Matt Tamanini Matt Tamanini is the co-managing editor of Land-Grant Holy Land having joined the site in 2016.

It is a battle of heavyweights, it is a battle of blue-bloods. On Monday, Jan. 20, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will face off in the championship game of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff. Through the first three rounds, Ryan Day's Buckeyes have looked dominant on defense and explosive on offense.

For former OSU great Marcus Freeman and his Fighting Irish, the recipe for success has been all about leaning on a suffocating defense and a gritty, physical offense. While it is difficult to imagine either team going through dramatic changes in the week and a half since they last played, there are some things that the Buckeyes will need to do to hoist the trophy in Atlanta late on Monday night.

While Ohio State ranks as the No. 12 scoring offense in college football, the Buckeyes' approach to that side of the ball has changed dramatically this season. With a mind set on a deep playoff run, Day and strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti worked out a plan to keep the guys as healthy as possible for as long as possible. And it seems to have been relatively healthy as the team rolls into its 16th game of the season -- a first in FBS football history -- the Buckeyes are relatively healthy.

One reason Ohio State has gotten through the season fairly unscathed -- save for the two major offensive line injuries -- is that the offense slammed its metaphorical and metaphysical foot on the break. This season, Ohio State ranks 123 out of 134 FBS teams in terms of the number of plays per game, at 62.7. They are only ahead of offensively challenged teams like Navy, Purdue, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Army, Michigan, and a few other also-rans.

To accomplish that, Day and Chip Kelly have only rarely utilized any no-huddle or up-tempo game plans, reserving those almost exclusively for the ends of halves. While the strategy has been frustrating to watch at times -- and counterproductive in others -- the methodical nature of the offense has gotten the team to the precipice of a national title with the vast majority of its roster intact.

But now that they are here, there isn't really any reason to keep the restrictor plate on. We have seen the Buckeyes execute impressive two and four-minute drills to end first halves this season, and while you can't go with that speed for an entire 60-minute game, given OSU's offensive weapons, it could allow them to surprise the Notre Dame defense, get them into advantageous matchups, and wear down a thinned out ND roster.

Beyond the schematic benefits that this would give the Buckeyes, Notre Dame is dealing with more substantive injuries than OSU is. In addition to the Irish's leading sacker Rylie Mills being out for the season, the offensive line and starting running back are beat up. So, the faster Ohio State can go -- and the less time they can give ND to rest -- the better things will be for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State won the Cotton Bowl against Texas by a seemingly dominant score of 28-14. However, the Buckeyes benefitted from some timely big plays. But, the game could also have gotten out of hand early on had the Buckeyes not figuratively shot themselves in the foot early in the first half.

In the game, OSU was flagged nine times resulting in 75 penalty yards. That included a devastating unsportsmanlike penalty on TreVeyon Henderson that brought the Buckeyes' promising second drive to a halt. Then a hold on Emeka Egbuka stalled OSU's third drive.

That is extremely out of character for this Buckeye squad. On the year, they are 15th nationally giving up only 39.7 penalty yards per game, nearly half of what they gave away against the Horns. Notre Dame is an incredibly tough team, so giving away possessions via penalties could come back to bite them, especially since the NCAA has apparently passed a a new rule that says that Ohio State is incapable of drawing penalties, especially of the holding variety.

On the season, OSU ranks dead last in FBS in terms of opposing penalties per game. At 29.1 yards per game, there is more than a 10-yard difference between the penalty totals, meaning that the Buckeyes are giving away an entire first down every game, despite being one of the most disciplined teams in the country.

Hidden yardage -- penalties, special teams, trick plays -- will likely be very important in determining the winner of this game, and the Buckeyes can't afford unnecessary penalties in a game of this magnitude.

Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love has rushed for 1,122 yards this season, but due to a knee injury suffered against Georgia, he was severely hampered in the semifinal against Penn State, rushing for only 49 yards on 11 carries. That means that ND quarterback Riley Leonard's running ability became even more important to the offense, even if the numbers didn't necessarily show it.

While the total rushing stats don't look good for Leonard (18 carries for 35 yards and a touchdown), that factors in the yards lost on Penn State's sacks. So in total, Leonard had 15 carries for 45 yards -- admittedly still not great, but on the season, Leonard has 866 non-sack adjusted rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns and is averaging 5.2 yards per carry.

While the transfer quarterback can throw the ball, he is probably even more dangerous as a runner, either on designed keepers -- which are a staple of this year's ND offense -- or on busted plays, as evidenced by many of these regular season highlights.

Now, Ohio State is no stranger to running quarterbacks, as the trio of playoff QBs Nico Iamaleava, Dillon Gabriel, and Quinn Ewers are all capable runners. Jim Knowles' defense has done a couple of things against those guys to attempt to keep their running proclivities under control. One of those things is a natural evolution of the defense. Throughout the season, the Buckeyes have begun to move Caleb Downs closer and closer to the line of scrimmage with Lathan Ransom and Jordan Hancock handling the deeper safety responsibilities.

This has allowed the best defensive player in the country to use his athleticism to become more active and physical in both run and pass plays. This positioning -- along with his vision, speed, and grit -- allowed him to blow up Texas' critical second-and-goal stretch run to the boundary that led to Jack Sawyer's now-iconic scoop and score two plays later.

But it has also allowed him to keep contain on QBs, which I imagine he (and Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau) will be cognizant of at all times on Monday night.

The other thing that Knowles has done in these types of situations is allow linebacker Cody Simon to spy QBs who were likely running threats. We saw that against Iamaleava in the first-round matchup and it worked fairly well. Leonard is athletic but not a Justin Fields-level open-field runner. He is more of a physical, hard-nosed running QB. So I think this would actually be a better situation for Simon to spy than either of the first two quarterbacks OSU has faced in the playoffs.

However the Buckeyes decide to attack the Irish offense, it will be important that they make sure that Leonard isn't able to escape pressure and extend drives using his legs. If OSU can confine him to the pocket -- and make him pay when he leaves it -- it becomes difficult to envision how Notre Dame would be able to sustain drives and score on the top-rated Silver Bullet defense.