COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Ohio State survived Saturday’s overtime game against Maryland with a 52-51 win, but not without a few of its most important players suffering injuries in the process.
The most substantial of those injuries might have been that which occurred in the first quarter, when left tackle Thayer Munford went down with what appeared to be a right knee or ankle issue. Munford did not return to the game, and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said after the game that he was uncertain on what Munford’s status would be going forward to next week’s rivalry game against Michigan.
Joshua Alabi replaced Munford at left tackle for the remainder of the game.
Ohio State defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones was forced to leave the locker room with an injury in the second quarter, but returned for the second half of Saturday’s game. Jones – who has also battle through a foot injury for much of the season – said after the game that he suffered a stinger in his shoulder, but he fought through it to return to action.
“My shoulder right now is killing me,” Jones said. “So I’ve just been taking some Tylenol and things like that, just to calm down the inflammation in my shoulder, but it should be cool.”
Ohio State wide receiver Terry McLaurin was also slow to come off the field after taking a hard hit on a catch just short of the goal line late in the fourth quarter. Meyer said after the game that he did not know exactly what happened to McLaurin, but expected that McLaurin would be available to play against Michigan.
Running back Mike Weber did not play at all in Saturday’s game due to a quadriceps bruise that became aggravated this week.
“He practiced on Tuesday,” Meyer said, “and it got worse. We were hopeful all the way up until Tuesday. Just couldn’t go.”
With Weber sidelined, J.K. Dobbins played the lion’s share of snaps for the Buckeyes at running back and had a career-high 37 rushing attempts for 203 yards in Saturday’s game.
Time for a change
Maryland used a strategy of intentionally kicking the ball short on kickoffs on Saturday, and Johnnie Dixon struggled to adjust.
On the Terrapins’ first kickoff of the game, Dixon allowed the kickoff to roll and failed to recover it at all, allowing Maryland’s Tino Ellis to recover the ball for his own team at the 21-yard line.
Demario McCall fielded Maryland’s second kickoff the game, another short kick, and returned it 12 yards to the 38-yard line. The Terrapins’ third kickoff went to Dixon, though, and he botched it again, taking a knee as the ball rolled to him at the 12-yard line, downing the Buckeyes deep in their own territory.
That would be the last kickoff Dixon would field in Saturday’s game.
In Dixon’s place, McCall performed well, returning four kickoffs for 78 yards. Most significantly, McCall returned Maryland’s final kickoff of the game 42 yards – Ohio State’s longest kickoff return of the year to date – to midfield to set up the Buckeyes’ game-tying touchdown drive that sent the contest to overtime.
That was enough for Meyer to declare after the game that McCall would continue to be the Buckeyes’ primary kickoff returner going forward.
“He gave us a dynamic kickoff return, and he’s going to be our kickoff returner, obviously,” Meyer said.
If that means that Dixon won’t be Ohio State’s kickoff returner going forward, he indicated on Twitter that he would roll with the punches:
Man I done been down bad before say what you gotta say about me but it aint gone make or break me.. believe that!
— Johnnie L. Dixon III (@YoungKing_JD5) November 17, 2018
With Weber sidelined, McCall also saw some snaps on offense on Saturday as Ohio State’s No. 2 running back, but only carried the ball two times, gaining 12 combined yards.
Urban in agony?
In a year where concerns about Meyer’s health, specifically headaches related to an arachnoid cyst on his brain, have been in the news, his body language during Ohio State football games has been the subject of much scrutiny, and that was as much the case as ever during Saturday’s game at Maryland.
Pained expressions on the sideline are nothing new for Meyer, but they were particularly profound in Saturday’s game, including one instance where he was hunched over with his hands on his knees away from the team huddle during a timeout. As the season nears its close, it’s that body language that will lead to increased speculation about Meyer’s future coaching the Buckeyes.
Meyer himself, however, downplayed those concerns after Saturday’s game, saying he was just frustrated by the Buckeyes’ struggles over the course of the game.
“It’s frustrating when you see a pick-six, when you see a tight end not release on a pass and the quarterback fumbles and you see a guy that is a very good running back for Maryland,” Meyer said. “So I mean, it’s up-and-down, up-and-down. What a chess match down at the end of the game … very emotional game.”
Asked whether it is “exasperating” to coach this year’s team, which has had its share of struggles all season, Meyer said “it’s not at all.”
Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel wrote Saturday that “a source at Ohio State said after the game that Meyer appeared fine in the locker room and that the feeling on the staff is that he’d endured worse pain during games this season.” He also wrote that “there had actually been some optimism in the Ohio State program this week that Meyer was feeling better and that he’d figured better ways to manage his pain.”
Even so, it’s unlikely questions about Meyer’s health and his future will go away anytime soon as long as his body language on the sideline continues to convey distress.
