Earlier at Around The Oval, well before when I joined, Sean gave us all a nice link to an article about how James Laurinaitis was essentially ready to take his game to the next level.  Although he was the first Sophomore to ever be awarded the Bronco Nagurski Trophy, to say that Laurinaitis was a complete linebacker at that point was still a stretch.  Statistically speaking, it appeared that Laurinaitis was every bit deserving of the award.  He led the Nation's #1 team in tackles and interceptions, while also having 4 sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss.  However, when observing JL firsthand, it was apparent that his biggest strength was in pass defense (hence the 5 interceptions), and that he lacked some of the expected run-stopping abilities of a star Middle Linebacker.  Most of his tackles came at least 5 yards down field, and if a linemen ever got a hand on him, he was about as useful as Michael Moore at a salad bar.  The statistics were great, but didn't tell the entire story.  The reason that the last two Buckeye opponents in 2006 were able to put up a combined 80 points was largely in part of the fact that they were successful at playing between the tackles and they could exploit JL's aggressive (or lack thereof) tendencies.

Three games into the 2007 season, however, paints a completely picture of James Laurinaitis.  He's still every bit the dominating pass defender that he was last year -- as was evidenced by his two remarkable interceptions against Washington -- but now, Laurinaitis is starting to become an equally effective run stopper, and the team's performance reflects that.  Most people, myself included, expected the run defense to be rather lax this season.  The three top defensive tackles all graduated, and the people replacing were inexperienced, and in the case of Doug Worthington, undersized. Lawrence Wilson's injury in Week 1 only exacerbated my feelings on the issue.  However, the best rushing output from an actual running back to date has been Washington's Louis Rankin, who had just 42 yards on 14 carries and 1 touchdown against the backup defense.  The defensive tackles obviously haven't been the sole reason for the team's success stopping the run so far, and I think it is safe to say that Laurinaitis has been the number 1 contributer.  The reason I am not taking much into Jake Locker's performance running the ball is due to the fact that the majority of his gains came on broken plays and lost containment from the ends and outside linebackers (Freeman primarily, but also Grant and Homan to an extent), which really gave Laurinaitis no chance at getting to Locker.

The best evidence of Laurinaitis becoming a complete player came on his lone sack of Jake Locker last Saturday.  On the play, Locker rolled out, trying to run.  The defensive lineman was able to get a contain rush, and forced Locker into a situation where he had to throw.  During this process, Laurinaitis was in a miniature battle with an offensive lineman, and as Locker tried to change direction, so did Laurinaitis, as he tossed the blocker aside and chased down Locker for the sack.  It was, by all accounts, exactly as the coaches had drawn it up, and was the perfect defensive play by Laurinaitis.  He read the play, effectively and efficiently shed his blocker (something he would not be able to do last season), and got the sack.

So far this season, Laurinaitis' statistics have not been quite up to what they were last year.  This isn't necessarily due to a lack of performance on Laurinaitis' part (as I have already explained, his performance has improved), however it is due to a few other, less noticable things.  For one, the rest of the defense is stepping up around JL, meaning that he can no longer pad his stats with tackles that are 5 yards down field.  Secondly, he is not being called on to blitz and/or rush the backfield nearly as much as last season.  It seems to me that this season, Heacock and Tressel have been much more confident in Laurinaitis and the rest of the defense, and are not spoon-feeding him watered down defensive sets, and as a result, everybody is benefiting.  The defense as a whole is playing much better, and the only thing that is really suffering are Laurinaitis' statistics.  I'm not ready to rank this defense up there with the likes of the 2002 or 2005 squads just yet, but it is definitely good enough to win the team a conference championship.  The rest is just up to the offense.