Anemic. Defunct. Futile. Not very good.
Whichever synonym of “bad” one picks to describe Ohio State’s offense in The Game, it fits. The Buckeyes relied too heavily on a running game averaging just 3 yards per carry against one of the nation’s best defensive tackle tandems and failed to score a single point in the second half of their 13-10 loss to Michigan. Not only did they score the fewest points they have all season, they also gained the fewest yards (252), yards per play (4.3) and passing yards (175).
“When you look at the offensive side of the ball, it was not a good day,” Ryan Day said on Wednesday. “It wasn’t a good day across the board on offense. Some of that had to do with the coaching and some of the game planning that went on. There’s no question that we could have done a better job getting the ball to the perimeter.
“I think one of the key points in the game, though, is when you have five trips to the red zone and you only get 10 points. In those moments there, we had a couple of missed field goals, we had the interception, we had the field goal and we had the touchdown. We hadn’t done that up to that moment. That was a big deal. And then, on special teams, we had some other things we didn’t execute well. We had a couple of kicks that weren’t fielded great down on the 7-yard line, which created some coming-out situations. And then we had the two missed field goals.”
The past cannot be undone. With the benefit of hindsight, Day readily admits he, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and the rest of the offensive staff should have come up with a better game plan against Michigan. But if Ohio State is to right that wrong with a deep College Football Playoff run, those same coaches must learn from those mistakes and find the best way to move forward on offense.
“When you look back on it, there are definitely ways we could have gotten the ball to the perimeter,” Day said. “I think we threw it 35 times in the game, which I think is Will (Howard’s) second-most throws. It certainly played into it in the red zone and coming out. … There are definitely ways we could have done a better job. It’s the coach’s job to put the guys in the best position to be successful, and that didn’t always happen on Saturday.”
In the box score, Ohio State threw the ball 33 times against Michigan while running it on 26 plays, but Day’s 35 are reached if including two pass interference flags drawn by Jeremiah Smith. Thirteen of those passes and just one run came on the Buckeyes’ two two-minute drills at the end of each half, however, where they had to throw the ball to try and score in time. Outside of those drives, there were 25 runs versus 22 passes.
A majority of those runs went between the tackles, too, which was the most ill-advised part of Ohio State's approach. Right guard Tegra Tshabola has been the most inconsistent of the Buckeyes' offensive linemen all season. Carson Hinzman played well at left guard following a season-ending injury to left tackle Josh Simmons but has struggled since taking over at center for Seth McLaughlin after his season-ending injury. That forced Ohio State into its third option at left guard, Austin Siereveld, with original starting left guard Donovan Jackson having moved out to left tackle in Simmons’ place.
With all that shuffling turning the interior offensive line from a strength in the first half of the year for Ohio State to the team’s greatest weakness, it faced Michigan’s greatest strength in defensive tackle duo Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant. That pair feasted, with Graham racking up seven tackles as the Buckeyes showed as much effectiveness pounding the rock as a toddler trying to smash a boulder with a sledgehammer.
“I think that there was definitely times where we did that, and that didn't turn out very well,” Day said of the inside running game. “But there's also other times we tried some other things as well. And I do think being in the red zone, coming out certainly played into that. And some of those were part of RPOs. But there's no question that the ball was run interiorly too much in The Game. I think that’s clear to see. Again, we did throw it, I think 35 times. And there were some plays to the outside. But yeah, overall, the percentage was too high of running the ball inside. It's clear.”
“There's no question that the ball was run interiorly too much in The Game. I think that’s clear to see.”– Ryan Day
Day indicated on Wednesday that Chip Kelly remained in charge of play calling throughout the contest, but noted multiple times that the failures ultimately fall at his feet as head coach. Day is involved in offensive game planning and provides feedback during contests, after all.
Cold, somewhat windy weather and shaken confidence in Will Howard after a big hit that knocked him out of the game for a few plays and two interceptions played some role in the run game’s prevalence. But Ohio State is almost guaranteed to host its first-round playoff opponent, and the temperatures are almost guaranteed to be frigid once more in that contest.
The Buckeyes likely needed – and will need – to attack the edges of the defense. That’s with outside runs but it’s also using its vaunted arsenal of wide receivers as extensions of the running game with jet sweeps, bubble screens, tunnel screens, wide receiver quicks and the like.
“There's other ways to run the ball,” Day said. “You can get the ball to the perimeter. You can do different things, as you guys know. So sometimes when you get down in there inside the red zone, it gets tight in there. You have to be creative, and I think we could have been more creative in those areas.”
And yet Ohio State’s most successful drive against Michigan, its lone touchdown trip, came in its two-minute drill at the end of the first half when the Buckeyes marched 75 yards to the end zone in nine plays, eight of them throws. That no huddle tempo was absent for much of the rest of the loss.
“We had tempo plays going into the game,” Day said. “I thought early on we kind of had a little bit of a pace to us, got into the red zone again and bogged down. At the end of the half, we were in a two-minute drill because it was more of a two-minute situation than it was just tempo. Looking back again, yeah, I don't think there's any way you could argue that tempo would have helped us more in the game.”
There’s also a psychological component to all of this. Day’s program has been questioned for its toughness in the past. Throughout last week, Day stressed the importance of winning the rushing battle, and indeed the team who rushed for more yards has won The Game each of the last 23 meetings. But as Eleven Warriors’ own Ramzy Nasrallah pointed out in his weekly column, the only stat that determines the outcome of games with 100 percent accuracy is which team scores the most points. By zeroing in on the rushing battle, Ohio State may have cost itself its chance to win that vital statistic. Its red zone failings and two missed field goals didn’t help either, of course.
“I think there's certain things that you have to do (to win), and we have a list of like 10 situations,” Day said. “The rushing yards is one of them. Turnovers is one of them. X (explosive) plays is one of them. You go through it. So you don't just get stuck on one thing, but when you see something that's undefeated over 17 years, you've got to make sure the guys understand that. But you've got to do whatever you can to win the game. That's the bottom line.”
“When you see something that's undefeated over 17 years, you've got to make sure the guys understand that. But you've got to do whatever you can to win the game. That's the bottom line.”– Ryan Day on his emphasis on winning the rushing battle entering The Game
While opting to involve the run game and specifically the interior run game less in the playoffs is part of the fix here, the Buckeyes still have to at least keep defenses honest with the run. That starts with the offensive line. Ohio State is going to evaluate its options with that unit moving forward, as it’s not like this latest iteration of the unit were world-beaters on the ground against Indiana either, the team averaging 4 yards per carry in that clash.
“We're definitely gonna contemplate some rolling at the very least,” Day said. “We’ll look at it over the next couple weeks. Probably could've done that in the game and considered that in the game. It was a big game. Didn't think it was the right thing to do at the time but looking back, probably, you know, should've at least tried something. And so, yeah, we will look into this week on doing some of that.”
The very life of Day’s program could be at stake in how Ohio State answers its questions on offense across the next few weeks.
