Ohio State football: Three stats that are concerning

3. The Ohio State football team is 82nd in red zone defense

We have talked a lot about how much Jim Knowles has improved this defense. He deserves a lot of credit for making this defense better in total yardage and points allowed. This defense is now a really good defense, but one thing still needs to be corrected.

That is the red-zone defense. As you can see, they are just 82nd in that statistic. They allow opponents to score points 85.7% of the time they get into the red zone. That’s not a good percentage at all. But, there is some good news about this stat.

Ohio State has only allowed 14 trips into the red zone this year. That is the fewest in the country. Opponents have also only scored seven touchdowns once they’ve gotten there. That means only 50% of the time teams get into the red zone they are leaving with seven points.

That’s pretty solid if you ask me. While scoring points that often of a percentage is heinous, at least it’s only three points instead of seven. Ohio State also typically stops teams from even getting into the red zone in the first place, which is a good sign.

If the Ohio State football team can improve on these three statistics, they should have no issues beating every other team on their way to a national championship. If they can’t improve on these, they might find themselves out of the national title picture completely.