Ohio State is all set to travel to Indianapolis to take part in the Big Ten Championship Game for the third-straight year. It was successful in the last two and looking to become the first league team to take home a trophy three years in a row.
Standing in its way is Wisconsin, also a team familiar with Indianapolis. The Badgers have more appearances in the Big Ten Championship Game than any other team in the league, but have just two titles, and haven’t won any since 2012.
These two already met once in the regular season, with the Buckeyes winning going away in Columbus in late October. Can the Badgers find a way to make this one more competitive and even (gasp) win the thing?
Here’s three reasons Wisconsin could give Ohio State some problems Saturday night.
Next … familiarity
Wisconsin has experience and should adjust
It’s true that the Badgers got beat up pretty good in the first meeting. Nobody can really take a lot of positives out of a 38-7 beat down, but there is a silver lining perhaps.
Going into the game, it was probably a little unclear what Ohio State’s game plan would be, and what kind of tendencies new head coach Ryan Day would have in his play calling.
Now, there shouldn’t be too many guesses, and the Badgers have game film and experience to try and adjust to what OSU did in the first meeting. You can almost guarantee the Wisconsin game plan won’t be the same because it didn’t work too well. I’d expect some tweaks here or there and a little bit more success moving the ball and scoring more than seven points.
Next … Pride and respect
Wisconsin can play the no respect card
How many times have you seen a team rise up when it hears it has no chance? I haven’t found anyone that believes Wisconsin has a chance in this thing, and it’s hard to even find a person that believes it’ll be close.
That has to grind on a proud Badger team, and it can be highly motivating when you’re told you don’t have the talent or makeup to beat an Ohio State team everyone is handing the Big Ten Championship to already.
If head coach Paul Chryst can get his team to bottle up that emotion and use it the right way, maybe things stay close and continue that way longer than what we saw earlier in the year. From there, belief has a funny way of keeping what seems impossible within reach.
Next … The importance mindset
Ohio State has bigger plans
It’s not like the Buckeyes don’t want to win this game, so please don’t think that’s what I’m saying here. No, it’s always worth it to add another championship trinket to the trophy case.
But, human nature and psychology is a real thing. No matter what happens on Saturday, Ohio State’s season is likely not over. It still has a very good chance of making the College Football Playoff, even with a loss. And you know the players on the team are aware of that fact.
So, could there be a little letdown? Especially knowing that OSU already took care of the Badgers rather handily? Yes, there sure could.
The anatomy of an upset often has its DNA firmly rooted in a lackluster effort by the favored team, and this one has all the ingredients for that to happen. If you’re an Ohio State fan, you can at least have confidence in knowing this team has had focus in every single game this season.
But the possibility still exists.
