Ohio State football: Defense needs to be at their best this week

Ohio State will take on Maryland this weekend in a game that could be a shootout. The Buckeye defense will need to be at the top of their game.

Ohio State’s defense did not play their best game last Saturday against Rutgers. The second half was a disaster, although most of that was with backups in the game. This Saturday, they take on a Maryland team with a much more potent offense.

After a terrible first week in which they only put up 3 points, Maryland has been on a tear offensively. They have put up 80 points over the last two weeks of play against Minnesota and Penn State. Their quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa is a big reason why.

Tua’s younger brother put up some great numbers last week. At Penn State, he went 18/26 for 282 yards and 3 touchdowns. He carved up the Nittany Lions’ defense. He’s looking to do the same to Ohio State’s defense this Saturday afternoon.

The Buckeyes won’t let something like that happen this week. Ryan Day will be able to keep his guys focused throughout the entire game after what happened last week. He has already ripped into his team after they stopped playing hard against Rutgers.

Shaun Wade will be tested this week more than he has all season long. He has had some rough moments in the last couple of weeks and will be looking to redeem himself against perhaps the best quarterback he will face in the conference.

This would also be a great time for the defensive ends to step up. Most of the pressure on the quarterback has been generated up the middle by the defensive tackles. Jonathon Cooper, Zach Harrison, and the rest of the DE’s have been very quiet this year.

That is especially true about Harrison. For someone who was a five-star recruit that was expected to be the next great defensive end at Ohio State, he has not lived up to that billing this season. He has 1.5 sacks so far this season, but those have been because of the pressure up the middle.

I would expect the defense to be put to the test this weekend. Maryland could be a team that puts up a lot of points on them if the defense doesn’t execute as much at the highest level.