Who you got? LGHL staff predicts the score of Ohio State-Purdue

This season, the LGHL staff is competing to see who is the best prognosticator!

By Matt Tamanini and Land-Grant Holy Land Staff Oct 20, 2018, 8:07am EDT

In the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes’ two biggest games during the first half of the season— TCU and Penn State— there was a familiar confidence amongst Buckeye Nation heading into those games, that despite the challenges, OSU would come out of those road trips on top.

However, going into the first road trip of the back half of the season, there is a pronounced nervousness in the fandom that seems to be a bit unusual for Purdue. However, as our own Colton Denning showed in this week’s “I Got Five on It” the Boilermakers have a better history of beating the Buckeyes than you might remember. And with explosive wide receivers like Rondale Moore and Isaac Zico, they could be just the thing that Jeff Brohm’s team needs to pull the upset.

We will see if OSU can put the Ross-Ade demons to bed for good when they take on the Purdue Boilermakers at 7:30 p.m. ET tonight on ABC.

Over the course of this season, we here at Land-Grant Holy Land are competing to see who the best prognosticator is on staff.

How this is working is that every week our writers and editors will predict what think the final score of the Ohio State game will be. If a forecaster foresees the game’s correct winner, he or she will receive 75 points. If the expert gets the score exactly right, they will receive a bonus 25 points. However, for every point that a prediction is off, one point will be subtracted—with a max total of 25 points getting subtracted. Get it? Got it? Good.

With every new week of predictions, we will update the standings, so that you can follow along and see who the best handicapper on the LGHL staff is. Current standings are below this week’s predictions.

Matt Brown

Ohio State 30, Purdue 35
Season Point Total: 405 | Place: 8 out of 13

(He’s THE Matt Brown, he doesn’t need to give an explanation.)

Alexis Chassen

Ohio State 48, Purdue 24
Season Point Total: 370 | Place: 13 out of 13

I think that Purdue has a lot of offensive weapons, but I’m being cautiously optimistic that the Buckeye coaching staff has better prepared the defense for this week’s matchup. Also, considering I’m last in this picks party, I’m shooting for the moon at this point.

Colton Denning

Ohio State 45, Purdue 25
Season Point Total: 427 | Place: 1 out of 13

J.K. Dobbins goes for 150 and three touchdowns as Ohio State rediscovers the ground game.

(Listen to the Purdue preview episode of “The Hangout in the Holy Land” podcast to hear Colton and Patrick Mayhorn break down Saturday’s game.)

Geoff Hammersley

Ohio State 34, Purdue 38
Season Point Total: 371 | Place: 12 out of 13

Purdue’s gonna make some big plays on offense, with Rondale Moore being the catalyst. Dwayne Haskins will have another great outing, but the Buckeyes reliance on making second half adjustments will catch up to them.

Dan Hassler

Ohio State 38, Purdue 28
Season Point Total: 388 | Place: 11 out of 13

A night game at Purdue is enough to put fear into any Ohio State fan. Purdue’s offense has put up numbers almost just as good as the Buckeyes have, and both defenses can be somewhat suspect. I expect Dwayne Haskins to continue his push for the Heisman Trophy, and hope to see Chase Young and Dre’mont Jones put pressure on David Blough. Buckeyes walk out of this one still undefeated.

Meredith Hein

Ohio State 35, Purdue 25
Season Point Total: 423 | Place: 2 out of 13

The defense has been poor, and will probably not look much better leading up to the bye week, but the Haskins Train is still rolling. It’ll be much closer than it probably should be, but the Buckeyes will come out on top.

Caleb Houser

Ohio State 42, Purdue 28
Season Point Total: 365 | Place: 4 out of 13

Defense has a slow start, but finishes the second half much stronger. Dwayne Haskins throws for 4 TDs and Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins each rush for a score in the red zone.

Max Littman

Ohio State 31, Purdue 28
Season Point Total: 391 | Place: 10 out of 13

I’m probably going to be too nervous to watch, but a bunch of defensive errors get the Buckeyes down big early. Dwayne Haskins leads the Buckeyes back late in the fourth and they sneak out of West Lafayette with an undeserving victory.

