Going into Saturday’s game at Iowa, Ohio State’s offense was executing with as much consistency and as much rhythm as any offense in college football.
The Buckeyes topped 500 yards of offense in six straight games, all wins, including four straight games in which they scored 50 or more points, followed by a 39-point effort against a Penn State defense that had not allowed more than 19 points in any previous game this year.
Ohio State’s offense wasn’t able to keep that roll going at Iowa, however, as the Hawkeyes held the Buckeyes to just 24 points on 371 yards as Ohio State suffered a 31-point loss.
Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said the Buckeyes just didn’t execute at the level at which they needed to on Saturday, and while he was not responsible for every decision that backfired for the Buckeyes offense, he did put the blame on himself for failing to keep his unit’s rhythm going.
"We just did not execute our stuff," Wilson said Wednesday. "(Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett’s) going to distribute the ball in certain plays, and I’m going to call certain plays and Coach Meyer’s going to call certain plays, and we get going in the game plan. So we’re trying to score as much and as fast (as possible), but we did not Saturday. And as always, like going back to (the Oklahoma) game, that falls on me. I got to own that, take responsibility for that."
Ohio State’s offense moved the ball mostly effectively in the first half against Iowa, accumulating 251 total yards, but the Buckeyes’ rhythm – and their place on the scoreboard – was hurt by Barrett throwing two first-half interceptions, as the Buckeyes trailed 31-17 at halftime.
The third quarter, however, was when the Buckeyes’ offense really failed to get anything going. Ohio State failed to gain a first down on each of its three third-quarter possessions, which led to Iowa taking a 45-17 lead and all but putting the game away early in the fourth quarter, forcing the Buckeyes to abandon their usual, more balanced offensive game plan and pass the ball repeatedly, which led to Barrett throwing two more interceptions.
"I think we were on track to have a good game (at halftime)," Wilson said. "But we had those three three-and-outs in the third quarter, and by the time the fourth quarter started, we’re down 28 and we’re in two-minute offense, and the game got away from us with the bad third-quarter execution and play calling. We just didn’t execute, whether it be play calling, executing the plays that are called or a combination of both."
While Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said Tuesday that Iowa brought some unexpected offensive concepts into Saturday’s game, which left his defense unprepared and allowed the Hawkeyes to score 55 points on 487 yards, Wilson said the Hawkeyes defense didn’t do much different than they usually do, but simply played more effectively within their defensive scheme better than Ohio State did within its offensive scheme.
"Iowa structurally kind of plays the way they play. There was some subtle adjustments, maybe how to fit the run game or whatever, but they did nothing exceptionally out of the ordinary," Wilson said. "They had their adjustments, but they had their structure of their game plan. They executed, we didn’t."
Ohio State center Billy Price said there were "just little breakdowns here and there" that knocked the Buckeyes out of their offensive rhythm on Saturday, and the cumulative result of those breakdowns was the Buckeyes’ worst offensive performance since their only previous loss of the year to Oklahoma.
"We were executing at a high level, had a lot of energy, had a lot of momentum going behind us and when you hit a speed bump ... the biggest thing is you have to get back on track, and just Saturday, we weren’t able to get back on track," Price said. "Weren’t able to re-establish that rhythm and that’s why again you see where things go bad, things went bad."
“We just didn’t execute, whether it be play calling, executing the plays that are called or a combination of both.”– Kevin Wilson
A popular belief outside of Ohio State’s locker room is that the Buckeyes could have cured their offensive arrhythmia by giving the ball more frequently to running back J.K. Dobbins – who gained 51 yards on only six carries – in the first three quarters of the game. Wilson and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer have both acknowledged that Dobbins – and the tailbacks in general, as Mike Weber had only five carries on Saturday – should be getting more carries.
Those low carry numbers weren’t by design; although Barrett ran the ball 14 times, Wilson said only four of those were designed quarterback runs, with the defense dictating Barrett to keep the ball himself on option reads on the other 10 plays. Both Wilson and Meyer did say, though, that they are working hard on finding more ways to open up the running game so they can give Dobbins more carries.
"Schematically, we got to find some ways to get hats on those guys, so our running back can be the runner," Wilson said. "We got to get him carries. Got to. But I don’t think we can force it either."
Running the ball won’t be easy for Ohio State this week, as the Buckeyes face a Michigan State defense that has allowed only 87 rushing yards per game this year, the third-best average in the entire Football Bowl Subdivision. One way or another, though, Wilson knows he does need to get his offense back into rhythm for Ohio State to get back on the winning side of the equation this week.
"It’s going to be hard. We got to find a way to stick with it and stay with it. But it’s also going to be very, very difficult to run the ball," Wilson said.
