My fear exactly. Size, strength and depth will wear us down in the second half. Hopefully we’ll overcome the advantage OSU has up front but imo if we lose it will be in the trenches.
I'm actually not worried about OSU outmanning us physically, in the traditional sense that you're referring to. I think the only signs, all year, that we're susceptible to that came for about 24 minutes in the second half against Michigan. And I think that happened due to a very specific few things...
1. We had to replace one of our best linemen the day before the game. If pure overall physicality were an issue, Michigan would have given us problems from the get go. They didn't, we dominated them in the first half. If not for a bogus offensive PI call, we likely would have been up 21-3 on them at halftime.
2. The main struggle that happened was 2 elite, All American level defensive tackles getting to us for a while, up the middle, in the 2nd half. The worst place a pocket passing quarterback like Rourke can get pressured is up the middle. Again, remember we had less than a day to replace one of our top linemen. Ohio State's defensive tackles are good, but they're not as good as Michigans. And give Shanahan and Bostad a full 2 weeks to prepare with the new line...I don't think giving up pressure up the middle will be a glaring weakness on Saturday.
3. Despite this, the game only got close because of 1 uncharacteristic bad mistake by Rourke...and 2 very uncharacteristic drops by Sarratt.
Further, Michigan's running game, while not quite as dynamic as Ohio State's, is still pretty darn good. We shut it down. Michigan State's is good, we shut it down. Washington's had been pretty good, shut it down. Nebraska's had been decent, shut it down. I'm not saying we'll shut down Ludkin and Henderson, maybe far from it. But nothing from what they've done and what we've done points to them dominating our DLine with their OLine and RBs.
My two biggest concerns are Will Howards passing ability. And overall OSU's big play capabilities. We've been prone to stretches where we get picked apart through the air. Washington's QB had success for a while, MSU QB had some early successes, even NW's QB got us for some chunk yardage and some points. Our defense has been opportunistic with turnovers, and our front 7 has been really good, so we've overcome that to take games over. Against an offense and well balanced and explosive as OSU's, Howard scares me a bit. And then Ludkin/Henderson's big play capability.
If we are able to stay away from giving up any big 50+ yard TD plays, and if Rourke protects the ball, I think we're in this game until the end...if not control the game for long stretches.
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