Ohio State football: Three stats that are concerning

2. The Ohio State football team averages 5.38 penalties per game.

If you watched last week’s game against Penn State, you had to be as mad as I was when the Buckeyes got called for numerous false starts and delay of game penalties. Those are penalties that just can’t happen. They stifle drives and are just mental errors.

5.38 penalties per game is good enough for just 31st in the country in terms of the fewest penalties per game. That also doesn’t account for penalty yardage, just the number of penalties. The Buckeyes are even worse in that statistic.

Ohio State gives up 47.12 yards per game in penalties. That’s 36th-best in the country. Ryan Day has talked about the penalties in his press conferences. He’s aware that they need to work on this and reduce the number of penalties they are taking, especially 15-yard ones.

While the Buckeyes aren’t in the bottom five in this category or anything, they still need to be better. When they take on elite teams, penalties can be the difference between winning and losing. Just look at Alabama. They had over 100 yards in penalties in their loss to Tennessee.

I expect the Buckeyes to be better in this statistic over the next three weeks heading into the matchup with Michigan. The final stat to be concerned with is the last thing that the defense still needs to improve on.