Joel Klatt explains why he is 'pretty concerned' about Ohio State, how issues go beyond QB

Ohio State didn’t inspire much confidence in their 23-3 win over Indiana in their season opener. Even so, FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt is even more bothered about the Buckeyes after diving deeper into the film from their win in Bloomington.

Klatt assessed Ohio State’s play in their opening win over the Hoosiers during his show on Monday. All in all, he saw a stagnant outing from their usually top-notch offense as well as several other details that have him troubled when it comes to their season-long projection.

“I was like, ‘Hold on? Like, Ohio State is really struggling with Indiana?’. I did not expect much from Indiana this year. And, granted, it’s a league game on the road,” Klatt started. “(But) Ohio State should handle Indiana. And, I guess, in a sense, they did. But, boy, it was sluggish on offense. It was very sluggish on offense.”

“I started watching the coach’s film,” said Klatt. “I thought to myself, ‘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 just see?’. I watched every play of that game and I come away pretty darn concerned for Ohio State.”

For Klatt, one clear takeaway was quarterback play from Kyle McCord and, to a lesser degree, Devin Brown. In his opinion, neither showed flashes of being capable of reaching a high ceiling, especially considering how McCord played versus Indiana.

“If you’re just thinking about it from a quarterback perspective? I did not see either of these guys show anything that would suggest that, like, ‘Oh yeah. He’s the guy,'” said Klatt. “That’s the last thing that you wanted if you’re an Ohio State fan.”

“I don’t know where they’re going to go from this,” Klatt continued. “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.”

However, that wasn’t all that caused concern from Klatt. He was also critical of Ohio State’s offensive line and looked at how their struggles may have also affected the offense as a whole.

“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…Some good stuff there,” explained Klatt. “Generally speaking, though? The offensive line did not play well.”

“The run game wasn’t, I didn’t think, very good,” said Klatt. “I will just say, like, 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 a deep shot and he couldn’t get to it.”

Ohio State has earned some benefit of the doubt, especially since it was their opener and they’re still sorting things out offensively both on the staff and with certain personnel. With that said, Klatt still has his worries about them based on how many things that he believes now need to be fixed and fixed in a hurry.

“It was not a great performance offensively for Ohio State. There is a lot to fix there,” Klatt said. “If you’re a Buckeye fan? It’s going to be real easy to just be like, ‘Oh, quarterback! Ugh!’. But it wasn’t just the quarterback.”