Isaiah Prince minced no words. He called himself a sore loser and said, even though Ohio State’s loss to Purdue happened nearly two weeks ago, he was still “pissed.”
He’s not alone. The entire team feels the pressure to rebound from the 29-point loss. Urban Meyer said he thinks he has seen a different level of anger from his team.
“I just look at work and are they coming out working their tails off,” Meyer said. “Anger, whatever, if that's what it takes to make you practice hard and those type of things. I just watch more how serious are you about your business and are we going to get better.”
He said it’s his job and the leaders of each of the nine units to address the team in response to the defeat.
"I want to see the things we worked so hard on fixed.”– Urban Meyer
The loss removed Ohio State’s safety net. If the Buckeyes lose again, they will effectively be eliminated from the College Football Playoff and, in all likelihood, eliminated from the pursuit of a Big Ten championship.
“There's always a sense of urgency, but if we want to still get to where we want to get to, we can't lose any more games,” said Terry McLaurin, one of the team’s captains. “That's a big emphasis in our part.”
In the two games leading up to the loss to the Boilermakers, Ohio State didn’t have its finest performances. But after three lackluster games, including the first loss of the season, McLaurin said the team isn’t able to focus on past games.
“Can't really dwell on the past, but I feel like we really took the bull by the horns in trying to hone in on the mistakes that we had and our points of emphasis,” McLaurin said. “We're hoping to see improvement on Saturday.”
An opponent like Nebraska puts less pressure on Ohio State. After suffering a defeat, the last thing a team wants to do is face a highly regarded opponent. Nebraska has won its past two games, but those are the only victories of the season thus far.
"I want to see the things we worked so hard on fixed,” Meyer said.
Everyone knows those areas. Run game, red-zone offense, penalties, tackling and big plays allowed. Now, it’s time to find out if Ohio State has managed to correct those areas of concern.
Possible changes in run game
For weeks, Ohio State has been unable to stabilize a declining run game. Until the Purdue game, the Buckeyes’ yard-per-carry average decreased with each week. But even against the Boilermakers, Ohio State could not manage more than 100 rushing yards for just the fourth time since Meyer took over prior to the 2012 season.
Part of the issue stems from physicality up front, both Isaiah Prince and Terry McLaurin said. For the first time since beginning the off week, Ohio State practiced without pads on Wednesday. McLaurin said there was “a lot” of talk about playing tougher and knocking defenders around.
“There's been more of an emphasis on just the physicality of the run game, offensive line blowing guys off the ball, running backs running behind their pads and just finishing runs,” McLaurin said. “I remember after the Purdue game we showed a lot of clips of what has been working and what hasn't been working recently. Just the physicality I feel like is going to be a big difference.”
The run game had been declining for weeks, but the Dwayne Haskins-led passing attack prevented anyone from worrying too much about a lack of success running the ball. Then, when the Buckeyes couldn’t seem to get anything going on the ground against Purdue, which led to a loss, the attitude changed.
“I just think people will see just more sense of urgency in the run game in the sense of guys really getting after it, finishing their blocks, finishing their runs and just really trying to get our run game off the ground,” McLaurin said.
Part of the struggles stem from blockers failing to drive defenders off the ball and runners failing to run through would-be tacklers, but the type of play called might also change, at least for one game.
In recent weeks, both Isaiah Prince and Greg Studrawa have expressed less-than-pleasurable opinions about RPOs. Neither outright said they didn’t like the play, but both talked about how hard it is to block without knowing whether the play will be a run or pass. That might change on Saturday. Prince said the team has worked more on traditional run plays than RPOs.
“I mean, yeah, we have run plays that are like that where it’s downhill run, get physical, move them off the ball,” Prince said. “And we got to adjust.”
Coaches have had much discussion about how to deal with the extra defender in the box without a dual-threat quarterback, McLaurin said. That might require some creativity that Ohio State hasn’t shown thus far, but it also might be necessary for the team to turn around the porous ground game.
Wyatt Davis on the way?
Both Demetrius Knox and Malcolm Pridgeon, Ohio State’s starting guards, have had their struggles this season, which has led to questions of whether Brady Taylor or Branden Bowen would be healthy enough to push them for their starting spots at some point. That hasn't happened yet, though, since both of them remain hurt. On Wednesday, Meyer said they’re not ready to play in games, but are close to returning.
Instead of Bowen or Taylor, a different lineman has made a push for playing time: Wyatt Davis, a redshirt freshman who hasn’t played an offensive snap since the fourth week of the season.
“The one I'm really impressed with is Wyatt Davis,” Meyer said.
He said that in response to a question about possible personnel changes on the offensive line. Meyer also said Davis is “close” and the “next one in.”
While it’s expected that both Pridgeon and Knox will remain starters on Saturday, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Davis got reps with the first-team offense. He’s a former five-star recruit and was the top-ranked guard in the nation in the 2017 recruiting cycle. He has ample talent, so the coaching staff might want to see what he can do, given the experience.
