Transcript was lightly edited for clarity.

Coop Daley:

Today we will be breaking down Northwestern versus Ohio State for the 2020 Big Ten championship game. Clearly a lot of storylines around this one. The most prominent, of course, is that Ohio State has made the game after going 5-0 and missing the originally set requirement of six games played in order to make it. Despite how Ohio State only having played five games, a lot of people are predicting them to come out in a convincing fashion against Northwestern for a variety of reasons.

Jordan Landsberg:

I agree. We look at how Ohio State performed coming off their two other byes during the year, and they just came out so strong, ready to play, as if nothing was wrong. They have the fourth highest scoring offense in the nation, and I think they're definitely a tough test for Northwestern.

Justine Banbury:

The biggest advantage Ohio State has is just their experience level. Ohio State was playing for the national title last year, and they're always a national contender.

Jordan Landsberg:

Yeah, I like the experience part that you just brought up. They're definitely way more experienced in terms of playing in these high pressure games. This is their third trip in four years. Definitely more experienced coaching in terms of these bigger games. We'll see which of the two is more experienced and is just a bit better, I guess.

Harris Fermaglich:  

I just feel like one of the biggest disadvantages Northwestern has is at the quarterback position, with Justin Fields being a potential top 10 pick, having significant experience and obviously being an NFL prospect, compared to Peyton Ramsey on the other side, who is arguably a below average Power-Five quarterback, let alone an NFL prospect. Comparing the two offenses, Northwestern likely has a disadvantage. At the same time, I feel like the matchup could be won and lost between Northwestern’s strong defense and Ohio State’s strong offense. In addition, Ohio State has been touted to have a weak secondary this season. So it'd be interesting to see if the below average quarterback Peyton Ramsey can exploit that.

Jordan Landsberg

It’s not as an elite Ohio State defense like they're generally used to having. Northwestern will hopefully be able to take advantage of that coming off this dominating win against Illinois. Cam Porter, that true freshmen, had a great game. Hopefully they'll be able to pick up some some of that momentum against not the best Ohio State defense that they've probably played before.

And let’s talk about Justin Fields being an NFL prospect. I mean, he's one of the best in the nation. He's maybe going to go top three in the draft next year. Look at his numbers. There's a 75% completion rate, 15 touchdowns, only three interceptions and five rushing touchdowns. I mean, he's one of the biggest threats in the country.

Coop Daley:

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Our secondary is going to be very fun to watch this game. I mean, you got Greg Newsome getting national attention for his play, you've got Brandon Josephm who is fantastic. I mean he's got like five interceptions this year.

Jordan Landsberg:  

Yeah, and nominated for the Jim Thorpe award too.

Coop Daley:  

Yeah, exactly, and Justin Fields having amazing passing ability. I do think we need to remember that Northwestern’s defense has been known to hold quarterbacks before. I mean, we saw it with Graham Mertz against Wisconsin, everyone was hyping him up big time after their games against Illinois and Michigan, and Northwestern found a way to force turnovers. I think that's going to be key in this game: how often can they force turnovers and try to catch Ohio State on steals.

Harris Fermaglich:  

To what degree can Peyton Ramsey in the offense limit turnovers? If you remember back to the Iowa game, and so many other games, they either gave up scoring opportunities or they gave the other team scoring opportunities. When you're playing a team like Ohio State, you really have to do everything right to have a chance to win.

Justine Banbury:  

I agree. I think one of the biggest things Northwestern needs to be worried about is efficiency. There's absolutely no room for error against Ohio State. Something that Northwestern always leans on is their coaching. Coach Fitz has an ability to bring in average, non-star players and create success. Ohio State has so many stars who they lean on more. I think if Northwestern wants to have success, we're going to lean really heavily on our coaching staff and their experience.

On the other hand, though, Coach Day actually has had an almost perfect record since he took over in 2018, so our upper hand might be less relevant than in other games.

Coop Daley:  

Absolutely. Northwestern has a great coaching staff, and I think a really good thing Fitz does is find weak spots. They look at an opponent and find the key strength, then they neutralize it. Where do you think is a weak spot that Northwestern can maybe exploit? On paper this team is really good, but there's got to be something that you can neutralize.

