Buckeye Defensive Line Chucks Taylor

The Big Ten Championship Game was billed as a matchup between two sensational freshman running backs, Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins and Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor.

Dobbins lived up to his end of the billing, rushing for 174 yards and earning the Most Valuable Player award. Across the field, Taylor was nearly invisible, picking up just 42 yards on 15 carries. In a game that came down to the final minutes, that was the difference between a Big Ten championship and a bitter near-miss.

Taylor entered the game averaging more than seven yards every time he carried the ball. Saturday night in Indianapolis, his longest carry went for exactly seven yards. The Badgers’ vaunted ground attack managed just 1.9 yards per rush. That all came down to the play of Ohio State’s defensive line, which continually pushed the Badger offensive front backwards.

“Up front we’re very aggressive,” said DT Robert Landers. “We get off the ball and then coach (Larry) Johnson always preaches ‘make a new line of scrimmage, make a new line of scrimmage.’ I felt like we executed our game plan very well tonight.”

“We knew we weren’t going to be able to do too many movements because they just come right at you,” said DE Nick Bosa. “We just had to knock the line of scrimmage back. That was the biggest goal and we got it done.”

Accomplishing that goal also meant silencing some of the questions that had lingered around the team since its shocking 55-24 loss in Iowa City.

“We just focused on winning our gap. People thought we couldn’t do it because of the Iowa game,” said DE Jalyn Holmes. “We just had to win our gap and just play as hard as we can, run to the ball and hit (Taylor) early and often.”

While Taylor gets the headlines, the Buckeyes knew coming in that there was more to the Wisconsin attack than just the freshman.

“Not only Taylor, but they’ve got a good offensive line,” said DT Tracey Sprinkle. “So we knew we had to use our speed to get in the backfield and that’s what we did all night.”

While the Buckeyes were moving fast, the Badgers started slow on the ground, and then only got slower from there. They ran for 56 yards in the first half, averaging 2.9 yards per carry, but seemed to wear down throughout the evening. In the third and fourth quarters, Wisconsin put up only four rushing yards on 13 carries, or about 11 inches per run.

The difference may have been the Buckeyes’ depth along the defensive line.

“We just kept pushing. We had waves of guys coming in,” said Holmes. “Me and Tyquan (Lewis) started off, but then Sam (Hubbard) and Nick (Bosa) and guys like BB (Landers), Davon (Hamilton), Dre’mont (Jones), Tracey (Sprinkle), just different guys coming in and giving them a different look and we just kept doing our job.”

“I feel like it’s a very big advantage. For me, personally, I don’t know if I could play a whole game and sustain my level of play how I’m able to do now,” said Landers.

“Each wave there is no drop-off. If anything, sometimes the tempo of the game actually accelerates with the next wave that comes in. It allows us to stay fresh, stay fast, and wears O-linemen down because they don’t rotate up front like we do.”

“I think it really showed this game,” said Bosa. “Their defense was gassed and whenever we get gassed, we just get a quick breather and somebody just as good as us goes in. So it’s pretty awesome to have somebody fresh in on every play.”