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

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

By Matt Tamanini and Land-Grant Holy Land Staff Nov 3, 2018, 10:01am EDT

Well, as Good Ol’ J.R. is fond of saying, business is about to pick up when it comes to the Land-Grant Holy Land predictions pool as three of our writers correctly predicted that Purdue would upset the Buckeyes a couple of weeks ago catapulting them to the top of our standings. However, there are at least five games still to be prognosticated with the chance for seven, so plenty of opportunities still remain for the rest of us to crawl back into contention.

Heck, look at our co-managing editor Geoff Hammersley who in September picked Penn State to beat the Buckeyes, dropping him to 13th out of 13. Now, as the calendar flips to November, he’s riding the wave of having the best prediction for two consecutive games, and is sitting in a healthy third place. So anything can happen.

Fortunately, all of the LGHL staff picked the Buckeyes to bounce back against the Nebraska Cornhuskers today, as the two teams square off at 12 noon ET on FOX, but some have the game being much closer than others. Check it out below.

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 32, Nebraska 30
Season Point Total: 476 | Place: 1 out of 13

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

Alexis Chassen

Ohio State 36, Nebraska 21
Season Point Total: 370 | Place: 13 out of 13

Hear Alexis and Matt Tamanini break down their predictions on Friday’s episode of The Hangout in the Holy Land podcast.

Colton Denning

Ohio State 42, Nebraska 10
Season Point Total: 427 | Place: 4 out of 13

Colton’s calling for this game to be similar to the Michigan State game that OSU had last year as they attempted to rebound from their embarrassing loss to Iowa. Listen to what he had to say about the game on our podcast earlier this week.

Geoff Hammersley

Ohio State 41, Nebraska 24
Season Point Total: 443 | Place: 3 out of 13

Buckeyes come out angry and get the win, but problems still remain on offense and defense. JD Spielman helps lead the Cornhuskers offense in receiving — and makes things interesting for the first quarter. However, Dwayne Haskins will do work, and I feel like J.K. Dobbins may breakout for a decent game, too.

Dan Hessler

Ohio State 31, Nebraska 14
Season Point Total: 388 | Place: 12 out of 13

Ohio State gets back on track offensively, but defensively still has its weaknesses. Haskins has another big game and the running attack gets back on track, giving the Buckeyes a win in a game that feels closer than it ever really was.

Meredith Hein

Ohio State 44, Nebraska 17
Season Point Total: 423 | Place: 5 out of 13

The offense will find it’s way sometime in the first quarter, but the defensive issues could last throughout the first half. Scott Frost’s team may have some unwarranted swagger after beating MEAC opponent Bethune Cookman.

Caleb Houser

Ohio State 42, Nebraska 21
Season Point Total: 365 | Place: 7 out of 13

Ohio State rebounds fairly well from a Purdue hangover and wins by 21. Ohio State QB Dwayne Haskins plays the entire game passing for 4 TDs. RBs Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins finally get it going a little bit after a serious running game fix, and each rush for a TD and total 165 yards on the ground.

The defense holds strong, but two big plays end in scores for Nebraska causing fans to still wonder what is up with the back-7 on defense. The other TD for Nebraska comes in garbage time as the game is all but over.

Max Littman

Ohio State 31, Nebraska 21
Season Point Total: 391 | Place: 11 out of 13

I’m not expecting anything good to happen this game, and after Purdue, I just want to win. Not sure if anything can be fixed the rest of the year.

Brett Ludwiczak

Ohio State 44, Nebraska 30
Season Point Total: 408 | Place: 9 out of 13

After getting destroyed by Iowa last year, the Buckeyes returned home to put a whoopin’ on Michigan State the next week. This year Ohio State has had an extra week to try and fix their issues. It’s entirely possible that Ohio State takes Nebraska to the woodshed this week, but I think that is a lot less likely than the Cornhuskers staying within the number. Nebraska has some pieces on offense that should give the Buckeye defense trouble. Ohio State gets back in the win column, but I see it being by 14-17 points.

Patrick Mayhorn

Ohio State 31, Nebraska 24
Season Point Total: 462 | Place: 2 out of 13

Nebraska has a 24-17 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but late game heroics from Dwayne Haskins keep Ohio State from dropping their second straight game to a middling Big Ten West team.

Chad Peltier

Ohio State 48, Nebraska 28
Season Point Total: 408 | Place: 10 out of 13

The Buckeyes look more polished after a week off but we shouldn’t expect all problems to be fixed. The run game still struggles some and they’re not perfect in the red zone, but we see a few new wrinkles for red zone play calling.

Matt Tamanini

Ohio State 35, Nebraska 24
Season Point Total: 414 | Place: 8 out of 13

The good news: Nebraska has been pretty bad this season against the running, ranking 11th in the Big Ten, so it is wholly possible that the Buckeyes figure out a way to get the ground attack going.

The bad news: Nebraska true-freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez is second in the B1G in rushing yards for a QB, so it is wholly possible that the Buckeyes are exposed again for not figuring out a way to get their defense tightened up.

I wouldn’t expect major miracles to have occurred over the bye week, but the beat up defense hopefully got healthier, and there could be some personnel changes for OSU. But, until this coaching staff proves that they are willing to deviate from their modus operandi, I’m going to take a wait and see approach.

Dan Vest

Ohio State 38 , Nebraska 24
Season Point Total: 416 | Place: 6 out of 13

The team we see this week will probably be a lot like the one weve seen all season despite promised bye week fixes. Still, it should be more than enough against a thin Nebraska roster.

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

LGHL Predictions Scoreboard

Place	LGHL Staff	Total Points	B1G Points	TTUN Points	Maryland Points	Mich. St. Points	Nebraska Points	Purdue Points	Minnesota Points	Indiana Points	Penn State Points	Tulane Points	TCU Points	Rutgers Points	Oregon St. Points
Place	LGHL Staff	Total Points	B1G Points	TTUN Points	Maryland Points	Mich. St. Points	Nebraska Points	Purdue Points	Minnesota Points	Indiana Points	Penn State Points	Tulane Points	TCU Points	Rutgers Points	Oregon St. Points
1	Matt Brown	723	54	0	50	73	70	71	64	48	58	64	61	60	50
2	Meredith Hein	715	61	50	50	62	69	0	56	66	61	54	62	74	50
4	Caleb Houser	712	71	50	50	55	71	0	50	62	66	65	55	67	50
5	Brett Ludwiczak	704	74	50	50	54	68	0	50	61	59	61	62	65	50
6	Geoff Hammersley	703	75	0	50	62	73	72	64	64	0	64	74	55	50
7	Patrick Mayhorn	695	51	0	50	69	63	64	60	69	50	44	64	61	50
8	Dan Vest	673	64	73	50	0	70	0	62	58	63	58	61	64	50
9	Dan Hassler	662	71	50	50	50	53	0	58	55	57	51	65	52	50
10	Alexis Chassen	656	71	50	50	50	65	0	54	60	50	52	52	52	50
11	Matt Tamanini	642	61	50	50	0	67	0	56	59	61	59	72	57	50
12	Max Littman	628	72	0	50	55	60	0	58	41	62	57	56	67	50
13	Colton Denning	604	67	0	50	0	60	0	59	62	56	68	68	64	50
13	Chad Peltier	578	54	0	50	0	66	0	60	66	55	54	73	50	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)