Ohio State defensive line poses challenge to Rutgers

Head coach Kyle Flood has been at Rutgers for 10 years, joining the Rutgers football team in 2005 as the offensive line coach.

In addition to coaching the position with the Knights, Flood played on the offensive line at Iona College and coached units at Hofstra and Delaware.

That being said, in all of Flood’s experience preparing for defenses and devising game plans for his offensive lines, this week’s challenge against Ohio State’s defensive line looms as one of the most difficult, he said.

“They are the best defensive line that we’ve seen in the three years since I’ve been the head coach. As the offensive line coach for seven years prior to that, I don’t know that we faced a group as talented and as deep,” Flood said. “They play nine guys on their defensive line, and they are all very talented. They are very good up front and it’s not because of one guy. They have got a collective group that’s very talented.”

The Buckeyes are one of the top teams in the Big Ten at getting tackles for loss, combining for 32 TFLs this season — 17 of which came from the defensive line exclusively.

Senior fullback Michael Burton said they have some of the same qualities that set apart other Big Ten defensive linemen. Their size should not go unnoticed, but they do other things well, too.

“They are a very good defensive line. I think they are very strong, big and physical. They are very explosive players,” Burton said. “Their discipline is one thing I noticed — they are rarely out of position. That’s what a lot of great defenses are. They are rarely out of position. That’s one of the first things that popped up to me on film.”

Flood said the containment of OSU’s defensive line starts with Joey Bosa. Bosa is second in the Big Ten with seven tackles for loss and has added three and a half sacks so far this season.

Junior left tackle Keith Lumpkin shared in Flood’s assessment of Ohio State’s defensive line. But although he thinks highly of the Buckeyes’ front, Lumpkin knows it still falls on the Rutgers offensive line to do its job.

“This is a very good defensive line and one of the best I’ve seen,” Lumpkin said. “We just got to bring our A-game every play, get on these guys, just block them, stay on our assignments and let the running backs do what they gotta do — let Gary [Nova] do what he’s got to do.”

But for a defensive line that moves well and is able to cause problems in the backfield, it all starts with how the offensive line can move to account for it. If you can’t keep up with how well they move, it will cause problems all day, Lumpkin said.

“It just starts with problems in the run game. If you got guys that can penetrate a lot, or do two-gap moves, you gotta really focus on your footwork,” he said. “If you don’t have proper footwork, you will not block them. They will cause disruption all game … and it won’t be pretty.”

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