My Thoughts.....Michigan State

     

         
While the first five games between the Buckeyes and Spartans since Urban Meyer became Ohio State’s coach were each decided by 12 points or less, with Michigan State winning two of those five, Saturday’s game was completely lopsided in Ohio State’s favor.  The Buckeyes, behind a stellar performance from their offensive line, racked up 335 yards rushing against what was the Big Ten's top run defense.  J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber combined for 27 carries and 286 yards.  The rushing performance didn't just benefit the Ohio State running backs, though. Quarterback J.T. Barrett carried nine times for 55 yards and two scores on the ground, adding a pair of passing touchdowns as well.   Those statistics pretty much tell the story for themselves. Ohio State dominated the line of scrimmage in Saturday’s game, as its offense efficiently moved the ball down the field while its defense stifled Michigan State’s offense.  The Ohio State offense gashed the MSU defense, ranked third in the nation against the run, for 335 yards and almost eight yards per carry.  Ohio State committed only two penalties for 27 yards, a pleasant surprise, notwithstanding the bogus targeting call on Dre’Mont Jones.  J.T. Barrett bounced back somewhat with 183 yards passing and two touchdowns.  Alas, he also threw two picks, but only the first one was the result of a bad throw; the second pick was the result of an outstanding play by the Michigan State defender.  The offensive line had their best game of the season, giving Barrett time to throw.  But, the run blocking was the best I’ve seen in quite a while.  Nobody touched Weber on his long touchdown runs of 47 and 82 yards.  The only fault I could find is I thought Weber should’ve gotten at least a couple more carries in the second half to give him a shot at getting 200 yards.  Dobbins also had large holes to run through as well, as he picked up 124 yards.  He became the fourth Ohio State freshman, the third true freshman, to top 1000 yards his first season, joining Robert Smith and Maurice Clarett.  Speaking of the offensive line, senior Billy Price started his 51st consecutive game, which is the most in Ohio State history.

The Ohio State Buckeyes recovered in resounding fashion from the loss at Iowa by drubbing the Michigan State Spartans 48-3.

            The defensive front seven played probably their best game of the year, down two starters, Jerome Baker and Dante Booker.  Chris Worley slid over from middle linebacker to the outside, Tuf Borland started in the middle and Malik Harrison got his first start at the other OLB position.  After an adjustment period on the Spartans’ first drive, the unit jelled.  After a decent drive on the first possession of the game, getting down to the OSU 38, the Spartans crossed the fifty-yard line only two more times the entire game.  The vaunted MSU ground game didn’t have a chance as Ohio State limited them to a mere 64 yards.  MSU quarterback Brian Lewerke, an efficient passer, had only 131 yards on 18 completions.  The Ohio State defense had only seven interceptions entering the game, came up with two by corner back  Damon Arnette and safety Damon Webb.  Arnette actually had two picks in the same drive, as his first was nullified by the aforementioned bad targeting call.  But then Arnette intercepted an errant Lewerke throw at the Ohio State seven-yard line.  Lewerke had to run for his life the entire game against the dominant OSU front seven.  The Buckeyes recorded six sacks for 57 yards ,along with nine tackles for loss totaling 60 yards.  Even the special teams excelled.  Kickoff man Blake Haubell had his best game, no kicks went out-of-bounds, and the kickoff coverage was the best I’ve seen all year.

            Ohio State will likely end up playing in the B1G Championship game against Wisconsin and more than likely, will clinch the berth next week since Michigan has to travel to Wisconsin. 
In the event of a four-way tie between Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State, the first tiebreaker at play would be records against the other three teams, which would eliminate Michigan (losses to Michigan State and Penn State) and Penn State (losses to Ohio State and Michigan State). Ohio State would then get the championship game berth because of its head-to-head win over Michigan State.  Michigan State would need Ohio State to lose to BOTH Illinois AND Michigan to go to Indianapolis, while Penn State would need the above to happen, PLUS Michigan State to drop another game.  Michigan would need a win over Ohio State, PLUS Michigan State to drop a game AND Penn State to drop a game.  That is very unlikely, since MSU plays Maryland and Rutgers and Penn State plays Nebraska and Maryland.  Those three teams haven’t won a conference game against a B1G team with a winning record.
In the event of a three-way tie between Ohio State, Michigan and either Michigan State or Penn State, the first tiebreaker at play would be records within the division, since all three teams would have 1-1 records against each other. That would once again eliminate Michigan and Penn State – since Ohio State’s loss to Iowa and Michigan State’s loss to Northwestern came against teams from the West division – and once again, Ohio State would advance to the championship game over Michigan State because of its head-to-head win.