It Sounds Basic, But The Battle Up Front Will Determine the Outcome of Ohio State-Penn State

By Tim Shoemaker on October 22, 2014 at 10:10 am
Michael Bennett will be key in Saturday's game.
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James Franklin revealed a pretty startling factoid about his offensive line Tuesday on the Big Ten coaches teleconference that unless you live in State College, you probably wouldn't know.

"We've got one scholarship offensive tackle in the senior, junior and sophomore class," he said. "We have no seniors, one junior and no sophomores. So if you look, in three years we only have one scholarship offensive tackle in the entire program. That's pretty unique and pretty unusual."

Franklin said there are several contributing factors to why this is the case. The scholarship reductions from the Jerry Sandusky scandal are certainly part of it, but the Nittany Lions have also had players leave the program.

Undoubtedly, the lack of depth and talent is why Penn State's offensive line has struggled so much to protect quarterback Christian Hackenberg and open up holes for the running game this season.

So far, the Nittany Lions have already surrendered 20 sacks, which ranks 13th in the Big Ten ahead of only Illinois. They also rank last in the conference in rushing at just over 93 yards per game.

Not exactly an ideal situation with Ohio State coming to town Saturday as the Buckeyes' defensive line features two players, Michael Bennett and Joey Bosa, who are likely high-round NFL draft picks.

"I think it's a huge factor in the game, but it is every week," Franklin said of the battle in the trenches. "To me, you look up front — O-line, D-line and how those matchups are — whoever is the most successful up front on both on either side of the ball usually has the best chance of being successful."

"They're playing at a high level," he continued of Ohio State's defensive line. "You look at the production that they're having — not only individually with a guy like Bosa — but really across the board."

In Penn State's last game — an 18-13 loss at Michigan — Hackenberg was sacked six times. It was somewhat similar to last year's matchup between the Nittany Lions and Ohio State, where the Buckeyes got to Hackenberg four times in a 63-14 rout.

Getting pressure against a player of Hackenberg's caliber will play a huge part in determining Saturday's winner.

"It's gonna be a big priority and we saw how that worked out last year," Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry said Monday. "We got after him a little bit and we had some success there so we're gonna see what we can do against them. I know our D-line is pretty hungry so we'll get after it."

But Penn State's defensive line is pretty good, too.

It has recorded 16 sacks on the season and the Nittany Lions have the Big Ten's No. 1 total defense, scoring defense and rushing defense.

With five guys on its roster with at least a pair of sacks, Penn State's balance along its defensive line makes it difficult to key on just one player.

"Number one rush defense in the country. Very well-coached up front," Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said Monday. "Good personnel up front."

And although it has looked better in recent weeks, Ohio State's offensive line is still far from a finished product. After all, it is the same unit which gave up seven sacks in a Week 2 loss to Virginia Tech.

Communication for the Buckeyes could come in to play, as well. Playing on the road at Beaver Stadium certainly is no easy task.

"The last two weeks, we haven't played as good offensively up front as we expect," Meyer said. "That will really surface this week. We have to play better on the offensive line than we did (against Rutgers) Saturday."

A simple concept will go a long way in determining Saturday's winner. We'll have to wait until then to find out who has the upper hand.

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