Three keys for the Ohio State football team to beat Nebraska

The Ohio State football team is finally ready to play. After losing to Oregon, they had to wait an entire week to get that bad taste out of their mouth. They had their second bye week and they used it to try to fix the issues that caused them to lose to the Ducks, mainly on defense.

Defensively, the Buckeyes know they have to be better. It starts up front with the defensive line getting more pressure on the quarterback. The Ohio State Buckeyes have not had the sack numbers that they expected this season. They didn't get a single sack against Oregon.

Offensively, Ohio State actually played pretty well against the Ducks, except for one bad turnover. Quinshon Judkins fumbled the ball, and that led to an Oregon touchdown. Judkins just had surgery on his hand and is expected to play, but I wouldn't be shocked if they held him out this week.

That's because the Buckeyes get a Nebraska team this week that got crushed last week by Indiana. A 56-7 loss doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that they can hang with Ohio State. Still, this could be a trap game for the Bucks. They travel to Happy Valley to take on Penn State next week.

There are three keys to the Ohio State football team winning this game. If they can do these things, they will win Saturday without too many issues. The first key has to do with the offensive side of the ball.

1. Ohio State needs to make TreVeyon Henderson a factor

We just talked about Judkins' problems. He fumbled against Oregon in a costly way and is coming off surgery in the bye week. Ryan Day could end up being cautious with him and allowing him to sit this week to let his hand heal for the Penn State game next weekend.

That would mean that TreVeyon Henderson would be getting the majority of the carries on Saturday. Henderson was actually the most effective back the Buckeyes had against the Ducks. He had ten carries for 87 yards in that game and was breaking off chunks of yards easily.

If the Buckeyes want to beat the Cornhuskers, he needs to be a factor in this game too. Ohio State needs to feature him in the run game early. He needs to be over 100 yards on the ground for Ohio State to win this game as comfortably as they should. Ohio State is a run-first team, after all.

Keeping Henderson as a focal point in this game will help them in the passing game too. Ohio State hasn't really used play-action passes to take deep shots a lot this season. Running Henderson early could give them a chance to do just that. Gaining easy yards is what they're after.

The second key to the Buckeyes winning this game has to do with Ohio State's defense.