a record nine overtimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a surprising loss to Oregon and relatively close wins<\/a> over Minnesota and Tulsa, Ohio State was left for dead. However, the Buckeyes have rallied to play great on both sides of the ball over the last month. Everything is clicking once again, and Ohio State is back to looking like the team to beat in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Penn State Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Clifford is completing 64.6% of his passes for 7.8 YPA with 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. If he wasn\u2019t injured against the Hawkeyes, the Nittany Lions probably would have won that game, but they have no depth behind him after Will Levis transferred to Kentucky in the offseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nittany Lions have not been able to run the ball. Penn State is averaging just 3.5 YPC, ranking outside the top 80 in run offense. It\u2019s going to be tough for Penn State to run on Ohio State\u2019s front seven, but Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington are two of the top receivers in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State has fixed its defense after Oregon ran all over it in Week 2. The Buckeyes now rank in the top 20 in total defense, and they are allowing just 3.2 YPC. Their sack rate is one of the best in the nation too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Ohio State Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Buckeyes\u2019 C.J. Stroud is having a very strong season after a rough start. Stroud is completing 67.6% of his passes for 10.6 YPA with 22 touchdowns and three interceptions. Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave have been great on the perimeter, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba has emerged as a real threat in the passing game too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State is running the ball well again too. The team is averaging 6.2 YPC with freshman Treveyon Henderson leading the way. He has surpassed Miyan Williams and Master Teague III, and he has run for 693 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penn State has the best pass defense in the country. The Nittany Lions are surrendering an NCAA best 4.9 YPA, and they rank third in scoring defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In most years, this would be too many points<\/a> for Penn State. However, Ohio State is a team on a mission. The Buckeyes are going to hammer the Nittany Lions at home on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow our <\/em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

our <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been on a rampage over the last month. Since an underwhelming start to the season,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19661,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19651\/revisions\/19661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}