Ohio State football: Slow offensive starts are becoming an issue

The Ohio State football team’s inability to score early in football games is becoming an issue. On Saturday in Piscataway, New Jerseyagainst Rutgers, the Buckeye first-half offensive woes continued, and it almost became a major issue against a Greg Schiano defense that was more than game.

So far this season, the Ohio State football team is only averaging 15.5 points in the first half of their games. If you remove the 70 points they scored in the first half against Youngstown State and Western Kentucky, they are only averaging 10 points in their first 30 minutes of play each game against the other seven opponents they have faced.

In the past six games, beginning with Notre Dame, when you compare Ohio State’s offensive output in the first half compared to what they do in the second half, it becomes even more alarming. The Buckeyes have only managed 60 points in the first half of those six games compared to 114 points in the second half.

There are several reasons this could be happening. The first would be a poor offensive game plan. This isn’t what I believe is going on. You don’t all of a sudden lose the ability to watch film and draw up a good game plan. Sometimes an opponent’s defensive game plan isn’t what you were expecting and you need to adjust. I have zero evidence of this being the case for Ryan Day and the Buckeye offense this season.

More than likely, the reason for these slow offensive starts is a lack of execution. There are too many missed blocks by the offensive line, dropped balls by the wide receivers, and turnovers from the quarterback position.

Day addressed this issue in his post-game press conference yesterday following the win at Rutgers.

"“We certainly would like to play better in the first half as a team… All it takes is to be off a little bit and you’re punting. The run game takes time. You have to wear teams down with the run game. We will look at the film and keep swinging.”"

Day and this coaching staff understand that this team isn’t as good offensively as they have been in the past. They have been forced to hang their hat on the defense, who for the most part this year, have answered the bell every time, even when the offense has put them in some difficult situations.

If the Ohio State football team is going to reach their goals of defeating their rival and getting back to a Big Ten Championship Game, they are going to need to find more points early in games. Against Rutgers, Day was forced to rely more on the run game, which he admitted was something they adjusted to at halftime.