1. Ohio State vs. TCU (+13)
Through the first two games of the 2018 season, the Ohio State Buckeyes offense with Dwayne Haskins at the helm has looked like an absolute juggernaut. They started off the year with a 77-point effort against Oregon State, following that up by dropping a cool 52 points on Rutgers last week. Now ranked as the fourth-best team at the country, they enter their final game of Urban Meyer’s three-game suspension. This game also happens to be their biggest test to date.
The Buckeyes will be heading down to JerryWorld this weekend to face the No. 15 TCU Horned Frogs at AT&T Stadium in a primetime matchup. To this point, the Horned Frogs are another team that has yet to be truly tested as they’ve topped Southern and SMU to this point, winning both handily. Thus, this a test for both teams to prove they’re legitimate.
As good as Ohio State has looked to this point, however, the lack of quality in their first two opponents hasn’t really put the absence of Meyer on the sidelines into the forefront. Whenever the offense can go out and dominate on talent alone, the coaching doesn’t matter all that much. It’s going to matter on Saturday night, though, as Gary Patterson will be on the opposite sideline for TCU.
Patterson has made a living with the Horned Frogs off of always getting his team ready for the big games. While he doesn’t have a 100 percent success rate in terms of wins and losses, you know that he’ll have both his defense and dynamic quarterback Shawn Robinson ready for Week 3. Even if they don’t knock off the Buckeyes, it’ll be closer than 13 points.