Historically this has not been much of a series between the Buckeyes and Badgers with Ohio State winning three out of every four games it plays against the Badgers with a 59-18-5 record overall in the series.
At one point, the Buckeyes won 21 straight games from 1960-1980 in this series while the Badgers have never been able to string together much success with only a three-game winning streak to their credit, and that happened more than 100 years ago.
Ohio State has won the last six and nine of the last ten with two of those wins occurring in Big Ten championship games, with a 59-0 whitewashing in 2014 and then a 27-21 win in 2017.
You have to go back to 2010 for the last time that the Buckeyes have fallen to the Badgers, and that is one that does not sit well with Ohio State fans as the No. 1 Buckeyes were ambushed in Madison (Wis.) from the opening kickoff return of David Gilreath through the final 10 points that were put up after the Buckeyes had closed to the margin to three points after spotting the Badgers a 21-point lead.
The last two games between these two teams were both decided by one score with the 2016 game taking overtime to ultimately decide.
Are we on deck for another close game or are the oddsmakers more in tune with things, having the Buckeyes in the neighborhood of a two-touchdown favorite? We are heading behind enemy lines to learn more about the Badgers with Jake Kocorowski of BadgerBlitz.com to gain a little more insight into Ohio State's next opponent.
BuckeyeGrove.com: Were there any similarities to what Illinois and Northwestern were able to do against the Badgers and the Illini knocked off UW and the Wildcats played the game close? What things might the Buckeyes be able to learn from those two games and what will Wisconsin look to change up not to be exposed like that?
Jake Kocorowski: Offensively at least, the main theme was Wisconsin pulling away from being under center and working out of shotgun or pistol looks (*everyone outside of Wisconsin gasps at Wisconsin going in shotgun or pistol looks*). I think both programs did a great job of containing first and second downs and making UW beat them in third and defensively manageable situations -- and that really meant clamping down on Jonathan Taylor and the run game. Northwestern allowed 130 and Illinois contained that facet of the offensive attack to 156 (the latter on just 3.6 yards per carry). Like any team with a Heisman Trophy-caliber back, take away Taylor and the rushing game to make quarterback Jack Coan beat you. To be fair though, there is a variety of receiving targets for Wisconsin that has helped the aerial attack establish some form of offensive balance. Against Illinois, the junior signal caller completely 75% of his passes and carried the offense last weekend.
Regarding how Wisconsin will look to change the results against a better opponent than Ohio State, I'm not exactly sure. Head coach Paul Chryst can pull together some intriguing game plans and wrinkles that can throw opponents off. I'm wondering how the offensive line rotation will continue to evolve, as against Illinois normal starting guard Jason Erdmann did not play (BTN's Kevin Kugler said he was banged up but Erdmann was not on the Monday status report earlier this week and there was no direct, official confirmation of why he didn't play). UW has rotated its game-ready guards during games, so there has been no real set of five linemen. However, it absolutely needs to establish the run game to be successful against Ohio State.
