After a 21-7 win at Northwestern in extreme weather conditions, Ryan Day was happy to get out of Ryan Field with a dub, but he knows there's work to do as Ohio State eyes bigger prizes than handling what is now a 1-8 Wildcat squad.
After Ohio State hosts Indiana this weekend, it'll take a trip to Maryland and assuming all goes as planned, the Buckeyes will then collide with undefeated Michigan in a battle for Big Ten East supremacy.
To exact revenge on Michigan and earn a spot in the Big Ten championship game, provided things go according to plan the next two weeks, the Buckeyes will need to fix some things in a running game struggling to click on all cylinders. That reality wasn't lost on Day as he met yesterday with the assembled media in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
I think we all need to do better. Going back and watching the film, we gotta block better, we gotta run better, we gotta do a better job equating the numbers... We know we can do a better job.– RYAN DAY
Against the Wildcats, Day's run game limped in the first half, totaling 72 yards on a pedestrian 4.5 yards per carry against the nation's No. 107 rush defense. The second half was a slightly different story however as Miyan Williams got loose for a 27-yard touchdown run and quarterback C.J. Stroud, of all people, peeled off a 44-yard option keeper. With those two runs lifting up the run game, the Buckeyes averaged 7.1 yards per carry over the final two quarters.
Still, it was Northwestern, and if you consolidated Ohio State's rushing stats in the two games prior, against Iowa and Penn State, along with the first two quarters versus the Wildcats, the results shake out to 236 yards on a decidedly blah 3.3 yards per attempt.
| OPPONENT | RUSH YPG | RUSH YPG | OPP YPC ALLOWED | OPP YPC RANK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOTRE DAME | 172 | 4.9 | 3.9 | 54 |
| ARKANSAS STATE | 168 | 6.5 | 4.0 | 67 |
| TOLEDO | 281 | 6.4 | 3.9 | 65 |
| WISCONSIN | 258 | 6.0 | 3.4 | 17 |
| RUTGERS | 252 | 7.4 | 3.6 | 33 |
| MICHIGAN STATE | 237 | 5.2 | 4.1 | 77 |
| IOWA | 66 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 4 |
| PENN STATE | 98 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 59 |
| NORTHWESTERN | 207 | 5.9 | 4.7 | 107 |
The Iowa, Penn State and Northwestern efforts came on the heels of Ohio State running for at least 235 yards in four straight games and averaging at least six yards per carry in four of the first six games.
Beyond some nicks and bruises up front to guys like right guard Matthew Jones, the tailbacks have also dealt with injuries with both Miyan Williams and TreVeyon Henderson missing full games and portions of others.
Williams had just two attempts versus Penn State before being forced to exit and over his last three games total, he's averaged 3.7 yards on 38 attempts. In the five games prior, he averaged 7.8 yards on 64 carries.
Similarly, Henderson averaged 3.1 yards per carry against Penn State and Iowa, on a combined 27 attempts while sitting out the Northwestern game due to injury. In his first five games this season, Henderson averaged 6.3 yards per carry on 69 attempts.
With those two accounting for 62% of Ohio State's rushing attempts so far this season, the Buckeyes rank No. 15 nationally in yards per carry (5.5) and No. 32 in rushing offense (193.2 ypg).
It remains to be seen if that kind of production will be good enough to help get past Michigan in a few weeks. That said, there's time for Day and company to realize some improvements starting Saturday against Indiana.
The Hoosiers rank a respectable No. 31 nationally giving up 3.6 yards per carry and Maryland sits at No. 49, surrendering 3.8 per pop. If you're wondering, Michigan is currently No. 3 in the country allowing just 2.6 yards per rushing attempt.
Beyond getting healthy up front and improving individual win percentages in one-on-one assignments, particularly on the right side of the line, it remains to be seen if Day will become more willing to use his quarterback in the ground game.
It certainly was a factor against a Northwestern defense sitting on the run and while keeping Stroud upright is job one for Ohio State to have a chance to win a title, it seems reasonable to expect a quarterback to carry the ball a few times a game and trust him to have enough awareness and skill to avoid taking big shots.
But as Day noted yesterday, it's going to take a handful of factors to come together for Ohio State's running game to reach the next level and time is running short for those improvements to materialize.
