Cardale Jones rightfully stole headlines during Ohio State's run at the first-ever College Football Playoff, but his success against some of the top defenses in the country was aided in large part because of the vast number of big plays the Buckeye offense generated.
Running back Ezekiel Elliott ripped off touchdown runs of 81, 85 and 33 yards in wins over Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon. Devin Smith caught touchdown passes of 39, 44 and 42 yards from Jones against the Badgers. Even in the regular season, Michael Thomas shed tacklers on his way to long-range scores against Virginia Tech, Kent State, Maryland, Michigan State and even the ridiculous tightrope snag from Evan Spencer in the Sugar Bowl.
So far in 2015, though, those plays have largely been absent, save for the season opener against Virginia Tech.
Elliott tallied another 80-yard touchdown run, Curtis Samuel snagged a twisting touchdown reception from Jones from 24 yards out and Thomas burnt All-American corner Kendall Fuller for a 26-yard touchdown from J.T. Barrett late in the game. Braxton Miller also had a pair of 50-plus-yard scores in the game.
Since then? Ohio State's biggest scoring play is Thomas' 23-yard touchdown grab from Barrett in the second quarter against Northern Illinois. Elliott's been prevented from torching defenses the way he did late in 2014 and against the Hokies, with his longest rush since Week 1 being 13 yards (twice).
So what gives? Why isn't there the room to run for Elliott? It's obvious, Urban Meyer said.
"We know exactly why," Meyer said Tuesday on the Big Ten teleconference. "We're not controlling the line of scrimmage and when we do, we're not perimeter blocking like we normally do."
Departed seniors Jeff Heuerman and Evan Spencer blocked about as well as you could on the edge last season, Meyer said, especially in the running game. That gave space and time for the offensive linemen to get on linebackers and safeties on inside zone plays and thus create massive lanes for Elliott to gash opposing defenses.
"You look at those big hits last year, I want to say he was barely touched on the famous run, the 85-yard run against Alabama," Meyer said. "That's because the wide receiver did a phenomenal job, the offensive line got to the second level. Same with the Oregon game."
“We recruit players to have explosive plays. We give them opportunities to have explosive plays and over the last several years for the majority, they made them. We're not doing that right now, so that's a high, high emphasis right now.”– Urban Meyer
It sounds so simple, but is added to an already extensive list of offensive struggles in the games against Hawai'i and Northern Illinois. Both teams had success thwarting the Buckeye run game by playing an odd-man front, which they had not shown on film prior to visiting Columbus.
"The thing is, on our drives, we’re not starting out well," Elliott said after the game Saturday. "Then we get behind and we’re not able to run the type of offense that we’re used to running. That’s a problem."
Ohio State's first and foremost a power-running team, but haven't gotten consistent big chunks on the ground recently. The wide receivers haven't been performing well in the passing game, either — "All the focus is on the quarterback and that comes with it," Meyer said Tuesday — which allows teams to play the run more.
Put it all together and it makes it difficult for Elliott or anyone to have much space on the ground to make the huge plays that were there at the end of last year.
"We recruit players to have explosive plays. We give them opportunities to have explosive plays and over the last several years for the majority, they made them," Meyer said. "We're not doing that right now, so that's a high, high emphasis right now."
And it all starts with the blocking up front from not only the offensive line but everyone on the offense.
"Zeke's fantastic, but he gets to the second level a lot of times because we're hatted up and doing a good job," Meyer said. "We haven't, and that's been our strength. That’s already been addressed and I would anticipate we'll be much better."
