Xs and Os breakdown after Ohio State football survives against Nebraska

As a former high school football coach who coached for 15 years, what the Ohio State football team did on Saturday was hard to watch. I watch film breakdowns of high school and college football every day. So, for this article, I am going to give you my thoughts on watching the Ohio State game live and then going back and watching it from the All-22 perspective. Here are my thoughts.

OSU has a left tackle problem

Ohio State's offensive line recruiting under Justin Frye has not been great the last several years. They have masked it by getting key transfers in the portal. Left Tackle Josh Simmons transferred last year from San Diego State and was playing at an All-American level, but he is now lost for the season with an injury.

So Saturday, OSU started Zen Michalski, and he struggled mightily. Nebraska was able to create pressure on Will Howard all day, and the biggest issue was Michalski getting beat constantly. To make matters worse, he went out with an injury late. the Buckeyes moved guard Donovan Jackson to LT and Luke Montgomery to LG. This might be a good solution, but going into a big game against Penn State, Ohio State has a lot of questions about their left tackle position.

The Ohio State passing game is special

OSU went back to old reliable today to score three touchdowns. All three touchdowns were passing touchdowns by Will Howard. The first was a beautiful concept and play by Will Howard to Carnell Tate. Tate split the safeties and went up and made a great catch. Howard threw a great pass for the touchdown. The second touchdown pass was all Jeremiah Smith, just using his speed to outrun the defenders. OSU's passing game continues to be special.

The Ohio State defense showed signs of improvement after getting torched by Oregon two weeks ago, although against a far less superior opponent in Nebraska. Ohio State had 3 sacks, multiple tackles for loss, and looked much more disruptive as a unit.

We saw Ohio State use stunts, twists, and blitzes after being much more vanilla against Oregon. They also had a key goal-line stand after an interception by Howard. Finally, they helped win the game with the big stop at the end of the game.

On the play below, you see it was a 3rd-and-9 for Nebraska. On this play, Ohio State brought linebacker Cody Simon as a fifth pass rusher. It led to a sack by Ohio State. Last week against Oregon, they didn't blitz once in the first half. There was an effort to send an extra rusher in this game.

The lack of a run game is a huge concern for Ohio State

This is a frequent concern in big games for Ohio State. Again, this week, they couldn't run the ball against Nebraska. They rushed 28 for 68 yards. 2.4 yards per carry is UGLY. I understand that they lost their left tackle, but the other 4 offensive linemen are all playing at a high level.

They also have two of the best running backs in the country. It is puzzling, to say the least. Ohio State's passing game is elite, but the rushing attack needs to do better if they want to win out. It is a huge concern. Chip Kelly and Ryan Day need to figure this out if they want to have success as an offense, or they will be a very one-dimensional offense.

They are running an RPO inside zone play. Howard is reading the defensive end. He sees him stay home and hands the ball off. Then the linebacker scraps over the top. Howard should have probably pulled this and ran it or thrown the ball to the screen up top. My question is why run an RPO on 3rd-and-1? Either run it or run a play-action.

Will Howard is playing at a high level for Ohio State

Imagine at the end of the Oregon game that Will Howard fell with 1 second left in the game, and Ohio State kicked a field goal to win the game. How much different would fans view Will Howard? I say it very differently. Even with the slip-up at the end of the game, Will Howard continues to play at a high level for Ohio State. Will Howard waited for Quinshon Judkins to get home and delivered a good football to him on Judkins' touchdown catch.

Final Thoughts

Ohio State has one of the most talented rosters in College Football. It is up to Ryan Day and the coaching staff to figure this out and win out to end the regular season 11-1. Next week's game at Penn State will be difficult, but if Ohio State is a national title contender, they should win this game.