Urban Meyer cites 'soft non-conference schedule' for Ohio State defensive issues

Urban Meyer thinks the strength of schedule in the non-conference finally caught up to Ohio State.

Meyer discussed what happened to the Buckeyes in their loss at Oregon before the bye while on ‘The Herd’ this afternoon. He recalled always being worried about playing the first big game after an easier start because he knew that his team’s weaknesses weren’t revealed or tested yet. That’s what happened in this case against the Ducks with how their defense handled a quality pass attack.

“Yeah, I’m going to talk about this tomorrow as well. So, whenever we played a so much softer schedule, I was paranoid and in a panic because your problems don’t show up until you play a great team,” explained Meyer. “Ohio State’s schedule? It just wasn’t someone’s fault. You just had a soft non-conference schedule. Sure enough, the pass defense showed up.”

In the top-three matchup two weeks ago, Ohio State obviously gave up their season-high of 32, which was two less than they’d allowed in the other five games combined. As part of that, Dillon Gabriel went 23/34 (67.6%) in passing for 341 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in the best performance of his season.

However, while that does fall somewhat on the secondary, Meyer more so looked at the lack of pass rush for the Buckeyes. They didn’t post a sack that night in a performance that he thinks has led to some adjustments over the last two weeks for that unit.

“I see two situations with the pass defense. Whenever you say pass defense? Sure, the corners have got to play better but you have to talk about the pass rush. You have two future NFL players at defensive end in J.T. and Jack Sawyer. They had zero sacks. They played too many plays. Played 60 plays – almost double what they played in the first five games on average,” said Meyer. “Then the interior defensive line wasn’t working with the defensive ends and Dillon Gabriel had a very comfortable pocket. He ripped them apart. You can’t play pass defense without getting to the quarterback.

“I know Coach Day has been spending time with the defense,” Meyer added. “I anticipate – not necessarily a big change but a lot of changes in the pass rush from Ohio State.”

Ohio State, even in a one-point loss, failed their first exam. Now, going into their second half of the season, correcting some of those mistakes defensively could make the difference in how they grade out against the other top competition left on their schedule.