Three things the Ohio State football team must do to win vs. Alabama

#2: Continued dominance from Trey Sermon

The second thing that the Ohio State football team must achieve for them to defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide is for Trey Sermon to continue his run of dominance. In the past two games, Sermon has seemingly come out of nowhere and become the elite powerhouse back that has come to be expected from an Ohio State team.

In the Big Ten Championship against the Northwestern Wildcats, Sermon set the single-game rushing record for Ohio State. He finished the game with 331 yards and two touchdowns on only 29 carries.

While it was not quite the record-setting night that Sermon completed against Northwestern, he still had his way with the Clemson Tigers’ run defense. He finished the game with 193 yards and one touchdown on 31 carries.

Sermon did not finish with nearly the amount of rushing yards that he did against Northwester, however, he was an essential part of the Buckeyes’ offense. His elite rushing was something that Ohio State could lean on to get them out of tough spots. Along with this, the huge threat that he posed in the run game left the defense vulnerable to the passing barrage that Justin Fields unloaded on them.

This is something that needs to be continued against the Crimson Tide. If Sermon can not get the run game going, Alabama will be able to focus on defending the passing game and making life for Justin Fields very difficult.