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COLUMBUS, Ohio — If you expected Ohio State football to come out of its off week and make a big offensive advancement, you’re still waiting after 30 minutes Saturday against Maryland.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day could not blame a lack of plays for his offense’s early ineffectiveness. The first five possessions yielded four first downs and no glimmer of putting points on the board.
When Kyle McCord and Marvin Harrison Jr. finally connected for a big play over the top, it resulted in only three points and a 10-10 halftime tie. The Buckeyes got bailed out big-time when Taulia Tagovailoa made a terrible decision to throw underneath with no timeouts remaining and the first-half time expired before he could clock the ball.
Offensive line breakdowns, costly penalties — an offense primed to start to show its potential got flat-out beat by a Maryland team that had built its 5-0 record on one of the softest schedules in the country.
The offensive line should have shown enough improvement by now to give the offense a chance to find a rhythm. The flip side is teams now have four weeks of film to scrutinize, find the Buckeyes’ vulnerabilities and attack them.
Even if the Buckeyes’ second-string talent made personnel changes an option — and that’s very much in doubt right now — it would not change the overall problem. The receivers, tight end and running backs are championship-caliber. The quarterback may be as well, if the line allows the proper structure.
Ohio State has to win in spite of its offensive line right now.

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• This is the first half in a nutshell: Day opts to punt on fourth-and-1 at OSU’s 43 with under six minutes left in the first half. Maryland breaks off a nice return AND gets 5 yards on top because OSU lined up illegally with five men in the backfield.
I think Day needed to go for it there regardless of what else we know about how that play turned out. Offense needed an injection of life. Can’t keep hoping the defense comes up with a momentum-creating play.
• On Sept. 9, Maryland fell into a 14-0 hole against Charlotte, whose only win came against FCS program South Carolina State. A week later it went down 14-0 against a Virginia team still looking for its first win.
This was an opponent OSU could bury early. Instead it totaled two first downs on its first two drives, and botched one of the two punts to set Maryland up with a short field. This defense has thrived on making opponents drive for points. If this offense is not going to have the same routine explosiveness in games like this, it at least needs to move the chains.
• While Jesse Mirco has been a solid punter, execution in other aspects of the punt game has been a problem since last season. You may remember last year vs. Michigan, a fake punt never materialized because the snap went to the wrong player. Against Georgia in the playoff, even if Kirby Smart hadn’t called a timeout, the play might have been called back for the Buckeyes having 12 men on the field.
Was the punt at the end of the first series supposed to be a fake, or was it simply a terrible snap that rolled to Cody Simon as a blocking back? I believe it was the latter, but neither is positive. It’s unfair that long snappers are only noticed when things go wrong, but the same is not true for special teams coaches. Questions remain whether OSU gets enough from Parker Fleming as special teams coach to warrant the offense/defense imbalance it creates on the staff.
• Harrison’s ankle seems fine. The offense simply has been too scattershot to let him cook. His first five targets resulted in only two receptions for 14 yards.
Finally, with a little over four minutes left in the first half, the line protected sufficiently and McCord got the one-on-one look to Harrison he’d been waiting for. That 58-yard connection over the top, though, only led to a field goal.
• With TreVeyon Henderson out, Chip Trayanum started and has been grinding out 4 yards per carry. Maryland has been winning that battle in the trenches.
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