Ohio State head coach Ryan Day looks to the scoreboard during a timeout in a game against Akron on Aug. 31 in Ohio Stadium.
Joshua Keeran | The Gazette
Ohio State’s lackluster performance in a 21-17 win over Nebraska left plenty to be desired coming off its first loss of the season and a bye week to improve, but the Buckeyes have no time to waste in finding answers as a trip to No. 3 Penn State awaits them this week.
On Tuesday, head coach Ryan Day spoke with the media to recap his team’s performance and preview the challenge ahead in a game that could prove to be an elimination game for the Big Ten Championship.
No single issue was more glaring for Ohio State against Nebraska than the offensive line, which played its first game without left tackle Josh Simmons following his season-ending injury suffered against Oregon. Senior tackle Zen Michalski earned the start in place of Simmons and struggled badly before leaving the game with an injury in the game’s final minutes.
Following Michalski’s departure, Donovan Jackson slid to tackle while Luke Montgomery entered the game at guard to close out the win.
Michalski’s status for Saturday’s game remains unclear, with Day saying they’ll “see how Zen comes in today” and take it from there. However, Day stated that if Michalski is ready to go, he will remain in the starting lineup. Should he be ruled out, Day was noncommittal to what the plan will be on the offensive line until he sees how the week progresses.
Day acknowledged Michalski’s struggles in his first career start but expressed confidence in his ability to get the job done should he play.
“We know what we see in practice, and we gotta continue to support him and make sure he knows we have confidence in him when he goes into the game,” Day said.
Ohio State’s run game was nonexistent a week ago, thanks in large part to an offensive line that never could establish control at the line of scrimmage. The punchless rushing attack wasn’t for lack of trying, however, as offensive coordinator Chip Kelly dialed up 31 run plays compared to just 16 pass plays. A much larger issue was the total number of plays ran overall as Ohio State managed just 47 plays thanks to a putrid effort on third down that saw it convert just one of 10 attempts.
“The biggest thing was the third downs,” Day said of the run game ineffectiveness. “When you go 1-10, you can’t keep drives alive and can’t control the game. That’s how it goes, but I think it was a combination of things. I don’t think we were always (identifying) correctly. And Zen did get beat on a few of them there, but it wasn’t just him. There were some other things mixed in there. I think we ran it twice as much as we threw it in the game, so we were looking to establish the run. But when you can’t convert on third downs and third-and-shorts, you can’t get drives going and wear down the defense. So we gotta convert on third down.”
Asked about the possibility of throwing the ball more rather than trying to force control of the game through an ineffective rushing attack, Day said the singular goal doesn’t change and still boils down to extending drives.
“We have to move the ball,” he said. “So when we’re throwing the ball and not running it, or we’re running it and not throwing it, the bottom line is you have to convert on third down. So we have to do a good on both sides of the ball in terms of execution. We gotta put the players in a better position to be successful. And we have to move the football. That’s the bottom line.”
He added, ”We can look at run, pass, this, and everything. The bottom line is we have to convert on third downs, we gotta have a balance of running and throwing, and move the ball down the field and score touchdowns., That’s what it comes down to. We can talk until we’re blue in the face about running and passing. You want a balance, but you gotta execute better. That’s the bottom line.”
While moving the ball was a game-long struggle for Day and the Ohio State offense, the game proved to be a solid bounce-back performance for a Buckeye defense that was gashed often in the loss at Oregon. Day said he felt the defense played with “more precision,” got lined up faster, and played with better pad level. “Everything about it was crisper to me than in the Oregon game,” he said.
The strong performance came without one of its best leaders and playmakers in safety Lathan Ransom, who was unable to play due to a foot injury. In his absence, senior cornerback Jordan Hancock saw extensive time at safety while true freshman Jaylen McClain saw his first meaningful playing time in particular packages. Senior cornerback Lorenzo Styles and sophomore cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. also saw an uptick in playing time to fill the void left by Hancock’s shift to safety.
Asked about Ransom’s status against Penn State, Day expressed hope the senior could return on Saturday after an event-free week of practice.
“We’re excited to get a full week out of Lathan, so we’ll kind of see how the week goes with him,” Day said. “But it’s good to know we’ve built some depth back there. For Jordan Hancock to move into another position in last week’s game with just a week of preparation, I thought he was excellent. So we do have some flexibility there. I thought Lorenzo Styles and Jermaine played well in the game as well … That was good to see because the depth back there was a concern. Jaylen McClain gave us some quality reps back there. There were quite a few guys getting reps, and now we’ll go into this game, and with Lathan coming back, we’ll figure out what that looks like going into it.”
One aspect of the Ohio State defense that hasn’t played out lately as discussed during the preseason has been playing more defensive linemen. In Ohio State’s last two games, a sizable gap has taken shape between the snap counts for Ohio State’s starting four defensive linemen —J.T. Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams, and Ty Hamilton —and the next group of rotation pieces.
Day said there’s an element of their best defensive linemen needing to be on the field in pivotal moments, of which there has been no shortage in each of the past two games, but also noted he would like to see more depth being played.
“I definitely think we want to rotate guys, but when the game is on the line like that, we have to make sure we’re getting stops,” Day said. “We did that and will have to do it again this week. But yeah, we have to get (Kayden McDonald) mixed in more, Hero (Kanu) mixed in more, Kenyatta (Jackson), and Caden Curry mixed in more and make sure our guys are fresh in the fourth quarter.”
Penn State isn’t without its own significant injury concerns with quarterback Drew Allar’s status likely to be uncertain up until Saturday following a knee injury suffered in the first half of last week’s win at Wisconsin. A Medina, Ohio native, Allar has performed well in his sophomore campaign with 1,640 passing yards and 15 touchdowns to four interceptions.
In Allar’s absence, sophomore Beau Pribula played well, completing 11 of 13 passing attempts. His mobility also presents a bigger issue in the run game, although Day noted Ohio State must still be ready for that element should Allar be cleared to play.
“We’ll prepare for both guys being healthy and ready to go,” Day said. “They both bring different things to the table but are effective in what they do. So we’ll go based on what we’ve seen and what’s on the film.”
Regardless of which quarterback plays, Day knows everything is at stake for his team in a stadium that always delivers a raucous atmosphere as one of the game’s premier environments.
“What an unbelievable opportunity right here,” he said. “The chance to go to Indianapolis is on the line, and our guys are excited about playing in this game. I think the defense got a lot of confidence coming off of last week with the way they played, creating (tackles for loss) and winning the game in the fourth quarter. I thought they were flying around. If we can get the offense playing the way it has in the past, combined with the way we played on defense this past week, that’s what we’re looking for in this game.”
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.
