COLUMBUS, Ohio - Batten down the hatches, it's Rutgers week. This isn't going to be led off by telling you that this is going to be some sort of challenge for Ohio State or that there will be earth-shattering takeaways from this, as we know what is going to happen on Saturday. We don't know what the final score will be, but barring an act of God, we know it will end in a victory for Ohio State.

The final outcome may not be in doubt, but there are still individual and team performances that we can look ahead to this week. Chase Young won't be back until the Penn State game, so the defensive line will have another outing without The Predator, and Ohio State's offense could be looking at a record-setting performance, so there are plenty of topics to cover in this week's edition of Five Questions.

The only question with any real uncertainty this week surrounds the massive, ridiculous spread for this game. As of writing, @CircaSports on Twitter has the Buckeyes favored by 50.5 points with the line hovering anywhere from 50 to 54 points, and it would be surprising if that line didn't finish near the high end by the time of publication given the bets already coming in for Ohio State to cover.

Overall, Ohio State has maintained an impressive 8-1 record against the spread this season, the lone loss ATS coming in their opener against Florida Atlantic. The Buckeyes only won by 24 while being favored by 28.

As far as Rutgers is concerned, the only way it seems probable that Ohio State doesn't cover is if the starters are taken out earlier than we're expecting, but even then, it's a serious question what Ohio State's second and third stringers may be able to do against the Scarlet Knight defense. This matchup pits the No. 1 scoring offense against the 125th scoring defense, and I don't need to tell you which is which, so the mismatch in skill level here between Ohio State and Rutgers does not bode well for the Scarlet Knights in their attempt to cover this week.

Demario McCall has become the forgotten man in Ohio State's offense with appearences in only seven games this season, though with the play of Master Teague III behind J.K. Dobbins, it makes sense that McCall hasn't had a place this year.

For McCall, though, a return to Rutgers will provide him another opportunity for a career day. McCall's two best rushing performances, 103 and 85 yards, both came against the Scarlet Knights in 2017 and 2016, respectively. He received a combined 21 carries over those two games, and after a positive seven carry, 78 yard game against Maryland, the could be setting himself up for another big game against Rutgers given the likelihood that Dobbins and Teague won't see the field much (if at all) in the second half.

It was announced Wednesday that Chase Young will return against Penn State, but the star junior defensive end will still be forced to sit out when Ohio State takes on Rutgers.

This means the defensive line will be working short-handed against the Scarlet Knights, but in all reality, the presence of Young wouldn't have moved the needle for this contest one way or the other. It will be another fun outing, though, to see some of the younger players for Ohio State before an upcoming stretch where they probably won't see the field as often.

Against Maryland, the Buckeyes racked up seven sacks by five different players including DaVon Hamilton, Tyreke Smith, Zach Harrison, Tuf Borland and Malik Harrison. Rutgers' starting offensive line consists of three redshirt juniors and two redshirt seniors, but for all of their experience, the line has still given up over two sacks per game while the rushing attack is ranked 99th in the nation, so there isn't much this offensive line does right. Going up against Ohio State, the No. 1 team in the nation at sacking the quarterback with 41 sacks on the season, does not bode well for Rutgers or quarterback Johnny Langan. There may not be one guy that breaks out against the Scarlet Knights, but rest assured, these defensive lineman are going to get to the quarterback.

There are good arguments for and against taking the starters out as early as possible. You don't want to risk the starters getting injured once the game is well out of hand, and the longer the backups play, the more comfortable you would feel if they need to come in at some point the rest of the season.

On the flip side, a big matchup looms next week at Ohio Stadium against No. 9 Penn State. If you take the starters out too early against Rutgers, do you risk them being rusty to begin the game against the Nittany Lions, or does a break in the second half (and maybe even before that) against Rutgers provide some rest for a team (especially in the trenches) that is dealing with injuries? That will probably be the most challenging coaching decision Ryan Day will face this week, as the playcalling shouldn't present much of a challenge. You can safely assume that the starters will be out by the start of the third quarter like they were against Maryland, but against Rutgers where the score may be even more lopsided come half time, there are serious considerations for taking the starters out even earlier.

It almost seemed mean what Day was doing against Marlyand. He was calling (beautifully executed) onside kicks up 14-0 in a clearly outmatched game, calling timeouts to get the ball back at the end of the first half already up 42-0, and still throwing it deep with Chugunov up by an even more considerable margin. Post game, Day said this was just an aggression he wants to show every week, though it's hard to say we had seen anything like it before the Maryland game.

Against an even worse opponent, Day will have another opportunity to assert Ohio State's dominance over Rutgers, but this may be the week where Day and Kevin Wilson use more of a vanilla offense. The second stringers and possibly even third stringers would be able to beat Rutgers, so there's no question that the first-team offense can do whatever they want to the Scarlet Knights, so it's possible they may hold on to their cards this week. With a tough stretch of games coming up against Penn State, Michigan and either Wisconsin or Minnesota, the Buckeyes may want to dial down their playcalling as to not give anything else away. It's even a question of whether Day and Matt Barnes should have saved the surprise onside kick for a better opportunity this season, but if there's a week you go vanilla with playcalling, it's against Rutgers.