Jami Jurich
Guest
Could special teams be Ohio State’s Achilles heel this season?
Jami Jurich via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It’s time for special teams to start doing something if the Buckeyes want to remain title contenders.
The Buckeyes know they have work to do after their Oct. 12 road loss to Oregon, and while most eyes are understandably on the defense, there are also a number of improvements needed from the special teams unit heading into the back half of the season.
With teams like Penn State, Indiana, and Michigan looming just over the bye week horizon, the Buckeyes cannot afford special teams errors if they’re going to win out (and because of their loss, winning out becomes even more important now). Somewhat easy to overlook, special teams still have the power to completely change the tone of the game, for better or worse, and for the Buckeyes this year, it’s unfortunately been more of the latter.
The Buckeyes have struggled on special teams for a few years, but after Ryan Day parted with special teams coordinator Parker Fleming, fans hoped it would be the start of a new era. And the first game looked like it might be—we got glimpses of potential from a unit that has been mostly disappointing in recent memory.
Then it went south, with sloppy errors and mistakes from each phase of the unit: Muffed punts, three consecutive out-of-bounds kickoffs, the punting mediocre at best, and an onside kick recovered against them.
It turns out that Fleming was never the problem. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think he was the solution either, but he certainly doesn’t hold sole responsibility for the chronic failings of a unit that has failed to right the ship in any meaningful way in his absence.
Now, the special teams unit must become an area of greater focus for them at season midpoint, or it could very well become their Achilles heel this year.
Take the three out-of-bounds kickoffs from kicker Jayden Fielding, for example. These came against Marshall, so the Buckeyes had a little margin for error, but each of these kickoffs gave Marshall the opportunity to start their drives at the 35-yard-line instead of the 25 (they also, for what it’s worth, resulted in Fielding being replaced mid-game). This kind of advantageous field position is one thing against the Thundering Herd but against a team like Penn State? That’s a free first down, something you absolutely cannot afford in a game that is sure to come down to the wire.
The Buckeyes don’t have room for sloppy mistakes in the rest of their schedule, and certainly, not costly special teams errors that compromise their field position, give the Nittany Lions free yards, or God forbid, result in turnovers.
Now, one area where we have to give Ohio State’s special teams some credit is field goal kicking. Fielding, for example, nailed a tough 40-yarder against Oregon in a game where every point mattered. He’ll need to keep his confidence there in the second half of the season.
And to be fair to the unit as a whole, they weren’t entirely the root of the problem against Oregon (that would, of course, be the defense), but they certainly didn’t solve many problems either.
The Oregon kickoff that hit Caleb Downs on the 41-yard line and resulted in a fumble comes to mind. The Ducks regained possession and immediately wound up on the Ohio State 9-yard line after a 32-yard deep ball from Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel to Traeshon Holden. In fact, the turnover would likely have proved more costly if Holden didn’t get himself ejected from the game shortly after for spitting on a Buckeye player, backing the Ducks up to the 25 and ultimately forcing them to settle for a field goal.
But when you lose the game by one point, you certainly have to wonder: If the special teams unit had gotten themselves on and off the field uneventfully, would the outcome of the game look different?
The pressure is on now for the Buckeyes to play their best football, something that becomes absolutely critical with one loss to their name already if they hope to remain in the national championship contention conversation. And in order to do that, special teams need to step up and be, well, something special.
That is to say, it’s not enough for them to be not a problem. They must actively be part of the solution, or you can bet a team like the Nittany Lions will exploit their weakness on the way to victory.
Continue reading...
Jami Jurich via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It’s time for special teams to start doing something if the Buckeyes want to remain title contenders.
The Buckeyes know they have work to do after their Oct. 12 road loss to Oregon, and while most eyes are understandably on the defense, there are also a number of improvements needed from the special teams unit heading into the back half of the season.
With teams like Penn State, Indiana, and Michigan looming just over the bye week horizon, the Buckeyes cannot afford special teams errors if they’re going to win out (and because of their loss, winning out becomes even more important now). Somewhat easy to overlook, special teams still have the power to completely change the tone of the game, for better or worse, and for the Buckeyes this year, it’s unfortunately been more of the latter.
The Buckeyes have struggled on special teams for a few years, but after Ryan Day parted with special teams coordinator Parker Fleming, fans hoped it would be the start of a new era. And the first game looked like it might be—we got glimpses of potential from a unit that has been mostly disappointing in recent memory.
Then it went south, with sloppy errors and mistakes from each phase of the unit: Muffed punts, three consecutive out-of-bounds kickoffs, the punting mediocre at best, and an onside kick recovered against them.
It turns out that Fleming was never the problem. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think he was the solution either, but he certainly doesn’t hold sole responsibility for the chronic failings of a unit that has failed to right the ship in any meaningful way in his absence.
Now, the special teams unit must become an area of greater focus for them at season midpoint, or it could very well become their Achilles heel this year.
Take the three out-of-bounds kickoffs from kicker Jayden Fielding, for example. These came against Marshall, so the Buckeyes had a little margin for error, but each of these kickoffs gave Marshall the opportunity to start their drives at the 35-yard-line instead of the 25 (they also, for what it’s worth, resulted in Fielding being replaced mid-game). This kind of advantageous field position is one thing against the Thundering Herd but against a team like Penn State? That’s a free first down, something you absolutely cannot afford in a game that is sure to come down to the wire.
The Buckeyes don’t have room for sloppy mistakes in the rest of their schedule, and certainly, not costly special teams errors that compromise their field position, give the Nittany Lions free yards, or God forbid, result in turnovers.
Now, one area where we have to give Ohio State’s special teams some credit is field goal kicking. Fielding, for example, nailed a tough 40-yarder against Oregon in a game where every point mattered. He’ll need to keep his confidence there in the second half of the season.
And to be fair to the unit as a whole, they weren’t entirely the root of the problem against Oregon (that would, of course, be the defense), but they certainly didn’t solve many problems either.
The Oregon kickoff that hit Caleb Downs on the 41-yard line and resulted in a fumble comes to mind. The Ducks regained possession and immediately wound up on the Ohio State 9-yard line after a 32-yard deep ball from Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel to Traeshon Holden. In fact, the turnover would likely have proved more costly if Holden didn’t get himself ejected from the game shortly after for spitting on a Buckeye player, backing the Ducks up to the 25 and ultimately forcing them to settle for a field goal.
But when you lose the game by one point, you certainly have to wonder: If the special teams unit had gotten themselves on and off the field uneventfully, would the outcome of the game look different?
The pressure is on now for the Buckeyes to play their best football, something that becomes absolutely critical with one loss to their name already if they hope to remain in the national championship contention conversation. And in order to do that, special teams need to step up and be, well, something special.
That is to say, it’s not enough for them to be not a problem. They must actively be part of the solution, or you can bet a team like the Nittany Lions will exploit their weakness on the way to victory.
Continue reading...