Jordan Landsberg:

I don’t think their defense is what it normally is for Ohio State. Northwestern can take advantage of that, and establish that running game from the beginning. Ohio State's defense is no where near what it was two years ago, at least in their front seven.

Harris Fermaglich:  

Yeah, if Northwestern can really establish the run, establish a threat in the passing game, and really develop some offensive momentum early on, they can generate points from the beginning. That could also happen if the defense helps out by forcing turnovers. But the reality is, they're going to have to generate offense early and exploit that weakness in the secondary. A lot of the times, Ohio State’s defensive issues have come in the second half, when they're kind of playing more of a preventative defense. Unfortunately for Northwestern, I don't know if they have the offensive capability late in the game to manufacture a consistent comeback. We had multiple opportunities against Michigan State to put together a drive on defense that isn't as good as Ohio State's, and we couldn't. So I feel like establishing a run and working on their secondary, they should get the offense moving early and put points on the board as soon as possible.

Jordan Landsberg:  

I think also containing the quarterback. Justin Fields, in his worst game of the year against Indiana, was able to run for 80 yards. We saw two weeks ago when Northwestern played Michigan State that they weren't doing very much offensively besides beating us with those QB sneaks. So if Northwestern can can hold Justin Fields to a not-so-great game, then I think their defense is strong enough to contain the other skilled players.

Harris Fermaglich:  

If Northwestern can establish their offense and build some sort of lead, then put it in the hands of their defense at the end, that's probably their best chance. That will be better than getting into some sort of shootout that they're not going to be able to keep up with.

Coop Daley:  

One of the things I find really interesting is that we're saying Northwestern’s offense is going to have to match Ohio State's offense, and that's going to be a key to the victory. But we also said that forcing turnovers is something important. Would you guys say this is going to be more of a grit and grind game that could end up with a score of 17-14? Or do you think we're going to see the true offensive prowess of Mike Bajakian, and it'll end up being a final score of something like 45-31?

Harris Fermaglich:  

I kind of feel like, if it didn't, if it ends up as 45-31, they're going to lose. And if it ends up 17-14, they have a chance at winning.

Jordan Landsberg:  

I think this is going to be a high-scoring game. I mean, Ohio State is a top program in the country every single year, and they pour on the points, regardless of who they're playing. Northwestern defense is very, very strong, but I still think that Ohio State will find a way to score big.

Justine Banbury:

I agree, we're talking a lot about our defense, and that's going to be a huge piece, but you're not going to win a game with defense. Our offense needs to step up and get points on the board as well. This past weekend kind of gave me a little bit more hope seeing the depth we have on some offensive positions. Cam Porter proved his potential, and we obviously already know we have Drake Anderson and Isaiah Bowser in that position as well. Older guys in our wide receivers, Kyric McKowen, Ramaud, Riley Lees. Our coaches have options.

Coop Daley:  

I'd agree with that. We talked about coaching, and I don't think there's ever been a moment in Northwestern football where you’re thinking to yourself, 'okay, it's now over.' Northwestern always finds a way to claw back. Do you think there's going to be an official moment where you're think this game is over?

Jordan Landsberg:

I think if they get down like a lot, very quickly, then I don't think they'd have much of a chance to come back.

Harris Fermaglich:

I actually have the opposite view on that one, I kind of feel like they get down 40 points, obviously, the writing will be on the wall. But if it's a number, like that magic number 17 that we saw in Iowa and Michigan State, they can come back from that. We discussed how a score of 17-14 vs. a 45-35, are two very different kinds of scores. I do feel like if they were to go down 17 points early on, the defense could then do their job and keep that number around 17. Then, if the offense could manufacture some points over the course of three quarters, it wouldn't necessarily be over. Still, the best path to victory would be to start early, start strong, get a lead, and then rely on the defense to hold it.

Justine Banbury  

Any sort of deficit, especially in the beginning, is going to make me really nervous. Even if our defense steps up and has the game of their lives, we're still down, and it still requires our offense to be extremely efficient and extremely aggressive. I just don't know if we have the star power on offense that we need against Ohio State to get 17 unanswered points. Northwestern needs to be at their best from the very first minute and stay neck and neck to keep any sort of deficit from happening.

