by After beating Akron in a slightly sloppy manner in Week 1, the Ohio State football team now moves onto Week 2, where they’ll face another opponent from the Mid-American conference in Western Michigan.
Last week, the Broncos went on the road to take on Wisconsin, whom Ohio State does not have on the schedule this year, and lost 28-14. Despite the loss, Western Michigan had to be inspired, as the game was much closer than the score, with the visiting Broncos even leading in the fourth quarter at one point.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the performance was Western Michigan’s defense. Coming into the season, the Broncos were much more highly regarded for their offense, but it was the defensive side of the ball that shone and held Wisconsin to just 13 points through almost 50 minutes of play.
Against the Buckeyes, highly regarded quarterback Hayden Wolff will look to have a better showing after he went 12/18 with 141 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception in Week 1. Wolff, in his fifth season in college football and second with Western Michigan after three seasons at Old Dominion, has thrown for 38 touchdowns in his career and certainly has the potential to exploit even the stoutest of Ohio State defenses. Another player to keep an eye on for Western Michigan is running back Jalen Buckley, who had 16 carries for 64 yards and two touchdowns last week.
On the Ohio State side, similar to last week, the performance of quarterback Will Howard will be watched closely. Even though he looked good in the season opener, he’ll certainly still get the most scrutiny of any Buckeye as we make our way through the season.
Another storyline to watch will be how freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith follows up his breakout first week as a college football player. In the Akron win, Smith put together one of the greatest performances in history for someone in their first collegiate game, so look for him to continue to turn a lot of heads. If last week was any indication, the next great Buckeye receiver seems to have arrived, and not only that, but barring a transfer he’ll be in Columbus for three years.
On the injury front, two starters, left guard Donovan Jackson and linebacker Cody Simon missed last week’s game with injuries, but both could return against Western Michigan. If Jackson is able to play, Austin Siereveld, who led the offensive line in snaps against Akron will slide down to a backup role. If Simon can return, Sonny Styles will move to the weak-side linebacker spot and C.J. Hicks and Arvell Reese will see decreased playing time.
The overall outlook on the game from the Ohio State side is pretty simple: do your job and everything should go more than smoothly. Few would think that the Buckeyes would have any problems, but there is slightly more long term concern following last week’s slow start. Ohio State will be a 38-point favorite, smaller than it was against Akron and if Head Coach Ryan Day and his team learned anything from what happened a week ago, they should blow right through that number.
