The Buckeyes got exposed at USC.
Ohio State came into the game allowing 91.4 yards per game rushing, and USC got 116. The Buckeyes were allowing 171.4 yards per game passing and gave up 222 to the Trojans. OSU was allowing only 264.3 yards per game and gave up 338.
Ohio State came into the game forcing 1.4 turnovers per game and got one from USC. Scoring is where the defense really hit rock bottom. They had been allowing only 13.4 points per game, only allowing one team to get more than 20 on them, and that was 23 to Texas.
Ohio State gave up a season-high 30 points in its loss on the road at USC. It was the first time the Buckeyes had let a team score 30 or more on them since October 12th, 2024, in a 32-31 loss at Oregon. Ohio State has gone 31 straight games without letting an opponent get 30 or more on their defense.
They allowed a team to get three more scores than they had been giving up. SC isn’t exactly a juggernaut either, being tied with Indiana at 42nd in college football, averaging 32.4 points per game. USC literally doubled what Indiana did against the Buckeyes.
What the defense needs to improve on
They need to find a pass rush and find it fast. Ohio State has 11 sacks this season, which has them tied for 112th in college football. That tie is with the 1-7 Charlotte 49ers. Only Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, and Illinois are worse in the Big Ten.
They’re tied with Charlotte in tackles for a loss this season, too. Both teams are 90th in the FBS with 38. Getting pressure on the quarterback and putting opposing offenses behind with tackles for a loss will help a secondary to not have to be perfect in coverage all the time.
Giving up 69-yard and 70-yard pass plays doesn’t help either, especially when those plays happen less because of coverage failures than they do because of poor tackling. If these kinds of big plays become a trend and not an exception for this defense, this is going to be one of the worst Novembers Ohio State has had in a very long time.
What the defense did right
Despite giving up 338 yards to USC, Ohio State’s total defense and even its scoring defense are still in the top 15 in college football. Now, maybe that’s skewed now that they are just entering the toughest part of their schedule. But if there’s even the smallest thing there to build off of, they need to try.
They have the 12th-best run defense, allowing 92.9 yards per game, the 17th-best passing defense, with 171.4 yards allowed per game, and the 6th-best total defense, allowing 264.3 yards per game. On paper and in theory, they’re doing something right despite their terrible Halloween.
Defensive stat of the game
It’s not a good one. It emphasizes how poorly the defense played against an offense that isn’t anything special (SC is 41st in total yards and 42nd in points per game). Three 5-3 teams- Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin- held USC to fewer points than Ohio State did this year. Oregon allowed 27, Washington 25, and Wisconsin 7. No factor mitigates the fact that Ohio State should be better at stopping someone than any of those three.
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