Ohio State football vs. Michigan State: Defensive grades

The Ohio State football team won their first road game of the season 49-20 over Michigan State. That score is deceiving though. The defense actually didn’t allow all 20 points as the first MSU touchdown was courtesy of a pick-six early in the game.

This may have been the best game that the defensive line has played this year. Michigan State ran the ball 20 times for just 7 yards. The defensive line just plugged up all the holes and didn’t let the Spartans get to the second level. They were really good with their pass rush too.

Mike Hall Jr. had 3 tackles and 2.5 sacks, showing once again that he is the best defensive lineman that the Ohio State football team has. Jerron Cage also had himself a sack. Taron Vincent had a tackle for loss. Simply put, the defensive line was really good.

Tommy Eichenberg once again led the team in tackles with 8 of them. He also added a half-sack and a pass knocked down too. Steele Chambers was not available for this one, so Cody Simon stepped in and played well in his stead, recording 3 tackles. He was one of the players I was watching heading into this game.

I’m starting to get concerned about the cornerbacks for the Buckeyes. Most weeks, it’s been Denzel Burke who has been getting burned for big plays and touchdowns. He actually wasn’t too bad on Saturday. It was Cam Brown who was the big problem.

Brown gave up one of the touchdowns in the first half and got called for several pass-interference penalties. He looked lost out there and eventually got replaced by JK Johnson, who didn’t look much better. I think the Buckeyes officially have a cornerback problem.

That’s something that they need to work on during the bye next week because it’s something that could end up hurting this team against a better team.