While Ohio State struggled to put away Wisconsin on Saturday night, the Buckeyes never trailed against the Badgers and ultimately held on for a 27-21 victory in the Big Ten Championship Game.
On a night where Ohio State’s offense committed three turnovers and struggled to consistently manufacture first downs – finishing the night with only 16 – what enabled the Buckeyes to nonetheless maintain control of the game and win their second conference championship game over the Badgers in four years?
The following three statistics played a big part in the Buckeyes’ success.
Ohio State has four offensive plays of more than 50 yards
Going into Saturday’s game, Wisconsin’s defense – which ranked No. 1 in the nation in total yards allowed per game entering the game – had allowed only three plays from scrimmage of 50 or more yards for the entire season.
The Badgers allowed more 50-plus-yard plays to Ohio State’s offense in Saturday’s game alone.
Ohio State’s first big offensive play came on its second possession, when J.T. Barrett and Terry McLaurin connected for an 84-yard touchdown pass. Two possessions later, Parris Campbell turned a screen pass from Barrett into a 57-yard touchdown. Two possessions after that, J.K. Dobbins ran for a 77-yard gain that set up a 1-yard Barrett rushing touchdown one play later.
Dobbins added another big play on Ohio State’s second possession of the second half, when he ran for a 53-yard gain that set up a 27-yard field goal by Sean Nuernberger.
While the Buckeyes struggled to put together consistent scoring drives in Saturday’s game, those four big plays were enough to lead the way for Ohio State to 449 total yards and 27 total points – both the highest totals allowed by the Badgers this season.
Wisconsin defense held to 1.9 yards per carry
Ohio State’s rushing defense had another dominant performance on Saturday, holding a Badgers offense that had averaged 5.3 yards per carry for the season to well under half that.
The Badgers were held to only 60 total rushing yards on 32 carries, marking the first time all year that Wisconsin had rushed for less than 100 yards in a game.
Badgers running back Jonathan Taylor, who had averaged seven yards per carry and more than 150 rushing yards per game entering Saturday’s game, was held to a season-low 41 yards on 15 carries.
Combining the Buckeyes’ strong defensive performance against Taylor and the Badgers with their strong performance against Saquon Barkley and Penn State in their October win over the Nittany Lions, Ohio State held this year’s two first-team All-Big Ten running backs to just 85 combined yards on 36 carries – an average of 2.4 yards per carry – this season.
Wisconsin scores only one offensive touchdown
Twenty-one points on the final scoreboard usually indicates that a team’s offense scored three touchdowns in a game, but that wasn’t the case for the Badgers on Saturday.
Wisconsin scored its only offensive touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter, when it put together an 11-play, 52-yard drive following an interception of Barrett by Leon Jacobs.
The rest of the Badgers’ points came on a pick-six by Andrew Van Ginkel, two field goals by Rafael Gaglianone and a two-point conversion pass from Alex Hornibrook to Troy Fumagalli.
On a night where Ohio State scored only 27 points – less than the Buckeyes had scored in any of their previous games this season – it was the Buckeye defense’s ability to keep Wisconsin’s offense out of the end zone, even holding the Badgers to a field goal on a drive that started just 11 yards away from the end zone after Van Ginkel recovered a Mike Weber fumble, that ultimately allowed Ohio State to win their second Big Ten title over the Badgers in four years.
