Ohio State Buckeyes offensive line loses a key starter at the worst possible moment

Absolutely brutal. There is no other way to describe it. In the lead-up to Ohio State's huge home game vs. the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday, Buckeyes starting center Seth McLaughlin tore his Achilles in practice. The Columbus Dispatch was all over this devastating blow to the Ohio State offense. McLaughlin came over from Alabama in the transfer portal to help fix this front five.

Ohio State may be the No. 2 team in the country, currently slotted into the No. 5 seed in the 12-team College Football Playoff picture. However, a loss the next two weeks vs. either Indiana or, god forbid, vs. Michigan could be detrimental to the Buckeyes' chances of making the playoff. Ohio State already has one conference loss on the year. That was to Oregon by a point in Eugene. What if they had two?

At 10-2 (7-2), Ohio State would be very much on the cutting room floor when it comes to playoff inclusion. While the Buckeyes will have played the toughest Big Ten schedule in the conference, will their one quality win over Penn State do enough to keep an additional SEC at-large team from overtaking them? My biggest concern about the Buckeyes is the are such a ground-centric offense.

With McLaughlin out for the season, it puts even more pressure on Ryan Day to be clever on offense.

Seth McLaughlin out for the season is bad news bears for Ohio State

Ohio State already lost Josh Simmons for the season along the offensive line. While Ohio State does have a strong identity on offense, that could be thrown for a loop with the guy snapping the football to fellow offseason transfer Will Howard could be problematic. Howard can make plays with his legs, but his decision making has been questionable at times. There is no margin for error left for the team.

To me, this injury hurts Ohio State's upward trajectory this season considerably. I would venture to guess that they will still be good enough to make the College Football Playoff, even as a two-loss team. However, they may struggle with some of the better pass rushes they go up against. For as much fun as Indiana has been to watch offensively, the Hoosiers can really get after the passer now.

As I try to forecast what could happen for Ohio State, I have a hard time seeing them winning the rest of their games because of this. That could mean they fall in the playoff like 10 other teams are inevitably going to. It could also mean they fall to either Indiana this weekend, Michigan next weekend or vs. Oregon in a rematch in Indianapolis should the Buckeyes get that far. The timing of this is awful.

Losing anyone along the offensive line is tough, but someone this significant makes this even worse.