Ohio State’s offensive line can win the battle in the trenches
Wyatt Davis with just one of the many examples of Ohio State's offensive line mashing folks in the second half pic.twitter.com/ozjuphKsgZ
— Bill Landis (@BillLandis25) October 28, 2019
Clemson has a lot of young talent on the defensive line, but it’s not the stout and game-wrecking unit it’s had over the last couple of seasons. It’s also a bit of an undersized group that isn’t as effective in moving the line of scrimmage. And defensive coordinator Brent Venables knows it.
So much so that he’s re-tooled the way this defense is built, and the way that it attacks. It’s no longer a rush four and expect to get to the quarterback. Instead he uses more defensive backs and hybrid players to cause havoc with zone blitzes and varied looks all over the field. We’ve talked about it before, but Butkus Award winner Isaiah Williams is the featured guy that lines up all over the place.
But here’s the deal. If Ohio State can stick with the running game and start to lean on that defensive front, it has the horses to start to make hay and move the pile to open up lanes between the tackles for J.K. Dobbins. You’re probably going to see a lot of No. 2 on offense in this one, and for good reason.