J.T. Barrett - Ohio State Football - QB - 2014 Cincinnati Game
COLUMBUS, Ohio When Braxton Miller went down with another shoulder injury in August, the Ohio State Buckeyes used it as a rallying point. It took time, but the Buckeyes offense got better and started to hit its stride under J.T. Barrett.
The offense was so good that Ohio State"s defense started to fly under the radar.
"I don"t think that we lack respect," Buckeyes cornerback Doran Grant said this week leading up to Ohio State"s win over Michigan on Saturday. "I just think that the offense is so powerful and so explosive that that"s what catches everybody"s eye."
Consider those eyes trained on Ohio State"s defense now.
Barrett suffered a fractured ankle in the win over the Wolverines, an injury that will require surgery and cause Barrett to miss the remainder of the season. Cardale Jones will start in his place next Saturday when the No. 6 Buckeyes play No. 14 Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship.
It"s unfair to speculate how the offense will fair under Jones because we haven"t gotten a good sample size on him yet. But it is safe to assume there will be some differences. Perhaps some of that explosiveness will be tempered.
Members of the Buckeyes defense have said all year they"ve been striving to be championship-caliber. Now they have no choice. Without Barrett, Ohio State will need its defense to be better, maybe even win a game.
"I feel like our defense is gonna have to step up tremendously now," linebacker Darron Lee said Saturday. "We had to step up with the loss of Braxton, and now we really have to step it up. There"s stuff I can do to help even more. It"s time to pick our game up. We can"t have slow starts."
The Buckeyes defense hasn"t been bad. In fact it"s improved from last season. But opportunities to prove it can win a game have been rare, and the one time the Buckeyes had that chance, they didn"t quite get it done.
They allowed a 19-play 81-yard drive against Penn State at the end of regulation that forced overtime. They eventually got the stop to win the game after some heroics from Barrett, but the offense may not be able to bail the defense out now.
Against Michigan on Saturday, Ohio State allowed scoring drives of 75, 75, 80 and 90 yards. Michigan had the 117th-ranked offense in the country coming into Saturday. It didn"t matter though because Ohio State"s offense found a way to get the ball in the end zone even on a day when it looked sluggish for a long stretch in the first half.
The Buckeyes defense has had well-documented struggles against the run recently (which loom larger now that they"ll be facing the nation"s leading rusher in Wisconsin"s Melvin Gordon). Twice in three weeks, Ohio State defensive tackle Michael Bennett has had to deliver a mid-game rallying cry to get the defense to play at a high level.
With players like Joey Bosa, Joshua Perry, Bennett and Lee, who had a 33-yard scoop-and-score in the fourth quarter on Saturday, Ohio State has dynamic defensive players who"ve helped this defense show it can be sometimes be game-altering good.
There is no more room for sometimes. There is no more room for error.
Ohio State is playing in a championship game on Saturday. It"s time for the defense to show it can be championship caliber.
2. Does Urban Meyer have any faith in Sean Nuernberger? Meyer opted to take a delay of game penalty and punt the ball rather than try what would"ve been roughly a 49-yard field goal in the first quarter. Michigan put together an 80-yard scoring drive on the ensuing possession.
3. I don"t think all is suddenly lost with Jones at QB. Jones is a physical freak, a 6-5, 250 pound load who can run and has a big arm. He"s never had to prepare like a starter in college, and he"s never played on a stage like the one he"ll see Saturday, but there"s a base there for the Ohio State coaches to work with. I"m not ready to write off the offense just yet.
4. Ohio State shouldn"t fall in the College Football Playoff rankings based on the loss of Barrett. The Buckeyes, who came into this week ranked No. 6, shouldn"t fall below that simply because they lost their starting quarterback. Jones deserves a fair shake, and he"ll get one against Wisconsin"s No. 2 defense. The Buckeyes should stay at No. 6, perhaps even move up to fifth with Mississippi State"s loss on Saturday. How Jones and the offense look against Wisconsin should determine Ohio State"s fate.
5. What"s with Devin Gardner and Ohio State? I said Michigan wouldn"t score a touchdown on Saturday because Gardner had played so poorly this year, especially on the road. He threw a terrible interception on the second play of the game, then went on to throw for 233 yards and two touchdowns. It was by far his best game this season, coming off the best game of his career in last years" game against the Buckeyes. This guy thrived in The Game. He just couldn"t get it going in many other games.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/11/ohio_state_buckeyes_5_bill_lan.html
