Three keys to Ohio State Football beating Notre Dame
By Ryan Stano
2. The Ohio State football team needs to get pressure on Sam Hartman
Notre Dame’s offense is centered around Sam Hartman not making mistakes. The Notre Dame quarterback has 13 touchdown passes and zero interceptions so far in four games. A lot of that is due to a lack of pressure he is feeling in the pocket. Ohio State needs to change that.
Hartman can carve up defenses if he’s able to set his feet in the pocket. The defensive line has to push the pocket back into his face and actually get some sacks. That has been a problem up to this point, so this might be some wishful thinking heading into this game.
If the D-line does get some sacks though, that tilts the game heavily into Ohio State’s favor. The secondary has less pressure on them because Hartman would be running for his life. I’d like to see Jack Sawyer show up at some point this season. He’s been borderline invisible out there.
Ohio State typically doesn’t have issues getting pressure with just four linemen, at least in past years. That needs to be the case on Saturday night, even though the defensive line has just 3 sacks all year up to this point. It’s time for those big-time players to play like big-time players.
The final key to winning this game is something the Buckeyes struggled to do last year in big games.