This is the play-by-play analysis series that I have been doing this season, with this week’s edition focusing on the cumulative scores of every player for whom I have graded snaps. I will also compare my scores to PFF’s scores for all of the players, so you can have a second opinion on the performance of these players.

Here is a link to each edition I have done this year, for those interested in re-visiting particular weeks or for double-checking my work:

Offense vs. Oregon / Defense vs. Oregon

Offense vs. Tulsa / Defense vs. Tulsa

Offense vs. Akron / Defense vs. Akron

Offense vs. Rutgers / Defense vs. Rutgers

Offense vs. Maryland / Defense vs. Maryland

This season, the biggest storyline has been the development of the defense as a whole. The Oregon game saw disastrous performances from a couple regulars, including Bryson Shaw and Tommy Eichenberg. More crucially, the defense looked confused on every snap, and few players had a good idea of where they needed to be. Additionally, every play was either Cover 3 or Cover 1, with an occasional corner blitz thrown in there. None of those coverages were disguised. Since that game, however, the defense has made some genuine strides, with players now knowing where they need to be and the coaching staff changing coverages with greater frequency. Secondary depth was also a concern before the year, especially with Denzel Burke starting at cornerback in game one.

The offense had fewer questions, but as the season went on, C.J. Stroud’s performance ended up a big topic of discussion. This is expected for the starting quarterback of the Buckeyes, but the roller-coaster of fan sentiment surrounding Stroud was fascinating to watch. The offense looked to sputter a bit at times in the first three games, but after six games, they look like the best offense in the country. Finally, the Buckeyes have too much talent on the offensive line, with six guys who genuinely deserve to start. Matthew Jones has gotten the short end of the stick so far, though he has played a lot after injuries to Thayer Munford.

To start, let’s go over the defense, as they have far more questions than the offense right now. Here is the defensive chart:

I want to offer a brief explanation of the my scoring mechanism. Like PFF and MgoBlog, I use a -2 to +2 grading scale for each player on a given play (though sometimes, if a play is shockingly good or bad, I may give out a -3 or +3). They may be more thorough with regard to grading; I only grade a player if they have a direct impact on the success of a play. If a player gets blown up on the other side of the field, I won’t grade it.

To get my score, I just take all of the positive points, and divide them by the number of total points that have been awarded. Put another way, my grading is just (+)/(+&-). This provides a number from 0-100, where 50 is average. An average player would get 50 on my scale for just doing their job every play, but never really making a spectacular play in any instance.

To get my adjusted grade, I just take the difference between my grade and 50 to get a difference from the mean. Then, I multiply that number by 0.8 (the ratio of the new maximum and minimum distance from the mean and the old maximum and minimum distance from the mean [40:50 = 40/50 = 0.8]) before adding this final number to 60. In this way, I hope to get a number that can be compared to PFF’s scale, which has an average of 60. This new adjusted scale has a scale of 20-100, with 60 being the average player. If a player had less than 12 total points awarded in the entirety of the season (less than two per game) I gave them 2 points for each net point they had in my grading. So if a player was +2 for the year, and they hadn’t played much, they would get a 64 on my adjusted grade. If all of that sounds convoluted, I apologize. I was never good at explaining math with words.

TLDR: I made my own version of PFFs scale so that you could compare the two. For my adjusted grade, 60 is average, 65-75 is good, 75-85 is very good, 85 and up is excellent.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the most obvious discrepancy: the defensive line.

Some of this discrepancy is due to how I grade the defensive line, but I have been impressed with this group. PFF and I agree on most of the positions on the team, but we disagree completely on the defensive line. I have a lot of these guys rated in the 90’s, when they have them rated in the 60’s and 70’s. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, I have said this before, but I reward plays made, even if they were done in an unsound way. PFF does not do this. They focus on how well a player does his assignment. I do not. I focus on whether or not a player impacted the play in a positive or negative manner. Most of the time, this coincides with executing an assignment, but not always. This means that my grades will likely decrease for some of these players as competition improves, while PFFs may not. This will cause the grades to converge.

