Ohio State football: Buckeyes uses the week off to solve glaring problems



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Columbus, Ohio – A month ago, quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr. was breaking school records and the Ohio State was threatening to turn the tables and head to the playoffs.

During Saturday's defeat by Purdue, who was not ranked, the problems that plagued the No. 11 Buckeyes for weeks appeared at home: their half could not break free, they could not score touchdowns in the red zone and the defense sometimes seemed to be on vacation.

The situation is so urgent that coach Urban Meyer has withdrawn his assistants from the recruiting track during the scheduled week off to determine how to fix the problem before Nebraska arrives in town a week ago. from Saturday.

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After Nebraska, the Buckeyes (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) have Maryland and Michigan State before ending the regular season against Michigan No. 5 at home.

"This inaugural week will allow us to evaluate some programs," Meyer said at the Big Ten Coachs teleconference on Tuesday. "There are things we do well and things we do not do, the problems are clearly obvious."

The co-coordinator of the offensive, Ryan Day, and the co-coordinator of the defense, Greg Schiano, met the journalists on Wednesday to continue this momentum.

"It's important to evaluate whether his execution, his staff, or his plan," said Day. "We are a little knee high right now."

Defensemen J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber have been eliminated in the last three games against midfielder Big Ten teams as the defenses flooded the surface and prevented offensive linemen from being pushed. According to Day, other short-distance options, including Tate Martell, a very slippery quarterback, are being evaluated to try to increase the number of yards in the red zone. The attack failed to make a touchdown in eight trips inside the 20-yard line over the past two games.

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"(I am) frustrated that we have done so many good things, but that we do not have much to show for that the other night," said Day. "We have to play better in situations, we have done so many good things, we have a lot of good players in attack, we just have to make sure we do better in the red zone and when we have to run the ball we have to be able to run the ball ".

The Buckeyes' defense has given up on too many big games and missed 20 tackles in the Purdue match, most of them in a disastrous fourth quarter in which the Boilermakers scored 28 points ahead. to be upset by 49-20.

"I understand that when you struggle, people want to be able to say that's the reason, let's go," Schiano said. "But there is not a single reason.The truth is that we are making progress in all areas – there are things that I would like us to accelerate.

"There is not a thing," he says. "These are not the linebackers, it's not the game of security and all those things we can talk about … it's a combination of all."

Schiano said the week off was coming at a convenient time for a team that was making too many mistakes.

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"We had the opportunity this week – which is great – to really watch us, not having to worry about a game plan for Saturday, nor having to worry about it. Stop the games of a certain opponent, "he said. "And it's a good exercise, I think we're getting closer and we're getting closer, because we have to go out and play a very good defense in stretching if we want to achieve the goals we set at the beginning of the year "

This article was written by Mitch Stacy of the Associated Press and was legally licensed by the NewsCred Publishers Network. Please send any licensing questions to [email protected].

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