Big Ten championship: 5 reasons Ohio State will crush Northwestern

2. Buckeyes will be running

Another aspect of last week’s game that went unnoticed was the Buckeyes’ effectiveness in the run game. This was clearly not the hero of the game by any stretch but it played a big role in the Buckeyes’ success on offense. The Buckeyes rushed for 171 yards and a touchdown.

The backs were quite efficient considering they ran for about five yards per carry. Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins shared the carries at almost an even split as Weber had 13 carries to Dobbins’ 12.

Weber was much more effective on the ground in this one as he had a touchdown and almost 100 yards on 7.4 yards per carry.

Weber returning was a welcome sight as he mysteriously disappeared from the prior week’s game against Maryland. He had sustained an injury and was held out of that one which caused Dobbins to tote the rock an absurd 37 times.

This makes it less surprising that Weber was more effective considering Dobbins was used as far as they could use him against Maryland.

Northwestern is fair against the run but not great.

They rank just behind TTUN in the Big Ten in rushing defense as the fourth best. They allow a decent four yards per carry on average. This is entirely manageable considering the Buckeyes have ran on two of the top three rushing defenses in the conference. The rushing offense combined for 171 yards against TTUN last week and totaled 120 yards and a touchdown against Michigan State. Weber had over 100 yards in that game.

Mixing in the run along with the passing game has been a noticeable focus for the Buckeyes in the last few weeks.

Haskins could easily have thrown for around 500 yards against TTUN but they stayed committed to keeping the run game rolling as well. Expect the Buckeyes to not let anyone forget that they can run the ball as they take on Northwestern this weekend.