Ohio State at Oregon

Rose Bowl - Pasadena, CA. The 96th edition of the Rose Bowl features Ohio State and Oregon. The Buckeyes enter here at 10-2 and are off of five straight wins to close out the season and this will be their 5th consecutive BCS Bowl appearance. These teams have shared the gridiron seven times, with the Buckeyes coming up roses in all seven. The Buckeyes are a run oriented team, but I expect them to surprise the Ducks here by opening up the offense as coach Tressel's recent quote may indicate: "I think we've got to be more efficient and I think we've got to strike when there's opportunities to strike. We had a couple chances in the last game where we could have hit a homerun and we didn't. We have to be able to hit homeruns when people decide they're going to put X amount of people in the box to stop your run." The Ducks have a well-balanced potent offense, but we have seen top defenses, notably Nebraska vs. Pac-10 Arizona completely dominate as the Wildcats were a shutout victim. The Ducks are also a run-first team, but will have trouble running against the Buckeyes’ stop unit. The Buckeyes' defense is awesome, allowing just 12.2 points per game this season (11.4 on the road). Contrast that to the Ducks who allow 28 per game on the road and 31.7 in their last three. Ohio State has flourished in big games as they are on a 7-1 ATS run against teams with a winning record (36-20 ATS vs. such teams in the Tressel era). They are also on an amazing 22-5 ATS run in their last 27 on grass. This game looks pretty even to me, but the one caveat I see that favors the Buckeyes is that they have had a long time to work on opening up the offense as teams stack the box to stop the run. I can see Oregon getting burned once to give the Buckeyes the advantage. This is actually a big game for the Bukeyes who are making their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1997. Ohio State gets the call.