Akron Zips at Ohio State Buckeyes Betting Pick
The Akron Zips will travel to Ohio Stadium on Saturday night to take on the 10th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in a non-conference matchup. The Zips are 1-2 this season and are coming off a 35-14 win over the Bryant Bulldogs, where sophomore quarterback DJ Irons went 19-of-23 for 296 yards with three touchdowns. Let’s take a closer look to this Zips at Buckeyes betting preview.
The Buckeyes are 2-1 this year and are coming off a 41-20 win over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud finished the game going 15-of-25 for 185 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Iron Sharpens Mathison
The passing game of the Akron Zips is mainly how the offense moves the ball across the field as sophomore wide receiver Michael Mathison currently has 18 catches for 230 yards (12.8 yards per catch) and a touchdown. Looking at the last game against the Bryant Bulldogs, he finished with three catches for 61 yards and a touchdown.
If DJ Irons can continue to find Mathison open down the field, the Zips have the opportunity to put enough points on the board here.
The Akron Zips defense was dominant last week against the Bryant Bulldogs as they gave up 14 points on just 146 yards of total offense (117 passing, 29 rushing). They gave up a good amount of third down as the Bulldogs went 5-of-11 there. The defense stopped the run as they allowed just 0.9 rushing yards per carry throughout the game.
Ground and Pound
The Ohio State Buckeyes have been doing well on the ground, and freshman TreVeyon Henderson has been doing extremely well this season as he has 38 rushing attempts for 346 yards (9.1 yards per carry) with four touchdowns on the ground and three receptions for 87 yards with a touchdown reception.
Looking back at his performance against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, he had 24 carries for 277 yards (11.5 yards per carry) with three touchdowns.
The Ohio State Buckeyes have been struggling this season defensively but were decent last week against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane as they gave up 20 points on 501 yards of total offense (428 passing, 73 rushing).
Tulsa was able to convert on third downs as they went 9-of-17 in this game. The Buckeyes need to figure out how to get better stops in the passing game if they want to reach where they are expecting to be.
Conclusion
This game is not expected to be anywhere near close as the Ohio State Buckeyes are currently listed as a 49-point favorite in this game against the Akron Zips. However, that number is way too large for me to feel confident in the heavy home favorite.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are currently 0-2-1 against the spread this season because Vegas has failed to realize that this team is not the same program that made the College Football Championship game last season. Go with the Akron Zips getting 49 points in this game as the range of outcomes seems to be in their favor here.