Nitpicking time: Ohio State looked good, but is good always good enough? | Rob Oller
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A bug hit the windshield Saturday on my drive to the Ohio State game. I thought I saw it wearing an Arkansas State jersey.
Then the game began, and I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was a Cincinnati Reds jersey? But no way was it the Sun Belt team from Jonesboro, Arkansas, because the Buckeyes would never let a team that finished 2-10 last season in a conference that gets confused for an equipment and tool rental company stick around for more than a few minutes before squashing them like an unsuspecting insect.
Would they?
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Life often feels unfair when you’re the No. 3 team in the nation. Slip past No. 5 Notre Dame 21-10, when the spread was 17 points, and some will say both you and the Fighting Irish were overrated. Fail to score 70 points and pitch a shutout against the Red Wolves and some snarky writer – ahem – will point out that with a roster full of transfers and former somebodies, Arkansas State should be renamed Last Chance U.
And Last Chance U. should be Lost Chance U. by the end of the first quarter. But it wasn’t. Not by the end of the first half, either.
Sigh. Yes, expectations can be crushing when you’re Ohio State. But that’s why they pay you the big NIL and coaching salary bucks. Don’t like criticism when winning 45-12 in the Shoe? Go play for No Chance U, because playing for Ohio State means living up to impossibly high standards that nonetheless must be met, or the scarlet-faced natives get restless. Mind you, not all fans fume over “semi-blowouts,” but the ratio of Buckeye Nation optimism to pessimism runs about 60-40 when your team does not perform up to the pound-the-chest nicknames it bestows upon itself, like Best in America (BIA), Zone 6 and Silver Bullets.
You won by 33 points. Great. The spread was 44½. Your passing game was borderline spectacular. But only borderline. Sure, Marvin Harrison Jr. joined Joey Galloway as the only Ohio State wide receivers to catch three touchdown passes twice in their career. And C.J. Stroud bounced back from an average game against Notre Dame to complete 16 of 24 passes for 351 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. But what have you done for me lately? OSU threw for 573 against Utah in the Rose Bowl, and the Utes are a lot better than the Red Wolves.
You’ve only committed one turnover in two games? Well done. But you haven’t forced a single one. And about those four three-and-outs? Unacceptable.
The run game was effective, but underutilized. TreVeyon Henderson rushed for 87 yards, averaging 8.7 yards a carry. Miyan Williams added 46 for a 5.8 average. The Buckeyes could have dominated on the ground as easily as they did through the air. Why didn’t they?
See where this is heading? Ohio State = Nitpick U. Sure, getting the once-over with a fine-tooth comb can feel more like a hot poker, but such pain comes with the territory when THE state university is penciled into the College Football Playoff before ever playing a game.
Ohio Stadium is as much a petri dish as a sports venue, with fans, media and even coaches analyzing what just happened.
Sometimes those results end up looking better in the film room than how they appeared live, but that doesn’t mean criticism is unwarranted in real time, not when you’re No. 3. We don’t need to rewatch game film to know what we saw, which was OSU playing sloppy overall (nine penalties for 85 yards) and the cornerbacks looking more Burnt than Best in America. It’s only two games in, but Denzel Burke, who was supposed to be the lockdown cornerback the Buckeyes were missing, went missing in coverage a few times against the Red Wolves. The sophomore also was flagged twice for pass interference.
Safety Josh Proctor offered Burke advice on how to handle “off” games.
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“Keep his head up,” Proctor said. “Know the player you are and know what you can do.”
I would add: Then do it.
Ditto for cornerback Cam Brown, who also missed a tackle that led to a 25-yard gain.
Bright side? Ohio State allowed only 12 points, but that gets lost in the world of Nit meets Pick.
Coach Ryan Day was especially aggravated by the three-and-outs and penalties. The first grates at him as an offensive mind. The second shows a lack of self-discipline.
“We’ve got to get that cleaned up,” he said. “We’re constantly working toward those things … and the only way to accomplish our goals is to keep growing and getting better.”
They better. That’s not a threat. It’s the reality of the expectations that come with being one of the best teams in the country.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football feasts on Arkansas State, but what about dessert?
