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

Ohio State football flaw No. 1: Slow starts on offense

While the 2019 Ohio State offense was one of the best in the country, ending the season ranked third overall in total offense, the squad suffered from some slow starts that bogged down their performance early in games.

In the teams’ second game of the season, against Cincinnati, the Buckeyes managed to only score seven points in the first quarter. The very next game against Indiana, Ohio State again only managed to score a single touchdown in the first quarter and ended the quarter only up by a score of 7-3.

If two in a row didn’t already show a pattern, it then happened again, against Miami of Ohio with the Buckeyes ending the first quarter ahead by a score of 7-3.  Fast forward to the Buckeyes’ game against Michigan State, they only scored three points in the opening quarter.

For how good Ohio State’s offense was overall in 2019, it is shocking that they struggled to score so often for a whole quarter of certain games. In many of these instances, the Buckeyes were lucky to have a talented defense that prevented other teams from scoring and never allowed their squad to get behind early in a game. If you just look at the final scores, it seems like the Buckeyes were basically perfect on offense, but limited offensive production in the first quarter occurred regularly.

Football is a four-quarter game, and if Ohio State continues to put up lackluster offensive performances in the first quarter, it could come back to bite them.

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