While I usually do the offense, the defense’s effort deserved a first look. Still, as Kyle Jones has pointed out, the offense didn’t struggle quite as much as people seem to think, though I think most Ohio State fans are taking the correct approach to Saturday's performance: the running game was encouraging, and the passing game will be fine.

One of the things that became obvious as I charted all the offensive plays is that Notre Dame had largely the same plan as Michigan – force Ohio State to run the ball by having a light box. Notre Dame was almost exclusively in nickel the entire game, just like Michigan. Whereas Michigan continuously stopped the ball even with a numbers disadvantage, Notre Dame did not have anywhere near the same success.

Some of the slow-going on the offensive side was due to lower receiver and quarterback production in the first half, and some of it was intentional, especially after the second touchdown in the third quarter. By the end of the game, Stroud and the receivers were playing as expected, and the Buckeyes could run whenever they wanted.

The play-by-play chart is below:

The biggest story of the day is easily the running game, between the offensive linemen and the running backs. The offensive chart is below.

While I thought the offensive line looked more comfortable in run blocking than last year, Luke Wypler was the player to make the biggest improvement. At times last year, Wypler was the biggest liability on the line. A very good line, sure, but he was still the weak link. In this game, he certainly looked like he took the next step, as he was excellent both in pass protection and in the run game. Like the entirety of the offensive line, he played better as the game went on.

The other offensive linemen had a solid day. Jackson was pretty good, PJJ was pretty good, Matt Jones was pretty good, and Dawand Jones was good outside of his three false starts, all during tempo I believe. This feels like something that will be cleaned up, considering he only made this mistake when they were running tempo, and even then I didn’t think it was as egregious as false starts sometimes are. He was jumping early, but that is not totally unusual. Also, as a general offensive line note, there was also a GT counter on the Miyan Williams drive (4Q 6:11). The counter took ND completely off guard and gave Williams an easy 12-yard run. This game had more run diversity than I have seen in a while from Ohio State, and hopefully it is a sign of things to come.

Based on how well Ohio State ran the ball, I expected the offensive line scores to be a little better, honestly. When I re-watched it though, both Miyan Williams and Treveyon Henderson had tremendous games. Williams came out of the game as the biggest offensive story. I said multiple times last year that I thought Williams was the better runner between the two, and he seemed to validate that in this game. That final touchdown drive not only had the two runs (4Q 8:59, 4Q 7:04) where he broke multiple tackles, but it also included the sideline catch (4Q 10:24) from Stroud. Miyan Williams is an excellent running back, and I hope that Ohio State uses him about this often moving forward. This felt like the perfect balance between he and Henderson.

Speaking of Henderson, I thought he ran better than he has in a long time, at least since the Tulsa game. He looked much more patient, and even had a run at the end (4Q 3:40) where he breaks multiple tackles. I am still reserving my judgment on if he has improved running the football for a few more games, but his vision looked much improved. He bounced the ball outside if it was there, but also wasn’t afraid to cut it back up if he thought he could get a guaranteed 4-yards. If he has gained the maturity to be every down back with his physical ability, he will be the guy that most people thought he was last year.

With one exception, the receiver group did not score as well as they were scoring last year, which is perhaps to be expected. Here is their chart:

Cade Stover had an outstanding game. He’s another guy that has improved so much that it is hard to believe it is the same guy from last year. He has always been able to block, but even so, I was more impressed with his blocking than I was at any point last year. On top of that, Stover added a downfield element to his repertoire as well. Yes, Ohio State does not throw to the tight ends. I still am excited to see him the rest of this year, as he looks the part of a good, balanced tight end.

The rest of the receivers kind of had up and down games. To be more precise, they had down and up games, as both Egbuka and Harrison played worse than anticipated in the first half, but they played much better after halftime. While I should probably be more worried about this group considering who it lost, I have no concerns at all. They were consistently well covered, which personally I think says more about Notre Dame than Ohio State.

They clearly tailored the offense to Smith-Njigba, and I imagine that the gameplan for this game was somewhat like the Rose Bowl in terms of volume of targets. It looked like JSN was going to be the primary target all day, instead of the more evenly spread distribution of 2021. It doesn’t surprise me that losing him was significant. I do hope that they use the next couple of weeks to learn how to cope without him if they need to.

The guy throwing them the ball was a little off, but not much:

Much like the receiver group, I have no real concerns about Stroud. His track record and pedigree is even more impressive than the receiver’s group, and he made a number of high level throws on Saturday. Stroud was at his best when he needed to be at his best. I will always defend Stroud for not running, as it is nowhere near as big of a deal as people make it. He could have definitely scrambled for good yardage at 9:57 left in the second quarter, but that is really the only play where I think it made sense. Furthermore, the only read option play I saw him had he correctly read to give the ball. He is a pure pocket passer with some good athleticism, and the coaching staff is coaching him to play this way.

I think part of it is a concern from Day given what happened in 2019 and 2020, where Justin Fields was injured both years down the stretch, taking away an important element of the offense during the most important part of the year. I think Day wants to develop an offense that needs as little QB running as possible to make sure they never find themselves in that position again.

To be fair to Stroud though, he did make three separate scrambles where he escaped pressure, rolled out of the pocket, and threw completions to Jayden Ballard (3Q 9:52), Emeka Egbuka (3Q 5:00), and (4Q 10:24) Miyan Williams. Last year, I think he tries to find the easy checkdown. By extending the play, he is risking losing yards, but he can also give the receivers another chance to get open. While I don’t know if he will do this all that often, it is nice he can make these throws and use his legs in a way that is still consistent with being a pocket passer. Last year, he consistently threw to the checkdown when under pressure, which resulted in easy, short completions that the defense could rally to. Dwayne Haskins had this same tendency, leading to teams attacking them in similar ways. By rolling out of the pocket, Stroud can turn some of these pressure situations into big plays, like he did against Notre Dame. Hopefully it was not just a one-time thing, as his rollout plays were arguably the biggest in the game.

What should we worry about?

The offensive line’s pass protection was a little spotty at times, but it still wasn’t bad given the front they were up against. Still, that’s probably the easiest gripe. The reason Stroud had to rollout multiple times was due to quite a bit of pressure, and some of these pressures occurred when he had 7-8 blockers. While I am generally bullish on the line’s performance, this is one area to watch out for in the coming weeks.

Also, JSN’s health is the most important thing for this offense to reach its potential. While I don’t think his injury is too serious, any lingering injury could cause lots of problems for this offense.

What should we not worry about?

The passing game in general. Ryan Day is probably the single coach in college football you must worry about the least when it comes to passing the football. They will be a good passing team. Much in the same way that Georgia will be good at defending the run and Alabama will recruit well. It doesn’t matter how it looks like in the pre-season or even Game 1. They will get it fixed.

What should we be excited about?

Ohio State faced the Michigan gameplan again against a team with similar talent and came out on top. They had something to fix, and it looked like they fixed it on the ground and on defense. Of course, maybe this is just a lucky first game. First impressions are good.  

The improved running game with the passing offense we expect has the potential to be the best Ohio State offense we have ever seen. It is almost impossible to make any judgments after a single week, but the ceiling for this offense is impossibly high. Because of that, I think most of the national media is sleeping on Ohio State’s potential based on the first game. We will see who is right in a few weeks, but I for one would not doubt Day’s ability to bring a great passing attack to an offense that can run the ball like they showed against Notre Dame.