Brett Ludwiczak

Ohio State 42, Purdue 31
Season Point Total: 408 | Place: 6 out of 13

The Boilermakers are definitely back. Ohio State is the highest ranked team to play at Ross-Ade Stadium since Penn State in 1999. The train horn will be loud in the nuclear wasteland that is West Lafayette, but it won’t be enough to earn the win under the lights in front of the home crowd. Ohio State may struggle at times this year, but they are just too deep and dynamic for Purdue to upset. The number is a little big for my liking with Ohio State’s poor defense of late, but the Buckeyes do enough to stay undefeated.

Patrick Mayhorn

Ohio State 27, Purdue 31
Season Point Total: 398 | Place: 9 out of 13

The Boilermakers jump all over a lethargic Ohio State defense early on, taking a 14-0 lead after a quarter and a 24-7 lead at the half. Ohio State’s defense tightens up in the second half and forces a few turnovers, while the offense finally starts moving, but the comeback isn’t enough, as Ohio State runs out of time on their game-winning drive attempt.

Chad Peltier

Ohio State 48, Purdue 27
Season Point Total: 408 | Place: 6 out of 13

(Check out Chad’s advanced stat’s preview of the game to get a look into his prediction.)

Matt Tamanini

Ohio State 46, Purdue 23
Season Point Total: 414 | Place: 5 out of 13

The numbers that Purdue has put up this season suggest that they might have the recipe to score enough to upset Ohio State. However, they’ve done it against the moderately nice 69th ranked strength of schedule. So, while Ohio State’s defense has certainly had its struggles this season, it will still likely be the best unit that Jeff Brohm’s offense has faced so far in 2018.

On the other side of the ball, the Boilermakers have allowed 267.5 passing yards per game this season, the fourth worst in the Big Ten; while we all know what Dwayne Haskins and Zone 6 have done thus far. I think that Purdue’s impressive offensive explosiveness is a bit exaggerated thanks to games against Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, et al., and I think their defensive shortcomings will be even further exposed by the elite Buckeye passing game.

Dan Vest

Ohio State 41, Purdue 24
Season Point Total: 416 | Place: 3 out of 13

Dwayne Haskins throws the team on his back and puts up big numbers allowing the Buckeyes to pull away late from a very game Purdue squad.

Ok, after seven weeks, let’s take a look as to how our staff’s picks are looking.

LGHL Predictions Scoreboard

Place	LGHL Staff	Total Points	Week 7 Points	Week 6 Points	Week 5 Points	Week 4 Points	Week 3 Points	Week 2 Points	Week 1 Points
Place	LGHL Staff	Total Points	Week 7 Points	Week 6 Points	Week 5 Points	Week 4 Points	Week 3 Points	Week 2 Points	Week 1 Points
1	Colton Denning	427	59	62	56	68	68	64	50
2	Meredith Hein	423	56	66	61	54	62	74	50
3	Dan Vest	416	62	58	63	58	61	64	50
4	Caleb Houser	415	50	62	66	65	55	67	50
5	Matt Tamanini	414	56	59	61	59	72	57	50
6	Brett Ludwiczak	408	50	61	59	61	62	65	50
–	Chad Peltier	408	60	66	55	54	73	50	50
8	Matt Brown	405	64	48	58	64	61	60	50
9	Patrick Mayhorn	398	60	69	50	44	64	61	50
10	Max Littman	391	58	41	62	57	56	67	50
11	Dan Hassler	388	58	55	57	51	65	52	50
12	Geoff Hammersley	371	64	64	0	64	74	55	50
13	Alexis Chassen	370	54	60	50	52	52	52	50

So, to recap our oddly overly complicated scoring system:

Correct Winner Prediction: 75 points
Perfect Prediction Bonus: 25 points
Point Total Deductions: Subtract 1 point for every point off total score (cap 25 points)