PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Just four days after earning the top spot in the College Football Playoff rankings, Ohio State put together a less-than-stellar performance against Rutgers on Saturday.
The Buckeyes trailed at halftime but used a Jordan Hancock pick six and a monster day from TreVeyon Henderson to win 35-16 and improve to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten.
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Will slow starts derail Ohio State’s title push? What Buckeyes can learn from Rutgers game
Here are a few takeaways from Ohio State’s win.
There’s no more time to waste. Ohio State has to figure things out on offense
Ohio State has offensive line issues. It has drop issues. It has quarterback issues. There isn’t just one thing hampering the Buckeyes.
Ohio State’s first half was a mixed bag. There was an impressive six-play, 54-yard scoring drive. But then the next four drives ended with the following: punt, punt, fake punt and interception.
All of those drives came after self-inflicted mistakes.
Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes are 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten after their win over Rutgers on Saturday. (Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)
There was a 19-yard sack on first down that came after Matt Jones and Josh Fryar left a defensive lineman untouched going at Kyle McCord. Jordan Fleming dropped a crucial second-down pass on the next drive and Gee Scott Jr. dropped a routine pass on third down, which led to a bad fake punt decision. And after that, McCord threw an interception trying to fit a corner route to Marvin Harrison Jr.
That’s a mistake on every level of the offense, and those issues have been common.
We’ve been talking about self-inflicted mistakes all season, but the problem is these types of things don’t just kill drives. They hurt confidence too.
This offense has plenty of talent, enough to win a national championship but not until it gets out of its way.
Now, if we critique the offense for how it plays in the first half, we have to give it credit for playing well in the second half. Ohio State scored touchdowns on its first two drives after halftime as its playmakers, Henderson and Harrison, showed up in big moments.
Regardless of the second-half success, Ohio State is going to get beat soon if it can’t stop making mistakes in the first half. It survived against Rutgers, but that’s not a key to success in the Playoff or against Michigan.
Ohio State’s secondary depth took a major hit
The Buckeyes expected to be without safety Lathan Ransom and cornerback Denzel Burke. In Burke’s absence, Ohio State started true freshman Jermaine Mathews Jr.
But safety Josh Proctor went out in the middle of the game. He made a hard hit in the third quarter, which led to a pick six for Hancock, but it kept Proctor on the sideline for the rest of the game.
Missing two key players would be tough for the Buckeyes, but without Proctor, they had to put in true freshman Malik Hartford. That meant Ohio State had two freshmen in the secondary against a Rutgers offense that was moving the ball at will.
This is going to be something to watch during the next three weeks before Ohio State plays Michigan. The Buckeyes shouldn’t be threatened by Minnesota or Michigan State, at home, but Saturday showed they need their secondary healthy again.
Defense is holding in the red zone
Ohio State gave up 361 total yards, its most this season. Despite the yards, Ohio State gave up just one touchdown. The first half was a big reason Ohio State even won the game.
Rutgers got inside the 5-yard line three times and had to settle for field goals each time. On one of those drives, the Buckeyes’ defense had to work against a short field after the fake punt. Those are game-changing stops because Ohio State’s offense tends to sleepwalk through the first half.
The second half wasn’t good by the defense. It gave up 191, and the Rutgers running game gave the Buckeyes trouble. The Scarlet Knights ran for 5.4 yards per carry and nearly did enough to win the game, but in the fourth quarter when Ohio State needed another stop inside the 10, it got it.
Hartford made two nice plays in coverage, forcing back-to-back incomplete passes, and Ty Hamilton came up with a sack.
That was Ohio State’s worst defensive performance since the Notre Dame game, but as in that game, it did enough when it mattered most to get the win.
The sign of a great defense is how it does when it’s put in tough positions, and though it wasn’t as strong against the run all game, it kept Ohio State in the game because of its success in the red zone. Still, it has a lot to clean up this week for practice.
What was that fake punt call?
Jesse Mirco is a good punter. He punted four times Saturday and put two of them inside the 20.
He’s not a great runner, and that’s the position he was put in on the fake punt, which Ryan Day called “a miscommunication.” Mirco was tackled well short of the first down marker, and the defense was put in a situation it didn’t need to be in.
(Top photo of TreVeyon Henderson: Rich Graessle / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)