Ohio State football film study: Breaking down what worked and what didn't against Nebraska

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State didn’t do a lot to instill confidence in its fan base with Saturday’s 21-17 win over Nebraska.

A win is a win, and this year, it seems like every team has had a game like Ohio State did. Still, there’s a lot to improve on, especially with an offense that averaged just 2.1 yards per carry and an offensive line that imploded with injuries and poor play.

Statistically, however, I don’t know if people realize how bad that game was for the offense, and it wasn’t just the offensive line.

Let’s just jump into the film study, and we’ll talk about some defense, as well.

Pass protection struggles

I’ll address this up front, but we’re not going to look at Zen Michalski clips because there’s no point with him out with an injury. It would be a major shock if he plays left tackle against Penn State, so we’re going to spin forward and look at the rest of the line.

Ohio State gave up seven pressures on its dropbacks, and Nebraska got pressure on 30 percent of its pass rush snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. That’s below Nebraska’s pressure average of 40.5 percent, but it still wasn’t good. It was Ohio State’s worst pressure rate allowed since it gave up pressures on 50 percent of its dropbacks in last year’s Cotton Bowl.

Yes, it was that bad.

Michalski gave up three pressures and two sacks, but he wasn’t the only person who struggled.

Here was a bad rep from right guard Austin Siereveld.

According to PFF, this went down as a sack allowed for Michalski, but I’m not sure how. This came one play after Will Howard was hit in the backfield and fumbled due to a bad rep from Michalski.

This play, however, killed the drive. Ohio State put together a good drive, and it felt like a touchdown here would’ve put the game away. Instead, Howard couldn’t even look downfield to see the open receiver running to the sideline. He would’ve had the first down and a chance at a touchdown.

Instead, because of the fumble and this sack, Ohio State settled for a 42-yard field goal that kicker Jayden Fielding missed.

Ohio State’s line isn’t going to be perfect every play, but losing before Howard even hit the end of his drop is a major problem. Tegra Tshabola has some issues at right guard (we’ll see some later), but Siereveld has had some really bad reps the past two weeks.

My concern with the pass protection was that Ohio State wasn’t losing because of any miscommunication and creative blitz packages by Nebraska. The Cornhuskers only blitzed on 5 percent of Howard’s dropbacks. Ohio State just lost one-on-one reps like this one from Donovan Jackson.

Howard saved this play, and it was Jackson’s only pressure of the game, but this can’t happen regularly.

Running game in disarray

Chip Kelly didn’t call a perfect game, but Saturday showed what the offense will look like if it can’t block in the running game.

The concerning thing was that it wasn’t just a Michalski problem. Yes, he struggled, but I think the loss of Josh Simmons is amplifying some of the inconsistent play on the right side.

This was Ohio State’s super counter, a play Kelly loves to run and had success with early in the year, especially going left. This time, he went right, and if not for Quinshon Judkins being the talent he is, this could have died in the backfield.

Howard handed the ball off and Judkins received it safely, but that might be the only good thing here.

First, Tshabola was going in the wrong direction. This was a mental mistake from a player making his seventh start. Plays like this are why he and Siereveld are still fighting for time at guard; neither of them can get out of their own way.

So as Tshabola went the wrong way and didn’t block anyone, it opened up a gap in the scheme. Donovan Jackson tried to fill it, but he got pushed back into Gee Scott, who couldn’t get out front and the result was a play for 3 yards that really should’ve been a loss.

Props to Judkins for figuring this out, but this was a disaster, and it’s not a new concept. That’s a huge concern. And for the people who hate the call, TreVeyon Henderson scored from 15 yards out on this play earlier in the season.

Want more examples? Here was a complete miss by Scott.

Ohio State is playing without tight end Will Kacamarek, and he’s the best run blocker at the position. He’s out with an undisclosed injury, and while Scott has improved as a blocker, he went in motion and offered one of the worst blocks of the day. Instead of getting his hands on the defender, he bumped him with a shoulder, and the defender bounced right off Scott. This is unacceptable. That’s bad, undisciplined football.

Ohio State averaged just 0.79 yards before contact on Saturday, its fourth-worst since 2019. It couldn’t run gap schemes on Saturday, and it couldn’t zone run inside or outside because of plays like this and players missing their assignments at the second level.

If the running game is going to struggle, Howard has to make plays like this.

