Ohio State vs. Nebraska Week 10 Picks: Buckeyes Bash Huskers
The Buckeyes are massive favorites at Memorial Stadium this Saturday. Find out why we like them to cover the -14.5 spread in our Ohio State and Nebraska picks for Week 10.
Power 5 jobs at LSU, Southern Cal, TCU, and Texas Tech are already open and it’s quite possible that the Nebraska gig becomes available as well if the Huskers lose out to finish 3-9. They aren’t beating Ohio State on Saturday and will be underdogs at Wisconsin and home to No. 19 Iowa the rest of the way. To earn the school’s first bowl berth since 2016, the Huskers have to win out. Not happening.
It will be interesting to see where one-loss Ohio State sits in the first College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night, although in a way it doesn’t matter because if the Buckeyes win out, they are in the playoff again. The Buckeyes are 8-1 all-time versus the Huskers and blew their doors off last year in Columbus, 52-17. Ohio State is also 6-1 against the spread in the past seven meetings.
Here are my picks and predictions for the college football Week 10 matchup between Ohio State and Nebraska (odds via DraftKings; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Ohio State vs. Nebraska Game Info
Date/Time: Saturday, November 6, 12 p.m. ETTV: FOXLocation: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, NEWeather: 61 degrees, no chance of precipitation
Ohio State vs. Nebraska Odds Analysis
The Buckeyes are currently 14.5-point favorites after opening at the number and seeing it jump to -15. Early action is still heavy on the Buckeyes so the spread could keep rising. A couple of decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for Nebraska to be getting 15 points at home, but Tom Osborne isn’t walking through that door. The Huskers have been at least 15-point dogs twice since 2017 and they lost both ATS to Ohio State.
The total opened at 63.5 and is up to 64, with the SBR consensus showing about a 65 percent early lean on the Over. The Under has hit in three straight meetings but those totals were all a fair amount higher.
Ohio State vs. Nebraska Betting Picks
Buckeyes -14.5 (-110) (???)Under 64 (-115) (???)
SEE MORE: College Football Week 10 Parlay Picks
Ohio State vs. Nebraska Betting Predictions
Buckeyes -14.5 (-110)
With the College Football Playoff rankings out, it is time for teams to put up style points by impressing the committee. By style points, we of course mean trying to run up the score on opponents.
Since losing to Oregon on September 11, the Buckeyes have been pretty much unstoppable and quarterback CJ Stroud is now a legitimate Heisman candidate. He’s a +450 second-favorite behind Alabama QB Bryce Young (+180).
Ohio State has won 23 consecutive Big Ten Conference games, the longest streak in the conference since OSU’s national-record 30-game conference winning streak from 2013-15. That said, coach Ryan Day surely will have plenty to harp on in practice this week because Penn State did push the Buckeyes in a 33-24 loss on Saturday. Stroud threw for 305 yards and a touchdown, and his 91.3 QBR is the best in the country.
Nebraska enters on a three-game losing streak. The team fell to 5-18 in one-score games since 2018 with Saturday’s 28-23 home loss to Purdue. Huskers quarterback Adrian Martinez has been wildly inconsistent all season and had four picks against the Boilers (he entered with three interceptions on the season). Nebraska puts up more total yards (399) than Purdue (349) despite the Boilermakers running 28 more offensive plays.
Ohio State is 4-0-1 ATS in its past five as a road favorite. Nebraska, meanwhile, is 2-8 ATS in its last 10 contests as a home underdog.
Under 64 (-115)
As good as that Ohio State offense is, and it ranks No. 1 nationally at 47.3 points per game, Penn State did show how to slow that unit down a bit. The Buckeyes really struggled in the red zone with just one offensive TD on five trips.
One of OSU’s touchdowns came from the defense, which was the team’s sixth defensive TD of the season. It also had at least four sacks for the fourth time this season.
Ohio State ranks in the Top 20 nationally in scoring defense (19.2 ppg) and rushing defense (106.9 yards per game) and is in the Top 10 in turnover margin (+1.0).
Nebraska’s defense is pretty good, too, led by Luke Reimer, who had a career-high 19 tackles in the Blackshirts' loss to Purdue. High-powered Michigan State and Oklahoma each managed just 23 points against the Huskers earlier this year. Junior cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt largely shut down Purdue star wideout David Bell and surely will get the main coverage on Buckeyes star receiver Chris Olave.
Consider a first-quarter wager here. Nebraska held Purdue scoreless in the first quarter and has allowed just seven points in the first quarter of five home games this season. The Under is 7-1 in the Huskers' past eight as an underdog and that's what we are going with for our Ohio State and Nebraska picks for Week 10.
SEE MORE: Opening Line Week 10 Picks
Picks made on 11/01/2021 at 5:15 p.m. ET.
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