Miami's Darian Mensah Has Completed 88.7% of His Passes. Clemson's Leading Passer Has One Touchdown.

Darian Mensah has thrown 106 passes for Miami and completed 94 of them. The 88.7% completion rate comes with 1,211 yards, 14 touchdowns and no interceptions, 11.4 yards per attempt, and Sports Illustrated reports that no FBS player in at least 30 years has been that accurate on 100-plus attempts through four games.

Clemson's side of the ledger is the contrast. Tait Reynolds, who replaced an injured starter and has started the wins over North Carolina and Cal (Yahoo Sports), has completed 54 of 84 passes for 521 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. The Tigers have scored 21.0 points a game; Miami has scored 51.8 and allowed 9.0, though 77 of those points came in a 77-7 win over Florida A&M.

CollegeFootballData sees the same gap. Miami's offense grades +0.564 PPA per play with a 59.4% success rate; Clemson's is at -0.037 and 33.6%. Clemson's defense is the steadier unit, -0.045 PPA allowed to Miami's -0.005, and SP+ rates Miami 25.7 and Clemson 4.9, a 20.8-point gap.

Death Valley is familiar ground for the quarterback: Mensah completed 27 of 41 passes for 361 yards and four touchdowns in his previous game there (Yahoo Sports). The forecast near kickoff is 84°F and overcast, with 8 mph wind and a 29% chance of rain (Open-Meteo), which clears no weather flag.

The total is the Buckeyes' own scoring average. Ohio State has scored 56, 23, 59 and 42 points, 45.0 a game, and the 45.5 at DraftKings is the lowest total of any game this Saturday that includes a ranked team. The number is built around Iowa's side of the argument.

Iowa has allowed 0, 13, 0 and 19 points, 32 in four games, 8.0 a game, and won 20-19 over Michigan last Saturday. Two of those opponents were Northern Iowa, an FCS team, and Northern Illinois, so the sample has soft spots, but Michigan's 19 is the only score above 13.

CollegeFootballData grades Ohio State's offense at +0.408 PPA per play with a 55.1% success rate, and Iowa's defense at -0.041 PPA allowed, with opponents succeeding on 31.6% of plays (Ohio State's own defense allows 37.8%). The Buckeyes' lowest point total, 23, came in a 24-23 loss to Texas on Sept. 12.

Individually, it is Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith against a defense that has not allowed more than 19. Sayin is 83-of-115 for 1,206 yards, 10 touchdowns and one interception; Smith has 33 catches for 617 yards and seven touchdowns, 154 receiving yards a game. Iowa's Hank Brown is 66-of-97 for 700 yards and five touchdowns. The forecast at Kinnick is 62°F and clear with 8 mph wind (Open-Meteo).

Los Angeles has its ace set for Game 1. Tarik Skubal has 158.2 innings, a 2.72 ERA, 186 strikeouts and 27 walks in 26 starts, split between Detroit (2.79) and the Dodgers, who acquired him before the deadline (2.61 over 10 starts). His xERA is 2.94, close to the ERA.

Atlanta's answer is not a starter. Manager Walt Weiss has said the Braves will use an opener, with left-hander Brent Suter the expected choice and Grant Holmes a likely follow-up (MLB.com). Chris Sale, who might otherwise have started, threw 21 pitches in relief on Thursday to close the Wild Card Series.

The workload before Friday's open date: seven Braves relievers threw 8.5 innings across Wild Card Games 2 and 3. Didier Fuentes pitched both nights (21 and 13 pitches), Holmes threw 28 pitches Thursday, and Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias each pitched Wednesday. These are workload notes, not availability reports.

The other number is heat: Open-Meteo forecasts 102°F at 1:00 PM PT with 4 mph wind, a WIS of 1/7, because the temperature alone adds a point.