A win for the Ohio State Buckeyes will go a long way toward building a lot of momentum for the second half of the season.
The Ohio State Buckeyes have a big time test on their hands this weekend when they go down to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes inside the historic Kinnick Stadium.
No matter how you look at this game, it is a big-time one for Ohio State. It is clearly their second-biggest test of the season, behind their trip down to Austin to take on the Longhorns.
A loss in this football game will be a major problem for the Buckeyes, but a win, a win opens the floodgates for the season.
Throughout the preseason, the main conversation around Ohio State was that their schedule was one of the hardest in the country. If they were able to survive all of the tests on their schedule, they would be battle-tested and easily make the College Football Playoff.
So far, the outside was right that the Buckeyes would have a really tough time with some of the matchups on their schedule. The finish against Texas will live on for a very long time because they should have been able to run away with it.
They didn't and they ended up losing.
Iowa comes into Saturday's game flying high after their incredibly dramatic victory over the Michigan Wolverines as time expired. They have been a little bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where they have been blowing out inferior opponents and just skating by the good opponents.
Some things will always be true about the Hawkeyes and specifically about a Kurt Ferentz-coached team. They are going to be gritty, they are going to be nasty, and they are going to make you work for everything that you get.
The Buckeyes are going to have their hands full, especially after a really weird week against Illinois, where their defense was exposed by the Illinois offense.
All of that is in the past, but what is in front of them is this game against Iowa, followed by several really challenging games against Indiana, Oregon, and USC. If they are able to get the win against Iowa, they will come home with a ton of confidence and momentum, believing that they got their swagger back on the field.
The team needs it, the players need it and they have a huge opportunity to get a really tough job done against the Hawkeyes.
