Ohio State’s defense was certainly superior in 2022 than it was in 2021, but the Buckeyes’ season was ultimately defined by how they fell short in their final two games.
The Buckeyes do not want to be in the same position for the second year in a row.
Ohio State’s defense has not only been better in 2023 than it was in 2022, but it has also been one of the best in the country. This season, the Buckeyes rank second in the country with only 11 points allowed per game and third in the country with only 259.9 yards allowed per game. Ohio State has not allowed 17 points in any game all season until the last week of the regular season.
However, with the game versus Michigan on the line, Ohio State’s defense was unable to generate the stops it required. While the Buckeyes performed a better job of preventing explosive plays than they did in the Wolverines’ 2022 loss, they still let Michigan to score on all four of its second-half drives (excluding the Wolverines’ end-of-game kneeldown), leading to Ohio State’s 30-23 loss in Ann Arbor.
It was a major disappointment for a defense that had consistently delivered in crucial moments until that point in the season that it was unable to do so in the most important game of the year, resulting in Ohio State failing to qualify for the Big Ten Championship Game and the College Football Playoff.
“We learned that when you’re playing a team you know what they’re going to do and you know they’re going to try to bleed the clock out, you have to get stops.” And there might have been a handful of things we could’ve done differently, maybe given a couple of different looks, I think that’s what we’ve thought about,” Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer said this week. “It all comes down to making a play and getting off the block a little quicker.”
And getting the ball back to the offense a little sooner would have been important. And I don’t think we did that. So, as I mentioned after that game, it wasn’t on offense that we lost that game.”
Last season, Ohio State followed its worst defensive performance of the season against Michigan with an equally poor defensive performance against Georgia, allowing the Bulldogs to score 42 points on 533 total yards and 8.88 yards per play, the most Ohio State has ever allowed in a single game.
This year, Ohio State is determined not to have one bad defensive performance follow another.
“It’s been a year of defensive improvement.” It’s been a year in which the defense has accepted the challenge of stepping up for everyone. And I know they want to go out that way,” said Jim Knowles, Ohio State’s defensive coordinator. “You see, these guys have a bad taste in their mouth and they want to finish the game.”