Ohio State football: Defensive line has to be elite in Sugar Bowl
By Ryan Stano
Ohio State football is known for its strong defensive line play. It will have to be elite in the Sugar Bowl if they want to beat Clemson.
The Ohio State football team has a long line of great defensive linemen. Joey Bosa, Nick Bosa, and Chase Young are just some of the elite defensive linemen who have played for the Buckeyes. They have some great players on the defensive line in this year’s team too.
Clemson is no pushover though. Their offensive line will be the best line that Ohio State has faced all year long. The Tigers are doing a great job of opening holes for Travis Etienne. He has run for 23 touchdowns so far this season. Ohio State will have their work cut out for them.
Haskell Garrett and Tommy Togiai will have to win their battles on the inside. As the defensive tackles, they have to be the ones to plug the middle. Plugging the middle is the most important part of stopping the run for any team. Garrett is by far the best defensive tackle Clemson has seen too.
Just because Ohio State hasn’t faced an offensive line as good as Clemson doesn’t mean they can’t dominate the line of scrimmage. The Buckeyes are really good at stopping the run too. They are the sixth-best defense at stopping the run in the country.
The Ohio State football team has to get pressure up front.
Stopping the run isn’t the only thing the defensive line is going to be asked to do. They have done a good job at times of pushing the pocket back into the quarterback’s face up the middle. While they don’t have a ton of sacks, that forces the QB to have to move around more than they are used to.
That won’t work against Trevor Lawrence. Ohio State only averages 2.8 sacks a game. They are going to have to bring him down at least four or five times if they want to win this game. Zach Harrison is going to have to grow up a bit and capitalize on his talent.
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The Ohio State football team should have their full arsenal of defensive lineman available for this game. They didn’t have that against Northwestern. The defensive line will be one of the biggest reasons the Buckeyes either win or lose this game.