Ohio State Buckeyes -7, o/u 43 at Iowa Hawkeyes (4-0), 8 p.m. Eastern Saturday, ABC
by Predictem.com Staff
he top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes (4-0, 1-0 in Big 10) pay a visit to the place at which they suffered their worst loss under coach Jim Tressel to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes (4-0, 1-0) in an early-season Big 10 bout.
Two seasons ago, Tressels troops got beat 33-7 in Iowa City. But the Buckeyes got a bit of revenge by kicking the Hawkeyes 31-6 in Columbus last season, outrushing Iowa 314 to -9.
Ohio State won at Texas earlier this season, and beat Penn State 28-6 last week in a game that was closer than the score indicated. The Bucks are 4-0 against the spread this season.
Iowa had to go to overtime to defeat Syracuse three weeks ago, then had to come from 11 points down to beat Iowa State. Last week, the Hawks won at Illinois 24-7, but couldn’t cover the 21-point spread. In fact, Iowa is 0-3 ATS this season.
Iowa returned seven starters to both sides of the ball from last season, while Ohio State brought back seven starters on offense but only two on defense.
The Buckeyes went 3-1 ATS last season as road favorites, while Iowa has won 32 of its last 35 home games outright and is 9-3 ATS over their last 12 games at Kinnick Stadium.
Ohio State is 19-3 straight up and 18-4 vs. the number (!) since The Great Troy Smith took over as the starting QB the week after the Iowa game in 2004. On the other side, Iowa QB Drew Tate has made 27 collegiate starts, including two against OSU.
Ohio State opened up as five-point road favorites for Saturday’s game, but the Buckeyes have been bet up to seven. Also, the over/under is a combined 0-7 in OSU and Hawkeyes games this season.
