Ohio State heads to Iowa City with a little more pressure than the rankings suggest. The No.
5 Buckeyes and No. 14 Hawkeyes are meeting as top-15 teams for the first time since 2006 on Saturday, with CBS carrying the Big Ten showdown from Kinnick Stadium.
For Ohio State, it’s a familiar setting that still carries a bad memory: the Buckeyes were blasted 55-24 in their last trip there in 2017.
That loss matters because this is not the kind of month Ohio State can afford to waste. The Buckeyes already have one defeat, and tougher road trips are still ahead, including visits to No.
6 Indiana and No. 18 USC.
Iowa, meanwhile, gets a shot to announce itself in a major way after its last-second win at Michigan in Week 4.
That victory pushed the Hawkeyes to 4-0 for the first time since 2021, when they climbed as high as No. 2 in the AP poll and reached the Big Ten Championship Game. If Iowa can knock off Ohio State, the path from there gets very interesting very quickly, with its playoff outlook taking a major jump.
The Buckeyes have handled this matchup comfortably the last two times, winning by 28 in 2024 and by 44 in 2022. Still, this Iowa team looks better equipped to make a fight of it, and that matters with the game back in Iowa City for the first time in nearly 10 years.
One of the biggest reasons Iowa has a puncher’s chance is the offense, which has taken a clear step forward. The Hawkeyes sit 48th nationally in total offense, a number that won’t turn heads by itself, but it looks a lot different when stacked against the fact that they finished 117th or worse in total offense in each of the past five seasons.
The run game stalled against Michigan, but Hank Brown kept the Hawkeyes alive with a game-winning drive that ended in a touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee on the final play. Given the setting and the opponent, it was the kind of late-game poise Iowa’s offense simply hadn’t been showing in recent years.
Ohio State’s defense, though, is also a storyline here. The Buckeyes rank 27th in total defense after four games, a drop from finishing the 2025 season No. 1 in that category.
That slide isn’t exactly shocking after seven defensive players from last season were picked in the 2026 NFL Draft, but it did show up in a costly way during the Week 2 loss at Texas, when Ohio State let a 23-3 lead slip away in a 24-23 defeat. Last week didn’t clean things up much either, even in a 42-19 win over Illinois, which piled up 462 yards and 25 first downs against Matt Patricia’s defense.
Then there’s Jeremiah Smith, who keeps looking like the most dangerous player on the field every time Ohio State lines up. Through four games, the junior receiver has 33 catches for 617 yards and seven touchdowns.
He is one touchdown away from matching Chris Olave for the most receiving touchdowns in program history, and five away from tying ex-Michigan star Braylon Edwards for the Big Ten record of 39. Smith is also on pace to become the first player ever to lead the Big Ten in receiving yards three times, and he should pass K.J.
Hill and Emeka Egbuka for the Ohio State receptions record before long.
Iowa’s defense is not as airtight as it usually is, which makes life harder for the Hawkeyes if they want to keep this within striking distance for four quarters. Ohio State’s edge in skill talent, especially with Smith, is the reason the Buckeyes can eventually separate.
But this still shapes up as a tougher game than the spread might suggest, and Iowa looks live enough to make bettors think twice about laying a big number. Pick: Ohio State -13.5
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What remains unsettled is how quickly all of those pieces will fit, especially with exhibition games on the horizon and the regular season set to start Nov. 2. The Buckeyes have plenty of new faces to sort through and enough talent to make the early weeks interesting, but the next stretch will reveal whether the rosters promise can translate into something more defined once the games begin to matter. [Read more 🡒]