Matchup to Watch: Indiana's Defensive Backs vs. Ohio State's Receivers

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The Ohio State Buckeyes come to Bloomington with the eighth best passing offense in the country and tops in the Big Ten. They are averaging 352.2 yards per game and feature three of the better receivers in the country in Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and Jaxon Smith-Njiba. The Hoosiers entered the season with a deep and talented secondary, but with starters Tiawan Mullen and Reese Taylor missing time the last two games and their status still up in the air on Saturday, it makes this the matchup to watch.

If Mullen and Taylor are unable to go for the Hoosiers or are limited for any amount of time the chance for an upset gets that much smaller. Despite playing in only four of the team’s six games Mullen leads the Hoosiers in pass breakups with three. Taylor has added one breakup. The Hoosiers have gotten the backups Noah Pierre and Jaylin Williams as well as Josh Sanguinetti some experience and they have come up with big plays over the last couple games. Pierre and Sanguinetti both intercepted passes against Michigan State last week.

At safety, Raheem Layne and Devon Matthews has played well while huskies Bryant Fitzgerald and Marcelino Ball-McCrary have made impact plays on games.

Depth will be an issue for IU at defensive back heading into the game against Ohio State and even if Mullen and Taylor play, it is a tall task to shut this passing game down or at least contain it.