The box score for Saturday’s game between Ohio State and Michigan State looked very different than the box score from most previous games between the Buckeyes and the Spartans.
While the first five meetings between the Buckeyes and Spartans since Urban Meyer became Ohio State’s coach were each decided by 12 points or less – with Michigan State winning two of those five – Saturday’s game was completely lopsided in Ohio State’s favor, as the Buckeyes won the game 48-3 and gained 524 yards while the Spartans gained only 195.
Those statistics pretty much tell the story for themselves – Ohio State dominated the line of scrimmage in Saturday’s game, as its offense efficiently moved the ball down the field while its defense stifled Michigan State’s offense – but the following three key stats can all be pointed as significant factors in the Buckeyes’ dominance.
Ohio State running backs get 31 carries
We’ve already written one story about it, but it's worth mentioning again after the Buckeyes ignored their running backs in their blowout loss to Iowa: the reason why Ohio State’s offense dominated Michigan State’s defense on Saturday was because it committed to its running backs.
J.K. Dobbins, Mike Weber and Antonio Williams received more than twice as many carries against Michigan State than they did against Iowa, when they got to run the ball only 15 times.
The running backs took advantage of those increased carries on Saturday, turning them into 292 rushing yards against a team that had allowed only 87 rushing yards per game to opposing teams entering Saturday’s game.
Weber, a redshirt sophomore, had the best game of his Ohio State career to date on Saturday, rushing for 162 yards and two touchdowns – both of the lengthy variety (82 yards and 47 yards) on nine carries. Dobbins led the Buckeyes with 18 carries and turned those into 124 yards, which was enough for him to become the third true freshman in Ohio State history to eclipse 1,000 yards rushing in a season.
Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had a productive day running the ball too, gaining 55 yards and scoring two touchdowns on nine carries, but unlike the previous game against Iowa – when Barrett ran the ball more times (14) than Weber and Dobbins (11) – Ohio State allowed its tailbacks to do the heavy lifting on Saturday.
Michigan State averages only 1.9 yards per carry
Coming off an atypically poor performance against Iowa last week, when the Buckeyes allowed the Hawkeyes to run for 243 yards on an average of 6.4 yards per carry, Ohio State’s run defense got back to its dominant ways on Saturday.
The Buckeyes held the Spartans to just 64 yards on 34 carries, marking the third time this season – previously achieving the feat against Indiana and Maryland – that Ohio State has held an opponent to less than two yards per rushing attempt.
Outside of a 20-yard run by running back LJ Scott and a 16-yard scramble by quarterback Brian Lewerke, Michigan State’s rushers were consistently bottled up in Saturday’s game. Six sacks by the Buckeyes played a big part in the final numbers – without the sacks, Michigan State would have had 121 rushing yards and 4.3 yards per carry – but Ohio State was nonetheless dominant against the Spartans’ ground game, holding Scott to only 30 net yards while the Spartans’ other running backs, Madre London and Gerald Holmes, combined for only 27.
Michigan State’s inability to run the ball effectively prevented it from stringing together effective drives, as the Spartans gained only 15 first downs – six of which came in the first quarter, when the Buckeyes started putting more backups in on defense – and reached the red zone only twice.
Michigan State’s Felton Davis III has zero catches
Against Penn State last weekend, Michigan State wide receiver Felton Davis III had 12 catches for 181 yards and a touchdown, which played a big role in the Spartans’ upset win over the Nittany Lions
Davis did not catch a single pass in Ohio State’s blowout win over Michigan State on Saturday.
In a game where Lewerke completed only 50 percent of his passes for 131 yards, Michigan State needed Davis – who was the Spartans’ leading receiver entering Saturday’s game, with 45 receptions for 586 yards and eight touchdowns – to step up and make some plays. Davis was shut out for the entire day, however, as Ohio State’s cornerbacks – Denzel Ward, Kendall Sheffield and Damon Arnette before he left the game with a thigh bruise – had what might have been their best game of the season.
