The Ohio State football team has another top-five matchup. The Buckeyes have to take on Penn State. Just two games ago, they had to play Oregon. Unfortunately, we all know how that ended up. They ended up losing the game by just one point. It was a game they could have won.
Coming into this weekend, the Ohio State Buckeyes want to make sure that doesn't happen again. They want to make sure they come away with a win. This is a borderline must-win. If they lose the game, they can likely still make the College Football Playoff. They won't have a shot to win the Big Ten though.
Ohio State needs to change a lot of things from last week. They barely survived a Nebraska team that was coming off a 56-7 loss to the Indiana Hoosiers. All the Buckeyes could muster is a 21-17 victory. They should have been more dominant coming off a bye week.
If the Buckeyes want to win this matchup with the Nittany Lions, there are three things they have to do. If they are able to do these things, they should be able to get a win. Because Penn State is better than they have been in the past few years, they have to make sure they do all three in order to win.
The first key to this game is to have a better effort running the football.
1. The Ohio State football team must have 150+ yards rushing
The Nebraska game was the worst rushing output the Buckeyes have had all season. They only were able to gain 64 yards on 31 carries. That was good enough for just 2.1 yards per carry. That is not going to get it done against a good team, and Penn State is a good team.
Ohio State has to figure out the running game. They had been one of the best rushing teams in the country prior to last week. Having a new face at left tackle certainly had something to do with it, but it shouldn't have been a big enough factor to see that poor of running numbers.
Quinshon Judkins should be fully healthy now that he's another week removed from hand surgery. He scored a receiving touchdown against the Cornhuskers but ran it ten times for just 29 yards. The Buckeyes need both him and TreVeyon Henderson to be more of a factor.
The offense has been a big area of focus for Ryan Day this week in practice. After spending last week working with the defense more, Day has been with the offensive side of the ball, trying to fix what they need to do. Running the ball to control the pace of the game is a must against Penn State.
If Ohio State runs for over 150 yards, they will be in great shape to win this game. A few big runs should be expected in that yardage amount. The second key to the Buckeyes winning this game is reconfiguring their offensive line.