Ohio State Buckeyes vs Oregon Ducks College Football Playoff Predictions.

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The Irish Breakdown team made predictions for this playoff matchup.

Oregon dominated the Big Ten in its first season in the league, and that included a 32-31 home win over the Buckeyes. Oregon will look to win its 11th Big Ten game of the season, but that could be a challenge. Winning rematches is not easy, especially against a team as good as Ohio State. Oregon torched the Ohio State defense in the first game, something we haven’t seen happen much to that defense in recent seasons. Quarterback Dillon Gabriel passed for 341 yards and averaged 10.0 yards per completion, and the Buckeyes struggled covering Tez Johnson and Evan Stewart. Only one other team passed for over 200 yards against the Buckeye secondary and that was Northwestern (201 yards). Ohio State also held nine of its opponents to 150 yards or less through the air, including Tennessee in the first round (104 yards). So the question is this, was the Oregon game an anomaly, or have the Buckeyes just not been challenged outside of that game

The Buckeyes have revenge on their minds from early in the season when they lost to Oregon over on the Left Coast. They only lost by one point on the road. Can Will Howard do what is necessary to get the ball in the hands of his playmakers on offense? This is the best team money can buy and while the loss to Michigan will make the alumni squirm, a shot at a National Title should calm them down a bit. I have faith in the Oregon offense and I think they will put some points on the board (even though the Ohio State defense is legit) but what about that defense? They are solid against the pass but only passable against the run. Can the Buckeyes take advantage?

This is a toss up game for me but I think Ohio State is on a mission and Dan Lanning still needs to learn how to coach on the big stage.

Prediction: Oregon 38, Ohio State 35 Kind of crazy how Oregon left the Pac-12 for the B1G and still ended up playing perennial B1G power Ohio State in the Rose Bowl after winning the B1G in their first season in the conference. The Ducks’ 31-31 home win over the Buckeyes back in October came down to poor clock management by Ryan Day and Will Howard at the end of the game.

Day can’t get goaded into trying to prove he can run the ball against Oregon’s so-so run defense like he did in the Michigan loss. Howard will have to hit explosive touchdowns like he did last week against Tennessee to give the Buckeyes a chance. Dillon Gabriel had TD passes of 48 and 69 yards against OSU in their first meeting. OSU has to pressure Gabriel better than the first meeting when they failed tosack him. He has been sacked just 13 times this season.

Prediction: Ohio State 28, Oregon 23 The Buckeyes looked like a completely different team in the victory over Tennessee and now get a revenge game against top-seeded Oregon. It’s so difficult to beat a team twice in a season and you could argue Ohio State would have taken down Oregon in Eugene were their October matchup just a few seconds longer. Oregon’s win over Ohio State was driven by big plays on the perimeter coupled with a brilliant performance on the ground. RB Jordan James rushed for 115 yards and a touchdown and QB Dillon Gabriel averaged 14.8 YPC and completed passes of 69, 48, 32, and 32 yards against the Buckeye secondary.

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