Also, many of the players I have rated highly don’t have many positive plays, but they rarely make mistakes either. Javonte Jean-Baptiste, Taron Vincent, and J.T. Tuimoloau are the three biggest culprits. However, because my grade is just a percentage of positive points to total points, they all score very highly. If any of them even make one bad play, that grade will tumble due to their lack of positive production. For example, if Javonte-Jean Baptiste gets blown up on a run, his score will go from an 87.5 to a 77.8. That’s a single play that could significantly lower his score. These guys are all solid players, but I expect all of them to finish in the low 80’s/high 70’s for me as the competition improves. I think PFF is too harsh on them, but like I said, I think the scores will converge a bit. These are all run-stoppers who won’t flash, but they all play pretty well.

Additionally, when grading, I rarely take points off for a player that is being read on a zone read or RPO, as those plays are designed to always make the read player wrong. However, especially early in the season against Oregon, the linebackers and the defensive ends were not on the same page at all. If the defensive lineman would stay home, the linebackers would also try to clog the middle, leading to a wide open lane to the outside. When the defensive end would gain depth, forcing a run up the middle, the linebackers too would flow outside, leaving the middle wide open. I don’t care how they choose to deal with reads, but they need to have both the outside and the inside covered. They can do a scrape exchange, where the defensive end crashes to plug the middle, and the linebacker scrapes over the top to tackle the outside option, or they can have the defensive end gain depth, while the linebacker plugs the middle. Any way you deal with this play, both have to be covered. Against Oregon, only one was covered, and the linebackers almost always got the blame. The miscommunication, however, was purely a coaching issue that seemed to be fixed after Oregon. Therefore, the linebackers have absorbed points for the poor coaching early in the year, while the defensive line didn’t take many negatives. This is also true for Lathan Ransom and Bryson Shaw, who took a ton of negatives in the Oregon game for consistently being in the wrong spot.

Finally, most points awarded are for the run game, as the pressure metric is recorded separately. I will try to incorporate that more into the grading in the future.

The two players that I like a lot more than PFF are Tyreke Smith and Zach Harrison, who have both played well this year. Early on in the year, the linebackers and safeties were so bad in coverage that short, quick passes were really effective at moving the ball down the field on Ohio State, so sacks were nearly impossible to get. That is no longer really the case. In the Akron and Maryland games, the offenses had to drop back and try to get big plays against the defense, as the short consistent yardage wasn’t there. This allowed for more sacks. Rutgers tried the short passing game with double-digit screens, but they couldn’t move the ball. Both of these guys beat the opposing offensive lineman with regularity. As the rest of the defense improves, they are going to reap the benefits. While Harrison has been good the last couple of weeks, I think he will do even better with Smith in the lineup. Smith is easily the best pass-rusher on the team. These two have only been on the field together for the Minnesota and Oregon games, where the deep passing game was not really attempted. These are two guys who should both have a huge second half. Tuimoloau and Jean-Baptiste have played well against the run, but they haven’t offered much in terms of pass rush. Tyreke Smith will make a huge difference.

Tyleik Williams is the clear surprise. I don’t think he should be starting over Haskell Garrett, but he probably should be getting time over Taron Vincent. He did look gassed in limited time against Maryland, so conditioning may be a factor. He is so dynamic though, and it would nice to see him on the field more. If it takes time for Garrett to come back from this injury, Williams will make the loss a lot easier. Garrett’s score also looks worse than expected because his game against Oregon was really rough when he was forced to play a lot of 1-technique. When he is at the 3-tech, he is still an All-American.

The whole room has played solid. I mentioned after the Oregon game that the team doesn’t have a dynamic 1-tech, but Antwuan Jackson has been playing better and better every week. He really struggled against Oregon at that spot, and Garrett wasn’t that much better. If he has improved though, this is a huge hole filled on the defense, and I feel way more confident in the defense as a whole. Ty Hamilton has also played well at that spot. I don’t think we will know how real the improvements of these two guys are until they play better offensive lines.

To me, the clear strength on the defense is the defensive line. The linebackers at the beginning of the year were probably the weakest group. Their recent play has me more optimistic, but they are probably the thinnest position on the team.

