Even though Ohio State was coming off its worst defensive performance of the season, the Buckeyes’ defenders were confident that they would get things turned around on Saturday.
All three levels of Ohio State’s defense – even its vaunted defensive line – struggled mightily last weekend against Iowa, when the Buckeyes allowed the Hawkeyes to pass for 244 yards, rush for 243 yards and score 55 points.
All three levels of Ohio State’s defense performed much better, however, on Saturday against Michigan State, when the Buckeyes limited the Spartans to 131 passing yards, 64 rushing yards and only three points, as Ohio State earned a 48-3 win.
Saturday’s dominant defensive performance started with the defensive line, which recorded six sacks – and brought pressure on many other occasions – against Michigan State quarterbacks Brian Lewerke and Messiah deWeaver. Even though the Buckeyes had only one sack against Iowa – in part because Nick Bosa, their best defensive end, was ejected in the first half due to a targeting penalty – Ohio State’s pass-rushers were confident that they would get back to harassing the quarterback against the Spartans.
"I knew we could take advantage of their weak spots on the O-line," Bosa said. "Just putting him in pressure situations and making him run, because he loves to roll out. I think we did a great job of that."
"I think we got more back to the basics, playing base defense and playing man-for-man and stopping the line of scrimmage," said Ohio State defensive end Sam Hubbard. "We were maybe doing a little too much slanting, trying to be a little too fancy (against Iowa), but the coaches really did a great job correcting us and obviously we played great up front."
At the linebacker level, there was reason to be concerned about how Ohio State would play on Saturday, considering that two of the Buckeyes’ three starting linebackers – Jerome Baker and Dante Booker – were both absent from Saturday’s game due to injuries. Yet even though the Buckeyes had to use a patchwork group of linebackers – which consisted of moving Chris Worley to weakside linebacker, Tuf Borland replacing him at middle linebacker and Malik Harrison starting at strongside linebacker – they had substantially better play from that position than they did in their much-maligned performance against Iowa.
Harrison, who made his first career start on Saturday, said the linebackers worked hard as a group this past week, knowing they needed to play at a higher level.
"The emphasis was just to get better. I don’t think we was really prepared (against Iowa), but I think this week, we really focused. Focused more. We watched more film, we came in on our own and watched more film together."
While the Buckeyes were without two of their veteran leaders at the position, Harrison said the presence of Worley – one of the Buckeyes’ team captains – helped him feel prepared to take on a bigger role.
"He’s always talking to us whether that is on the field, or off of it," Harrison said. "He just tells us to be calm out there and that the game is just like practice."
On the back end of Ohio State’s defense, Buckeyes defensive backs Damon Arnette and Damon Webb led a big bounce-back performance for their unit by combining to come up with three takeaways. While Arnette had both an interception and a fumble recovery before being knocked out of the game with a thigh bruise, the biggest defensive highlight of the game from Webb, who intercepted a pass and returned it 47 yards.
The safeties, like the linebackers, were a group that was singled out for its poor play against Iowa. Webb said that gave them added motivation, too, to work harder and make a statement this week.
"We just had to get back to work," Webb said. "We had to block out everything and come together as a team, and I would definitely say it made us stronger."
By forcing three turnovers on Saturday, Ohio State tied its takeaway total from the past four games combined, having forced zero turnovers in its previous two games against Iowa and Penn State. Webb wasn’t surprised that the Buckeyes made more takeaways on Saturday, however, because of the way they worked on creating turnovers during the week of practice.
"We emphasized it in practice. I think this week in practice, we had like 17 takeaways altogether (including scout-team work), so we definitely emphasized it and it showed on the field."
While Ohio State’s defense hasn’t forced takeaways this year with as much regularity as it did last year, Webb is up to a team-leading three interceptions on the year. Having picked off only one career pass prior to this season, Webb said making plays on the ball is an area he has worked on specifically, and that work has paid off, showing itself once again on Saturday.
"I’ve definitely just been putting more effort into it and getting deeper on the post," Webb said. "Once the ball is in the air it’s just you and the ball, the receiver doesn’t really matter. That’s what I have started doing and it has been working really good for me."
As a result of Ohio State’s excellent defensive play on Saturday, combined with the performance of its power-running offense, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio suffered the worst loss of his lengthy tenure as the Spartans’ coach – an unexpected outcome, given that the Spartans entered Saturday’s game with a 7-2 record, with wins over Penn State and Michigan and ranked 12th – one spot ahead of Ohio State – in the College Football Playoff rankings.
Dantonio said after the game that "it was a disappointing outcome, obviously," but also said the Buckeyes deserved credit for how well they played, forcing the Spartans into a poor performance.
"When you look at the football game, the other side of the field got a wave of momentum going and things just didn’t go right," Dantonio said. "We didn’t separate with our receivers. We didn’t throw the ball accurately. We couldn’t protect the quarterback. We couldn’t run the football. Defensively, we didn’t tackle well. We didn’t pressure their quarterback enough and couldn’t stop the run. Consequently, a meltdown happens, and you have to give Ohio State a lot of credit. They came in ready to play, and obviously, we could not match up with them in terms of the momentum of the game."
Now, the Spartans find themselves in a similar spot to where the Buckeyes this past week, needing to figure out how to pick up the pieces and finish their season strong after an embarrassing road loss. They know that’s not going to be easy – especially now that they likely blew their shot at making the Big Ten Championship Game – but they also believe that they, like Ohio State this past week, will learn from defeat.
"It’s going to be difficult to do," Dantonio said. "There’s going to be something to learn from every experience our guys have. We have a lot of young players. But sometimes you just have to play better, and we’re going to learn our lessons in those areas."
"We have to play better," Lewerke said. "We have to step up to the stage when it’s there. There was a chance here for us to go to the Big Ten Championship, so we just needed to step up and play better than we did. Even if we know this is a really good team, we still have to come out and play like we have been playing all season."
