Ohio State football: 3 takeaways from ugly win over Northwestern

1. Michigan-Ohio State will be very, very interesting

Northwestern did a lot of things well today, especially in the first half. They didn’t throw the ball a lot but didn’t really need to. They made running the ball their focal point, with 59 total carries on the day. The Wildcats had pretty good success with it, too, until Ohio State began fully committing to defending the run, at which point the offense started to slow down.

Defensively, Northwestern did a great job stuffing the run throughout the game and defended the pass well enough to work with the elements and hold Ohio State down. While they lost the game, they did a lot of things well.

This, again, was a 1-7 Northwestern.

The things they did well, unbeaten No. 4 Michigan does incredibly well. They have a top run defense in the country. They have Blake Corum, who’s torn through every defense he’s encountered on the ground. They even have a passing attack that’s able to get going if the opposing defense fully commits to the run, as Ohio State did today.

I’d still consider the Buckeyes the better team, however, if they can’t pass the ball, it’s an entirely different story. Northwestern may have laid the blueprint for Michigan to beat Ohio State, and we’ll find out later this month.