Ohio State Football: As the Buckeyes gel the offensive line must improve

With two games left in the regular season, a glaring problem for the Ohio State football team is the offensive line has yet to become a dominant one.

Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer rattled off the stats in his Monday press conference and punter Drue Chrisman and the special teams’ players had an epic day. The unit was largely responsible for the win over the Spartans.

Given the average starting field position for Ohio State compared to Michigan State’s, should Buckeye Nation be worried that it took almost two quarters for the offense to put points on the board? Or just feel better all three phases are starting to gel at the right time?

I think the Spartans were teeing up a blowout with their miscues.  The Buckeye offense failed to take advantage.

The issues were evident. Blown blocking assignments, ill-timed penalties, questionable play calling and a missed field goal contributed to the slow start. Not a disaster considering it was a road game, in unfavorable conditions and against the No. 1 defense against the run.

Eventually the offense took control which was a good thing.

The concern is, while the defense and special teams were sticking a dagger into the Spartans’ heart the offense could not feed off that momentum. For all the talk about the defense the offense has only scored 103 points over the last four games, a substantive difference over the first six games.

It is now taking a longer for Dwayne Haskins to get his unit in rhythm. That is not completely unexpected, opponents have more film to look at and can scheme better.

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I also think it is the offensive line’s inability to click that is a continuing problem, causing up and down play by the offense. Having to move All-Big Ten guards to center the last three years has won awards but appears to be disrupting cohesion this year.

Think of the great lines from 2012-2015.  Corey Linsley started 2012 and 2013 while Jacoby Boren was his backup. Then Boren started in 2014 and 2015 and Brady Taylor was his backup.

Greg Studrawa has felt the need to move his best guard to center since 2016 instead of playing Taylor. I know Taylor is hurt this season which forced Michael Jordan into the role, but not developing a qualified backup to Boren has spiraled into three years of uneven play up front.

Michigan State’s defense did enough to keep their team in the game for a little over three quarters. What will happen against Michigan and the nation’s best defense?

Playing at home will help, but at some point this line needs to decide it will own the line of scrimmage and go out and do it.

When that happens, this team will be unstoppable.