Three Shots: Northwestern

What could have been this past week. I could have sworn that I said that there would be a shutout.

Well, I did… in my game prediction, but not on my Three Shots piece.

And I came very close to hitting my full-court shot, it drew iron, rolled around and kicked off.

Not much I can do about it now.

We move on to Northwestern week, I have three new picks to make.

For those who are new, I will go for a free-throw (one with a good probability of landing), a three-pointer (should hit 30-percent of the time) and a full-court shot (may never hit one).

Northwestern, you’re on the clock… let’s go.

last week

Free Throw: Jeremiah Smith will score a touchdown and restart a new scoring streak

Status: Hit

Yes, this one was simple, and I am going to utilize the Jeremiah Smith cheat code early and often this season.

Should you expect a true freshman receiver to average a touchdown per game? Probably not. But Jeremiah Smith is no average true freshman.

I know that I don’t make my picks up in this half of the piece, but I promise not to use this one again, even though I expect it to come home.

Three Pointer: Will Howard will throw for 300 yards despite not playing a full game (subbed out)

Status: Miss

Did not hit this one, I did hit that he would be subbed out but he came up 40 yards short of my prediction.

I felt pretty good about it because the Purdue defense was every bit as leaky as I had expected but we do know that Howard is not hitting the 300-yard mark all that often as a member of the Buckeyes.

I think that Ryan Day would rather see a 250-250 (run/pass yards) offense if given his choice, so I did go a little bit into the outfield on this one, but still came up short.

Full Court: Seven different Buckeyes will score touchdowns 

Status: Miss

TreVeyon Henderson, Will Howard (rushing), Jeremiah Smith, Gee Scott Jr., Emeka Egbuka and Jack Sawyer make six… one short of seven.

I felt that I had an outside shot of landing this one, because I felt that Ohio State would score at least seven times. Well, the Buckeyes did, but one of those scores was a Joe McGuire field goal, to get the Buckeyes to 45.

Current Score: 8

free throw

Ohio State will have at least two rushing touchdowns

The numbers make it look like Northwestern has a solid rushing defense, and that is only based on yards, not scores.

The Wildcats have been giving up more rushing touchdowns as the Big Ten season wears on, Iowa with four, Wisconsin with two. Ohio State should be able to match the number by the Badgers, right?

I also think this is a safe bet because the Buckeyes just want to get through these four quarters of football and on to the next one, plus the Buckeyes will need to be a more sure running team over the next two games with Indiana and the rival to the north.

three pointer

A player not named Will Howard will throw for an Ohio State TD

I just really like making these too difficult, don’t I?

I have spent the whole week saying that Ohio State is just going to try and get out of Chicago with the win and focus on what lies ahead.

And now I am calling for a touchdown by someone other than Will Howard in the throw game?

I just think there is a chance that we see Howard get the heroic hook in this game early and that the Buckeyes need to make sure that the backups are game ready.

That means running the real offense and not student body left and right. Keep throwing, at least for a couple of series.

Of course there is another option, a trick play. But why would you use one of those against Northwestern unless you want it on tape and you are going to build off of it?

full court

Ohio State shuts out Northwestern AND holds NU to 185 or fewer yards of total offense

The Buckeyes have not shut out Northwestern since the 2003 season and have pulled off the feat 17 times (one was a 0-0 tie) through the years.

So that wouldn’t have been worth a full-court shot, let’s make things more difficult and put a yardage bet in there too.

Even in wind-nado in Evanston in 2002, the Cats went for 285 yards of total offense. That is too high of a number, so let’s take 100 yards off of it and get to 185 yards.

I am sure there have been times that Ohio State has held the Cats to a number smaller than that, but those all predate me.

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