When it comes to talent, the Ohio State Buckeyes are one of the best teams in the country. Throughout much of the regular season and even the Big Ten Championship, they can beat their opponents on talent alone. At some points throughout the season, their opponent may play with more heart, be more prepared, and even play better than the scarlet and gray, but in the end, Ohio State’s talent still allows them to come away with a victory.
Then there are times where the Buckeyes’ biggest weaknesses catch up to them and their talent just isn’t enough. It almost cost them at Penn State a few weeks ago. It did inevitably cost them Saturday night at Purdue, where Ohio State was not only embarrassed while being blown out by the Boilermakers, but were out prepared, outcoached, but disciplined, and just simply outplayed. Their biggest flaws were out for everyone to see. All of their weaknesses that have almost cost them throughout much of the season were exposed once again, and it cost them big time this time around.
“The glaring shortcomings we have were exposed,” head coach Urban Meyer said following the game. “Number one, off the top, is our red-zone offense. We go down there a few times, two field goals and one missed field goal. We’ve never had this issue. We’re going to get a real thorough evaluation of that. And then the big plays on defense.
“It’s been an issue this year. Not very disciplined. I think they’re effort penalties, but just, I mean, ridiculous.”
Over the last few years, it seems as though Urban Meyer and his staff haven’t made any dramatic changes until they lose a game, which may be too late to make said adjustments. The same seems to be the case this season. Parallels between last year’s blowout loss at Iowa and Saturday night’s loss at Purdue are very similar. Somehow, the Buckeyes didn’t learn from that embarrassing loss in a tough environment in 2017. In fact, with their struggles at Purdue since 2000 paired not wanting the 2017 Iowa game to happen all over again a year later, you’d think that Ohio State would have been more prepared Saturday night. Guess not.
This also doesn’t help: Since 2000, Ohio State has a winning record at every Big Ten stadium but one: Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium. The Buckeyes are just 3-4 in West Lafayette in the new millennium.
— Josh Poloha (@JorshP) October 20, 2018
Let’s take a look at some of Ohio State’s biggest flaws so far this season, all of which were brought to the forefront Saturday night in West Lafayette:
Pass defense
Eli Apple replaced Bradley Roby. Marshon Lattimore and Gareon Conley replaced Apple. Denzel Ward replaced Lattimore and Conley. So far this season, no one in Ohio State’s secondary has been able to replace Ward. The Buckeyes are the first school to have a first-round cornerback in three straight drafts.1. The Buckeyes have been lucky to have all of that talent leave the program for the NFL and be able to replace said talent. Eventually, it’ll catch up to you, no matter how good of a recruiter you are. That seems to be the case this fall.
Losing all of that talent is never easy. When you pair that with losing defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs to the NFL, it’s not a good combination. Ohio State has felt that so far this season.
Whether it’s the deep ball or short routes, Ohio State’s secondary has struggled throughout much of the season, no matter who the opponent is. They allowed 38- and 39-yard completions to Tulane; TCU to connect on 42-, 51-, and 34-yard passes; Penn State to complete a 93-yard touchdown pass. They were able to still come away with a win in all those games. That wasn’t the case Saturday night. The secondary allowed Purdue to complete long passes downfield again.
Coming into Saturday night, the Buckeyes had allowed 14 completions of at least 30 yards during the first seven games of the season, which ranked 113th in the country. Ohio State’s secondary allowed two more of those long passes, dropping them to 118th in the country in that statistic. They have also allowed their opponents to complete 29 passes of 20-plus yards, which is 107th in the country. Keep in mind, there are only 130 FBS teams.
While they have lost plenty of talent to the NFL over the last few years, the defensive backs failing to improve and even becoming a bit worse as the season rolls along falls on defensive coordinator Greg Schiano and cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson. While the lack of talent isn’t ideal, the regression as the weeks go on is even more concerning.
Red zone offense
Remember when Ohio State had plenty of success in the red zone in the Meyer era because they had a run-first quarterback that could run the read option? With Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett no longer in Columbus, the Buckeyes have struggled immensely in the red zone.
Dwayne Haskins is a great quarterback, don’t get me wrong, but the offense has seemingly lost its touch in the red zone because of his pass-first mentality. That, combined with a rushing attack that has only regressed as the season has gone on seems to be the biggest issue inside the red zone. The blame can be put on the coaching staff and the playcalling as well. In fact, the latter two should be blamed much more than the players.
So far this season, they have scored on just 28 of their 37 opportunities inside the 20-yard line. That 75.68 percentage is 117th in the country. Of those 28 conversions, just 21 have been touchdowns, which is 56.76 percent, 98th in the FBS.
Their inability to score touchdowns in the red zone became even more evident throughout their loss at Purdue. In their five trips to the red zone, they didn’t score a single touchdown and only made two field goals. During their first six games of the season, Ohio State scored 22 touchdowns on 29 opportunities in the red zone. In their last two games, they have zero touchdowns on eight opportunities inside the 20-yard line. That’s inexcusable.
