Ohio State Football: Looking ahead for the Buckeyes

The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for the Ohio State football team. Hopefully the Buckeyes will correct their problems.

With the Ohio State football team going into a much-needed bye week, fans are expecting a much different team going into week 10. The Buckeyes have shown glimpses of their running game, offensive line and their defense (mostly when Bosa was playing).

But when will Ohio State be able to put all those pieces together for four quarters? Buckeye fans know there is plenty of talent on both sides of the ball but they want to see it on display for an entire game.

Beginning with the Penn State game, Ohio State has struggled picking up first downs in the first half. If it weren’t for a Nittany Lion fumble in their own territory, the Buckeyes could have gone into halftime possibly down 16 or 20. Instead, we went into the half down 13-7.

Penn State was doing anything they wanted on offense and their defense was outstanding. The second half is when Ohio State finally started playing the kind of football fans are used to seeing.

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Against Indiana, we went into halftime only up 28-20 with the Hoosiers making our defense look silly with their passing game. It was not until the 4th quarter the Buckeyes finally pulled away with the defense only allowing 6 points in the second half.

Once again when Ohio State played Minnesota the Buckeyes were only up 17-14 heading into halftime. The first half was hard to watch if you were a fan, as it has been most of the year, but the defense was superb in the second half not allowing the Golden Gophers to score.

With Ohio State’s last four games being against Nebraska, Michigan State, Maryland and Michigan, the Buckeyes cannot afford to get off to slow starts in the first half. MSU, MD and UM are all in the top 43 in total defense.

The Terrapins are ranked 18th and the Wolverines are No. 1 so the Buckeyes cannot afford to get down early in those games and expect to catch up in the second half.

Ohio State has got to figure out how to put together a great all around performance for an entire game if they want to finish this season strong. After the loss to Purdue, Ohio State still has the 4th best odds to make the CFP, but if they want any shot at that they have to start playing better football.

With week 9 being a bye week for the Buckeyes, this gives them a chance to figure out what kind of football they are capable of playing.