Ohio St. v. Penn St. observations

Ohio St. held off a feisty Penn St team 33–24 in what was a closer game than usual until the final 2 minutes of the game. Below are some thoughts I have post game and digesting everything over night.

• I missed the first quarter of the game, but it appeared the Buckeyes were struggling on offense more than usual. I did read that the Nittany Lions knew the Buckeyes plays and were able to defend/cover accordingly. That seems rather alarming and you have to wonder if there was any adjustments being made. Throughout the game the Bucks were continually running the ball up the middle despite there not being space to do so. Seemed very bizarre especially when it kept happening into the 4th quarter.
• Some of the Buckeyes warts started coming out on defense again. The zone coverage is just not working and the Buckeye turnovers came when they played tighter coverage and got to the quarterback. It looked like all the big plays from Penn St came on loose zone coverage where the receiver was running a route untouched and just stopping/waiting for the pass.
• This was always going to be a tough game on the schedule, and Penn St plays Ohio St tough every year (at least since Franklin has been their coach). It was alarming the offense couldn’t get going consistently and the top receivers (Olave and Wilson) were basically shut down, outside of two big plays. Maybe the Buckeyes thought they could do anything offensively and it would work no matter what. Just isn’t the reality and I think teams will figure out a way to put Olave and Wilson out of game plan (as best they can) and have someone else beat them. Penn St had a really good defensive gameplan. I see Michigan St doing something similar with Mel Tucker being the defensive mind coach he is and executing a similar plan.
• The next two weeks are Nebraska and Purdue. The Cornhuskers are a borderline dumpster fire and Purdue is hit/miss on when they want to upset high ranked teams. For the Buckeyes they have to clean some things up on both sides of the ball. They need to NOT always depend on Olave/Wilson for everything. Smith-Njigba made some plays but with all this receiver talent, I think they couldn’t go wrong spreading five wide and daring a team to cover everyone successfully. I know they want to run the ball and thats fine, but good to great teams will shut down Olave/Wilson long enough and I don’t think Buckeyes defense is good enough to hold the fort down.
• As for other teams ranked around Ohio St; Georgia and Alabama are better. Buckeyes are better than Cincinnati and Oklahoma. Michigan St is rolling right now and that might be the marquee game and dangerous one, considering its week before THE GAME. I think Ohio St is sitting fine where they are. If they go next two weeks blowing teams out, they should be set. The defense needs to tighten up coverage and execute blitzes better. They did a little bit here and there but it was shaky for parts of the game. On to Nebraska! GO BUCKS!!