I read, and it seems anecdotally correct to me, that Ohio State was blitzing an abnormally large percentage of the time against Texas and the RB out of the backfield weakness was a direct result of that.
I assume they were trying to 1) change things up to break tendencies and 2) recognize and counter Texas’s talent that they tried to disrupt rather than react to.
I imagine Ohio State/Knowles will be able to get back to dictating the game without taking risks they might get burned on against ND given that their QB struggles to throw and their WRs aren’t elite.