Cardale Jones and Ohio State Will Fall to Wisconsin in Big Ten Title Game

Cardale Jones may very well have a great future as a quarterback, but he will not engineer a victory over the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten Championship game. 

Jones is being pressed into action after J.T. Barrett suffered a season-ending injury to his ankle on Saturday in the Ohio State Buckeyes' 42-28 win over the Michigan Wolverines. ESPN College Football has the bad news:

Barrett is a freshman second-stringer who was only playing because starter Braxton Miller was injured during a summer practice. The Buckeyes are now down to their third-string quarterback. Anyway you spin that, it just isn't encouraging heading into the postseason.

The nature of the Bucks postseason depends on what they are able to do against the Badgers on Dec. 6.

A win would presumably put them right in the thick of things for the fourth spot in the College Football Playoff rankings. That's assuming things stay to form with the top three teams (Alabama Crimson Tide, Oregon Ducks and Florida State Seminoles).

Ohio State would have a great case for making the final four with a quality win over a team like Wisconsin to close out its Big Ten season. Much of those hopes will be riding on the broad shoulders of an untested quarterback.

Jones is a sophomore who has thrown just 19 passes in two seasons. He'll likely be asked to throw more than that on Saturday alone.

He's known for his remarkable athleticism, per teammate Jeff Heuerman and others. Heuerman told Bill Landis of Cleveland.com that "He's a long strider. He's pretty big, about 250 pounds, 6-6, and he brings a lot to the table. He's an incredible athlete, he's got a super strong arm."

Beastly Ohio State offensive lineman Michael Bennett says Jones has the faith of his teammates, per the program's Twitter account:

All of that sounds great, but why wasn't he picked as the starter when Miller was hurt before the season started? A redshirt freshman—albeit a talented one—got the nod over him. That says something about Jones' development and ability, doesn't it?

Now he is going to be thrown into the fire with just a week to prepare for the biggest game of the Bucks season, and of his life.

That's a tall task, even for a man as big as Jones.

It's not just Jones' inexperience that will be an issue. It's also the way his defense matches up with the Badgers offense. Specifically how it will struggle to contain the nation's leading rusher, Melvin Gordon.

The Badgers Heisman Trophy candidate finished up the regular season with 2,260 yards rushing. He topped 200 yards five times this season, and that includes a 408-yard explosion against Nebraska on Nov. 15. At the time, it was a single-game NCAA rushing record, but the mark was broken the following week by the Oklahoma Sooners' Samaje Perine.

ESPN's SportsCenter puts Gordon in some elite company:

Coming into the rivalry game against Michigan, the Buckeyes weren't exactly doing a great job against the run. The team ranked 42nd overall in that category. It allowed a lowly Wolverines team 121 yards on the ground. That's not horrible, but Michigan isn't Wisconsin.

What will happen when Gordon and his dominant offensive line begin to pound the Bucks front seven? Expect Wisconsin to control time of possession. Its dominance of the ball will force Jones to press to make plays.

That will lead to turnovers and a disappointing loss for Ohio State in the conference title game. Oh, what could have been.