Ohio State Football: OSU run game is officially concerning

The Ohio State football team beat Maryland 37-17 yesterday afternoon in Ohio Stadium. The lack of a run game is officially concerning.

The Ohio State football team officially has a problem with its running game. And while it’s hard to be displeased with a 20-point victory over one of the better teams in the Big Ten East, the Buckeyes are going to need to figure this out before it’s too late.

Ohio State only ran for 62 yards against Maryland. It’s the same Maryland team that gave up 145 yards on the ground the previous week against an awful Indiana team. It’s a total team effort as to why the run game is so awful right now. Poor play design, poor offensive line play, and poor vision and ability from the tailbacks.

I think that the majority of the issues fall within the offensive line. They arguably played their worst game of the season Saturday against the Terrapins. For a unit that should be ascending at this point of the year, it’s extremely troubling, to say the least.

The blame falls at the feet of Ryan Day, however. Everybody knew that the offensive line would be a problem and Day didn’t do much about it. Adding Josh Simmons from the transfer portal has not worked out thus far. And while other teams such as Michigan (LaDarius Henderson) and Oregon (Ajani Cornelius) were able to find and get solid offensive linemen from the portal, Ohio State failed to do so.

I thought following four games and an off week that this offensive line would really make a push and start to gel over the next upcoming games. Following watching the tape of yesterday’s game I believe this line is what it is. A subpar Power-Five offensive line. And that just is not good enough for Ohio State.

The Buckeyes have a real issue with its running game. If they can’t threaten teams on the ground then defenses like Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan can really zero in on stopping the Buckeye passing attack. And that will be problematic for this Ohio State offense.