Ohio State Football: Offensive line a new concern

The Ohio State football team left Saturday night with yet another victory, this time over a top-20 opponent in Penn State. It was a 33-24 victory in which the Buckeyes just couldn’t pull away. They didn’t cover the spread and struggled to run the ball in the first half.

The biggest reason why they struggled to run the ball is because of the poor play from the offensive line. TreVeyon Henderson kept running into Penn State defenders right at or near the line of scrimmage. He didn’t have any holes to run through most of the game.

Henderson is one of the best running backs in the country. Even so, the best running back in the country is going to have issues running if he doesn’t have any holes to run through. Every back needs the offensive line to help get push at the line of scrimmage.

Because the offensive line did such a poor job of that, the Buckeyes, who boast the best offense in college football coming into the game, only had 19 rushing yards in the first half. That is something that just can’t happen no matter who the opponent is.

The Ohio State football team had been getting their way with whatever defense they had faced over the last few weeks. Penn State is clearly a higher quality opponent, and the offensive line struggled to deliver. That is concerning based on who the Buckeyes still have left on the schedule.

Both Michigan State and TTUN are better teams than Penn State. Both of them have stronger defenses than the Nittany Lions. If the Buckeyes can’t run the ball against them, they are going to have a major problem. Those games become much harder to win in that scenario.

Hopefully this week of practice can help fix those issues up front.