Is Iowa better than Buffalo, San Diego St, and Florida A&M? I would think so. Will Iowa be at least the 2nd most physical team Ohio St has played this year besides Wisconsin. I would think so.
OSU is giving up 12.75 points at home and scoring a little over 47 points at home. But, I got to think Iowa's defense (yes the pass d is bad) but the run defense is fairly salty and I would hope that would be good enough to cut down some of their scoring average at home.
All and all it looks like on paper Iowa could keep OSU somewhere in the 30s. Iowa has averaged 25 points scoring on the road (at Iowa St and at Minnesota). They put up 14 on the best defense in the Big Ten (MSU) at home. But OSU run defense is also up there in the top 10 I believe. Iowa can probably score at least 14-17 in this game.
I would say 38-17 which is a 3 score game, but a respectful loss to a top 5 opponent on the road being out-gunned.
Maybe we can force a turnover or two to get the score a little more respectable. But, maybe Iowa is not quite 56-3 bad in this game.....at least I hope.