Ohio State football vs. Northwestern: Defensive grades

The Ohio State football team knew the weather conditions were going to make things tough against Northwestern. I’m not sure they expected them to be as tough as they were though. The Buckeyes ended up winning 21-7 thanks to the defense. Here’s how each unit played.

The weather conditions helped for sure, but the Buckeyes had more good play from the defensive line. While the sacks didn’t pile up like they did against Penn State, they made it hard for Northwestern to pass when they did try it a few times.

Northwestern did run for 206 yards in the game, but that was on a whopping 59 carries. The defensive line did a good job for the most part plugging up holes. This unit is starting to play some good football late in the year and they need to continue to do so.

Tommy Eichenberg just keeps having great games. He once again led the Ohio State football team in tackles with 13 of them, including one for a loss. He did a good job of firing in on run-blitzes to help stop the run in the second half. Steele Chambers added 8 tackles and a tackle for loss as well.

The Ohio State secondary didn’t get a lot of opportunities to defend passes. When they did, they did a good job of it, only allowing Northwestern to throw for 79 yards. What impressed me was Ronnie Hickman’s ability to crash down and stop the run.

Hickman had 10 tackles and was the second-leading tackler for the Buckeyes. He is known to be a big hitter and he played to that reputation in this one. Ohio State needs him to keep playing the run as well as he plays the pass, especially once Michigan comes to town.

The defense played solidly in a game that was built for them. We’ll see how they play next week against another bad team in Indiana.