Buckeyes’ defense smothers Terrapins
Maryland struggles to gain 66 yards in OSU’s blowoutwin.
Enoughalready COLUMBUS— with obsessing over the Ohio State offense. It’s awesome. It’s shaky. It’s awork in progress. Blah, blah, blah. We’ve talked it to death.
Let’s switch gears to the Buckeyes defense, because, well, see above. But also becausethedefense, andparticularly the down linemen, entered the season as the strength of the team. The loss to Oklahoma put a dent in that synopsis, but only a dent.
Yes, the secondary got caught looking — and flailing — as Sooners quarterback BakerMayfieldtorchedthem. Mayfield also ran the D-line in circles, but look past their effective passing game and Ohio State did a respectable job against the run, limiting the Sooners to 104 yards and a 2.8 per rush average.
Keep that in mind when Penn State and Saquon Barkley arrive on Oct. 28. More on that in a minute, but suffice it to say the run defense will need to be on top of its game for the Nittany Lions.
The defense also isworth discussing because it’s exceedingly clear that the overlooked side of the ball — not the one we’re tired of talking about — is going to be what ends up bailing out the Buckeyes in the bigger games against the better teams.
Maryland is not one of those teams. The Terrapins are terrible, or at least they were on Saturday in Ohio State’s 62-14 romp at the Horseshoe. Still, the Picasso Helmets are not Rutgers. Close, perhaps, but I’m pretty sureMaryland could handle most high school teams.
What they could not handle was the Buckeyes defense, which nearly pitched its second consecutive shutout.
The Terps’ only points came on a 100-yard kickoff return and late touchdown against the backups’ backups.
Otherwise, the final numbers were offensive, in a defensive kind of way. Maryland finished with 66 yards — 50 rushing, 16 passing — which are embarrassing enough statisticswithout holdingthemupagainstOhio State’s total of 584 yards.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer wasn’t ready to declare his defense championship-caliber, but 10 to 1 he was thinking it.
“The defense smothered them and stopped them,” Meyer said. “The line of scrimmage we just dominated. Coach (Larry) Johnson’s bunch — and the good thing is you see guys like Coop (defensive end Jonathon Cooper) and Chase Young getting in there. Great depth.”
Has the defensive line lived up to its billing? Probably not, because the hype was over the top in the first place. I wincedwhen defensive coordinator Greg Schiano told the BigTenNetwork during the summer that the OSU linewas better than the two he had when coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012-13. The nice way to describe Schiano’scomment was honest hyperbole.
Still, the defensive front is very good. Andit will need to be against PennState inwhat is shaping up as the toughest game on the schedule. Barkley is not super human. The tailback has been mostly underwhelming since torching Iowa for 211 yards rushing onSept. 23. TheHeisman Trophy frontrunner managed only 75 yards on 16 carries against Northwestern on Saturday, but underestimate him at your own risk.
It doesn’t sound like Ohio State will be guilty of doing so.
“We have so much to improve on,” linebacker Jerome Baker said. “But we’re getting more locked in.”