Ohio State football: 5 reasons the Buckeyes will fend off TCU
By Alec Hartman
5. The Buckeyes are capable of containing the Horned Frogs’ athleticism.
The Horned Frogs will be dangerous for the Buckeyes as their offense is built toward the Buckeyes’ current weakness. Their scheme involves running the offense to spread their players all over the field in order get their best athletes the ball in space. TCU has some explosive skill players who can make defenders miss in the open field.
The Buckeyes have struggled to limit opposing offenses from breaking off big plays. This will absolutely be the most concerning threat going into this game. If the Buckeyes get caught over-pursuing the line of scrimmage then the Horned Frogs will undoubtedly rattle off a few long scores. The Buckeyes must stay disciplined on keeping contain on the fast turf of AT&T Stadium.
A positive note from last weekend is that the defense stepped up in a big way. They allowed no touchdowns and minimized big chunk plays from the opposing offense. Yes, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights aren’t an exemplary offensive team or an all-around good team at all but it was nice to see a full game of no big mistakes from the Buckeyes.
The Horned Frogs have many choices on offense that they can go to. Firstly, their whole game plan is set into motion by one player. Sophomore quarterback Shawn Robinson has been monumental this season for the Horned Frogs. He can make plays with his arm and his legs as he’s a pure dual-threat quarterback.
Robinson has a few weapons at his disposal in receivers KaVontae Turpin, Jalen Reagor, Jaelen Austin, and running backs Darius Anderson and Sewo Olonilua. Like Buckeyes’ quarterback Dwayne Haskins, Robinson has spread the wealth in his offense. He has thrown touchdowns to five different receivers while running three in himself.
The player the Buckeyes will need to keep their eyes on at all times is senior receiver KaVontae Turpin. He is basically the Horned Frogs’ version of Buckeyes’ H-back Parris Campbell. Turpin has lightning speed and plays just about every skill position on the field.
There’s no doubt he’ll get heavy usage on Saturday as the Horned Frogs will likely give it all they have. Turpin returns punts as well and has returned a handful for touchdowns. He sparked the Horned Frogs’ comeback rally against SMU last weekend with a 78 yard punt return to the house.
The Buckeyes’ defensive front has been hailed as the strongest unit in the country in this past week. This comes as no surprise to Buckeye fans as they’ve known this all along but it was something others needed to know as well. The real issue is, the secondary has been lackluster. However, that statement isn’t exactly accurate as the sample size is so small.
The defensive backs played great last weekend against the Scarlet Knights as they held them to just 65 yards passing and snagged two interceptions. This is great news but it’s still not enough to be entirely confident. Their erratic play against the Oregon State Beavers in week one against the run and the pass still brings concern as the Beavers played in a slightly similar way to the Horned Frogs.
The Beavers made their bread against the Buckeyes on getting their players the ball out in space where their athletes torched the defensive backs for huge gains.
It’s expected the Horned Frogs will have the same game plan. The Buckeyes’ defensive backs started slow in the first two weeks last season but picked it up after that. Expect the Buckeyes’ defense to have enough to keep the Horned Frogs in check by minimizing big plays.