Ohio State football: Buckeyes’ defensive backfield is a problem

As we saw trending all year, the Ohio State defensive backs completely blew up against Alabama. The Ohio State football team has a problem.

Monday night was a disaster for the Ohio State football team. Heisman trophy winner Devonta Smith had 12 grabs for 215 yards and three touchdowns. I should also mention that Smith did all this damage primarily in the first half. John Metchie had 8 catches for 81 yards. Heck, even running back Najee Harris had 7 catches for 79 yards and a score.

Mac Jones, the Tide’s quarterback who will likely be a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft, had a field day against the Buckeyes, completing 36/45 passes for 464 yards and five touchdowns. Alabama did what they wanted against Ohio State, despite Najee Harris only averaging 3.6 yards a carry.

The first problem you can look at is the defensive personnel. Shaun Wade continued to struggle and was exposed by Smith. Wade likely would have been a first-round pick in the 2021 draft had he elected to sit out the season like he initially intended to, now I have a hard time believing he could even be a day two pick at best.

Sevyn Banks made a few nice plays, but overall I would say he was below average last night. He was very inconsistent this year and will need to up his game big-time next season. Marcus Williamson was meh at best and had some bad reads and questionable routes to the football.

Williamson announced last week that he plans to use the COVID’19 eligibility waiver in order to return for his sixth year with the Buckeyes next fall. I thought Josh Proctor played the best of the four. He clearly can hit guys and isn’t terrible in coverage as a safety. He will have an NFL draft decision soon enough, so here is to hoping he returns next year.

Kerry Combs did not coach a good game last night, that much is evident. Did Alabama have more talent offensively than Ohio State did on defense? Of course, there is no denying that. But Coombs’ defense did not have a particularly good year, and he’s being tossed around on social media with fans calling for his firing.

Personally, I would not fire him because it is year one and the Buckeyes did make it all the way to Miami, but I would think his seat is somewhat lukewarm, and his defense has to improve next year there is no doubt about that.

The Ohio State football program is going to need to fix their defensive back problems, specifically at corner. Shaun Wade should be gone, and expect Sevyn Banks to return. Cam Brown had bright spots before going down to a torn ACL against Penn State and will battle former top recruit Tyreke Johnson, who hasn’t lived up to his high school hype yet in Columbus along with youngsters in Lejond Cavazos and Ryan Watts among others for the #2 cornerback position.

The Buckeyes have to shore up their pass defense and need Banks to improve while also finding a cornerback to go opposite of him