Ohio State performed as expected last Saturday night, putting the screws to a bad Rutgers team in a 56-0 lancing of the Scarlet Knights.
The box score illustrated Ohio State's dominance in virtually every aspect of the game including a successful night by a Buckeye pass defense that had endured its share of low-lights at various points in the previous four games.
With the collective pass defense riding high after holding its third-straight (bad) opponent below 100 aerial yards, Urban Meyer touched on what's seen from the group as he met with the media on Monday.
Denzel Ward played very good. Damon Arnette and Jordan Fuller. So we're starting to see areas that needed to improve improving.
Q. This may go back to exactly how you answered about the offensive weapons, but pass defense, are you seeing what you want to see, or is it --
COACH MEYER: I am. It's, once again, we're realistic. This (Maryland) will be a nice challenge. They did a nice job with this quarterback that -- very efficient, very highly accurate. Especially on the RPO and short passing.
So this will be a better challenge. I have seen -- I think it's a lot like the pass game. We're pleased with the progress. When you start seeing -- Jordan Fuller is playing at a very high level right now. And the corners are getting better and better and better but we're also realistic.
Sounds like the musings of a man who has definitely seen the pass defense produce better results but is also cognizant of the competition against which the production was achieved.
| OPPONENT | PASS YPG YTD | PASS YPG NATL RANK | PASS YPG VS. OSU | PASS YPA YTD | PASS YPA NATL RANK | PASS YPA VS. OSU | COMP% YTD | COMP% VS. OSU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INDIANA | 244.3 | 59 | 420 | 6.4 | 103 | 6.2 | 57.2 | 61.8 |
| OKLAHOMA | 399.8 | 4 | 386 | 13.3 | 1 | 11.0 | 76.7 | 77.1 |
| ARMY | 23.2 | 130 | 19 | 3.9 | 130 | 2.4 | 23.3 | 25.0 |
| UNLV | 176.0 | 105 | 88 | 9.6 | 7 | 4.4 | 58.9 | 55.0 |
| RUTGERS | 149.2 | 120 | 92 | 5.0 | 125 | 3.4 | 54.1 | 40.7 |
As the chart illustrates, while the Buckeyes have indeed held their last three opponents to under 100 passing yards in each game, those three pass offenses, season-to-date, are horrid.
Army doesn't even pretend it wants to pass so holding the Black Knights to 19 yards and a 25% completion rate was essentially right on season averages.
The performance against UNLV was decidedly better than the Rebels' season averages as the Buckeyes held them to 88 yards against a 176-yard average and just 4.4 yards per attempt which was significantly better than their season-to-date mark of 9.6, good for seventh in the country.
The trend continued last weekend as Rutgers tallied just 92 pass yards against a season average of 149 and a 40.7% completion rate against a season mark of 54.1%.
While those last three outings yield some level of hope to many, it's still tough to overlook how the pass defense was shredded against the two top-60 pass offenses faced in Indiana and Oklahoma especially after the Hoosier passing attack was hyped so much but hasn't had quite the same success since.
The good news is Denzel Ward has lived up to the hype (and then some, imo) and Jordan Fuller seems to be putting some roots down at safety opposite incumbent Damon Webb, while Erick Smith appears to be in Meyer's doghouse.
I admit its taken me a while to warm up to Damon Arnette and while he isn't lock down, various film study session discussions with our own Kyle Jones via Slack have me feeling a little better about his coverage skills.
Of course, the same can't be said for current third corner, Kendall Sheffield, who suffered his share of third-degree burns in between pass interference penalties. With Sheffield struggling, other reserves could eventually get looks.
While Sheffield's struggles have plagued the pass defense, the linebackers certainly don't get a free pass as Chris Worley, before his injury, had his own issues in coverage as well as some of his compadres, many of which had shown an inconsistency is playing assignment football, instead biting on a high volume of playaction fakes.
Recent weeks have been better as Jerome Baker, Malik Harrison and even Dante Booker in particular against Rutgers, have shown greater discipline in coverage. The question is how much of that is attributed to the caliber of opponent.
We likely won't come to any epiphanies this week either, no matter how much Meyer wants to play up Maryland's offense.
The reality is the Terps rank 106th in the nation with 173.8 pass yards per outing and while the rushing attack sits at an impressive 24th in the land on 233.5 yards per game, the squad is still on its third starting quarterback.
To his credit, that former third-stringer, Max Bortenschlager, did complete 64% of his throws for two touchdowns (but only 154 yards) in a win at Minnesota last week and he does have a top-shelf receiver in D.J. Moore (100.8 ypg) but anything less than another confidence-building outing from the back seven would be a major disappointment as the Buckeyes look to show continued growth before Penn State comes to town.