There are four linebackers who get regular playing time. There are the three linebackers who I would consider to be slightly above-average to good, and another linebacker who I consider to be a superstar in the making. The three above-average linebackers are Teradja Mitchell, Tommy Eichenberg, and Cody Simon, though they have different routes to getting to that grade. Mitchell and Simon have been at that level all year. I don’t feel bad when they are on the field, and they usually do their job with occasional tackling issues. Eichenberg, while at the same level, was really bad early and has been good lately. The Oregon game was really rough, but he was only kind of bad against Tulsa and really good against Maryland, Rutgers, and Akron. The upward trajectory is clear. I would give the caveat about competition level, but Mitchell and Simon haven’t had the same improvement over the same level of competition. Given that, I think his newfound success is sustainable, especially since his initial mistakes seemed to be coaching related (not getting lined up correctly, going for the wrong gap, etc). He’s big, plays fast, and now knows where he needs to go. Simon and Mitchell, on the other hand, look to have physical limitations, though I think most of that is due to injury. Even so, I would not be surprised to see him start at the end of the season again. None of these linebackers are great in coverage, which is something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

The superstar in the making is Steele Chambers. I talked about him as one of the lone bright spots of the Oregon game, and he has only played better since. PFF somewhat disagrees with me here, but they really didn’t like his early game performances, while I did. He didn’t know exactly what he needed to do, but because he played so fast and aggressive, he would often luck into plays or cause chaos. I reward that, while PFF does not. However, PFF has been grading him well over the last three weeks, which I think is entirely justified. He is the best linebacker on the team right now, and I am excited to see where his career takes him. I expect him to start as the competition improves.

The deep safeties might be in trouble without Josh Proctor, as I think he is a clear step above Lathan Ransom or Bryson Shaw. While those two have played okay since the Oregon game, they haven’t been able to erase the disaster of that game for either of the two of them, though as I said in that game, most of their issues were coaching related, and have since been fixed. They haven’t had a chance to grade well, as none of the teams that Ohio State has played since Oregon have tested them at all. Furthermore, Ohio State does not play aggressively with their deep safeties, so it will be tough for them to improve their grade. Every other group on the defense has improved since the Oregon game, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them play a lot better. They haven’t had the chance to show it yet. This is the position that I am least confident about moving forward because I have no idea what they will look like against a competent offense.

The Bullet position is also now firmly a strong safety. At least, the position that Ronnie Hickman plays is now just a strong safety. Speaking of Hickman, he has been good, not great. I agree with PFF almost exactly, which I think is lower than most people expect. While he has led the team in tackles, he has missed his fair share of them as well. When he misses, there is a big play. He always seems to be around the ball, which is great. Getting to the ball has looked pretty easy though. He hasn’t had to shed lots of blocks or make a spectacular play; he is usually freed up to make the tackle. I don’t have any issues with his play at all, and I think he is a good strong safety. He has rarely wowed me, however.

The outside cornerbacks have played pretty well, with Denzel Burke being the best of the group. He’s been good, but is not an elite cornerback. This is outstanding for a true freshman. He will give up some stuff underneath at times, even in Cover 2, but he has had no problem with coverage down the field.

Sevyn Banks and Cameron Brown have been various levels of pretty good and above average throughout the season. I think both have had higher highs and lower lows than Burke has had. Brown struggled early in the Oregon game before figuring it out. He has been up and down in some games, but he is probably the second best corner right now. Banks hadn’t looked good at all until the Maryland game, which made up almost all of his positives for his entire season. If he can keep that level of performance, he may jump the other two corners. Until he shows that consistency, he’s the third best corner.

The fourth and final cornerback that I have confidence in is Demario McCall. He’s defended well downfield and has been a willing tackler. While I would feel nervous about putting him out there if the playoff was starting tomorrow, he is more than capable of filling this spot for Big Ten play. PFF and I graded him at nearly the same level as Denzel Burke, for comparison. He has played later in games against worse competition, so take that with a grain of salt. However, his play has been genuinely good so far this year. There is a significant drop off after McCall, though JK Johnson and Jordan Hancock look like future stars in their extremely limited time. This position will certainly improve as the year goes on, however, as Brown and Banks have looked better the more they’ve played.

