Ohio State football: 5 reasons OSU bounces back against Nebraska

1. The Buckeyes will find a way to run the ball in order to keep the Cornhuskers’ offense off the field

There no hiding from the Buckeyes’ woes in rushing offense anymore. It was thought that this offense would easily excel in rushing the ball this season with the return of two of the better rushers in the Big Ten a season ago but the opposite has happened instead. The Buckeyes are seventh in the Big Ten in rushing offense.

The Buckeyes have been a leader in rushing offense in the conference annually up until this season.

It’s been the team’s biggest mystery that has everybody scratching their heads. Yet, it still doesn’t get brought up enough as everyone kind of just expected it to show up out if nowhere.

We know that the personnel is there in Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins to get the job done as they had before but it still has not happened yet.

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In hopes to find the root of the problem, it’s worth looking at the national rankings to find where the Buckeyes rank in the country in terms of rushing attempts per game. Sure enough, the Bucks rank a mere 55th in the country in rushing attempts per game. Though the Buckeyes have been great passing the ball this season, it hasn’t fared better results overall.

The Buckeyes ranked 30th last season where they saw some efficient rushing from their running backs. Their most successful seasons were in 2014 and 2016 where they ranked inside the top 20 in rushing attempts per game. The Bucks made the playoffs in both of those seasons and won the championship in the 2014 season.

It’s been well noted that Urban Meyer likes to have a hand in how the plays are ran but that hasn’t always been positive.

This is especially obvious now that he does not having a mobile quarterback like he had before with J.T. Barrett in order to run his style of offense. The team seems to be lost on how to utilize the run game along with the pass. The Bucks may very well still be in an identity crisis.

Running the ball will be imperative in this game as the Cornhuskers excel offensively. The Bucks will need to keep the Cornhuskers off the field in order to save their defense from getting shredded multiple times over.

This means running the clock by running the ball over and over again. The Cornhuskers rank 16th in the nation in total offense. Expect the Buckeyes to keep the clock moving by running the ball more heavily this weekend.