[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”]
[et_pb_row admin_label=”row”]
[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]
Ohio State sophomore wide receiver Chris Olave hauls in a touchdown in the second quarter against Wisconsin to take a 10-0 lead Saturday. Ohio State won the game 38-7. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Managing Editor for Multimedia
Ohio State and Wisconsin entered Saturday’s matchup with the No. 3 and No. 12 scoring offenses in the country, combining for an average of 89.4 points per game.
They’d score 0 through the first 23 minutes.
It was a war of attrition early in an unrelenting torrential slog in Columbus, but No. 3 Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) eventually found its footing against No. 13 Wisconsin (6-2, 3-2) with a 38-7 victory behind 264 rushing yards and four Chase Young sacks.
“It was one of those games where you felt like it was getting set up where all of a sudden you’re in the fourth quarter, it’s going to be a hard game,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “We knew that. So we talked to our team about it. We challenged them and big-time players step up in big-time games. And a lot of big-time players did.”
Ohio State sophomore wide receiver Chris Olave parted the skies for the Buckeye offense at the end of the first half, with a 27-yard touchdown on a pass over the middle from sophomore quarterback Justin Fields. Olave made it his second straight two-touchdown performance with a 4-yard fourth quarter score that put the icing on the cake for the Buckeyes.
Olave’s first score made it 10-0 heading into halftime, with a 49-yard field goal from junior kicker Blake Haubeil providing the ice breaker midway into the second quarter.
Ohio State began the game with 24 rushes for 23 yards in the opening quarter, and Fields attempted just two passes, his first throw coming with 30 seconds remaining before eventually finding a rhythm.
“It was raining sideways. It was hard early on,” Day said. “It was a mess out there. In a game like this you can’t be foolish and you can’t take chances early in the game. The defense is playing good you can’t let your ego get in the way.”
He’d finish with 167 passing yards and three total touchdowns, including a 10-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, set up by a 28-yard rush from junior running back J.K. Dobbins. The score made it 17-7.
Dobbins got the better of Wisconsin junior running back Jonathan Taylor in what was billed as a battle of the Big Ten’s best two backs.
In the third quarter, Dobbins ran 34 yards down the right sideline, staying in bounds to deliver more punishment to the Badger secondary, before punching it in on the following play with a 9-yard score to make it 24-7.
He’d start the fourth quarter with another score, this time from 14 yards out, effectively ending the game with a 31-7 Buckeye lead. Dobbins finished with 163 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Taylor was largely bottled up, with just 52 yards on 20 carries for the game, his lowest total of the season.
“J.K. ran with a chip on his shoulder. Jonathan Taylor is a wonderful back but he felt like he wanted to be the best running back in the game today,” Day said.
The first half of Buckeye and Badger games have been chock full of offensive highlights this season, but with a wet field, it was the defenses that shined on the cloudy afternoon.
Wisconsin sacked Fields four times in the first half, and added another in the second, with redshirt senior linebackers Chris Orr and Zack Baun extending their team lead, Orr with nine and Baun with 7.5 on the year.
The Buckeye defensive line had five sacks of its own, with junior defensive end Young accounting for four of them. The nation’s sack leader had two in the first half, and three tackles for loss, before adding two strip sacks in the second half, one recovered by junior linebacker Pete Werner.
Young’s four sacks tied a school record, and with 13.5 on the season, he ended the game just one shy of Vernon Gholston’s program high.
After just 26 first-half pass yards for Wisconsin junior quarterback Jack Coan, he’d double that with a 26-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver A.J. Taylor on the first Badger possession of the second half. The score was set up by a blocked punt that handed Wisconsin its best field position of the game at the Ohio State 30-yard-line.
“The team definitely has more confidence now, but we can’t get complacent at all. We have to keep working because we know there can be one week where we can slip up,” Fields said. “And of course nobody wants that to happen, so we just keep on rolling and just keep on practicing.”
Ohio State has its second bye of the season next week, but returns for a matchup with Maryland at home Nov. 9.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_section]
