Looking at the game again, I feel stronger than ever that this team is capable of much, much more than they are showing. There's not really a single identifiable reason that the Buckeyes are struggling so much after game one. It's more a variety of factors.

Personally, I feel like the offense is afflicted by all the transition on that side of the ball the past few years. Three different offensive coordinators in three years isn't going to go well. It shows in scheme and recruiting. A lot of really, really good talent is in the pipeline. But right now, they're just not all on the same page. And that's really disappointing.

Let's start with the offense's issues. Against Penn State, the unit started off bad, and it was an omen of things to come. Watch the pass here to start off: (EDIT: May have to rewind about 5 seconds on some clips. Have to catch a plane now, so can't rework it.)

One of the most threatening midfielders on the roster airmailed a pass that was objectively easy. There are, no lie, around 15 more examples of this I could post. Heck, here's another where a decent dodge leads to an unnecessary turnover:

That sort of sloppiness was rampant. Ohio State should have had around 18 goals yesterday, based on their shot selection. A major reason they didn't is that Ohio State struggled to get shots on cage.

Here, for example. There's a wide open shot, with hardly any defenders around. And yet, no dice. A middle schooler could have hit the net in that position, college game or not. With how poorly both goalies played yesterday, a shot on net would have been a goal. No doubt.

When you're missing the net like that, it's going to be a rough day. And this is far from the only example.

Here, you can see Tre Leclaire on a sweep throw a pass to a wide open teammate, only for the shot to come nowhere near the net.

Having said all that, there was some good to highlight. Ohio State's offense is evolving somewhat from dodges to nowhere. In this section, you can see the ball get moved through X, to push to the middle of the field for Grant Mitchell to bury it.

In much the same way, the Buckeyes scored on another play by switching players on the opposite side of the ball, opening up Jackson Reid to score easily on a wide open step down.

The team started the year only dodging from up top in an open set, so we can see some schematic evolution. We just need to see the execution step up. There are things to build on, it's just a little too late to have to practice the basics.

Defensively, Ohio State struggled in pretty much every aspect. Slides were a big, big problem. In this snippet, you can see Penn State score a goal on a dodge underneath the defender. One defender slides from the crease late and haltingly, while the adjacent defender is also late. 

When slides did come, often they were ineffective. Gerry Byrne, longtime Notre Dame defensive coordinator and current Harvard head coach, called this play the "lead wrap", and hated it. You can watch the Buckeye defender come in, slam his stick towards the dodger, only to have his effort cut off because of the dodger's speed. The dodger is able to beat the check, and score, because of the overaggressive check.

And, even when everything else went right, Ohio State couldn't pass the ball out of their own end. See below.

And here:

Really, aside from the opening 5 minutes of the game, there wasn't much positive to note for the Buckeye D. Just a brutal, brutal game.

On the whole, this was a game Ohio State should have won. Hands down. There were so many near misses. The Bucks had open shot after open shot on a cold goalie. And they couldn't convert. Then the turnovers just added more fuel to the fire. It was a rough, rough day. I don't know if the team wasn't ready for the cold, the travel, the game, or all three. But it was a disaster from start to finish. Hopefully they take out their frustrations on a vulnerable squad from that school up north. New week, new opponent, fresh opportunity.

Go Bucks!