The Ohio State Buckeyes rebounded from last week's loss with a 24-20 win at home over Northwestern, pushing them to 7-1 on the season. Though the win wasn't pretty, it was a win - and there are plenty of takeaways they can use going forward. Here three things we learned from the game:
3) The lack of a vertical passing game is killing them
One area of Ohio State's offense that became abundantly clear was the need for them to improve their vertical passing game. J.T. Barrett wasn't able to drive the ball down the field, largely because of the inability of OSU's receivers to consistently create separation - and some due to Barrett's inaccuracy down the field. He passed for 223 yards on 21/32 passing, good for a less-than-impressive seven yards per pass attempt. Ohio State's offense has become very easy to defend because of that lack of a downfield threat.
2) They're still struggling to separate themselves
Ohio State was blowing out teams they should blow out earlier in the season. Now, over the course of the past month, they're struggling to separate themselves from teams they should beat easily. That was the case again against Northwestern, a team that has nowhere near the talent level Ohio State does. The Buckeyes have no played four straight games where they've looked to be simply above average team instead of a playoff contender. Do they have that killer instinct?
1) Give Mike Weber the ball more
For as much as Ohio State's passing game is struggling, you'd think that would mean they would run the ball more. Well, not exactly. They only gave 26 carries to their running backs in this game, even though Weber was playing extremely well. He had 87 yards and two touchdowns, but only had 14 carries - good for 6.2 yards per carry. We know Ohio State prides itself on having a multi-dimensional attack, but Weber is averaging six yards per carry this season. Get him the ball and keep the offense on schedule.
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