 The nickleback/cover safety position was one of the deepest on the team at the beginning of the year, and might be even deeper now. Lathan Ransom was the original starter, but he was moved back to deep safety to help improve the depth there and potentially start down the stretch. He was fine at the position, though like everyone else at the time he made innumerable mistakes out on the field. His move to his natural position of deep safety was the right move. This could be done because the other two players at cover safety, Marcus Williamson and Cameron Martinez, have exceeded expectations.

Marcus Williamson in particular looks like an entirely new player from last year. PFF and I both have him as the highest rated member of the back seven. His tackling ability has added so much versatility to his game, and it’s allowed them to use this position as a linebacker/corner hybrid – kind of like what they initially had in mind with the Bullet position, which as I mentioned before, is now a strong safety. Shaun Wade played the slot corner a bit like this in 2019. Against Maryland, Williamson routinely lined up as a 4-3 linebacker, in a similar position to Darron Lee. His play has been a revelation for the team, and is allowing them to change up their looks defensively. I can’t stress enough how good he’s been, and how important he has been to the overall structural changes of the defense. He is my pick for the defensive MVP at this point for his positional flexibility alone, which has allowed the defense as a whole to get the best players on the field. Having said that, I will admit that he hasn’t been playing as much as a guy like Hickman or Garrett, so I have no issue with someone thinking that Williamson as defensive MVP is ridiculous.

Cameron Martinez has also been a pleasant surprise. His athleticism was obvious in high school, but switching sides of the ball is a challenge. However, between him, McCall, and Chambers, they are making it look easy. I have him currently rated as an above average to good nickleback. He’s phenomenal in coverage, but struggles tackling. This is not surprising at all for having just started playing defense. It will take more time and experience, but he has all the makings of a spectacular player on this defense. Right now though, he shouldn’t be used like Williamson or Young due to his shortcomings tackling. The coaches did put him out there in more situations like that against Maryland, and he performed better than expected. He’s just more of a pure cornerback body than a hybrid. He will still have a role, as he is the best cover guy at this position.

Speaking of Craig Young, he just recently moved to this position when it became the new hybrid spot. He’s really impressed me the last couple of games with his uncommon athleticism and excellent positional versatility. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him play more, but the two guys ahead of him are going to be hard to supplant. I almost expect him to play more than Martinez in conference play, though, as many Big Ten teams will be far more run-focused than passing focused, and Young has played well enough to earn that opportunity.

Overall, the defense has improved tremendously since the first two games. The improvement of basically ever player and position group tells me that the issue wasn’t the players as much as it was the coaching. The technique wasn’t the problem either; they were just consistently confused and didn’t communicate well between position groups, which led to busts that weren’t reliant on individual players. The added scheme versatility and disguising of coverages has helped significantly as well, as teams no longer can tell exactly what Ohio State is going to be in before the snap with consistency. They won’t be a top-tier unit at any point this year, but if they continue like they have been, they will be a good, solid unit that you can rely on to give you a consistent performance. They won’t stop a team like Alabama, but they won’t get run over either. They will be able to give the offense a chance to win the game. With the best offense in the country, that will be enough.

Here is the running chart for the offense:

The first thing to go over with the offense is the offensive line, which has performed wonderfully to this point in the season. All of the starting linemen have performed very well, with Matthew Jones being included in that statement. Matthew Jones has been the best lineman on the team by my grading and by PFF’s grading, and he needs more time.

If it is true that Jones is the backup center, I think that may be the best spot for him to slide in full-time, as Luke Wypler is the lowest rated starter. He’s been roughly average by my count, while PFF has him as a good center. With all of the other starters having performed much better, it seems like he would be the odd man out. This is especially true since Matthew Jones came in as a center.

