Ohio State vs. Wisconsin: How to Solve the Melvin Gordon Problem

COLUMBUS, Ohio — After watching film of Wisconsin in preparation of this weekend's Big Ten Championship Game, Ohio State linebacker Curtis Grant was left with one question: "Are we playing the Green Bay Packers or are we playing Wisconsin?"

This isn't a "Could Kentucky beat an NBA team?" scenario, but Grant's confusion between his college opponent and its professional counterpart isn't unfounded.

Watching the Badgers run the ball, it's easy to mistake them for an NFL squad—between both their star running back and the players blocking for him.

With only conference championship weekend standing between now and the presentation of the Heisman Trophy, Bodog (h/t Odds Shark) lists just two players with odds to take home college football's most prestigious individual award.

One is Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, who's favored to take home the trophy with odds of 1-10.

The other? Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon.

The Badgers back's 5-1 Heisman odds are well-deserved, too, seeing as Gordon leads the nation with 2,260 yards and 26 rushing touchdowns.

He also lays claim to the greatest single-game performance of any Heisman candidate, rushing for an NCAA record-breaking 408 yards and four touchdowns in Wisconsin's Nov. 15 win over Nebraska. That's the type of performance that the Buckeyes are dreading on Saturday, the type that keeps them up late at night longer than the unproven nature of first-time starting quarterback Cardale Jones does.

For Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell, Gordon's evisceration of the Cornhuskers conjured up memories of former Michigan running back Tim Biakabutuka, who gashed the Buckeyes for 313 yards when Fickell was a defensive lineman at OSU in 1995.

"I've been a part of one that's not been like that and I don't ever want to relive it," Fickell said. "I know as a defense, there's never any more of a sick feeling than to see things like that."

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If there is anything that can give the Buckeyes defense confidence heading into Saturday's showdown, it's that while Wisconsin has seemingly always been well known for its rushing attack, Ohio State has had recent success bottling up the Badgers.

Two years ago, it was Montee Ball headlining the Wisconsin run game as an 1,800-yard rusher who would go on to be a second-round pick by the Denver Broncos. While he rushed for 191 yards in the Buckeyes' 21-14 overtime victory, it took him 39 carries to do so and he only managed to find the end zone once.

Last season, Ohio State got its first look at Gordon as a feature back, holding the then-sophomore to 74 yards in a 31-24 Buckeyes' win.

In fact, OSU limited the Badgers to just 104 yards in the last meeting between the two teams—well below Wisconsin's per-game average of 283.8 rushing yards in 2013.

"You look at last year, you look at two years ago, they've had great running backs there," Fickell said of the Badgers. "We've had success against it. It comes down to playing team defense."

But while the Buckeyes have been able to do just that recently against the Badgers, the same can't be said about their last month of the season. Starting with its Nov. 8 statement win over Michigan State, Ohio State has endured a disturbing trend of allowing big games to the Big Ten's stable of talented running backs.

It was on that day that Spartans back Jeremy Langford gashed the Buckeyes for 137 yards and three touchdowns. A week later, Minnesota's David Cobb ran for 145 yards and three scores in OSU's 31-24 win.

Indiana's Tevin Coleman tallied 228 yards and three touchdowns against the Buckeyes, and even Michigan's Drake Johnson ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns before tearing his ACL in the third quarter of last weekend's rivalry game.

Altogether, Ohio State has surrendered an average of 199.5 rushing yards per game in its last four contests.

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So how does a struggling rushing defense contain the nation's best running back? Do the Buckeyes even have a chance to do so? Fickell insists they do.

While Gordon has rushed for 100-plus yards in all but one of the Badgers' games this season, the Ohio State co-coordinator has seen teams limit the 6'1", 207-pounder's big-play ability. Fickell knows that he'll need to get a similar effort from the Buckeyes this Saturday in order to keep Ohio State in the conversation for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

"The teams that have done as good of a job as they can—even last week [Minnesota] didn't let him out," Fickell said. "If you can force him to stay inside, you know he's going to get some yards, but you've got 11 guys that have to help get his ass down."

Buckeyes cornerback Doran Grant stated OSU's game plan is even simpler than that.

"Pursue him and get him on the ground," the defensive back answered when asked how the Buckeyes can stop Gordon.

Isn't that easier said than done?

"That's what we have to do," he replied.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.