Red Zone Redemption
The Ohio State offense has failed to score a touchdown on its last eight trips to the red zone, which is not a winning strategy no matter the opponent.
The thing is, against the Buckeyes’ four weakest opponents this season — Oregon State, Rutgers, Tulane, and Indiana — they have been very good in the red zone, scoring touchdowns on 19 of 23 trips. The problem comes against the better teams on the schedule, like the ones they’ll be facing down the stretch.
Against the best four teams on OSU’s schedule this season, the Buckeyes have reached the end zone on just two of their 14 trips into the red zone. If they can’t find a way to finish drives, then they themselves may be finished.
“We’ve got to execute,” offensive coordinator Ryan Day said. “We missed a couple passes [against Purdue] that we hit. We went and watched the film with the guys and showed them during the season pass plays that were similar that we threw and caught and those were touchdowns. When you do that, maybe you’re not in the situation you’re at. But also being able to, when we need to pound and make three yards, you’ve got to be able to make three yards down there. So those are the areas we’re spending time on.”
How’s Chase Young Doing?
Ohio State sophomore defensive end Chase Young is tied for 10th in the Big Ten with 8.5 tackles for loss and 11th with 4.5 sacks.
In conference play, however, Young is fourth in sacks (4.5) and second in tackles for loss (7.5). Early in the season, he wasn’t playing much due to the blowouts. Since conference play got underway, however, Young has been needed more and more.
Losing Nick Bosa has obviously called for Young to play more snaps as well.
So how has Young responded?
“I think even before Nick got injured, I thought Chase was playing at a high level,” defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said. “He’s a guy that hasn’t had a ton of reps, so he’s learning as he goes as well. But he’s physically very gifted and he’s made some really good things happen out there on the field.
“As we can make that part of the bigger picture, if we can make that happen more consistently, watch out because he is a special athlete. The thing with Nick is that he did what he was supposed to do, and he did it very well almost every time. That’s the aim as you develop. Nick didn’t do that when he was Chase’s level of experience. We’re chasing that for sure. We’ll get there.”
Don’t Expect Any Changes
The Ohio State offensive line has had its issues in moving people backwards this season. The running game is currently one of the worst in school history, and considering there are two running backs who are proven talents, the blame can only go so many places.
There was some thought that the Buckeyes could be looking to make some changes on an offensive line that that has been underperforming. One of those changes could have been Branden Bowen who was supposed to return to practice last week.
“He’s not ready to play yet, no,” offensive coordinator Ryan Day said last week. “He is going to be practicing this week, but not quite there yet. But he’s coming along and making some good progress. But not quite ready to play yet.”
With the bye week last week, more players were able to get reps, but there were no immediate plans to replace anybody on the line.
“The thing that’s good about the bye week is those guys can all practice and get meaningful reps right now,” Day said on Wednesday. “I thought some of those guys had really good days of practice yesterday. The more those guys can get on the field this week, then take a look at it at the end of the week and kind of assess it from there. But I don’t think the plan right now is to look to move anybody at this point. But the competition is always there and if those guys are playing better then we’re going to consider it.”