Buckeyes will be Gophers' stiffest conference test to date

The euphoria from Saturday's 51-14 rout over Iowa lasted a few hours, but then many of the Gophers settled in to watch next week's opponent on national television.

Quarterback J.T. Barrett and Ohio State looked almost unstoppable in a 49-37 victory over Michigan State in what was billed as the Big Ten's game of the year. That made it 21 consecutive Big Ten regular-season victories, a conference record, for Urban Meyer's Buckeyes.

On his Sunday morning radio appearance on 830-AM, Gophers coach Jerry Kill said he watched the Ohio State game, and "then, I didn't sleep very good."

The Buckeyes climbed to No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25, meaning this will be the Gophers' first game against a top-10 opponent since 2009, when they took a 14-point loss against then-No. 8 California.

Ohio State (8-1, 5-0 Big Ten) also figures to climb in the College Football Playoff rankings after sitting at No. 14 last week. The Buckeyes' lone loss was by 14 points to Virginia Tech on Sept. 6, when Barrett threw three interceptions in his second career start.

At that point, the Buckeyes were still reeling from Braxton Miller's season-ending shoulder injury. In seven games since, Barrett has 29 touchdowns — 22 passing, seven rushing — with three interceptions.

"Of all the teams in the country, I think they're getting judged the most unfairly," Gophers defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said. "Against Virginia Tech, they had to start a kid that's a [redshirt] freshman. They've done a great job developing offensively, and continue to get better and better defensively.

Ohio State is tied with Oregon for fourth in the nation in scoring offense, at 46.0 points per game. Barrett's 172.9 passer rating ranks second nationally behind Oregon's Marcus Mariota (184.6).

The Buckeyes' average margin of victory since the Virginia Tech loss is 27.9 points. That's why it was so stunning when Penn State pushed them to two overtimes on Oct. 25. Barrett needed two touchdown runs in overtime to finish off the Nittany Lions, who are 2-4 in the conference.

Earlier that same day, the Gophers had fallen into a similar trap on the road at Illinois and came away with a deflating four-point loss.

"I think it was a good lesson for our kids that you can't just turn it on and turn it off, and know that you're going to come out and win," Claeys said. "We kind of got away with that against Purdue [the previous week]."

The Gophers (7-2, 4-1) washed away some of the bad taste from the Illinois loss with their most lopsided win over Iowa since 1998.

The Hawkeyes averaged 41.3 points in their three previous games, but after scoring on their first drive Saturday, they didn't score again until there were 14 seconds remaining.

"No doubt in my mind that was the best defensive game I've seen since I've been here," junior cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun said.

Claeys said the Gophers knew if they concentrated on stopping Iowa's running game, the Hawkeyes weren't going to beat them with the pass. Limiting Ohio State's offense will be an entirely different challenge.

The defense will try to build off its performance at TCU, even though that was in a 30-7 loss. That score isn't so bad considering the Gophers committed five turnovers, giving TCU a short field on several scoring drives. The Horned Frogs rank third in the nation in scoring offense (47.2 points per game).

"We've got enough [defensive backs], enough guys who can run, that we can match up with them on the perimeter," Claeys said. "If [the players] bring their best on game day, we feel like we'll have a chance when it gets to the fourth quarter. And then you've got to make those plays."