You have to have an identity to be successful as a football team or a football player or a coach. You could be Braxton Miller, and specialize in mind-bending rescues of broken plays while using your feet. You could be Ezekiel Elliott, and be great at maximizing yardage every time you touch the ball. You can be Jim Tressel, and fund new and creative ways to win football games while looking pretty godawful in the process.
Three times this season, Ohio State faced running backs that had been tearing up defenses and making their mark on the national scene, and three times the Silver Bullets were able to hold them to well below their season averages in yardage gained on the ground and limited their effectiveness overall. Tonight's performance against Ronald Jones of USC, holding him to 64 yards rushing at 3.4 yards per carry, was just a continuation of the Buckeyes not allowing themselves to be beaten on the ground.
The first instance of this dominance against big name running backs was in late October; Saquon Barkley was still considered a Heisman front runner, and it was assumed that he would at least cause some damage to the Buckeyes on the ground. That, however, ended up being the wrong assumption, because though Barkley got a return TD, that was about all he was able to get going against Ohio State. Final stat line? 21 rushes, 44 yards, 2.1 yards per carry. Not too shabby.
In the Big Ten Championship, Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor tested the Ohio State defense. Taylor was one of the more underrated running backs in the country by the end of the season; 1800 yards rushing, nearly seven yards per carry, five games of 150 yards or more (and one with 149 yards) all spelled a legitimate challenge to the Buckeyes. Or not! Because in the championship game, Taylor racked up only 41 yards on 15 carries.
Ronald Jones was the latest victim of the Buckeye d-line and linebackers. He came into the Cotton Bowl with nearly 1500 yards rushing and over six yards per carry. After an hour with Ohio State, Jones had accumulated only 64 yards on 19 carries. Jones hadn't rushed for less than 120 yards in a game since late October, but was kept in check for the entire game, either losing yardage or gaining nothing on over a quarter of his carries. With no running game to keep Ohio State's secondary honest, and a defensive line able to create pressure and contain the run with minimal help, the Buckeyes were able to cover for the loss of Denzel Ward and limit Sam Darnold's effectiveness.
It was an extraordinary performance against what was considered to be one of the best running backs in the country. But for the Silver Bullets, it was par for the course.
