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There has not been a huge sample size of games between these two teams with Saturday's game being the 8th ever meeting between Ohio State and Nebraska, this being the 6th time they have met as conference mates.

The series has been pretty one-sided with the Buckeyes taking six of the previous seven and they were well on their way of winning that 2011 game before Braxton Miller was injured and the sky came crashing down as the Buckeyes saw a big lead disappear and wrestled defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Since then? Ohio State has really had this thing on lock down, even if the margin of victory last season was just a mere five points, that margin was not indicative of how the game really looked for much of the second half and a late touchdown in the final three minutes made it closer and gave the Huskers a chance to attempt an onside kick to try and steal one away.

This year the Huskers are sitting at 3-1 and had a game stolen away from them as they could not close the door at Colorado against a historic rival back from their Big Eight days.

After what appeared to be an exorcism of all of that against Northern Illinois, regular Illinois took the Huskers to the brink as Nebraska seemed intent on just losing the game and it took some late heroics to put away the plucky Illini in that one.

Honestly, this is the first real test for either team however, even with each team sitting with a conference win under their belts. The Huskers have the edge of being at home but that did not slow the Buckeyes down in 2017 from a thorough butt-whipping where Huskers fans were left holding their red balloons for far too long (usually released when the Huskers score their first points).

It will be a big game for all as it is under the lights, that little ESPN road show will be there and the game will be broadcast nationally on ABC. As we draw closer to the big game, let's go to the Tale of the Tape and break this game down in a stream of consciousness manner.

The numbers are quite astonishing after what everyone saw last season as the Ohio State pass defense is allowing a little more than just 160 yards per game passing, only 5.4 yards per pass and only two passing touchdowns on the year. One of those touchdowns was a double-pass by Indiana and the other one took place in the 4th quarter against Florida Atlantic. So if you really figure that one happened on a gadget play and the other was against the 2s and 3s in the season opener, the Ohio State pass defense has been pretty good. Jeffrey Okudah finally pulled in his first interception as a Buckeye, lifting a big weight off of his shoulders. Against Miami, the RedHawks only passed for 60 yards, 44 of those yards coming in the first half. Now, the Buckeyes know they will be going against a much more real passing attack then what any of their previous opponents brought to the table but even with that the Huskers are not getting to the end zone a lot through the air with just seven passing touchdowns to their credit. It will be interesting to see how much man versus how much zone Jeff Hafley and Greg Mattison call for in this game against a speedy secondary.

Quarterback Adrian Martinez put up the kind of numbers against Illinois that everyone had kind of been waiting to see with more than 300 yards passing and 100 yards rushing, yet the Huskers still found themselves trailing into the 4th quarter. Martinez has not been overly accurate this season with no games with better than a 65-percent completion mark. He only has two picks against his seven touchdown passes but in many ways it has appeared to be a lot of yards between the 20s and not much success inside the red zone as Nebraska is 13-19 inside the opponent's 20-yard-line (11 TD, 2 FG). Martinez was called to run it 18 times in the win over the Illini as the team dealt with some bumps and bruises at running back and just because the game called for him to really highlight his mobility against the Illinois defense. JD Spielman leads the Huskers in receptions and yards but has only found the endzone once as a receiver. True freshman whiz Wan'Dale Robinson really made a splash against the Illini and is now sitting at 17 receptions and is among the team leaders with two receiving scores. In a strange twist of fate, the Huskers actually have more receiving yards as a team than the Buckeyes do but just have not been able to convert that into many points. The Huskers have not gone against a defense like the Buckeyes in terms of pass efficiency defense, where the Buckeyes sit at No. 12 in the nation. The high-water mark for the Huskers was last week against Illinois who sits at No. 88 and the number dips all the way to No. 11 with the Buffaloes, the one team that beat the Huskers on the year.