Howard’s feet were a big part of the game-winning drive midway through the fourth quarter, and he needs to do this more. After the game, Howard said Nebraska left him open on a few runs earlier in the game, but he didn’t take them. He didn’t hesitate this time and made a great read to get the first down.

One last thought before we switch to the defense: Ohio State has itself to blame for this. I won’t get into all the details of the recruiting failures again because it was the main point I wrote about on Saturday.

But there’s a thought from many that Ohio State should’ve filled these spots in the transfer portal. While that’s a fair thought, and something even I partially agree with, the bigger problem is development. Michalski has been at Ohio State for four years, so he should’ve been better prepared. George Fitzpatrick was in the 2022 class, and his name hasn’t been mentioned as an option from Ryan Day, yet. Yes, the portal is there to help programs, but getting somebody to come and sit on the bench is difficult.

Ohio State’s top-end talent can come from the portal, but it needs to develop high school players to fill the depth spots. It’s not doing that right now, and if that costs Ohio State a title run, this situation is going to put offensive line coach Justin Frye on an even hotter seat than he already is on.

Defense’s mixed results

Ohio State made some changes on Saturday, even with safety Lathan Ransom out.

The base formations of Jim Knowles’ defense were still the same, but the Buckeyes sent more pressure at the Huskers, especially on third down.

Ohio State blitzed on 34.2 percent of dropbacks and 50 percent of third-down plays. Ohio State sacked Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola three times, each coming off a blitz. Here were two of them.

This was a nice blitz that freed up JT Tuimoloau. Ohio State sent five and twisted on the left side with the defensive tackles, but what freed up Tuimoloau was the blitz from Cody Simon right at the right tackle. The tackle had to account for Simon, while the guard and center were working through the twist, and it freed up Tuimoloau for the easiest sack of his season. These were good concepts that are going to create more havoc. Here was another one.

Ohio State sent five again with one coming off the edge at the bottom of the screen taking up a double team. That left three offensive linemen and a running back to block four players. Ohio State twisted off the left side to get some pressure up the A gap, and the running back then had to choose to block the gap or the edge. He chose the gap, and the edge came free. That pressure forced a bad pass by Raiola with good coverage by Lorenzo Styles.

We have one more coming, but I love every bit of this from Knowles.

This was just Knowles saying, “I’m going to send everybody at you, make a quick read or take a sack.” I love it. Love it. Love it. On third-and-10, Raiola never had a chance, despite having a player open across the shallow middle part of the field.

This worked well, not just because Ohio State overloaded the offense but because Knowles was so often dropping people back into coverage after showing a blitz look.

The blitzes weren’t perfect, and we’ll get into that next, but this is a nice step forward. Ohio State’s third-down blitz rate was the highest of the season, well above its 29.3 average percent rate, and it’s no coincidence that the Huskers were 5-of-16 on third down. This has to continue this week because Penn State quarterback Drew Allar doesn’t like pressure, and if he doesn’t play due to a knee injury, the focus will be on rattling backup Beau Pribula.

Good and bad on D

I liked what the defense did on Saturday. It held Nebraska to just 3.7 yards per carry, had a big goal-line stop and forced a turnover on the final drive when it needed to the most. Still, there were some concerns, including the lack of pressure.

Ohio State had a pressure rate of just 18.4 percent, according to PFF, which is the lowest in the Knowles era and since the 2021 season, despite blitzing more. Some of that was because of how good Raiola is at feeling pressure and stepping away from it.

Here was a good blitz by Knowles, again on third down.

Knowles sent Caleb Downs, who had another strong game, right up the gap, but Raiola had room to step up and scramble. Ohio State has to do a better job of containing the quarterback, even when it blitzes. In an ideal world, Ty Hamilton would have been in the middle of the pocket, instead of fighting to the right, giving Raiola that scramble lane.

I’ll give Ohio State the benefit of the doubt here because it’s getting used to the blitz angles again, but these types of plays are backbreakers for a defense.

Ohio State still needed to get more pressure rushing four, but it did a nice job containing big plays, giving up just one of longer than 30 yards, and that happened because an Ohio State defender and referee collided while the ball was in the air.

This was a step forward for the Ohio State defense. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but we saw a philosophy change on defense and some things to build on going into Penn State.

(Top photo of Caleb Downs (2): Adam Cairns / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)