Ryan Day expresses his confidence in Ohio State's third down success

As Ohio State played in the wind and the rain last week against Northwestern, the Buckeyes struggled to contain the Wildcats on third down. Northwestern converted nine of 20 third down attempts while Ohio State went 4-for-15.

Still, Ryan Day is confident in his team’s ability on third down. After all, the Buckeyes convert 46.8% of their third downs and hold opponents to a 29.2% conversion rate.

However, he saw areas the Buckeyes can improve, and he made sure to address them heading into this week’s game against Indiana.

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“I think we worked hard in a lot of things,” Day said. “Certainly, that’s something that we work hard on and will continue to do that. When the offense goes against the defense in those types of situations, the thing you’re looking for is the one-on-one situations in terms of who’s winning the one-on-one battles because ultimately that’s what it comes down to. It’s not so much the schematics. That’s a whole different deal. Typically, we’re not scheming against the offense or the defense. What we’re doing is trying to get better at the fundamentals at pad level. Ultimately, that’s what’s going to matter, especially in those types of situations. The guy who’s lower, the guy who can get movement, the team who will run over the extra defender in the box will come down and block. Those types of things are the ones that are going to be successful.

“You’re not always looking to see exactly who wins the drill, but looking to see who wins the one-on-one matchups because ultimately, that’s going to lead to the game and moving guys. There was a point in the game where I don’t think we did that. We’ve got to get our pads lower, we’ve got to move people. That’s what we focused on more than anything.”

Ryan Day says Ohio State’s offensive line determined to improve

In a game where passing wasn’t really a reliable option on offense in whipping winds at Ryan Field on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Ohio State offensive line was expected to exert some dominance over lowly Northwestern. Though the Buckeyes ultimately finished with 207 rushing yards, the performance left a lot to be desired at times.

Head coach Ryan Day knows there isn’t anybody who wants the offensive line to improve more than the five starters. Progression likely won’t be linear, and it’s hard to predict how and when a breakthrough might happen, but Day is confident they’ll get it on the right track.

“Very prideful group. Really a bunch of guys that want to be right, want to do well. And Justin [Frye]’s done a great job building chemistry this year with them. And they — they’re working hard. They are. Nobody wants to play better than they [do],” Day said.