Ohio State at Oregon: 5 storylines to watch in Saturday’s Big Ten showdown

When the second-ranked Buckeyes and third-ranked Ducks take the field, both will be looking to confirm their status as real contenders for the national championship and take the inside track to the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis in December.

Here are five things to know about the game:

1. Ryan Day is glad his team is playing a game with such high stakes

The Buckeyes schedule ramped up steadily from regional cupcakes to mid-tier Big Ten teams to the best team in the West, and the Ohio State head coach is pleased with how that worked out.

“I think it’s great because you get to control your own destiny because you’re playing the best teams in the league on our schedule, so that part’s great,” Day said. “Every time you’re playing one of these teams, you’re fighting for an opportunity to go to Indianapolis, and that’s important. So there’s that part of it, and then there’s obviously the playoff scenario. So a lot at stake this weekend, which is exactly the way we want it.”

2. Both teams have senior quarterbacks who transferred from power conference schools

That is no longer that unusual, but it is noteworthy Ohio State quarterback Will Howard was leading Kansas State last season while Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel was at Oklahoma.

“I think it’s easy when you’re a young player, once you get into a game and you get into a high-pressure situation to all of a sudden abandon all your technique,” Day said. “You see that a lot with young players and sometimes young quarterbacks. So both of those guys have played a lot of football and have the ability to identify what they saw on the sideline, communicate it, and then continue to make adjustments as the game goes on.”

Gabriel, a left-handed 6-foot, 200-pound senior from Hawaii, has the nation’s best completion percentage (77.8).

After four years at Central Florida and one at Oklahoma, he already has more than 1,000 career completions and is 130 for 167 this season for 1,449 yards with 11 touchdown passes and three interceptions.

The 6-4, 237-pound Howard is ninth in the nation in completion percentage (71.5) and enters the weekend 93-for-130 passing for 1,248 yards with 12 touchdown passes and three interceptions.

“When you come to a place like Ohio State, you want to play on the biggest stage,” Howard said. “This is what you signed up for, and this is what I was looking forward to. And it’s a challenge, man. It’s fun. This is what college football is all about.

“This is what you dream about as a kid, man, like just being on this stage, playing in front of a ton of people and a ton of people watching on TV. Like, it’s a dream, man, and it’s definitely a big reason why I came here.”

3. The running game figures to be important

Both teams have a stated goal of wanting to be physical on both sides of the ball — run the ball, stop the run.

Ohio State has done a better job at both so far, ranking 14th in the country at 222.2 yards per game on the ground while Oregon is 67th at 164.4 ypg.

The Ohio State defense is third against the ground game (72.6 ypg.) while Oregon is 24th (101.4), and though both teams have talented running backs, Day suggested the quarterback run game could be a key differentiator.

Howard has only netted 64 yards on the ground (in part because of yardage lost from sacks) but said more could be on the way.

“Everything’s on the docket, and we’ve definitely ramped it up as we’ve gone,” Howard said. “I think the designed quarterback run stuff is definitely going to be more of an emphasis going forward, and I think that adds an element to our offense any time that you can add something the defense has to be worried about.”

Gabriel also has shown off some wheels at times. He has more than 1,000 career rushing yards, but only 71 so far in five games at Oregon.

4. Defensive backs will challenge and be challenged on both sides

Oregon is second in the country in passes broken up (31) and passes defended (34), so the Ducks know something about staying with receivers. (Though defensive linemen Jordan Burch and Derrick Harmon have combined for seven pass breakups.)

They also have a talented receiving corps headlined by Tez Johnson, a senior with 43 catches for 395 yards and five touchdowns. Traeshon Holden has been more of a big-play threat (averaging 14.4 yards per catch, five more than Johnson) while tight end Terrance Ferguson is also a weapon with 16 catches for 259 yards.

Jabbar Muhammad leads the Ducks with six pass breakups, but any secondary will find itself with its hands full trying to slow down Ohio State senior Emeka Egbuka and freshman Jeremiah Smith.

Egbuka has 30 catches for 433 yards and five touchdowns while Smith has 23 catches for 453 yards and six scores.

“They can catch the ball, and they can turn it into a big play right away,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “It’s not necessarily always average depth of target is way down the field, it’s their ability to catch it in space and get vertical. They block really well on the perimeter. Those guys have big catch radiuses, so you see them win on balls that you would call 50-50 balls a lot of times they win on contested balls. Do a really good job there.”

5. The game could come down to who wins in the red zone

If so, the numbers are in Ohio State’s favor.

The Buckeyes have been one of the best teams in the country both in terms of finishing drives and preventing scores when their opponents get close to the goal line.

“I think Will’s ability to run and some of the throws he’s made have definitely made a difference there, but it’s going to be important this week,” said Day, whose team is 21-for-21 scoring in the red zone this season with 20 touchdowns.

“As you know, you’ve got to score touchdowns in the red area. We’ve got to stop them in the red area,” Day said.

The Oregon offense is 17 for 21 in the red zone, which ranks 92nd nationally, but had to settle for field goals three times.

Beyond that, three of the Ducks’ empty trips came as a result of Gabriel being intercepted.

SATURDAY’S GAME

Ohio State at Oregon, 7:30 p.m., NBC, 1410