Three things on the Ohio State Buckeyes’ Christmas wish list
By Zane Harris
#2: Elite pass defense
The second thing that the Ohio State Buckeyes are wishing for is elite passing defense during their playoff run. It is likely that if the Buckeyes advance to the second round of the playoffs they will be forced to face two Heisman finalist quarterbacks in Trevor Lawrence and Mac Jones.
As a result of this, the Buckeye pass defense is going to have to play the best they have all season to keep the games from being shootouts.
Currently, Ohio State stands at 104th in the country in opposing passing yards per game. Going into the game against Clemson, they average allowing 260.8 passing yards a night.
This is much worse than where they stood in the statistic just last season. In the 2019-2020 season, the Buckeyes were the top passing defense in the country in passing yards allowed. Only giving up 156.0 passing yards per game.
The Buckeye secondary had a very solid game against Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship. Although they allowed around their average in yards, they forced Northwestern quarterback Peyton Ramsey to throw two interceptions.
If Ohio State wants to win against Clemson, they must do everything they can to take Trevor Lawrence out of the game. While this is a very tall task, even slowing him down could be enough to secure a Buckeye victory.
In the games that Lawrence missed due to COVID, the Tigers struggled greatly. They went the distance against a Boston College team that had no business even making it a game. The next week they lost to Notre Dame in double overtime.
The Buckeyes will be hoping for a little bit of Christmas magic to be applied to their secondary, allowing them to play their best football of the season.