If there is one spot I disagreed with PFF, it would be with Dawand Jones. He was inconsistent early, but his highlights are unbelievable. He’s improved as the season has gone on, and Paris Johnson Jr.’s emergence over the last couple of games have made the right side of the line really strong. Dawand Jones’ biggest issue is that he will make big mistakes that will ruin whole drives, which is not really the case for any of the other linemen. Nicholas Petit-Frere will sometimes make a mistake, but it usually results in a gain of only 2 instead of 8, while Dawand Jones will sometimes make a mistake that will result in a drive-killing sack. Since his negative mistakes have been somewhat circumstantial in nature, I expect that his grade will increase as the season goes on, as I have thought he has played well despite his somewhat mediocre grade. The other thing that hurts him (as well as the whole line) is C.J. Stroud throwing the ball quickly. Over the last couple of years, Justin Fields would just sit in the pocket and wait for someone to flash wide open. While this did result in a lot of sacks, the offensive line had more plays to demonstrate their excellent pass-blocking abilities, which I think have been the strength of Studrawa’s offensive line units. With Stroud getting rid of the ball so quickly, it is tough to credit them with better protection numbers, as he doesn’t seem to need the time that Fields needed to find the open guy. Finally, their individual grades are mostly run-blocking grades, where the protection metric is their pass blocking grade as a unit. I should include grades for pass-protection as well, but it is hard to do at times. I will make a commitment to doing more of that in the second half of the season.

Nevertheless, they have all done well blocking the run. The running backs have all been effective, leading to a strong rushing attack. Treveyon Henderson, Master Teague, and Marcus Crowley are all rated about the same, while Miyan Williams is just a step behind. I think all four of these guys are good to very good running backs, but all of them for different reasons.

Miyan Williams is a great, pure runner and is remarkably slippery. On top of that, he’s big enough to always be falling forward, which is ideal for a running back. He may have the best skillset for a classic in-between the tackles running back on the team. His biggest issue is with the passing game, where he appears to struggle a bit with pass protection. Furthermore, he doesn’t present the same receiving threat that the other three have. So while he is excellent while running the ball or forcing unsound play on play-action, he isn’t a guy that you want out there with standard passing. This can be improved upon (see Teague’s development in this area for an example), but it might prevent him from getting the ball as much as he was initially. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him splitting the carries pretty evenly with Teague until his pass blocking improves.

Treveyon Henderson is easily the most explosive, but because of the way I grade, every mistake he makes with missing a hole is a big one. I may remedy this in the future, because it doesn’t seem fair. When he misses a hole, he misses out on a 20 yard gain, while if Teague misses the same hole, he only misses out on a 10 yard gain. Therefore, Henderson has a bigger negative as he left more on the table. Is this fair? Probably not. I didn’t catch it until I did the cumulative ratings, so I am glad that I will be able to make this change soon. He’s the best overall back on the team, as he is effective as a runner, blocker, and receiver. Also, he can turn any play into a touchdown. However, I would like to see his vision and patience improve before I can call him the best running back in the country. He is a future All-American.

Master Teague III is playing the best football of his career if you ask me. Pass protection is no longer a liability for him, which it was last year (watch the Alabama game for proof – Trey Sermon’s departure might have been a bigger issue for the pass game than the run game). He’s a good option as a safety valve in the passing game as well. With his size and his speed, corners have almost no chance of making that open field tackle. He has improved his patience significantly, though he still has a long way to go there. This has led to his YPC being similar to what it was in 2019, even without the threat of the QB run that Fields provided and the increased competition from playing primarily in competitive situations. The physical strength and speed has never been his issue, but he is re-gapping a lot better this year. Furthermore, he is probably the best running back at not getting tackled for a loss, which makes him an ideal short yardage guy. I like Master Teague III a lot more than most Ohio State fans, as the physical talent is there, and it seems like he has a great attitude and an excellent work ethic. If he develops his patience and vision, he will be special, though he has been at the school for a long time now. With him being a fifth-year senior next year, he needs to figure it out now.

Marcus Crowley has made almost zero mistakes. His biggest issue is that he doesn’t have the physical abilities of the other three. He isn’t as fast as Henderson or Teague. He isn’t as quick as Henderson or Williams. He isn’t as strong as Teague or Williams. He is just about flawless though, which makes up for all of that. He never really misses a hole, and really gets the most out of what the offensive line gives him. He won’t rack up positives because of his physical limitations, but he will rarely get negatives because he is a really excellent running back and football player. The biggest issue for him is that he is unproven as a pass protector due to coming in to games late. The depth of this group is probably the most impressive on the team, with the exception of the wide receivers.

