Urban Meyer, Ohio State Looking To Clean Up Self-Inflicted Wounds Currently Holding It Back

By Tim Shoemaker on October 6, 2015 at 8:35 am
Urban Meyer roams the sidelines.
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Luke Fickell heard the buzz word and didn’t even allow a reporter to finish his question. Penalties were mentioned to Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach and it triggered quite a quick reaction.

“Aggressive penalties are going to happen; there’s gonna be some aggressive penalties and we know that,” Fickell said Monday. “You can handle the aggressive ones, but the foolish ones we’ve gotta make sure we do a better job. We can’t put ourselves in those situations.”

In Saturday’s 34-27 win over Indiana, the Buckeyes committed eight penalties that totaled 109 yards. One of those, an illegal block called on Braxton Miller, called back a second-quarter touchdown pass from Cardale Jones to Ezekiel Elliott.

Those numbers from Saturday’s game against the Hoosiers were just a microcosm of Ohio State’s season to this point, though. Through the first five games of the year, the Buckeyes have committed 39 penalties. Only 16 teams in FBS have committed more. Ohio State’s 7.8 penalties per game have averaged to cost the team nearly 70 yards per game.

Those are certainly eye-popping numbers for the Buckeyes, but they’re also just one statistic in a series that has caused Ohio State to struggle early on in the season. The Buckeyes also rank toward the bottom of FBS in turnovers, third-down conversions and red zone touchdown efficiency.

After committing three against Indiana, Ohio State has a total of 13 turnovers so far in 2015 and, dating back to its final two games of the 2014 season, has coughed up the ball 19 times in the last seven games. Only nine teams in FBS have committed more than 13 turnovers.

As far as third-downs go, the Buckeyes’ conversion rate of 38.9 percent ranks 103rd in the country out of 128 teams. Ohio State also has scored touchdowns on just six of its 16 trips to the red zone this season. That 37.5 percent rate ranks 121st nationally.

To summarize, the Buckeyes have been quite woeful in several key statistical categories this season. And it's a large part of the reason why everything has looked a bit out of sync for the majority of this year.

“Two areas of strength in the past are not strengths right now. We’re hitting that really, really hard and that’s turnovers and red zone production,” head coach Urban Meyer said. “Those are two areas we’re going to beat it and like I say it’s been beat before and try to get better because that’s costing us a lot of — you know, you’re getting 500-plus yard days and that’s not transitioning to what should happen in a game like that.”

Meyer’s not wrong on either front. Ohio State’s plus-seven turnover margin in 2014 ranked 27th in FBS and the Buckeyes also scored touchdowns on 71.6 percent of their red zone trips a season ago, good for 13th nationally.

As far as third downs go, Ohio State was one of the best teams in college football in 2014, converting 52 percent of those tries, which ranked third in FBS. So far this year, though, that’s been another one of the struggles, but Meyer said it's certainly fixable.

“Timing and execution of the quarterback, wideouts, that hasn’t been our strength,” Meyer said. “Last year one of the top teams in the country with it.”

The Buckeyes are clearly still a work in progress and a team with a number of flaws right now. Meyer, though, feels if Ohio State can correct some of these issues, it can get back to being the team he and everyone else thought it would be.

“Improvement and very efficient when you have the penalties and turnovers, that does — that stops efficiency,” Meyer said. “So I think we’re on the border of being very good.”

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