Ohio State football: 5 reasons the Buckeyes will beat Iowa

2. The Buckeyes will once again put their dominance in the run game on display.

The past two games have been a bit of an abnormality for the Bucks. With the passing offense rolling the way that it has, the rushing offense has taken a back seat. Subsequently, people seem to forget how much the rushing offense contributed to the Buckeyes getting to this point and allowing this kind of production to exist.

Dobbins was seemingly a second thought in the last two Buckeye victories. Yet, Dobbins still managed to accrue almost 200 yards total in those two games combined on 25 combined carries. Who knew that being so productive could possibly mean being the second fiddle?

The Hawkeyes have been known for their defense and the root cause for that has been star middle linebacker Josey Jewell. He has carried the defense almost entirely himself as his 42 solo tackles almost doubles his next best teammate and he has the team high in tackles for loss with 9.5. Jewell leads the Big Ten in tackles for loss.

Aside from Jewell, the Iowa defense is solid but nothing the Bucks can’t handle. Ohio State just put up 39 points against the second best scoring defense in the Big Ten and one of the top five best in total defense. Iowa is ranked eighth in the Big Ten in total defense and rushing defense. This group won’t be a walk in the park but it certainly won’t be an enormous challenge either.

Now that Barrett is back in serious contention for the Heisman trophy, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Urban Meyer continue to ride the wave with the passing game. However, it does pay to remember what built them up to this point which was the effectiveness of the run game which keeps defenses honest. Expect Ohio State to keep Dobbins and Weber involved in what could be a run-based script on Saturday.