Instant Observations: Buckeyes Survive Huge Scare Against Nebraska

Ohio State did not give the inspired performance that many had expected coming off a bye week and a loss to Oregon. Instead, the Buckeyes needed a late touchdown drive and interception to seal a narrow 21-17 win over visiting Nebraska.

Here are my 10 Instant Observations from the shaky performance as the Buckeyes will need to pull it together for the big matchup in Happy Valley next weekend.

1. It was said on here a few times after the Oregon game that the final score of that game wasn’t nearly as concerning as the loss of left tackle Josh Simmons for the rest of the season. That manifested itself early and often on the field this afternoon. Regardless of Michalski’s health (and we certainly hope he’s OK), I would roll with Donovan Jackson at left tackle against Penn State until it’s obvious that combination won’t work. You have two guards behind Jackson with starting experience, plus Luke Montgomery.

2. This might come off as an obnoxious “I told you so” type of post, but it has to be said so pretend I’m saying this as humbly as possible. I believe we are seeing the chickens coming home to roost on offensive line recruiting. This is why it is important to sign a big and quality O-Line class every single year. It’s a tough position to evaluate and guys are constantly at risk of injury in the trenches.

Even in the portal era, you have to bring in a handful of high quality high school prospects each cycle. Missing on numbers, missing on quality, it catches up to you eventually and the hope now is that it hasn’t caught up to the Buckeyes to the point where it costs them a shot at a national championship.

3. As I said two weeks ago, I don’t blame anyone that needs to see it to believe it from the Ohio State defense in a big game. You can count me in that group. But I saw some encouraging signs today. They brought extra pressure consistently throughout the game, forced Raiola off his spot throughout the game, and created a bunch of negative plays. I can live with a couple of mistakes if that’s how they are going to play.

4. Speaking of living with mistakes, I know Davison Igbinosun’s penalties drive some people insane. But I can live with them because of the physical brand of football he plays and the energy he brings to the defense. That was a tremendous, and potentially game-saving, play to get the 4th and goal stop.

5. As I said on the post game show, 80-percent (or more) of this game was “ick”. But there are a couple of situational things that I think can inspire some confidence. The defense forcing key punts and getting a big turnover at the end could be important moving forward. No, this wasn’t a top 10 team and certainly not a top 10 offense today in Nebraska, but sometimes you have to walk before you run.

6. I also think the offense, which was really, really bad by its standards today, can take something from the go-ahead touchdown drive. Again, not against a top 10 opponent, but we’ve seen shortcomings in these situations before and the offense was able to gather itself after Nebraska took the lead and put together a really good drive.

7. Another positive to take from the offense today was that Carnell Tate had his best game of the season. It’s easy to forget about him with Smith and Egbuka, but they need him to make defenses pay for focusing too much attention on those two. He had bookend big plays in this game that were big factors in the win.

8. Targeting continues to be the worst part of college football. I’m not convinced that Arvell Reese’s hit even qualified by the letter of the law as targeting. It looked to me like the bulk of the contact was his forearm to the Nebraska receivers’ chest. But the idea that that hit, even after review, is punishable by ejection is a joke. They one-hundred percent have to move to a basketball type system of Flagrant 1/Flagrant 2. While there will still be calls we don’t like, the questionable calls like the one today against Reese will at least not be as punitive.

9. I’ve ranted like a maniac over the years about OSU not QB sneaking in short yardage situations. Ohio State’s success rate since implementing an under-center QB sneak last season? How about 100-percent. In fact, they probably should have done it once or twice more today.

Eventually they’ll get stopped on one of them but I think it’s clear by now that it’s the highest percentage call you can make in those situations.

10. At the end of the day, survive and advance. But make no mistake, today’s performance will not win on Saturday in Happy Valley and it won’t win at home against Indiana or Michigan either.