The second half of the Ohio State game was a little different than the first half. Some of the cause was Larry Johnson being conservative and just holding the lead, but there is a growing concern about the tackling of Ohio State. Granted, Payton Thorne is a different quarterback than Rocky Lombardi, but the missed tackles were evident.
The defense looked stout in the first half and missed few tackles, but by the time the second half came around, Thorne was running around and through the Buckeye defense. Missed sacks allowed Thorne to break containment and get yardage that was not there in the first half.
This was still a dominant display by the Buckeyes and Justin Fields was fantastic today. He made good decisions even with the poor snapping throughout the game. The running game rolled as they gashed MSU for much of the game which led to the Olave deep pass touchdown in the fourth.
This was a solid win, but the tackling is concerning. It seems small considering the final score, but against Indiana, we saw how much a good team can take advantage of these small mistakes. I’m not sure how they clean that up moving forward, but they have the offense to overcome this issue.