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No. 10 Ohio State was able to keep its Big Ten and College Football Playoff hopes alive with a 26-6 win over No. 18 Michigan State on Saturday, but the final score is misleading. Ohio State may have won by 20, but the truth is the Buckeyes offense, and the outcome of the game is an unorthodox decision by Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio. One that is backfired on the coach and his team.
Trailing 7-6 in the third quarter, the Spartans were buried in their end zone. A punt had pinned them at the 1-yard line, and after going nowhere on three plays, the punt team came out. And that's when Dantonio told them to do something strange. Michigan State intentionally snapped the ball over the punter's head and out of bounds for a safety. It gave Ohio State a lead 9-6, but while the Spartans surrendered two points, it was a ploy to flip the field position.
Ohio State pinned Michigan State inside the 20-yard line six different times, making it nearly impossible for Michigan State to move the ball and get points on the board. So Dantonio took the risk of giving up points because he trusted his defense to stop Ohio State and get the ball back in better field position.
Michigan State's kicker kicked the ball out of bounds on the ensuing kickoff, giving Ohio State the ball at midfield. The Michigan State Defense did its job and forced a punt, and again Ohio State pinned Michigan State inside its 5-yard line. A bad snap in the end zone resulted in Ohio State recovering the ball in the end zone for a touchdown, and that was game over.
Here are four takeaways from this game.
1. Dantonio's decision was a smart one. I know that it is easy to judge decisions on the results and make no doubt about it, the results for Michigan State were disastrous. It went from one point to another, but it was not because of the decision. It was because of Michigan State's execution following the decision to take the safety.
If the kickoff does not go out of bounds and Michigan State's defense gets the same stop, that's bad in Ohio state touchdown.
If Michigan State's center does not snap the ball directly into a moving receiver, etc.
The decision was fine. The results and everything that happened afterward was not.
2. Ohio State punter Drue Chrisman was the best player on the field today. His day got off to an awful start, too. Chrisman's first punt was shanked so badly it ended up in the 15th row behind the Michigan State bench. And it only went five yards before doing so.
But he is well enough, and absolutely dominated the game as much as punter can. Chrisman punted nine times for 340 yards. That's only an average of 37.8 yards per punt, but it's not the average that mattered, it was the investment. Chrisman placed six of his nine punts inside the Michigan State 10-yard line.
The Spartans had nine possessions in the second half on Saturday, and their average starting field position was 9-yard line. Chrisman placed five consecutive punts at the MSU 5-, MSU 6-, MSU 3-, MSU 1- and MSU 2-yard lines. It was that kind of punting clinic – and let's not miss Ohio State's gunners getting down to the ball – that led to Dantonio deciding to take a safety to improve his team's chances.
Ohio State's defense is fixed. The Buckeyes held Michigan State at 274 yards and 6 points, and that's great, but I do not think it means anything. I felt before the game started that Ohio State would win this game comfortably simply because the flaws in its defense are not the kind of things that Michigan State offense is built to take advantage of.
Truthfully, I'm not sure if there is any reason for this Michigan state offense. Brian Lewerke is banged up and can not throw. Rocky Lombardi offers mobility, but its accuracy is more than 10 yards. The Spartans also have no rushing attack to speak of. Seriously, Michigan State finished with 54 yards rushing on the day, and 47 of them came on one Lombardi draw.
So while this performance might help Ohio State's confidence on defense – I would not say the problem solved just yet.
4. Ohio State needs to figure out how to run a ball without a mobile QB. I do not think it was a coincidence that J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber found out more about Tate Martell came into the picture when Dwayne Haskins was in. Ohio Haskins 'ability to a runner. Haskins' ability to a runner. So they're going back and forth.
Yet Ohio State keeps going to it. I'm not sure why the Buckeyes are so stubborn about just lining up and running the ball, but they are. If they want to figure out if they want to have a more explosive pbading attack with Haskins, or they are more likely to be using Martell, who is more of a JT Barrett type of QB than Haskins can be? .
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