Ohio State football: 3 flaws keeping Buckeyes from the National Championship

Ohio State football flaw No. 2: Run defense

Ohio State put up the best overall defense in college football for the 2019 season, but that was mostly thanks to their pass defense, which also ranked No. 1 overall, while their run defense was a step behind at No. 9 in the country.

The run defense proved to be a weak spot in their loss against Clemson, where they allowed Tiger quarterback Trevor Lawrence to rush for 107 yards and a touchdown. It also showed in the Big Ten Championship game against Wisconsin with star Badger running back Jonathan Taylor amassing 148 rushing yards.

This trend goes back a year as well, to the 2018 season where the Buckeye run defense really struggled. In that infamous game against Maryland where Ohio State won due to a missed Maryland two-point conversion, they gave up a massive 298 rushing yards to Terrapins running back Anthony McFarland. Before that game, in their blowout loss to Purdue, the Buckeyes gave up 128 rushing yards to Boilermaker running back D.J. Know, and 161 rushing yards in total.

For the 2018 season, the Ohio State defense gave up a substantial 2086 rushing yards. Definitely not the performance you expect from a consistent National Championship caliber team.

While the Buckeye rushing defense did show strides of improvement in 2019 compared to their abysmal performance in 2018, it still has its issues, and if it cannot come up to par with the rest of the team, it will continue to hold them back.