{"id":19987,"date":"2021-11-19T06:06:22","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T06:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=19987"},"modified":"2021-11-19T06:06:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T06:06:24","slug":"college-football-preview-ohio-state-buckeyes-vs-michigan-state-spartans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/ncaaf\/college-football-preview-ohio-state-buckeyes-vs-michigan-state-spartans\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Preview \u2013 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Michigan State Spartans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/football\/ncaa\">expected to roll over<\/a> the No. 7 Michigan State Spartans this weekend. Ohio State was a 20-point favorite per the college football betting odds at one point, and the Buckeyes have won every game by at least two possessions since their loss to Oregon in Week 2. Michigan State enters this game at 9-1, but the Spartans have won three of those games by five points or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michigan State vs Ohio State | College Football Picks | BetOnline All Acces\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gMfZWls1MLY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On Saturday, November 20, 2021, the Ohio State Buckeyes will welcome the Michigan State Spartans to Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. This game will kick off at 12 p.m. ET on ABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>College Football Betting Odds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Michigan State +19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ohio State -19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total 68.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ohio State has routed Michigan State in each of their last four meetings. The Buckeyes\u2019 smallest margin of victory was 20 points over that stretch, and they have looked reenergized after their slow start to the season. They are in position to make the College Football Playoff, but they can\u2019t stumble against the Spartans or Wolverines over the final two weeks of the regular season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mel Tucker is reportedly about to get paid to spurn LSU. It was reported that Michigan State was close to signing Tucker to a 10-year, $95 million extension on Wednesday, as the Spartans are having a superb season. They knocked off rival Michigan last month, yet they are likely to struggle against Ohio State and Penn State these next two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Michigan State Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenneth Walker III has become a Heisman Trophy candidate with his play this season. Walker transferred from Wake Forest before the start of the year, and he has shined in East Lansing. He has run for 1,473 yards and 17 touchdowns, averaging 6.5 YPC for the Spartans. He had 197 yards and five touchdowns on the ground against Michigan, and he would love a similar stat line here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The passing game has thrived off play action, and Payton Thorne has hit some deep balls. He is averaging 8.0 YPA, and Jayden Reed and Jalen Nailor have been explosive receivers. Reed is averaging 18.4 YPR, while Nailor is averaging 18.9 YPR for the Spartans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ohio State\u2019s defense has improved markedly from the start of the season. The front seven is allowing 3.1 YPC and 107.3 YPG, and they have 33 sacks through 10 games. This secondary has had some bad moments though, allowing 261.5 YPG through the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Ohio State Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>C.J. Stroud is one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/football\/ncaa\">the Heisman favorites<\/a> too. He is completing 68.8% of his passes for 3,036 yards with 30 touchdowns and five interceptions through 10 games. Jaxon Smith-Njigba has been the top receiver, but Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave have had nice seasons too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Buckeyes have had a lot more success running the ball since freshman TreVeyon Henderson took over as the primary ballcarrier in the backfield. Henderson has run for 1,035 yards and 14 touchdowns (7.3 YPC), and he has supplanted Master Teague III as the top back for Ohio State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michigan State\u2019s defense is much better than you might think by just looking at the total yardage numbers. The Spartans are allowing 459.6 YPG, but they are surrendering just 3.3 YPC and 7.1 YPA. Opponents are averaging a whopping 49.7 passes against this defense though, leading to the defense looking bad at first glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will be a blowout. Tucker did well to reportedly agree to the extension when he did with the Spartans, as Michigan State will likely get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/football\/ncaa\">its doors blown off<\/a> by Ohio State this Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/betonline_ag\"><em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a><em> for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to<\/em> <em>our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betonline_ag\/\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em> for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes are expected to roll over the No. 7 Michigan State Spartans this weekend. Ohio&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":11043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19987","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\/19987","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=19987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19994,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19987\/revisions\/19994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}