Ohio State Football: How the defense can help the offense

The Ohio State football team did improve on defense last year despite blowing the Peach Bowl. They improved statistically in pretty much every area. While you wouldn’t have known that after they blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, they were still better than they were in 2021.

Ohio State’s defense returns a lot of players from last season. Meanwhile, the offense is replacing a quarterback and three offensive linemen. There’s a chance that the offense isn’t as prolific as it was a year ago. The defense has the ability to help out the offense this year though.

Now that they have a full year under Jim Knowles’ new defense, the members of the back seven should only play faster. You could tell there were certain times last year that they had to think about the play too much and that slowed them down. That shouldn’t happen anymore.

I do have concerns about the secondary still. Those concerns won’t go away until I see them face Notre Dame. But if they are able to play well in that game and come out with a win, the Buckeyes might have a claim to be the most complete team in the country. The offense is still going to be really good.

The best way for the defense to help out the offense is to create turnovers and stop allowing big plays. Big plays have been the Achilles heel for the Ohio State football team over the past three seasons. Once they get that under control, they should be fine.

I expect the defense to be a top-ten defense in the country this season. Their pass defense should be much improved too. I will say that if the secondary doesn’t improve this season, it might be worth looking at changing some staff members.