Matchup of the Week: Michigan will need to scheme around Chase Young

There is no doubt that the Michigan Wolverines are playing there best football of the season heading into their matchup with Ohio State. The only question is whether or not that will be good enough.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are the No. 1 team in the country for the reason. Simply put, they have been the most dominant teams in the country for the entire year with only one half of any sign of weakness against Penn State last weekend.

One of the reasons this team is so good is because of the utter dominance of one player: DE Chase Young. The past two games that Young has played in were the two biggest games the Buckeyes have played in this season: against Wisconsin and Penn State. He totaled 7 sacks 9 tackles for loss, and 4 fumbles in those two games. He also now has the most sacks in the history of Ohio State football with 16.5 sacks... In 9 games.

He has all the tools to completely change the outcome of every game that he plays in and is deservedly being considered for the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in 2020.

Young has dominated on both the strong and the weak side of the defense. He is a threat to disrupt every single play an offense throws out there, especially anything in the passing game.

Of course, the Michigan Wolverines have been moving the ball around offensively especially well through the air over the past couple weeks.

Michigan QB Shea Patterson has thrown for 750 yards, 9 TDs, and an INT in the past two weeks against Michigan State and Indiana.

Now Patterson and this Michigan offense will face their toughest test of the season. This entire Ohio State defense is full of future NFL players. They have the No. 1 ranked defense according to sports-reference. They allow 91.5 yards per game on the ground and only 217.7 passing yards a game.

But it all starts with slowing down their best player, and that is without a doubt Chase Young. The offensive line needs to do whatever they can to contain him.

That starts with double and maybe even triple teaming this guy. They’ve got to have a running back on his side in pass protection at all times, even to just slow him down for a moment. Patterson needs to get the ball out of his hands quickly, there will be no holding onto the football for more than three seconds if the QB wants this team to succeed on Saturday.

This is the biggest game of every season for Michigan, and this year it's going to boil down to stopping the biggest name on the defensive side of college football: Chase Young.