No. 1 Ohio State is determined to fix what ails its offense

So maybe Ohio State’s return to the College Football Playoff won’t be as smooth as everyone assumed it would be with 15 starters returning from last year’s title-winning team.

The Buckeyes are still the best team in the country — according to the computers, at least — but this is clearly not the dominant force it was expected to be before the season.

The defense has lived up to the hype in the early going, but an offense that was projected by at least one expert to score 60 points a game has been sluggish to start the season. The unit, which finished ninth nationally in total offense and returned all but three starters, ranks 75th in the nation in yards per game.

Ohio State’s offensive problems are not what it returned, but rather what it lost. And that’s its biggest deep threat in Devin Smith. The big-play wide receiver was an integral piece to the team’s championship puzzle, and Urban Meyer has not been able to find an adequate replacement so far in 2015.

"They have not performed well," Meyer said of Ohio State's receivers on Tuesday on the Big Ten coaches teleconference. "Mike Thomas has played pretty well. But we’ve got to play much better. So there’s going to be a high, high emphasis on that this week — not that there’s not been — but when quarterbacks have great games it’s because those around them are playing well."

Without a reliable explosive threat on the outside, the Buckeyes are seeing more loaded fronts gearing up to stop the run. That was a key feature on Saturday, when Ohio State labored through a 20-13 win against Northern Illinois, a game that shined a light on all of the offense’s vulnerabilities.

The Huskies spent most of the game in Quarters coverage — a zone defense with four deep defenders splitting up the field into fourths — with its safeties playing eight-to-nine yards off the line of scrimmage.

Having no respect for the Buckeyes' passing game, Northern Illinois was consistently able to get nine defenders in the run front, limiting what Ohio State could do on the ground and daring the buckeyes to beat it over the top. Outside of J.T. Barrett’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Thomas, Ohio State did not complete a pass of more than 20 yards.

"We prepared and we didn’t adapt very well," Meyer said of the offense. "We’re not getting what we’re preparing for. We have to adapt much better."

Through three weeks, Ohio State ranks 96th in the country in completions beyond 10 yards. This is an offense that finished ninth in yards per pass attempt and finished first in Football Outsiders’ explosiveness metric.

Barrett and Cardale Jones have been subpar through three games, and the coaches clearly do not have confidence in their passers or receivers to win on one-on-one matchups down field. Last season, the Buckeyes’ answer to teams loading up against the run was to take a deep shot to Smith. This year, it’s been checking to a perimeter run in hopes of loosening things up inside for Ezekiel Elliott.

When Ohio State has turned to its outside run game, the results haven’t been there, which has affected the rest of the offense.

“If you look historically what an Ohio State offense is for us,” Meyer said in his Monday news conference, “it’s control the line of scrimmage with the best perimeter blocking in the country, which we had last year and a very good, solid play-action passing attack."

On Tuesday he recalled that the decisive runs Elliott made in the 2014 Big Ten Championship and in the inaugural College Football Playoff were the result of wide receivers blocking on the edge. Explaining why those runs have been infrequent this season, Meyer said Tuesday, "We’re not controlling the line of scrimmage, and when we do, we’re not perimeter blocking like we normally do. That’s already been addressed, and I would anticipate us being much better."

Meyer’s best option on offense has been Elliott on downhill, inside runs. With such a powerful offensive line, those plays will continue to work, but Ohio State needs to find ways to keep defenses off those runs.

Outside of Braxton Miller, the former quarterback who converted to H-back in the offseason, the Buckeyes’ playmakers on the perimeter have not had much of an impact. The coaching staff is still waiting on Dontre Wilson to break out.Thomas has made some plays, but not consistently. And both quarterbacks have been unreliable on passing downs.

It’s somewhat surprising Meyer reopened the starting quarterback competition with conference play only two weeks away, but you can't blame him.

Jones was supposed to be that guy after winning the battle in August but has forced Meyer to re-assess.

“Let's be clear: I did go with one guy,” Meyer said Monday during his news conference. “The guy didn't perform well, so we went with the backup. There is no set thing saying that we're a two-quarterback system, we're not. The backup's a very good player, whomever that may be. So we are going with one guy."

Meyer said Tuesday he expects to announce the starter for this week's game vs. Western Michigan (ABC/ESPN2, 3:30 p.m. ET) after Wednesday's practice.

"The first game worked out very good, the second game not so good and I wanted to give the other guy reps, and the third game was not good at all," Meyer said. "So we did have a very clear starter, and we are going to have a very clear starter again this week. I kind of already know who it is."

The lack of efficiency behind center — Buckeyes quarterbacks are completing just 56.6% of their passes compared to 63.6 in 2014 — has stalled Meyer’s up-tempo attack. Ohio State is averaging 69 plays per game (96th nationally) after averaging 74.4 (56th nationally) a season ago.

Jones has had trouble protecting the ball, too, throwing three interceptions on only 46 attempts. His two picks on Saturday were particularly bad, as he was fooled by the same coverage on both plays.

Without Smith taking the top off of defenses, these intermediate throws are going to be more difficult and require smarter decisions to complete. The field has shrunk for opposing defenses, requiring every player on Ohio State’s to be a little better.

Adjusting to the Buckeyes’ new normal has been made more difficult without Tom Herman, last year’s offensive play-caller who departed for the head coaching job at Houston. Herman was instrumental in adjusting to the team’s ever-changing quarterback situation in 2014, and won the Broyles Award, given to the best assistant in the country, for his effort.

Even without Smith and Herman around, the outlook in Columbus remains bright.

Meyer is too smart of an offensive mind and his team is too loaded for him not to figure things out and get Ohio State’s offense back on track. He did so last year after a worrying start, and the Buckeyes defense is good enough to afford him plenty of time to find answers before the team’s first big test against Michigan State on Nov. 21.

Contributing: Daniel Uthman

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