The Biggest Threat To The Buckeyes Might Be ... Themselves
It's really hard to win in college football ... just ask Notre Dame and Texas A&M, who's College Football Playoff dreams almost certainly came to a screeching halt on Saturday. They're not the only ranked teams to lose Saturday either.
I don't want to be overly negative about Ohio State's Week 2 win over Arkansas State. In so many ways, the Buckeyes looked good.
C.J. Stroud put up Heisman-worthy numbers, Marvin Harrison Jr. had his second three-touchdown performance in a three game stretch dating back to last year, TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams both ran the ball quite well. There's an awful lot of nice things to say about Emeka Egbuka, Cade Stover, Gee Scott Jr. and the offensive line today too.
Frankly, the offense was almost unstoppable. They scored almost a point per play (that's absurd).
Even defensively, the Buckeyes played pretty well. They allowed Arkansas State to convert on just 2-of-13 third downs in the first three quarters before the offense put it out of reach. The Silver Bullets completely smothered any run between the tackles, they made a handful of really good open field tackles that could have been disastrous if they were broken, and they've now gone eight quarters this season with only one touchdown allowed.
Tommy Eichenberg, Steele Chambers, J.T. Tuimoloau, Ronnie Hickman and Mike Hall Jr. all played well and my gut reaction is that they'll all grade out as game champions when the coaching staff reviews the film.
But this team isn't shooting for good.
They need to be elite if they want to achieve their extremely lofty goals.
I don't think they necessarily played down to their opponent today. Arkansas State isn't a bad team. It's more about managing egos and having the maturity to have a clinical approach to your craft.
It's okay to be a little sloppy early in the year. It's exceptionally rare that a team plays at a championship level from Week 1 through Week 15.
But what irritates me is the lack of discipline. The game is about controlled aggression and selfish plays can really disrupt team chemistry. Jayden Ballard's personal foul last week was inexcusable, as were Taron Vincent's actions that caused a skirmish on the way to the locker room today.
You want to know why the coaching staff wishes they could clone Cade Stover and Tommy Eichenberg? They are team-first guys at all times and they don't make selfish mistakes.
Last week, Dawand Jones had multiple false starts. Today, Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams, Jerron Cage and Zach Harrison all jumped offsides, Xavier Johnson was called for unsportsmanlike conduct (although Ryan Day sure didn't seem to agree with that flag) and Teradja Mitchell leaped over the punt shield (a 15-yard penalty).
Denzel Burke had a tough game, including a pair of defensive pass interference penalties and a couple instances where he got burned on go-routes.
Ryan Day took a bit longer than usual to arrive in the press conference room afterwards and I would anticipate (given his slightly intense, edgy tone during part of his comments) that he made sure the team knew those things are unacceptable.
For so many reasons, this team seems to have the ability to do something really special. Given what's happened around the country this weekend, perhaps there's a little more parity in college football this year than we thought. You should celebrate any week that ends in victory, no matter the circumstances or who you're playing.
But if the Buckeyes aren't careful, they're going to create some bad habits that could very well cost them a game this season. You could make an argument that they're more of a danger to themselves than any opponent on their schedule might be (at least until November 26).
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