Ohio State Football: 3 keys to victory vs. Wisconsin in Week 9

2. Box Jonathan Taylor in

Boxing Jonathan Taylor in doesn’t necessarily mean him not running for 100-plus yards — that’s hard to do. Michigan State limited Taylor to 80 yards, but that probably won’t happen here. It isn’t because Ohio State doesn’t have the talent to do so, though.

Boxing Taylor in means rendering his services ineffective. Ohio State wants to establish their offense right out of the gate. They want to take advantage of their home crowd, and score touchdowns early in the game. A fast Ohio State start means limiting possessions for the Badgers. As good as the Wisconsin power running game is, they haven’t defensive speed like this.

If the Buckeyes go tempo, that could mean the defense playing more snaps, but if the Badgers have to throw to get back into the game that limits Taylor’s carries as well.

This also means defending him on important downs. There’s little doubt Taylor might spring a 20-yard run or two, but he’s not running against South Florida — sorry, Charlie Strong.

Taylor’s going to need 25-30 carries to get 100 against Ohio State. The Buckeyes want to position themselves to make them the emptiest yards they can. They can live with Taylor running for 110 yards on 25 carries if 50 of them are on two runs. They want the Badgers to be in third-and-long or third-and-too-long to run Taylor. If you do the math those two 50-yard runs mean he had 60 yards on the other 23 — that’s what they want.