Ohio State Football: Will offense continue to stall against good run defenses?

The Ohio State football team had arguably its worst offensive performance of the year in their game against the Penn State Nittany Lions. While the Buckeyes were able to finish the game with 33 points, their offense was only able to contribute two touchdowns to the winning effort.

This was rather shocking considering the plethora of weapons that the Buckeyes have on offense. One of the main contributors as to why Ohio State struggled to move the ball was Penn State’s rush defense.

The Nittany Lions rank 66th in the NCAA in rushing yards allowed per game and they committed to shutting down the run in their matchup against Ohio State. Despite TreVeyon Henderson still having a very respectable effort with 152 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries, Penn State kept him well below his average of 10.69 yards per carry and 1.57 rushing touchdowns per game.

Typically, the Buckeyes have the privilege of allowing their rushing attack to open up their rushing game, however, that was something that cannot occur against a defense like Penn State. There were countless plays in which Henderson or Miyan Williams were caught in the backfield before they had a chance to really do anything as linemen would ignore their assignment on the defensive line and would instead run into the secondary to block a linebacker.

Another factor that led to the Buckeyes struggling so much on the offensive side of the ball against Penn State is the poor play from the offensive line. As previously mentioned, they would oftentimes forget to block defensive linemen in front of them and instead worry about blocking linebackers, leaving Henderson and Williams to fend for themselves in the backfield with no momentum to carry them forward.

One member of the offensive line that especially did not show up to play on Saturday was center, Luke Wypler. Although he got things together in the second half of the game, his first half could have been enough to get him pulled from the game.

Wypler had three errors on his snaps that all resulted in penalties for the Buckeyes. It is unclear if the pressure of the game was just getting to him early or if something just was not clicking for him in the first half, however, he bounced back in the second half.

However, Ohio State’s offense as a whole failed to execute at the level that is expected of them. They fell victim to a mind-boggling seven false start penalties. The Buckeyes also finished the game only finding the end zone once in their seven red-zone appearances. Lastly, Ohio State finished the game converting five of their fourteen third-down attempts.

It was a sloppy week for the Ohio State football team on the offensive end and hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come when they play against talented rushing defenses. Looking at the remaining schedule for the Buckeyes along with their potential opponents if they make the College Football Playoff, they will end up facing their fair share of elite rush defenses.