NFL News: Browns QB Brian Hoyer has successful ACL surgery
October 18, 2013NFL News: Browns cut Bobby Rainey, make other roster moves
October 18, 2013Ohio State is 6-0 and halfway to a second straight perfect regular season. But, flawless record or not, the Buckeyes haven’t been perfect.
I covered the improved and multifaceted offense earlier, but what about the defense? In recent weeks, much has been written about the unit’s struggles through the first two games of the Big Ten slate.
To this point, Luke Fickell’s defense has allowed an average of 19.2 points per game. That’s 24th in the nation, and stellar by any definition of the word. In fact, that number is more than two and a half points better than last season’s average of 22.8 allowed per game. Of course, this season’s number includes only two conference games, giving undue weight to dominant early season performances against San Diego State and Florida A&M. That fact could be used to argue that the Buckeyes points allowed should increase through the final six games, but that assumption doesn’t exactly hold up to closer examination.
Through six games last season (four non-conference and two Big Ten), Ohio State was allowing 20.5 points per game, a bit off the pace the defense has set this season. Furthermore, in last season’s eight conference games, the Buckeyes gave up 25.6 per contest, including 38 to Nebraska and 49 (!!!) to Indiana.
In this year’s two conference games, the Buckeyes are allowing 27 per contest, but those two games against Northwestern and Wisconsin are two of Ohio State’s three toughest Big Ten games. The team’s six remaining games are as follows: Iowa, Penn State, at Purdue, at Illinois, Indiana, and at Michigan.
Outside of Michigan, which of those teams is going to put up points on this Buckeyes defense? Indiana throws the ball all over the yard, but they have to come to the Horseshoe this season. Penn State true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg – all 18 years old of him – was quite impressive last weekend in beating Michigan, but can he come into Columbus and replicate that performance?1 Looking at those last six games, I expect the Buckeyes defensive scoring average to come down, not up.
When discussing the defense, much of the blame has been assigned to All-American cornerback Bradley Roby and the rest of the secondary. I wrote previously about Roby’s performance against Wisconsin, and he has definitely been victimized a good deal in the last two games, but the pass defense as a whole has actually allowed 240 yards per game compared to last season’s 243.5. The last two games haven’t been stellar (295 yards through the air for Wisconsin and 343 for Northwestern) but those two yardage totals aren’t astronomical either. As mentioned previously, the Buckeyes ran up against two good teams in their most recent games. While fans have every right to get worked up about the seemingly porous defense, putting these performances into perspective gives a better picture of how the defense has been playing.
This year’s Buckeye defense still has star power. The jury is still deliberating on whether Roby is as good as he played last year, but he is surely better than he has shown in the last two weeks. Ryan Shazier is still an absolute monster, just ask ESPN and Deadspin (scroll down and check “Season Standings”). Just two weeks ago, the Buckeyes held a Wisconsin team that had been averaging 350 yards a game to just 104. You can at least partly thank the two emerging young studs on the defensive line – true freshman Joey Bosa2 — and sophomore Adolphus Washington – for that. Noah Spence leads the Buckeyes with three of the team’s 16 sacks.
The Ohio State defense has had its struggles through the season’s first half. However, they have done enough to help keep the team undefeated and have certainly looked like a defense that could win a Big Ten title. Have they played at a national championship level? Definitely not. But there’s a reason they don’t award the crystal football until January. With five relatively weak opponents before the Michigan game, I see no reason why Luke Fickell’s crew can’t find its mojo and perform at a dominant level in the season’s second half.
—
(Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
- Side note: I was in Beaver Stadium for the PSU-Michigan game last weekend, and it was hands-down the most dramatic football game I’ve ever witnessed live. Penn State fans, in spite of all that’s happened there, still know how to support their Nittany Lions. [↩]
- Also thank Bosa if you had the Buckeyes -7 against Northwestern. He recovered the final play fumble for a touchdown that secured a Buckeyes cover against the Wildcats. [↩]