Unlike some of the recent weeks, our defense played lights out. The defense only allowed the Spartans to six points, and only allowed them to complete two 3rd downs out of sixteen. The quarterback, Brian Lewerke, only threw 11-28 and gave up an interception. After shutting him out, they tried putting Lombardi in at quarterback, but the only positive thing he did was rush for 49 yards. The Buckeyes defense was so dominant that those 49 rushing yards led Lombardi to be the Spartans leading rusher. There would be a case that the defense had so many turnovers because of all miscues by Michigan State, but if would’ve watched the full game, it is noticeable that the Buckeyes defense has really improved in recent weeks.

The offense played pretty decent this week, but they could do a little better, especially if the buckeyes want to make a title run. Haskins had some passes that were either overthrown or thrown short. I know Haskins can throw better, its just that the Offensive line isn’t giving him enough time to throw. The O-line is big and quick, which is essential for the run game, and as seen, Haskins isn’t able to do. Speaking of the run game, Mike Weber continues to improve with over 100 yards rushing and 1 touchdown. Something I would like to note is Tate Martell came in a few times in the redzone, and our offense looked a lot different. When Haskins is in, the defense knows he can’t run so the front 7 was all their eyes on the running back, so they shut the run game down. However, when Martell is in, they know he can run so one or two of the front seven have their eyes on Martell, so when we give it to the running back, that’s one or two less guys going after the running back, which help the run game work really well the few times Martell was in. I hope we use this more often in the future games, especially against Michigan.

Compared to recent weeks, I think our defense played better then they have been. I think we are finally recovering from our defensive leader, Nick Bosa, leaving us for the NFL. Our backup guys have been getting experience and reps in games, so it is preparing them for the upcoming challenges in Michigan State and Michigan. One thing I loved about this week was that I saw very limited “big plays” allowed. We tend to give up many plays that go for 25+ yards each time, and I saw very little of that against Nebraska, who is an offensive team on the rise. However, one thing I hated was that on a lot of the pass plays Nebraska had, their receiver was wide open with nobody in coverage around them. Our guys have got to know their assignments and get there fast to make the play. Espically since we got one of the best offenses in Michigan here in a few weeks.

After a bye week and after suffering a loss on the road, I really thought we would bounce back like we always do, but that was not the case. In the first half the offense continued to have some struggles, with Haskins having some over thrown balls and the whole offense fumbling quite a bit. I was beginning to worry as offensive struggles led us to losing to a 2-6 Nebraska team at the half. However, for the second half, I started to see some improvement from the offense, as things slowly started to click. The run game finally started to come alive ever since it’s been nonexistent since TCU. J.K. Dobbins started to run like his old self, Haskins was throwing good passes, etc. The offense seems to finally have things improving, so I hope this continues so that the Buckeyes can attempt to make a playoff run.

After week 7 against Minnesota, I was hoping for some kind of defensive improvement after they played sloppy. However, the defense looked the same. Multiple plays happened where our front seven got beat and allowed big plays again and again. Multiple passes to the flat but we just couldn’t make the tackle. Multiple times did our secondary get beat on the deep pass. I give my full credit to the Purdue offense. Their offense was explosive and kept our defense on its heels the whole game. They are much better than a 4-3 team. Back to our defense i don’t know what else we could do. We’re getting beat multiple times, not making tackles, etc. As I said with the offense, I hope that this butt kicking is a wake up call, and a bye week will allow us to get back on our feet and get things going.

I don’t know where to begin with the way our offense played. I knew we were going to struggle against Prude, but I didn’t think we’d play that bad. The stats show that Haskins still played good with 470 yards and 2 touchdowns, but Haskins had 73 pass attempts, which is way to much for him. We need to get the run game going again as it has been struggling most of the year. Our leading rusher was Mike Weber, with only 9 carries, which is way too low. As well, our offensive line needs serious improvement. Many holding and false start calls took big plays away, as well as many missed blocks. Overall, this loss is a serious wake up call and I hope that after a bye week, we will see some kind of improvement against Nebraska.

 

I am fairly disappointed in our defense this week. Ever since TCU, we have allowed so many big gains that it kills us. Minnesota ran almost the same pass play the whole game, and we could never figure it out. The stats show otherwise that our defense did good by only allowing 14 points and getting 3 turnovers, but if you actually watched the whole game, the defense looked sloppy. What hurts our defense even more in the long run is Nick Bosa leaving us mid season for the NFL draft. Him coming back would’ve helped us out greatly, but not we need to get the rest of our young guys up and ready to play the games ahead. I hope out defensive guys get pushed hard at practice this week to prepare for a trap game at Purdue, who has an explosive offense.

I give credit to Minnesota, their defense came to play and they totally had our run game stopped, leading our leading rusher Mike Weber to only 51 yards. Our run game isn’t as powerful anymore as I expected a lot more from our talented running backs and athletic and big offensive linemen. The O-line played terrible, especially Isaiah Prince, who got beat almost every play. The passing game however still looked very dominant, as Dwayne Haskins threw for 412 yards and 3 touchdowns. Our receivers look great and are able to catch and make plays after the catch. Besides our passing game, we really need to improve on the other offense aspects if we want to compete for a natty.

Just like with our offense, I had a feeling our defense would start off a little slow after a true test against Trace Mcsorley and Penn State. When it came to the front seven, I felt that we were the same as we have been the past few games: applying pressure to the quarterback and making him throw fast. Our front seven was able to get 3 sacks and kept the buckeyes in the game the first half. On the other hand, I feel that our secondary needs some serious work. I saw a few good times where they were able to break up the pass nicely, but that was it. There were multiple times that the Indiana WR beat them on the run. Also, multiple pass interferences were called that were completely their fault. I hope to see an improvement from the secondary next week.

After a tough road challenge at Penn State, I knew we were gonna have a little bit of a “hangover” against Indiana and we were slowly going to get back into the grove of things. Once we got back into the flow, our offense looked just as good as they usually do, and it was lead by quarterback Dwayne Haskins. Haskins is looking like one of the best quarterbacks in Ohio State history. He threw 33 completions out of 44, threw for 455 yards and 6 touchdowns. Both times Haskins threw a pick this game were because he was under pressure, not because of a bad decisions. If Haskins continues to put up these kinds of numbers, he should definitely be a top contender for the heisman trophy.