If you’re a Michigan football fan, you hate to see it. Sarcastically, of course.
On Saturday, the Wolverines handled East Carolina with seeming ease. Both sides of the ball played well in a 30-3 victory over the Pirates. While the run game was stymied, the passing game made up for it in a big way. J.J. McCarthy threw three touchdowns to wide receiver Roman Wilson.
In the hours after the game, the presumed best offense in the conference, Ohio State, struggled mightily against what’s thought to be a bad Indiana team.
The Buckeyes have had a quarterback lineage from Braxton Miller to J.T. Barrett to Dwayne Haskins to Justin Fields to CJ Stroud — each seemingly better than the last. However, with Stroud having moved on to the NFL, OSU started junior QB Kyle McCord, who was high school teammates with star wideout Marvin Harrison Jr.
However, unlike the Wolverines, who cruised to a 30-0 lead before easing off the gas, Ohio State found itself in a battle, unable to extend the lead to two scores until halfway through the third quarter.
The Buckeyes are also replacing several key offensive linemen from last year, and the concerns stemming from that surged to the forefront in Week 1. Fox Sports’ premier color commentator, Joel Klatt, couldn’t help noticing.
On his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show,” Klatt said he went back and watched the coach’s film to see if the game against the Hoosiers was as bad as it appeared. It turned out, yes, it was.
“So I went back as soon as I saw it, and trust me, I was like, ‘Hold on, Ohio State is really struggling with Indiana.’ And I did not expect much from Indiana this year,” Klatt said. “And granted, it’s a league game on the road, and people in the SEC will fall all over themselves telling you how hard any league game is on the road, but I’m not going to do that because Ohio State should handle Indiana. And I guess in a sense they did, but boy, was sluggish on offense. It was very sluggish on offense.
“So I wanted to see not the TV copy. I wanted to see the coach’s film. So I went back today. I pulled it up and I started watching the coach’s film. And I thought to myself, like you know what, it’s never as bad as you think and it’s probably never as good as you think. So like, let’s see. I watched every play of that game and I come away pretty darn concerned for Ohio State. I did not see, if you’re just thinking about it from a quarterback perspective, I did not see either of these guys, whether it’s Kyle McCord, who started the game, Devin Brown — either these guys show anything that which suggests like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s the guy.’ That’s the last thing you wanted if you’re an Ohio State fan, the last thing you want is some sort of drawn-out quarterback battle.
“And now I don’t know where they’re going to go from this. I would assume that they’re going to try to continue to allow Kyle McCord every opportunity to go win this job. He did not play very well. Watching that tape, there were throws to be had against Indiana that he did not make. Now they would have been difficult at times, but he didn’t make them. There were three in particular, where I’m watching the play progress and I’m thinking to myself — I’m always kind of keeping the clock in my head and I’m like, ‘Ball out!’ and he’s holding the ball and I’m like, that’s a problem. That’s a problem.
“OK, having said that I will say this for Kyle McCord and Devin Brown, who didn’t really play meaningful snaps. Kyle McCord, for all intents and purposes, was the starter. Basically, he didn’t play one series when the game in terms of what I would call meaningful snaps, I did not think that the offensive line played very well at all. Now, did they pop some runs? Yeah, there was a couple of runs here and there that they were able to pop mainly because of the ability and athleticism from their running backs. Were there a couple of throws that were able to be made? Yeah, yeah, a couple of them formationally, they got a tight end down the seam on one of them, a beautiful little motion that opens up the middle of the field. So yeah, some good stuff there.
“Generally speaking, though, the offensive line did not play well. The run game was, I didn’t think, very good. Ohio State is not great at zone blocking. They ran a couple of others, they tried a power, they ran a little GT play early in the game that popped for a big run. I didn’t see them come back to that which I was interested. I kept waiting for them to get back to that concept and it didn’t happen. I don’t know exactly who’s calling the plays. Obviously, in previous years, it was Ryan. They’ve been vague about that. Obviously with the new coordinator switch with Brian Hartline, I’m sure that they’re trying to have more of a collaborative effort now. But I will just say I just didn’t think that the offensive line played all that well. There was pressure on McCord at times when he wanted to release the deep shot, and he couldn’t get to it.
“It was not a great performance offensively from Ohio State. There is a lot to fix there.”
The bad news for Michigan is that OSU will have an entire season to work out its issues before it comes to Ann Arbor. The good news is in just under three weeks the Buckeyes play a Notre Dame team that appears to be humming out of the gates.