Everything turned out better than expected.
This feature was almost going to be a morose one that highlighted how bad Ohio State's kickoff unit is. Then, Ohio State cobbled together a fourth-quarter comeback for the ages to secure a season-saving 39-38 win. Everything turned out better than expected.
Don't worry; we'll touch on how bad Ohio State's kickoff unit is in this feature. However, we should start with a blurb on how Ohio State made that fourth-quarter comeback possible: bottling up Saquon Barkley despite his red-hot start.
Saquon Barkley Started Hot But Cooled Down
Ohio State fans expected a long day after the first few possessions. Saquon Barkley housed the opening kickoff in yet another blunder for Ohio State's beleaguered kickoff unit. Already down 14-3 after Parris Campbell's fumble, Barkley's 36-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter gave Penn State a 21-3 lead from which it seemed impossible that the Buckeyes' defense would get enough to stops for a comeback win.
However, that's ultimately what happened. Ohio State got enough stops to make a fourth-quarter comeback possible. Importantly, it held Saquon Barkley in check for almost the entire game after his 36-yard touchdown run.
Saquon Barkley had just three all-purpose yards in the second half against Ohio State. The defense held him -5 total yards on offense.
Notice it was not for lack of effort. 16 of Barkley's 27 touches this game came after halftime. However, Barkley fared no better than eight yards on any one of those touches. Further, one of those eight-yard chunks came from Barkley's second kickoff return.
The numbers look quite grisly for Penn State, or quite exceptional for the Ohio State fan. Barkley's 16 second-half touches resulted in just three all-purpose yards. Selecting out that eight-yard kickoff return, Ohio State's defense held Barkley to -5 total yards of offense.
J.T. Barrett's heroics won the game but Ohio State's second-half defense, especially its ability to contain Barkley, made that possible.
How Crummy is Ohio State's Kickoff Unit?
That Ohio State's kickoff coverage is crummy is not an exceptional observation, nor will it be a controversial observation for the sake of this feature. Our purpose here is to use data to underscore how crummy Ohio State's kickoff coverage is.
"Crummy" in this context is a polite descriptor for "effectively the worst unit in the country."
Ohio State's crummy kickoff coverage is among the nation's absolute worst units in almost every important metric. The Buckeyes average 56.62 yards per kickoff, which ranks No. 127 in the country. They've had just six touchbacks the entire season, which is No. 122 in the country.
| Metric | Statistic | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Yards/Kickoff | 56.62 | 127 |
| Touchbacks | 6 | t122 |
| Kickoff Out-of-Bounds | 4 | t3 (most) |
| Opp. 30+ Yard Returns | 6 | t117 |
| Opp. 40+ Yard Returns | 4 | t127 |
| Opp. 50+ Yard Returns | 3 | t128 |
| Opp. 60+ Yard Returns | 2 | t122 |
| Opp. 70+ Yard Returns | 2 | t124 |
| Opp. 80+ Yard Returns | 2 | t124 |
| Opp. 90+ Yard Returns | 2 | t127 |
This much is unsurprising because Ohio State's coaches instruct players to coffin-corner kickoffs with air underneath them to pin returners deep and compel a return that the kickoff unit hopes to end short of the 25-yard line. However, the Buckeyes have routinely failed at this. Indeed, the Buckeyes have sailed four kickoffs out of bounds, which is tied for third most in the country.
Saquon Barkley is not alone in having big kickoff returns against the Buckeyes' crummy kickoff units. That Koa Farmer, a linebacker and upman, also had a 59-yard return on Saturday night highlights that others are getting their opportunities to put the Buckeyes' defense behind the 8-ball in field position or dig deeper holes from which Ohio State's offense must claw out.
The Buckeyes are tied for No. 117 in the country in opponent kickoff returns equal to or greater than 30 yards. Opponents have had six such returns against the Buckeyes.
It gets worse for even bigger returns. The Buckeyes are tied for last in opponent kickoff returns greater than or equal to 40 yards, 50 yards, 70 yards, 80 yards, and 90 yards.
In other words, the Buckeyes' kickoff unit is so crummy it's practically the nation's worst unit. Urban Meyer would be best served this year finding a kicker who can sail a kick through the end zone for a touchback. It'll be a blow to Meyer's ego as a special-teams-minded coach, but his defense would thank him for alleviating the field position problem the kickoff unit creates.
Ohio State's Offensive Brilliance Continues
I'll confess this up front: I had to stop watching the game after that 50/50 touchdown that put Penn State up 35-20 in the third quarter. That wasn't me giving up the game; I was being honored at an event. Life intervenes, but, during that event, I was thinking about how Ohio State's special teams miscues, along with some unfortunate penalties on defense, were going to belie how brilliant Ohio State's offense was against Penn State.
This was all before the fourth-quarter comeback when J.T. Barrett finally seized his moment. Barrett is going to get a lot of the praise and he deserves it. Mind you, I've been on record thinking that he should've been the starter through all 2015 and that calls to bench him were always misguided. However, Ohio State's offensive brilliance is more than just him even if Barrett gets to conduct it.
The obvious stat to highlight here is Ohio State outgained Penn State 529-283. We can (and should) qualify that Penn State likely finishes with around 320-350 yards for the game if not for the generous field position they got. The total yards disparity is in part a function of that.
Still, field position has a weaker bias on average yards per play. Here: Ohio State beat Penn State 6.8 to 4.4.
Ohio State is routinely outgaining the opponent's offense in 2017.
It's been that way the entire season except for the Oklahoma game in which the defense broke beyond repair. Ohio State's offense routinely outgains the opponent, and by a comfortable margin.
If last year's defense did the heavy-lifting for an offense that was average at best against good teams, this year's offense does the heavy-lifting for a defense that struggles at times in play-action and for a special teams unit that routinely does the defense no favors.
