MY THOUGHTS.....TCU

     

                     The Ohio State Buckeyes overcome their first on-field adversity of the season, by scoring 20 points in a span of four minutes in the third quarter to earn a hard-fought 40-28 victory over TCU.  Until that stretch, the Buckeyes were being outplayed on both sides of the ball.  The defense gave up four touchdowns, one of them a 93-yard run by TCU’s Darius Anderson, to mark the longest play ever against an Ohio State defense in history.

But, it’s a good day when Dwayne Haskins throws for 344 yards and two touchdowns and commits no turnovers.  Haskins, once again, showed his pinpoint accuracy with a rocket launcher for an arm.  The bomb to Austin Mack in the first series of the game was picture perfect, threading the ball between two defenders.  Haskins also showed mastery in the short, touch passes, executing to perfection, the Parris Campbell short toss that Campbell turned into a score when the Buckeyes desperately needed an offensive spark.  But that was overshadowed by the job K.J. Hill turned in.  On several routes over the middle, Hill was able to shake the coverage and had some impressive YAC (yards after catch), leading the Buckeyes with six catches for 95 yards and a touchdown.  Austin Mack’s night was a mix.  After turning in the spectacular grab on the first series, Mack was plagued by a series of drops, including what would’ve been an easy touchdown on third-and-goal on that first series.  However, Mack came back to catch four for 84 yards.  J.K. Dobbins got it going late in the first half and showed the TCU defense that one man wasn’t going to bring him down.  On several of his runs, he bounced off the first tackle attempt, spun, and just kept driving forward.  He finished with 121 yards on 18 carries.  It was also nice to see the coaching staff call a design run for Haskins as he turned it into Ohio State’s final touchdown.

For the second straight game, Nick Bosa had a crushing sack and this time, it resulted in a touchdown.  Despite being gashed by a long TD run and a long TD pass, the defense seemed to step it up when Bosa left the game due to a lower abdominal strain.  The turning point came with him in the locker room when Dre’Mont Jones was in the right place at the right time, returning Shaun Robinson’s ill-advised shovel pass to the house.  The second defensive touchdown of the game gave Ohio State the lead they would never relinquish.  Malik Harrison also deserves a shout-out.  He seemed to be everywhere in the second half and was a big factor in limiting the big plays from TCU in the second half.  His interception late in the game sealed it.

Despite the big victory, there are still issues, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.  TCU managed 511 yards of total offense; the most allowed since Michigan State got 536 in 2014.  However, in the second half, the defense did better than they did the first half, limiting TCU to 222 yards, 10 first downs, and a mere 3-of-8 on third downs.  All of that happened without Bosa on the field for much of the second half.  It took a while for the defense to adjust to TCU’s up-tempo style of play, but I noticed in the second half, with Bosa out, the coaching staff rotated players in and out with more frequency and perhaps that was a factor in the second half improvement.

Next week, Coach Urban Meyer is back as usual and they have a week to work on some of the defensive issues before a critical venture to Penn State on September 28.  True, the defense stepped up when they needed to and got two touchdowns, but the breakdowns that have led to chunk plays by the opposition will have to be fixed before the Penn State game.