The Ohio State football team beat Indiana 23-3 in the season-opener on Saturday. It was a game that featured no passing touchdowns for the Buckeyes and just two touchdowns total. Quite frankly, it was a disappointing offensive effort from the Buckeyes.
On a positive note, the defense looked like the real deal. We talked a lot in the offseason about how the defense needed to improve if Ohio State was going to be a national title contender. Specifically, they needed to keep big plays down to a minimum. They did that on Saturday.
Still, there are a lot of things the Ohio State football team needs to improve on after this lackluster effort on offense. There are three big things that come to mind when it comes to that. If they don’t improve these things, Ohio State may not even win the Big Ten.
The first has to deal with the offensive line.
1. Ohio State football needs better blocking from the tackles
Ohio State had to replace both tackle spots on the offensive line. That’s never an easy thing. The inexperience at both tackle spots was evident on Saturday afternoon. Both Josh Simmons and Josh Fryar struggled in spots in both pass-blocking and run-blocking scenarios.
Fryar got beat badly a couple of times for sacks on the right side of the line. He got blown by with speed that he wasn’t able to keep up with. Simmons struggled more in the run game, not being able to get to the second level with his blocks. Both are major concerns.
Cade Stover was the worst blocker when he was in there. The tight end whiffed on multiple blocks in the run game and also got called for a holding call. While he was the leading receiver for the Buckeyes, his blocking continues to be a major liability for this team.
The offensive line is young and inexperienced. I do think they will improve over the next few games. Both tackles should get better with live reps in games. It’s good the Buckeyes play two cupcakes the next two weeks to help with that.
The next thing the Buckeyes have to improve has to deal with the quarterback play.
2. The quarterback play must improve for the Ohio State football team
There was no bigger glaring weakness for the Ohio State football team than the quarterback play. Kyle McCord started the second game of his career and did not look good at all. He was 20/33 for 239 yards and threw a terrible pick on a fourth-down play.
McCord also could have been called for a fumble in the red zone as well but got bailed out by a review. He looked uncomfortable in the pocket and hardly tried pushing the ball downfield. While he did have some good throws, he didn’t make nearly enough of them.
For some reason, Devin Brown played just two series in this game and only attempted two passes. This was despite Ryan Day saying Brown was going to get meaningful snaps in the game. I think he needs to play more in next week’s game against Youngstown State.
McCord needs to play better. It’s as simple as that. If he wants to keep his starting job, he needs to throw touchdown passes and not interceptions. With the amount of talent the Buckeyes have at wide receiver, not throwing a touchdown pass is completely unacceptable. That’s especially true against an IU defense that finished near the bottom of the Big Ten in every major category last year.
The quarterback play is going to be the biggest story all year for Ohio State. McCord is going to be under a microscope. He needs to be able to deal with the criticism and not let it affect him. Ohio State can’t play like that again against a good team, otherwise, they will lose.
The last thing that needs a big-time improvement might be the most important thing the Buckeyes need to fix.
3. Ohio State needs better play-calling
Bad play-calling was a major story for last year’s Ohio State football team. Ryan Day faced a lot of criticism for his decisions with plays. So much so that he initially was going to give those duties to new offensive coordinator Brian Hartline. That ended up not happening on Saturday.
Day called the plays and did so poorly. Under no circumstances should he call a fourth-down pass play that doesn’t have Marvin Harrison Jr. on the field. That’s malpractice. Yet, that’s exactly what Day did. To no one’s surprise, the play failed and McCord threw a pick.
McCord can get some help from his head coach with better play-calling. The Buckeyes are usually the most explosive offense in the country. Instead, they looked like a mediocre offense. Day needs to take this issue head-on and put his offense in better spots to be successful.
I don’t think Day should be calling plays anymore. He did a fantastic job against Georgia calling them, but that type of performance is way too rare. Ohio State needs a better offense if they are going to beat the likes of Notre Dame, Penn State, and Michigan.
It was just one game. I don’t want to overreact or anything, The Buckeyes still have plenty of time to fix these issues before they take on Notre Dame at the end of the month. But these very real issues are things the program needs to take seriously.
Improvement will go a long way toward this team fulfilling its potential.