COLUMBUS, Ohio – J.K. Dobbins and the Buckeyes showed toughness and explosiveness in the running game against a stout Michigan State defense.

The first quarter did not go to plan for the Ohio State ground attack, and after 15 minutes, they didn’t have a single rushing yard.

Michigan State posed the toughest test to date for an Ohio State rushing attack that came into the game averaging 282.2 rushing yards a contest. The Spartans, on the other hand, boasted one of the nation’s top defenses against the run, allowing only 56.4 rushing yards a game.

The Spartans were able to dominate the line of scrimmage in the first quarter, and it was looking like the Buckeyes would struggle to move the ball on the ground the entire game.

“Just stay with it,” Tony Alford said on the message to his guys after the first quarter struggles. “J.K. does a great job just to stay with it and don’t get frustrated and just continue to do your job and just keep punching and punching and punching the wall and eventual it is going to break.”

The break between the quarters was all Ohio State needed to regroup and match Michigan State’s intensity. The Buckeyes came out with a vengeance in the second quarter, rushing the ball successfully to the tune of 163 yards.

The highlight of the quarter came near the end of the quarter when Dobbins was able to break through the Michigan State front line and outrace the secondary for a 67-yard touchdown to push the score to 24-10.

Dobbins was able to showcase his physical style of running throughout the night, but the ability to finish long runs has become the new normal for the junior running back.

“Yeah, I mean that was a home run hit right there that I think really changed the game,” Ryan Day said on the touchdown. “But up to that point we started to get it going a little bit but that kind of shifted and turned it into I think almost a 300-yard quarter.”

Day noted that this home run ability has been a refreshing addition to Dobbins’s game.

“…there were times in the past where maybe he would get a little tired when he’d get to that 40-yard range, but he came out the back end of that thing and that was really good to see,” Day said.

Michigan State may have won the first round against Ohio State, but it was the Buckeyes who settled in and threw the haymakers for the rest of the game. The Buckeyes would finish the game with 323 rushing yards, more than double what Michigan State had allowed in their first five games combined.

Despite the early struggles, Dobbins was confident the team would be able to right the ship, noting that a lot of the miscues were self-inflicted. He was also confident that they just had to keep grinding in order to get things rolling.

“That’s what we want to do. We want to break their will,” Dobbins said. “I’m going to keep running hard the whole game, so you’ve got to see me for four quarters, you better be ready, you better be in shape.”

Outside of Dobbins's 172 rushing yards, Master Teague was able to add 90 rushing yards on 14 carries. Justin Fields added another 61 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown to the mix.

Even in the success, Dobbins is convinced the performance was not as clean as it could have been. In line with the message that the team has been preaching for some time now, Dobbins also stated that this team has not reached their full potential yet.

“Once we clean up all our mistakes, I’ve got to clean up some things in my game as well, then we will keep rolling,” Dobbins said.