Ohio State Football: 3 takeaways from big win over Michigan State

Ohio State football escaped East Lansing with a win over the Michigan State Spartans behind a strong defensive outing.

Finally, the athleticism that Ohio State has on defense is coming to speed and making the crucial plays they’ve been missing over the past couple weeks. The Buckeyes haven’t dominated a team on defense like this since their game against Tulane earlier in the year.

The offense held up against a strong Michigan State front-seven behind a huge performance from Mike Weber. The Buckeyes are often better when the ground game contributes and Weber made sure it got going today with 104 yards on 22 carries with a score. JK Dobbins struggled today with 28 yards on 14 carries for a two-yard average on the day. Ohio State has one of the more talented backfields in college football and they should with two rushers with 1,000-yard seasons on their belt.

Michigan State continues to struggle on offense and that’s mostly due to their lack of ground game. Neither Spartan quarterback has had the greatest of arms, yet this is their fourth game with more than 40 total passing attempts. The running game has to develop, yet in a game where they weren’t forced to pass to catch-up, they only ran the ball 18 times. Of those 18 attempts, surging running back Connor Heyward took only four for one yard and never even had a chance to establish the run.

On a brighter note, Michigan State looked good on defense and allowed Ohio State a total of 347 yards and held Weber and Dobbins to 132 yards on 36 carries. Quarterback Dwayne Haskins threw 39 times for 227 yards and a touchdown and that’s probably the best you can hold a player who has the arm talent of Haskins.

With the game over and Ohio State standing tall, here’s what I took away from the win.