Keep in mind, there’s a run-first, elusive, athletic, and quick quarterback on Ohio State’s roster by the name of Tate Martell. Prior to the season, Meyer said multiple times that there would be specific, special packages in the Buckeyes’ offense made for Martell, switching things up from the pass-first Haskins. Against bad opponents, he has played; against good ones, he hasn’t seen the field.
Maybe it’s time to play Martell more, especially in the red zone. It’s time for something to change inside the 20-yard line, using a run-first quarterback seems like the easiest transition. The Buckeyes need to capitalize once they get in the red zone. Something must change in order for them to do so.
Running game
Coming into the season, Ohio State was supposed to have a dominant rushing attack. Although they had a pass-first quarterback for the first time in quite some time, the two-headed monster at running back featuring J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber were supposed to benefit from it, with the defense needing to focus on the passing game just as much as the run. Somehow, the Buckeyes’ rushing attack has only regressed as the season has rolled on.
In the first two games of the season, Ohio State had 600 rushing yards. While part of that was due to the bad teams they played, something can still be said for how much success the team had on the ground. That success has been nonexistent lately. The Buckeyes have been held below four yards per carry in each of their last five games. Prior to that stretch, they were held to four yards a carry just six times in the previous five years combined.
Last week against Minnesota, the scarlet and gray had just 92 rushing yards on 32 carries. It was just the third time during the Meyer era at Ohio State that his team hasn’t run for at least 100 yards. Then this past Saturday night happened and it somehow got even worse. The Buckeyes totaled just 76 rushing yards on 25 attempts. It was the worst performance by any Meyer-coached Ohio State team. Haskins can throw the ball for 400 yards every game, much like he has the past three games, but it doesn’t matter if the Buckeyes can’t run the ball.
Against Purdue, Haskins completed 49 passes while attempting 73, both of which were school records. He also threw for a school-record 470 yards. His arm shouldn’t have needed to be counted on that much, but due to the disappearing act of Ohio State’s running game, it’s what was needed.
While the playcalling inside the red zone has been bad, the running game’s inability to make anything happen is a huge reason why the Buckeyes have struggled inside the 20-yard line over the past few games.
Penalties
It comes down to discipline. While the players can be blamed for their lack of discipline, much of that blame can be placed on the coaching staff as much as it can the players as well. The Buckeyes had 10 penalties for 86 yards Saturday night, just adding to a statistic that was already bad, eight of which came in the first half.
Every OSU drive in the first half that didn't end in points contained at least one penalty. On the lone scoring drive, the Buckeyes didn't commit a penalty. Eight flags for 56 yards in first half overall.
— Chris Lauderback (@Chris11W) October 21, 2018
Those 10 penalties marked the fourth time in eight games this season that they have had double-digit penalties called on them. The scarlet and gray had just two games with at least 10 penalties in all of 2017.
With those penalties, Ohio State is now averaging 8.3 penalties a game, which is 119th in the country. Their 75.9 penalty yards per game is ranks 118th.
Somehow, the amount of penalties called on the scarlet and gray has only gotten worse as Meyer’s tenure at Ohio State has gone on, these stats courtesy of Eleven Warriors’ Chris Lauderback:
- 2018 YTD: 8.3 penalties per game (119th in the country), 75.9 penalty yards per game (118th in the country)
- 2017: 6.9 (100th), 67.1 (114th)
- 2016: 6.3 (69th), 50.6 (50th)
- 2015: 5.8 (51st), 50.1 (46th)
- 2014: 5.6 (52nd), 47.4 (45th)
- 2013: 5.2 (45th), 45.6 (55th)
- 2012: 7.0 (99th), 64.5 (107th)
Penalties come down to discipline (or lack thereof) and just paying attention to the small details while also having their entire focus and attention on the game. Whether it’s a false start, holding, offsides, or a personal foul, among other penalties, Ohio State has only hurt themselves and has killed plenty of offensive drives while allowing opposing offenses to continue their drives all season long, simply because they aren’t disciplined enough.
The Buckeyes have needed to fix these things all season, but with an undefeated record, they were able to somewhat sweep the miscues under the rug while continuing to win. Well, the negative aspects of their game became so big that the rug that had been swept under eventually tripped them up Saturday night in West Lafayette. After their first loss of the season, Ohio State now has a bye week. Hopefully, they’ll take advantage of the layoff and correct some of these mistakes and shortcomings.
With that said, it may be too little, too late. While the Buckeyes will make the Big Ten Championship game if they win out, which would include wins over Michigan State and Michigan, they need plenty of help if they want to make the Playoff. Then again, at this point, Ohio State doesn’t deserve to be in the Final Four unless something drastic changes.
You can (and should) never count out a team coached by Meyer, but the Buckeyes have to make a bunch of improvements if they want to be one of the best teams in the country by the end of the season.
- Eli Apple in 2016, Marshon Lattimore and Gareon Conley in 2017, Denzel Ward in 2018.
