Just because this week’s Ten Things is remarkably late doesn’t mean we didn’t learn much. It just means that I wish Ohio State basketball wouldn’t schedule games the day after long football road trips.
If you didn’t have any rooting interest in the game, Saturday’s 52-51 win over Maryland for the Buckeyes was tremendous entertainment. For most of you, however, I’m not even sure the television was visible through the red glow of your anger-induced bloodshot vision.
As expected, the defense had a rough day against a three-card-monte offense, but at least the offense returned with a vengeance.
So what did we learn?
1. JK Dobbins gets better with work.
Dobbins said after the game that it is hard to get into a groove when you are splitting carries. On Saturday, he split 39 carries with Demario McCall, though McCall only had two of those carries. It was a career high in carries and a career-high 203 rushing yards for Dobbins. Kevin Wilson has been adamant that the Buckeyes shouldn’t fall in love with the passing game. On Saturday, they came out and were methodical in establishing the run. It was great practice for what lies ahead.
2. Dwayne Haskins has embraced the need for toughness.
A few weeks after getting booed by some home fans for sliding early while scrambling, Dwayne Haskins embraced his inner JT Barrett and ran the ball quite a bit on Saturday. His 15 attempts were a career high, as were his 59 yards and three touchdowns. More than that, however, was the display of toughness throughout the game. Haskins was willing to fight for yards, which means that he is willing to fight for the team. Seeing that, his teammates will have that same willingness to fight for him.
3. Playing strictly for field position needs to end now.
Urban Meyer said on Monday that if punter Drue Chrisman wasn’t so adept at killing punts inside the 5-yard line, they probably would be going for it on fourth down more when in the opponent’s territory. Meyer said he doesn’t like punting from inside the opposing 40-yard line, but it has worked. This coming Saturday, however, the Buckeyes will need to make the most of every trip inside the Wolverines’ 40-yard line, and punting can’t always be the only option.
4. The defense is capable of playing well.
On 49 snaps against the Maryland offense on Saturday, the Ohio State defense held the Terps to a total of 41 yards. Unfortunately, however, on 13 other snaps, the Buckeye defense gave up a total of 494 yards. While that sounds bad, the OSU defense was perfect on 80% of their snaps. That’s almost a C+, which is a passing grade. Of course, the misses were pretty hard to ignore. Like answering “What is the capital of Belgium?” with “3.14.”
5. The running game is as good as it has been all year.
The Buckeyes have finally figured out what works for them when it comes to running the ball. They rushed for 289 yards on 56 carries (5.1 ypc) and incorporated Dwayne Haskins well down in the red zone. For the third game in a row, an Ohio State running back rushed for more than 100 yards. On the other hand, this OSU running game being the best it has been all year doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to run the ball on Saturday. If another Buckeye hits the century mark against the Wolverines, however, you have to like Ohio State’s chances.
6. Terry McLaurin needs to play.
Terry McLaurin is the heart and soul of this offense. He does everything correctly and also happens to be a big-play weapon on offense. McLaurin left the game on Saturday, but Urban Meyer said on Monday that he will play this weekend. You do have to wonder if Meyer is being completely honest or if he is simply not going to give Michigan any more information than they already have.
7. Mike Weber is going to be hungry.
Mike Weber missed the Maryland game with a leg bruise but should be good to go on Saturday. That is, of course, unless Meyer is using gamesmanship here as well. I doubt that he is because I can’t imagine Weber missing this opportunity to play against his home-state school. He does pretty well when playing Michigan schools and since he didn’t eat last week, Saturday may look like a buffet to him. He’ll just have to alternate with JK Dobbins on when to go up and get a new plate.
8. Leverage is not optional.
I don’t know why the Ohio State defense continues to think leverage is optional, because it isn’t. If your job is to maintain leverage, don’t go inside the widest blocker. It is no different than if your job is to not get beaten deep, then don’t let a receiver get behind you. It’s the same principle and should be easy to master.
9. Maryland wasn’t a good matchup for OSU’s defense.
Ohio State’s defense is too easily manipulated, which made Maryland’s manipulative offense a bad matchup for them. Motions and shifts? How were the Buckeyes possibly supposed to keep Maryland’s offense from scoring six touchdowns? Watching the game live, for the first time in a while I didn’t want to place the blame on Greg Schiano. There were players who were supposed to make plays that were available to be made, but they didn’t execute. The other side of that, however, is that if Schiano keeps asking players to do things that they apparently cannot consistently do, then it his fault for either not fixing the personnel or requiring too much of it.
10. Nothing from this past Saturday matters today.
Maryland is in the rear-view mirror. The defense was bad, the offense was great. Now it’s time to figure out exactly what this team is capable of. Can they beat Michigan? Sure. Will they? That depends on whether or not they can play their best game of the year while simultaneously playing their toughest opponent. There’s nothing easy about it, but it’s happened before.