Upset Alert: 5 college football teams in danger of losing in Week 9

2. Ohio State Buckeyes

Rank: 3 | Opponent: 13 Wisconsin Badgers | Time: Saturday, Oct. 26, Noon ET

The Wisconsin Badgers traveling to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in college football Week 9 had the opportunity to be the best game of the season to this point. Then, the Badgers went out and got caught in a classic trap game against Illinois, falling 24-23 to a vastly inferior Fighting Illini team. And while that takes the shine off this matchup a bit, it does make this a more juicy potential upset.

Make no mistake, Ohio State has looked like world-beaters to start the 2019 season. Justin Fields has hit the ground running in Ryan Day’s offense and J.K. Dobbins has followed suit in the running game. If that high-octane offense averaging 49.7 points per game wasn’t enough, though, the Buckeyes defense has only been conceding 8.0 points to opponents this season. They are balanced and clearly bursting with elite talent on both sides of the ball.

All of that can be true but it’s also true that Ohio State has not been pushed. The closest they came to that was on the road at Michigan State when a good Spartans defense was strong early but then got worn down as the game went on. That won’t be the case against a Wisconsin team who is not the group we saw last week. They have been an elite defense in their own right and have the pieces to cause the Buckeyes problems on offense.

Jonathan Taylor is the game-changer for Wisconsin, a viable Heisman Trophy candidate that few teams can stop. And as good as Ohio State’s defense has been, they haven’t had to face a rushing attack like the Badgers’. If Taylor can get going consistently and control the game, the Buckeyes can be kept off the field and not allowed to get their offense into a rhythm. Moreover, it will take Jack Coan mostly out of the equation, which is what the Badgers need to pull off the upset.