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FACTS & STATS: Site: Ohio Stadium (101,568) -- Columbus, Ohio. Television: ABC. Home Record: Colorado 0-1, Ohio State 2-0. Away Record: Colorado 0-1, Ohio State 0-1. Neutral Record: Colorado 1-0, Ohio State 0-0. Conference Record: Colorado 0-0, Ohio State 0-0. Series Record: Ohio State leads, 3-1.

GAME NOTES: Fresh off a disappointing defeat, the Ohio State Buckeyes will attempt to get back on track when the Colorado Buffaloes come to Columbus for a non-conference battle.

Jon Embree is the first-year head coach of the Buffaloes, and his tenure began with back-to-back losses, including a heart-breaking, three-point setback to California on September 10. Fortunately, Embree finally tasted victory last weekend, as his Buffs knocked off rival Colorado State in Denver by a 28-14 final. After this weekend's affair, Colorado will play its first-ever Pac-12 Conference game against Washington State in Boulder.

As for Ohio State, it is not mentioned in the top-25 poll for the first time in seven years after the club lost its first-ever regular season game in the state of Florida last week. The 24-6 setback to Miami marked the first defeat as head coach for Luke Fickell, who saw his team barely squeak by Toledo the previous week. With Michigan State and Nebraska on the schedule for the first two weeks of October, it will be interesting to see how focused the Buckeyes are on the Buffs this Saturday.

Ohio State owns a 3-1 series lead over Colorado, and the teams haven't met since 1986.

Embree has to be proud of the fact that his Buffaloes didn't commit a single turnover in the victory over Colorado State last weekend. Colorado finished with 360 total yards and posted four touchdowns, split evenly between the run and the pass. Tyler Hansen connected on 17-of-32 passes for 215 yards with the two scores and no picks, and the signal caller also ran for a pair of touchdowns. Rodney Stewart didn't find the end zone, but the Buffs' top tailback did run for 98 yards on 19 carries while hauling in a team-high seven receptions for 93 yards.

Colorado State marched 80 yards on the opening drive last week and scored a touchdown against Colorado, but the Buffaloes allowed only seven points the rest of the way. They permitted the Rams to gain a mere 243 total yards in the clash, including 67 rushing yards on 25 attempts. Just one takeaway was mustered, but the Buffs did come through with a trio of sacks.

Overall this season, Colorado is scoring 26.0 ppg while allowing 28.0 ppg, and the Buffs are gaining 394.0 total ypg while yielding a mere 318.7 total ypg. While Embree's team has committed just one turnover through 12 quarters of football, it is making good on only 36 percent of its third-down conversion attempts compared to 48 percent for the opposition.

Hansen has seven touchdown passes against a lone interception and has thrown for 912 yards already. Paul Richardson paces the receivers with 18 catches for 360 yards and four touchdowns, while Stewart has exactly 500 combined rushing and receiving yards.

The fact that Ohio State didn't score a single touchdown in four quarters against Miami last week speaks volumes about how poorly the offense performed. Fickell looked on helplessly as the Buckeyes gained a mere 209 total yards, including a laughable 35 passing yards on 4-of-18 completions. Joe Bauserman, who certainly looked worthy of being the starter through the first two outings, completed just 2-of-14 attempts for 13 yards before he was replaced by Braxton Miller. Jordan Hall and Carlos Hyde were somewhat impressive running the football, but the negatives far outweighed the positives for the offense.

OSU is generating 25.0 ppg and 342.3 total ypg, but the offense clearly lacks the star power that it has possessed in recent years. Bauserman has thrown four touchdowns with zero interceptions, but there has been a glaring lack of big plays made through the air. Jake Stoneburner has four touchdown receptions already, while Hyde has run for a pair of scores. Expect both of those players to be a big part of the game plan this week.

The OSU defense came up with a pair of interceptions last week and performed quite admirably against the pass overall, yielding a low 7.7 yards per completion. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes were dominated up front, yielding 240 rushing yards at a clip of 5.7 ypc.

Opponents are managing a 15.3 ppg against the Buckeyes, who are surrendering 263.7 total ypg. OSU has surrendered six touchdowns to opposing offenses, four of which have come through the air.

Fickell needs to motivate his players after the ugly effort last week. The Buckeyes should be able to knock off the Buffs, but the next few weeks will be daunting.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Ohio State 27, Colorado 17