Ohio State football: 3 keys to beating Penn State
By Ryan Stano
For all of the great things Ohio State did on Saturday, the running backs were not a part of that. It’s true that Master Teague had two rushing touchdowns, but he also only had 41 yards on 12 carries. Trey Sermon wasn’t much better, only recording 48 yards on 11 carries.
It seems that Ryan Day isn’t going to change his personnel in the running game. While Steele Chambers did seem to give the Buckeyes a boost, it looks like it will be mostly Teague and Sermon this weekend. They both have to be better.
One way to do that is to have the offensive line perform better. They didn’t seem to play as a cohesive unit on Saturday. They didn’t do a good job of opening up holes for the running backs to get through. It would surprise me if that was the case this week though.
Ohio State has one of the best offensive lines in the country. It wasn’t their fault that both Teague and Sermon looked slow. Both are still trying to come back from injuries, with Teague nursing an Achillies and Sermon coming back from a knee injury.
If the Buckeyes can get their backs to combine for 200 yards or more on the ground, this game shouldn’t be in doubt. Justin Fields was absolutely incredible in week one and I wouldn’t expect him to be any different this week after making his first trip to Penn State.
Giving Fields the help he needs will make sure that the Buckeyes can’t be beaten in this game. That is of course as long as this last key is taken care of as well.