Are you still alive and kicking?
While we love to watch entertaining college football games, it’s not nearly as exhilarating when Ohio State is embattled in a closer-than-expected contest against a Big Ten team it probably should have handled in less dramatic fashion.
At the end of the day though, almost every top team in the country struggled in the penultimate week of the college football regular season in games that seemed to be bridges to bigger and better things. After all, Ohio State will host Michigan in the next installment of The Game this Saturday and there’s some trophy and confetti on the line. From there it could be a College Football Playoff appearance.
But back to the game against Maryland. The Buckeyes made the adjustments at halftime and started shoveling the ball to running back Dallan Hayden on the way to a come-from-behind gut-check type of victory needed to put some more scarlet and gray hair on the chest.
After every game, we try to pull out five things that we observed to take away, and luckily this one is on the smiling side of the scoreboard for us to reflect on. It’s not all rosy though because there are some things that have to be much better next week.
Here are five things we learned from Ohio State’s hand-wringing win over Maryland Saturday.
The coaching staff has to figure this running game out
Ohio state struggling without the running game
— Richie Womack (@rich4156) November 19, 2022
What We Learned
It seems like a broken record now, doesn’t it? Tell me if you’ve heard this before; Ohio State struggled in the running game in the first half.
The Buckeyes are much better moving the ball on the ground when they go north and south instead of running the stretch zone play. It’s the tendency look the offense has when it gets that type of action so safeties and other DBs are crashing down and filling the gaps, making it hard to find any running room.
What worked in the second half is the best recipe for success. Instead of stretching things out, OSU handed it off to Dallen Hayden who got upfield quickly, mostly behind the right side of the line and took more control of the game on offense.
There are other things that go into it obviously, but if Ohio State wants to do business against Michigan, it can’t get a slow start to the ground game again. The talent is there, so it’s a little bizarre why there are so many struggles moving the chains on the ground at times.
Speaking of Dallan Hayden
An IMPACT game from freshman Dallan Hayden 😤
🏈 27 Car
🏈 146 Rush yds
🏈 3 TD pic.twitter.com/8XJ1ImMReN— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 20, 2022
What We Learned
Where would Ohio State be without freshman running back Dallan Hayden in this one? It’s not a stretch to say that this one probably doesn’t have a winning outcome if the Buckeyes didn’t feed him the ball in the second half.
As good as TreVeyon Henderson is, he has a tendency to bounce things outside and lose yards, get frustrated, and then rinse and repeat. To be fair, Henderson has been injured, but right now, there is a noticeable difference when Hayden is in the game.
He hits the hole, gets into the second level, and seems to have excellent vision. We might see a lot of him vs. Michigan, especially if the other backs are still dinged up.
The defense is good, but maybe not as good as we thought early in the year
Ryan Day meeting with the media for his postgame press conference.
Day says it was “big” for Dallan Hayden to get a game like today under his belt.
Day thought Taulia Tagovailoa “played his heart out” but Ohio State’s pass defense allowed “too many yards today, for sure.”
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 20, 2022
What We Learned
There’s no doubt this Ohio State defense is a thousand light years better than the unit we saw last season. It has statistically been a top-ten unit almost all year and acts as a warm glass of milk for the Buckeye offense at times when things aren’t humming along.
But there are still plenty of leaks that pose a problem, most notably the pass defense. Taulia Tagovailoa lit up the secondary today, throwing for almost 300 yards, many of which were of the big play variety.
All in all, the defense made things happen when it needed to, but the explosive plays are a problem. At least the rushing defense was lights out today. That’ll be needed next week against the colors of maize and blue.
Ryan Day's aggressive tendencies might be too aggressive at times
Mike Locksley is in Ryan Day's head with chasing points and it results in a 3-point swing. OSU goes for two, gets a penalty then gets the PAT blocked and returned. Just kick the freakin' extra point and make Maryland chase. #GoBucks
— Buckeyes Wire (@BuckeyesWire) November 19, 2022
What We Learned
Look, I’d much rather have Ryan Day’s mindset than what we saw with Jim Tressel back in the Senator’s days, but isn’t there a happy medium somewhere? Too often this year, Day has eschewed field goals to go for it on fourth down when three points could have made a huge difference.
In this one, Day got into chasing points with Maryland head coach Mike Locksley and it put Ohio State in a situation where it let the Terrapins have a shot to win it with a touchdown late.
Locksley called for his team to go for two to pull within six points and rather than simply kicking the extra point after the next OSU touchdown to go up by 13, Day tried to match the conversion to stay 14 points ahead. Stroud lost track of the play clock, took a penalty, then the longer extra point was blocked and returned for two. That’s a three-point swing and changed the entire complexion of keeping the Terps within distance of making it a one-score game.
Kick the extra point, let the other team chase points and the Buckeyes could have kicked an extra point to clinch things late.
A wise man once told me, “it only makes sense when it makes sense.” I hope that makes sense to everyone. Be aggressive but dial it back when the situation calls for it.
It's hard to go undefeated
It’ll be 11-0 Michigan at 11-0 Ohio State. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/rG3UxBUlcI
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 20, 2022
What We Learned
Saturday, you saw why it’s so hard to put together an undefeated season. It’s the expectation at a place like Ohio State, but when you play so many different teams with different styles, different refs, different locations, weather conditions, and more — there are a lot of variables at play that makes things difficult.
All five of the top teams in the College Football Playoff rankings struggled today and it just goes to show you the toll a full season can take on a team. You have to be really good, execute each and every game, and then get some breaks to go undefeated.
Today was another example and don’t let anyone ever tell you that a close win amidst such a special season isn’t getting things done. It happened to a lot of teams today and will continue to be a thing every year this game is played.
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