We’re officially four games into the 2026 – 2027 season and while I know it’s still early in the season, I just don’t know what to make of this Ohio State team as it stands.
Julian Sayin has looked impressive, Jeremiah Smith is continuing to do Jeremiah Smith things, and there is an abundance of really exciting young talent on this roster that I can’t wait to see develop.
However, there are a ton of flaws, and with each passing week, they only continue to grow bigger and become more obvious to the naked eye.
It’s hard to walk away from games like Ball State, Kent State, and Illinois upset.
But if you try hard enough you can!
Bo Jackson has not lived up to the expectations many of us put on him. After last year’s performance against TTUN, a lot of Buckeye fans (including myself) put a lot of faith in Jackson to be the next great RB in Ohio State history. Thus far, I haven’t been moved. It feels like every game I’m waiting to see the former version of him that had me screaming into the mic for Ryan Day to make him RB1.
Against Illinois, the run game was very meh, which to be fair, it didn’t have to overly impress when you have a guy like Jeremiah Smith making defenders his personal highlight reel all afternoon.
But the running game will need to be reliable late in the season and as this team prepares for it’s biggest challenges ahead. In their final 8 games, the Buckeyes will face 5 ranked teams. Tony Alford HAS to get this thing figured out and fast. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, teams can’t be able to just solely focus on Jeremiah and take him away. There hasn’t been another threat on offense for Ohio State this season. It might be the most one-dimensional offense I’ve seen from them in years.
As I glance at the Buckeyes upcoming schedule and see teams like Iowa, Oregon, Indiana, USC, and TTUN, I look at the way the defense has played. Up until this past weekend I thought they had their share of issues but for the most part I felt confident. Watching them get shredded by a subpar Illinois offense all day, giving up big play after big play, I feel less of that now.
Matt Patricia and company need to stay consistent. The secondary has been beat numerous times this season (SEE TEXAS). The linebackers have been slow to react, and the defensive line has lacked the ability to pressure the QB. That doesn’t bode well for the big games remaining on the Buckeye schedule.
I know that despite the Buckeyes winning by a good margin, the past two weeks my blogs have sounded like the complete opposite.
But the goal isn’t to just beat teams like Kent State, it’s to be good enough to win a Championship.
And if the Buckeyes can’t clean up the defense, establish the ground game, and find someone other than Jeremiah Smith to carry some of the workload, that’s a far reality.
At least there’s one thing we can all agree on this week, praise God we don’t play Iowa at night.
Go Bucks!
