The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Ohio State’s run game, defense need improvement
COLUMBUS » Historically speaking, when the Ohio State has been a national championshipcaliber team, the Buckeyes have done two things very well.
They’ve run the ball effectively on offense and their defense smashed the opposition in the face and didn’t allow many points OR yards.
After a 30-14 win over visiting Minnesota in a game that at times churned along like an engine without oil, the Buckeyes did neither particularly well.
In the aftermath, a huge question comes up.
Albeit at 7-0, can the 2018 Ohio State Buckeyes be a championship contender with a recipe they’ve never tried before? Can they do the job with a passheavy offense and a defense that does a lot of bending but tightens before breaking into a million pieces?
Stay tuned, because the answer is likely to be revealed in the coming weeks —maybe even as early as next week when Ohio State heads to West Lafayette to face a Purdue team that historically has given the visiting Buckeyes trouble.
There was a time earlier this season when many pondered the possibility of Ohio State touting a pair of 1,000-yard backs in Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins.
That’s not happening this year.
The pair of talented backs combined for 23 carries for 86 yards. For the game, Ohio State ran for 92 yards and a minuscule 2.9-yards-per-rush average that would test the gag reflexes of Buckeye greats of years gone by.
“It’s discouraging a little bit, but once again, 7-0, and looking down we’re throwing for 412,” Coach Urban Meyer said. “It is what it is. I just know the game of football, I’ve been around. At some point, you’ve got to line up and do what you do.”
And right now, whether it’s the offensive line’s fault, the backs’ fault or the focus switching to the passing game, Ohio State isn’t running the ball.
Again, quarterback Dwayne Haskins continues to have a dynamic year. He completed 33 of 44 passes for 412 yards and
three touchdowns, giving him 2,331 yards and 28 touchdowns through seven games.
But sooner or later, OSU is going to need a running game. Can they find it?
“We’ve got two good backs,” Meyer said. “We’ve just got to get it worked out.” The defense? That might be a bigger problem.
Whereas the offense at least has an electric passing game to make up for any shortcoming in the running department, the defense seems to teeter awfully close to the line of getting blown out.
A week ago, the defense gave up 406 yards in a 49-26 win over Indiana. This week, Ohio State gave up 396 yards in a closer-than-expected win over Minnesota.
This isn’t your Silver Bullets defense of years gone by, folks, not a defense that gives up an average of 403 yards in back-to-back weeks to Indiana and Minnesota.
Cringe away, because next week Ohio State’s defense faces a quarterbackreceiver combo in Purdue’s David Blough (1,318 yards, seven touchdowns) and Rondale Moore (41 catches, 457 yards) that could terrify the Buckeyes.
Granted, Ohio State was without starters Nick Bosa (defensive end) and Damon Arnette (defensive back), as well as rotational players such as lineman Robert Landers and Malik Harrison. But Ohio State continued
to give up big yards against Minnesota.
Mohamed Ibrahim ran for 157 yards and two scores. Oftentimes, when Ibrahim got past the first line of defense — the line — there was nary an OSU linebacker to be found, leaving the defensive backs there to clean up the mess.
No wonder safeties Jordan Fuller (career-high 12 tackles) and Isaiah Pryor (five stops) combined for 17 tackles.
“Yeah, I was disappointed in the run,” Meyer said. “(Ibrahim’s productivity) is not acceptable.”
OSU only gave up 13 pass completions, but for 218 yards. Many, if not most, came on slant patterns where OSU’s linebackers got sucked in on the run-pass option look, leaving defensive backs on an island.
“When you get beat, that’s a problem,” Meyer said of his defense. “So that’s something that’s not a strength right now.”
Again, playing without Bosa, Arnette and a few others doesn’t help. But when a team is in the hunt for a national championship, no one asks who is hurt.
“The next man has to step up,” linebacker Pete Werner said. “That’s what coach preaches, and that’s what we have to do.”
Meyer made a point more than once that the Buckeyes are 7-0. While they stumbled through two (and maybe three) quarters at Penn State, the Buckeyes
found a way and won.
They gave up a ton of yards last week against Indiana and this week against Minnesota - and won.
Maybe this new method of winning will be all right — a team that throws the ball all over the field with an iffy running attack, coupled with a defense that gives up 400 yards per game, but forces a few turnovers to bail themselves out.
Maybe that will get Ohio State to the College Football Playoff final four.
But the hunch — and it’s not a wild one — is that sooner or later the Buckeyes are going to want to get back to what has always made them successful — their running game and playing some defense.
It didn’t cost them against Indiana and Minnesota.
But with teams like, Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan left on the schedule — and potentially some Wisconsin or Northwestern in the Big Ten championship game — there are teams out there that could make the Buckeyes pay. Meyer knows it. “The saying right now that I’m using is ‘Enhance our strengths and let’s fix our weaknesses,’” Meyer said. “We’re going to have to get some things fixed.”
Kampf can be reached via email at JKampf@NewsHerald.com; On Twitter @JKBuckeyes