Jordan Landsberg:

You're right about that. I don't think they're going to be able to score X number of unanswered points versus Ohio State. Falling into any deficit would be detrimental to them.

Harris Fermaglich:  

Just to revise my statement, I would say the best path to victory, obviously, would be starting off strong and playing the whole game well. But they've shown us time and time again not to count them out if they were to fall into somewhat of a manageable hole, like we saw two years ago in Indianapolis. So that that's my point there.

Coop Daley:  

Harris, you said one of the reasons Indiana was able to come back against Ohio State is that they were playing more of a prevent defense, and they were just trying to keep the score. Do you think that's going to be the same strategy in this game? Considering Ohio State is going to be looking to make a very powerful statement to justify their placement in the College Football Playoffs, do they need a statement?

Harris Fermaglich:  

If they take a lead, say 45-35, then yeah, they're gonna see the prevent defense. I wouldn't expect to see that in the first quarter though.

Jordan Landsberg  

Yeah, not until there's a deficit that scares them enough.

Coop Daley:  

The only reason I ask is because one of the more interesting statement wins was Ohio State in 2014, the first year they were doing the College Football Playoff. They came into the Big Ten Championship with one loss, and they needed a statement win, then they beat Wisconsin 59 to zero. So that's why it's almost difficult for me to believe they break out the preventative defense, even if they're up by five scores, just because in such a weird year and a year where the Big Ten had to change the rules for them, it's difficult to say that they are going to take their foot off the gas at any point in this game.

Jordan Landsberg:

Yeah. There's a lot of heat for Ohio State right now to really just blow Northwestern out because people are pissed. All these college football fans in the south and coaches and commissioners are really angry at the fact that the Big Ten is such a mess. Ohio State has way more to prove in this game than Northwestern, so they’re going to come into the game, put their foot on the gas and never look back. Hopefully the game is a lot closer than we think, but I just think Ohio State wants to silence the critics.

Harris Fermaglich:  

The one the one thing I have to say is that I'm not totally convinced if this is a type of scheme defensive problem that Ohio State has, or maybe if it's a talent problem, if they have a defense that's causing these second-half lapses. Maybe they've been putting their foot on the gas this entire season. The Big Ten decided to play a nine game schedule in nine weeks. Maybe their defense has just lapsed once you've got into the latter portion of the game because they're tired or not talented or not deep enough for whatever other reasons.

Jordan Landsberg :

I mean, there are only so many teams that have both star-powered offense and defense. I agree with what you're saying, it's potentially more of a fatigue and COVID-19 issue than it is anything else.

But they just had the week off and I'm sure that they're going to do everything they can to destroy Northwestern. They are going to try to tack on the points and really put out a statement that they're easily capable of scoring over 70 points.

Justine Banbury:  

Who are you guys thinking is going to win?

Coop Daley:  

I have ‘Cats. I'm rooting for them. It's like what we talked about, it’s tough to go tit-for-tat with one of the most potent offenses in the country. So if it's within three or seven points, yeah, the ‘Cats have a really good shot. But if it gets to a shootout level, then we might be in a bit more trouble than we'd like to believe.

Harris Fermaglich:

I personally think that they match up well with Ohio State. The defense could do their job and limit that offense, and Northwestern’s offense could exploit Ohio State’s weakness on defense. Their opponent is obviously very good, but I do see that path.

Jordan Landsberg:  

Should we give some final score predictions?

Coop Daley:  

Sure. I'm gonna be the optimist and I'm gonna say what I said earlier. ‘Cats 31-28.

Jordan Landsberg:  

My score is a little more pessimistic. Ohio State 42 and Northwestern 21.

Harris Fermaglich:  

I'll go near you Coop, I'll say Northwestern 27, Ohio State 24.

Justine Banbury:  

I'm gonna say Northwestern, 31-27.

Jordan Landsberg:  

I hope that I'm wrong! I hope I'm by far the most wrong out of all of us.