The receivers have been spectacular this year, as was expected. Here is their reception chart:

The tight ends are the more interesting group here, as I have provided their blocking, receiving, and overall grades from PFF. The run chart has their blocking, while this chart has their receiving and overall grades. With the exception of Gee Scott, I have thought the tight ends have blocked great, especially Mitch Rossi, whom I expect will receive more playing time in the second half based on the last couple of games. Their receiving has been almost the opposite, with Gee Scott looking really good, and the rest of them being less than impressive.

This is especially worrying for Jeremy Ruckert, who came in as a guy that was expected to be an immediate receiving threat. He hasn’t been a guy who has been able to get contested catches, when that is probably the number one reason that a tight end would get targets in this offense. The receivers, while all excellent, are not big body guys. A big body receiver with an ability to catch contested catches would be really nice piece to have for Ryan Day. Ruckert seems to fill this role based on his recruiting profile, but he hasn’t shown it much this year, generally getting shut down in man-to-man coverage due to a lack of physicality, and getting passes broken up far too often. With this being the case, it is hard to justify him getting targets, as he doesn’t offer any benefit over the three wide-receivers. He is certainly a good receiver, but the ability to get contested catches would make him a genuine weapon that could be used at any point of the field. Right now, they have to scheme him open instead of allowing him to erase one-on-one coverage. Hopefullly, he improves in this metric, because his blocking has been quite good. His versatility would make it impossible to take him off the field.

The wide receivers have frankly been ridiculous, and almost impossible to find a flaw with. Honestly, they are a little boring to talk about because they really don’t show many flaws, but they are fun to watch. The only thing I can really say is that they are as good as advertised. Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba will all finish over 1,000 yards, which doesn’t make any sense. The routes are strong, the ability after the catch is excellent, they all have great hands, and they have blocked pretty well. The young guys look pretty good too. Fleming looked sharp before his injury. Egbuka has been great. I am a little surprised Marvin Harrison Jr. hasn’t gotten more targets, but he has looked great according to the coaches. This whole group has made the quarterbacks’ jobs much easier.

Here are the charts for the quarterbacks:

Due to a formatting issue, McCord and Miller's tables will be at the end. C.J. Stroud has been an entirely different player since his injury, but he played well even before then, to the point where I would have described him as the best quarterback in the Big Ten before his shoulder healed (though, when looking at the rest of the quarterbacks in the Big Ten, wasn’t saying a whole lot).

Some of that early success was due to the talent around him, but even when the arm strength and downfield accuracy was affected, he could still read and process the defenses better than any quarterback I can remember at Ohio State at the same age, and that includes Justin Fields. I’ve said this a few times before, but the biggest reason why he was so frustrating to watch early in the year is because he was doing so much right and constantly finding open receivers, only to miss the throw, which is maybe the easiest part of the position. Brock Huard talked a lot about his anticipation, which is another advanced aspect of his game.

All of this is to say, even if Stroud gets injured again, I think his performance is sustainable, and that he will have the best shot at the Heisman of any recent Ohio State quarterback since Troy Smith. Without a clear top competitor and games against top ten teams coming up, he will have shot if he continues at this pace (though that is a big assumption). If there might be an issue that Stroud faces, he might be fooled into a bunch of turnovers with how quickly he processes things. I don’t know if he will know what to do with a lot of disguised coverages and complex looks. Indiana will be a decent test, with Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa all being good tests as well. If all goes well in those games, the biggest obstacle would be Treveyon Henderson stealing votes away from him. If I had to bet, Stroud would be my pick for the Heisman at the end of the season over every other player in the country. Corral will have the stats, but not the team success. 

For the offense as a whole, this is probably the best Ohio State offense I have ever seen in the last two decades so far. The bad news, of course, is that the defenses are going to get a lot better, and those games will tell us a lot about this team. For now though, I think this offense has everything it needs to win a championship.