Iowa Hawkeyes at Ohio State Buckeyes Preview and Pick

Opening Line: Hawkeyes +17 / Buckeyes -17 O/U TBA
3:30 PM EST Saturday November 14, 2009 on ABC

by Marasoft.com Staff

In a HUGE game for both teams this Saturday the Ohio State Buckeyes host the Iowa Hawkeyes. OSU was given up for dead in the Big 10, but if they can win this game they may win the conference and be headed for a BCS bowl game. The loser of this game will not be playing in a BCS game. Oh, how things have changed for Iowa, as they were flying high and undefeated and were thinking national championship game, but they were upset last week and they lost their starting QB Ricky Stanzi, who is not on the depth chart and will miss this important game. The Buckeyes have won 3 in a row and in those games their D has been awesome only giving up a combined 14 points.

Last week Ohio State beat Penn State 24-7 while Iowa fell from the ranks of the undefeated with a 17-10 loss to Northwestern.

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The Buckeyes are led by QB Terrelle Pryor (1,668 yds 15 TD 9 INT) and his main targets are DeVier Posey (45 rec 672 yds 7 TD) and Dane Sanzenbacher (24 rec 482 yds 6 TD). The Buckeyes' rushing attack is led by QB Pryor (604 TD 7 TD) and RB Brandon Saine (507 yds 1 TD). Since Stanzi is out for Iowa their QB will be freshman James Vandenberg (120 yds) and to say he is untested in an understatement, as in his college career he has thrown a total of 30 passes and completed only 11 of them. Vandenberg's main targets are Derrell Johnson-Koulianos (31 rec 555 yds 2 TD) and Marvin McNutt (23 rec 547 yds 5 TD). The Iowa rushing attack is led by the RB duo of Adam Robinson (629 yds 5 TD), who has not played in the last 2 games, and Brandon Wegher (502 yds 6 TD).

The Buckeyes offense is solid and how Pryor goes they go. He leads Ohio State in both passing and rushing yards and if he has a big game the Hawkeyes will lose this game. His main targets of Posey and Sanzenbacher are legit receivers each averaging over 14 yards per reception. The Hawkeyes' D ranks 14th in the nation and they will have to play a great game since they lost their starting QB and their offense may struggle. If this game is a high scoring one it defiantly favors the Buckeyes.

Iowa will have to rely on the untested Vandenberg at QB, as even though he is a solid prospect this will be his first start at Iowa. Iowa may have to rely more on their rushing offense in this game to move the chains, but their rushing offense only ranks 94th in the nation. The Buckeyes have the nation's 6th ranked defense and they have been on fire in the past few games. Vandenberg has to have a good game for Iowa to win and the Hawkeyes' offensive line has to give the freshman protection, which will not be easy since OSU ranks 23rd in the nation in sacks with 27.

OSU is playing well, especially on D, and Iowa is coming off a loss and lost their starting QB. Oh yeah, and the game is at Ohio State so the cards are stacked against the Hawkeyes in this game where the Big 10 title is at stake.

The Marasoft Pick: Iowa +16.5