Ohio State Preps For Indiana With Lessons Learned From Rutgers
By Joe Russo
Ohio State prepares for Indiana next, as the Hoosiers are coming off a major upset over Michigan State.
Indiana can be credited for pushing next week’s matchup against Ohio State to a featured time slot on ESPN. Their upset of Michigan State makes the Oct. 8 game not just more appealing to viewers, but better for Urban Meyer to keep his team from overlooking the Hoosiers. To get ready, we’ve got lessons learned from Ohio State’s beat down of Rutgers to prepare for Indiana.
1. J.T. Barrett Knows How to Bounce Back
Ohio State’s first drive ended with an interception, something Barrett has now done twice on the year. Apparently, Barrett has a short memory in a good way. He then proceeded to throw a touchdown pass on four of the next five drives with all four scores going to different receivers. In fact, 12 different players caught a pass for the Buckeyes.
Against Indiana, this kind of toughness and moxie is needed. That’s not because the Hoosiers are a sleeping giant or potential Big Ten spoiler, but because sometimes when you’re the best team on the field and you’re the best player for that team, you prove why it’s true. Indiana is riding high after knocking off Michigan State, so Barrett and the offense need to remind them who is the heavyweight in the ring on Saturday.
2. Mike Weber is the best thing for Barrett
Maybe I was wrong for arguing that Barrett needs to run the ball more. Apparently, Mike Weber needs to run the ball more. Fourteen more carries and 144 more yards put Weber on a blistering pace. Remember, Rutgers entered the game ranked 26th nationally against the run.
Weber’s 495 yards put him on pace for 1, 485 yards over the 12 game regular season. If he keeps his per game pace of 123.75 yards, that could be 1,608 by the Big Ten Championship game, 1,732 by the College Football Playoff Semifinal, and 1,856 by the National Title game. There aren’t many Ohio State runners that can beat those numbers and Weber could easily break Maurice Clarrett’s freshman rushing record.
3. Larry Johnson is the Best Assistant in the Big Ten
Through the first 3 games, the secondary had made up for the fact that the defensive front simply could not generate any pressure. Yes, Greg Schiano deserves a ton of credit for taking his own inexperienced group and making them the most dangerous secondary in the country. Larry Johnson, though, lost his most experienced tackle and has just as many fresh faces. The week to week improvement from the Buckeye front has been nothing short of special.
Nick Bosa, Robert Landers, and Tyquan Lewis registered sacks against Rutgers and limited the Big Ten’s leading rusher to 40 yards. Those 40 yards were more than they allowed Scarlet Knight quarterback Chris Laviano to get through the air, where his 33 passing yards are a testament to both the pressure of the front and the skill of the secondary. Like our comments about Barrett above, Larry Johnson’s group needs to show Indiana that they are just simply in another class of football than the Hoosiers are.
4. Fast Starts Matter
Just ask Michigan State. They surrendered 21 second half points to Indiana and ultimately lost in overtime to a team that, on paper at least, should have never been in the game to begin with. Even the box score in that game doesn’t indicate what exactly went wrong. By letting Indiana stick around, Michigan State kept an underdog within a punchers chance of a win. They just happened to stick around long enough to win in overtime.
Ohio State has started fast all season. The Barrett interception to start the game was bad, yes, but then the scoring binge begun in a hurry soon after. Ohio State will always get the best shot from their opponent each and every week.
Next: Buckeye Homecoming No Contest Against Rutgers
To fight off giving an underdog enough hope and energy to pull out an win, like Indiana did last week, heavily favored teams must get off to a great start. For the Buckeyes, this is especially true against the resurgent Hoosiers.