Essentially, the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes did anything and (almost) everything that they wanted to do against the obviously overmatched Kent State Golden Flashes on Saturday in The Horseshoe. A late interception set the visiting MAC team up to prevent the shutout, but otherwise, the OSU defense more or less shut down the Flashes.
On offense, at times, the Buckeyes looked as locked in and efficient as you could hope for, but at other times, they struggled in short yardage, missed obvious opportunities,
and continued to make some of the same mistakes that have plagued them in the past.
It’s tough to take much of anything from a beatdown of this level of proportion, but there were a handful of things that stuck out to me — some good, some bad. Hit the comments below and let us know what stood out to you from today’s game.
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Offensive line continues to be a problem, especially in short yardage
We have been talking about the fact that Ohio State’s offensive line is by far the weakest part of the team for years. Across multiple position coaches, offensive coordinators, and personnel turnovers, that fact has become as much a part of the Buckeyes’ identity in the second half of Ryan Day’s tenure as has the label of WRU.
The OSU offense was able to punch it into the red zone multiple times, and that is a credit to the offensive line. But then there were way too many examples of the Buckeyes being sacked or stood up on third and fourth downs to be acceptable against an opponent like Kent State.
Throughout the offseason, we were told that this veteran offensive line would be a strength for this team. Ryan Day even said that the unit was “walking on water” less than three weeks ago. And yet, they continue to struggle to get push or hold the pocket. It didn’t matter against an overmatched opponent like the Golden Flashes, but if you’re struggling against a MAC team, you’ve got no shot against many of the teams coming later in the season.
If you are going to consciously avoid diving deep into the portal to address last season’s obvious o-line issues, then you have to have a considerable amount of growth and development throughout the offseason. And, through three games, I have not seen much.
Offensive line recruiting has not been great for a number of cycles; the Buckeyes are apparently allergic to the portal for the position; and the development has been seemingly nonexistent. That is not the recipe for a championship team. At this point, I don’t know what the answer is, but the Buckeyes have to find a way to improve the offensive line output if they want to have any chance of achieving their goals.
I desperately wanted to believe Day and the coaching staff that the line was going to be a strength for OSU this season. But at this point, I think any faith I had in the offensive line process in Columbus has evaporated, and they are going to have to show me instead of just telling me moving forward.
Jay Timmons is for real
We have seen a precious few true freshmen start on defense for the Buckeyes over the decades, but Jay Timmons earned the honor (although technically he didn’t play the first snap of the season opener) and has quickly become one of my favorite Buckeyes. In joining Denzel Burke and Andy Katzenmoyer, Timmons has put himself into rare company, and from the jump, he has looked like he belongs.
Against the Flashers, he had multiple big-time plays. On consecutive snaps, Timmons unleashed a massive, decleating tackle on a swing pass, and then hit KSU quarterback Dru DeShields’ arm, leading to an interception by linebacker Riley Pettijohn.
Timmons plays with a passion and intensity that is palpable on every snap. He hasn’t been perfect in his first three games, but he has made more than enough plays to convince me that he is going to be a difference-maker for the Buckeyes for the next three years.
Julian Sayin does not seem to have grown since last season
When doing my offseason analysis for the Buckeyes, I put a lot of stock in the assumption that Julian Sayin would show a tremendous amount of growth from Year 1 to Year 2 as a starter, because that is just what well-coached quarterbacks do, especially under Ryan Day. But so far through three games, I just haven’t seen that.
We were told that over the offseason, he took significant strides in his leadership, so much so that he earned a captain’s spot for this season. And while that very well might be true, it has not yet translated to a demonstrable improvement on the field.
He continues to have impressive accuracy stats, but the Buckeye QB still seems to lock onto receivers early at times and struggle to progress through his reads. Despite having a rushing touchdown against Ball State, we haven’t seen an ability or willingness to run the ball when the pocket breaks down. And it seems like he has sailed more passes to open receivers this season than he did last year.
I said before the season that I wouldn’t mind seeing his completion percentage go down a bit and his interceptions go up a smidge, because that likely would be tied to him taking a few more risks down the field and (hopefully) creating more explosive plays.
Perhaps we will see more toughness and downfield focus as Big Ten play picks up and he settles into Arthur Smith’s offense, but right now, Julian Sayin seems far more stagnant than I would have expected from a veteran, former Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback.
I am far from completely out on him, but I am admittedly far more concerned about his ability to lead the team to a title than I was before the season started.
Jeremiah Smith is a generational talent, and we shouldn’t take him for granted
I know that there are more games in both college football regular and postseasons in this era than there ever has been before, and that passing is so much more a part of offenses these days, but the fact that Jeremiah Smith broke the Ohio State career receiving yards record by halftime of his 32nd game is astounding, and I hope we don’t become numb to that fact.
We have gotten so used to having otherworldly wide receivers come through Columbus over the past decade that we can almost get desensitized to just how special the run of Terry McLaurin, Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, et al. has been. And J.J. makes things look so smooth and seamless that it’s not always easy to recognize just how talented he is.
But Jeremiah Smith is a generational talent, even for a program that seems to have a generational wide receiver every other year. I hope that Buckeye fans appreciate just how special he is, since we’ve only got nine to 14 games left of him in scarlet and gray.
