Imagine being a freshman quarterback and coming off your first career win over Texas State. You're riding the high of that win, you're off to the start you dreamed of and cloud nine isn't so far away.
Now imagine knowing your next test will come against arguably the best defensive line in the entire country, a feared unit that's shaped its entire reputation on terrorizing quarterbacks. Oh yeah ... and also in front of close to 105,000 rabid fans rooting against you.
That's the situation Rutgers signal-caller Artur Sitkowski finds himself in.
Rutgers pays a visit to Ohio State at 3:40 p.m. Saturday in both teams' Big Ten openers. After sacking Oregon State's quarterback five times in the first half during Week 1, Ohio State's defensive line will look for more of the same facing Sitkowski.
Unfortunately for the freshman, the Buckeyes show no signs of slowing down.
"We're going to get after it," defensive tackle Dre'Mont Jones said. "We're all hot. Chase (Young), myself, Nick (Bosa), (Jonathon) Coop (Cooper). When we're all hot, I don't think anybody can play with us."
As a whole, the Buckeyes' defense knows it didn't perform to its own standards in Week 1, when it gave up 31 points to Oregon State. They plan to have the kinks worked out before the Scarlet Knights arrive at the Shoe.
"We didn't play up to our standards," Jones said. "Our first job is to stop the run. We didn't stop the run. What'd they have, 176 yards? All in the second half? We didn't (stop the run). It's little things. But we can always develop from the first game."
Oregon State had success, not only on the ground, but with screen passes and reverses. The result was 392 total yards for the Beavers and 31 points. While the yardage isn't a backbreaking number, the point total is what's worrisome.
According to Cooper, Ohio State is aware of what it needs to work on. In fact, they've already started the process of fine-tuning things this week in practice.
"We realize that (Oregon State) kind of caught us off guard with the screens and reverses," Cooper said. "We've been practicing it more, just getting ready for it. Now that we have a good idea, especially after the first game, we'll be able to read it better."
The defensive line rotation features some of the best pass-rushers in the country. The only problem — if there is one — is that trait sometimes means overpursuing.
It could be some of the reason fans saw what they saw Saturday.
"It is hard because everybody wants to go out there and get to the quarterback," Cooper said. "But at the same time, you have to be cautious. We see how much the screens hurt us in games like Oregon State. So it's just kind of being aware of what team we're going up against and what they like to do."
Cooper said running to the ball, reading screens and trusting teammates to do their job has been reinforced this week in practice.
Over the last two years, Rutgers has fell twice to Ohio State by 58-0 and 56-0 finals. While the Buckeyes' defense will be looking for another shutout, their defensive line group will be looking to play within their means while keeping a close eye on Sitkowski at all times.
"It's a race to the quarterback," Cooper said. "Whoever can get there. You get there as fast as you can. (Against a freshman quarterback), we have that same approach. It's going out there and getting to the quarterback as fast as we can."
