Following Ohio State’s demoralizing loss against Michigan State, head coach Urban Meyer was understandably disappointed. Meyer pointed to the battle at the line — on both sides of the ball — as a reason why the Spartans prevailed in Columbus Saturday. The Buckeyes couldn’t get their offense going, especially on the ground. Michigan State, meanwhile, ran the ball 51 times for 203 yards.
“We lost the line of scrimmage,” Meyer said. “And obviously you start loading up the box in those kind of situations, and we were.”
On the offensive side, losing at the line was one of the main reasons why Ezekiel Elliott only had 12 carries, including just two in the second half.