Ohio State's declining defense, and what's a valid excuse and what's not (Greg Schiano): Doug Lesmerises

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- When it comes to Ohio State’s defense, listen to defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones.

Do not listen to defensive coordinator Greg Schiano.

First, Jones.

The 286-pound junior is the heart of the Ohio State defense, literally and figuratively. He’s in the middle of the defensive line at the point of attack, and he’s the play-making leader doing his job for a group that can’t get it right.

Ohio State gave up 51 points and 535 yards to Maryland on Saturday in a miraculous overtime win secured only when the Terrapins went for two after their overtime touchdown and missed a wide open guy on a rollout pass. The call was there, the defense wasn’t, and the Buckeyes survived 52-51 thanks to the mistake of a team it couldn’t stop.

Imagine what a more accomplished Michigan offense might do next week.

Jones has been on previous OSU defenses that stopped opponents. No. 10 Ohio State (10-1, 7-1 Big Ten) didn’t stop anything Saturday.

Forget for a moment the disastrous start and the 17-3 hole the defense plunged the Buckeyes into in the first 12 minutes.

Consider the end, after things had settled down.

Ohio State tied it at 31 in the fourth quarter -- and gave up a touchdown on the next drive to fall behind 38-31.

Ohio State tied it at 38 -- and gave up a touchdown on the next drive to fall behind 45-38.

Ohio State tied it at 45 -- and with 36 seconds left in regulation gave up a 30-yard pass on Maryland’s first play to get the Terrapins thinking about a game-winning field goal before the clock ran out.

Ohio State scored first in overtime -- and gave up a 24-yard run on Maryland’s first play, followed by a 1-yard touchdown run.

On the final drives of a fight for their football lives , never did the Buckeyes stop anything.

Why? What’s differen, about this defense, I asked Jones.

“Just different personnel," he said. “Just got to know your personnel. I’m happy with who we have, but we also do not have Marshon, Denzel or Malik on the back end. Or Raekwon."

Or Nick.

“Or Nick either. Or Adolphus or Joey or Tommy Schutt back in the day.”

The former teammates he’s listing, of course, are NFL first-round defensive backs Marshon Lattimore, Denzel Ward and Malik Hooker, second-round linebacker Raekwon McMillan, injured defensive end Nick Bosa, third-round defensive tackle Adolphus Washington, first-round defensive end Joey Bosa, and defensive tackle Tommy Schutt, all former teammates of Jones over the last four years.

He is not calling people out. Not close. But he is right.

Listen to him.

“That’s how it is. We live with what we have and we’re happy with what we have,” Jones said. “But we still got to continue to improve, even in week 11, 12, 13.”

In the last three NFL Drafts, 13 defensive Buckeyes were drafted in the first three rounds, including seven in the first round. On this defense, there is Jones and defensive end Chase Young as guys you’d bet on as future first rounders, Jones in the 2019 draft and Young in the 2020 draft.

After that? There is a drop off.

“We do understand, those are once-in-a-lifetime type players, top-tier, first-round type players,” Jones said. “You lose them, it has an effect. But we have potential guys that can elevate to that level and we’ve got to push them and push through any hiccups that we have.”

Jones has played through a foot issue this year and spoke to reporters Saturday after the win with his shoulder in major pain after he suffered a stinger during the game. He is one of those top-tier players that the Buckeyes are short on this season, and any discussion about the defense must include a nod to the talent gap.

Sometimes, this happens. No team is stacked with first-rounders every year. Listen to Jones.

But at this point, we can stop listening to Schiano.

The Buckeyes aren’t playing A-list talent, but the defensive plan has failed in too many weeks.

“It is players and coaches together,” Urban Meyer said. "If it’s a missed tackle, then it’s a missed tackle, then we’re not teaching tackling enough. If it’s a scheme issue, then it’s a coaching issue. I can’t give you the scheme right now, I’ll probably have a little bit more of an answer for you on Monday.

“It’s very alarming.”

Against a beaten and and boring Michigan State offense last week, the Buckeyes tricked themselves into thinking anything was fixed. But look at the yards allowed in the last seven games: 492, 406, 396, 539, 450, 274 and 535.

That’s an average of 442 yards per week. For the whole 11-game season the average is 399 yards per game. Michigan, by contrast, entered the weekend leading the nation by allowing just 219.8 yards per game. Ohio State has allowed fewer than 219 yards in a game just once this year.

“Every week is its own entity,” Schiano said. “I don’t think when you look at things, I don’t group them all together.”

Yes, the scheme has evolved over the season. But group them.

Group most of them under Schiano losing a weekly coaching battle to the offensive play caller on the other side.

After the 49-20 loss to Purdue, I thought maybe Ohio State had just been undone by the offensive genius of Boilermaker coach Jeff Brohm. Now there was Maryland coach Matt Canada, also quite the play caller. Of course, there was also first-year Penn State coordinator Ricky Rahne. And Scott Frost at Nebraska. And the TCU guy.

In some of those games, the Buckeyes surrendered the yards but limited the points, thank to forcing turnovers. Saturday, it was yards and points. The Terps, with the 69th-best scoring offense in the nation, dropped a 50-spot a month after getting shutout at Iowa, and and two weeks after gaining a total of 100 yards in a 24-3 home loss to Michigan State.

Injuries forced Maryland to start backup quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome and backup tailback Anthony McFarland and Schiano somehow made that sound like bad luck for the Buckeyes.

Yes, the backups rolled the Buckeyes.

Because while Ohio State outgained Maryland 688 yards to 535, the Buckeyes ran 94 plays to 62 for the Terrapins. So Maryland averaged more yards per play, 8.6 to 73.

Schiano can fake his surprise. But 11 games in, this is more than a trend. It’s a way of life for the 2018 Buckeyes.

The defense, the one led by Schiano, can’t be trusted.

While the supposed tackling fix of last week was actually just proof that Michigan State’s offense doesn’t feature anyone dangerous, Schiano tried to put the issue on missed tackles again Saturday. That was part of it. But that wasn’t all of it - not when former Ohio State defenders were tweeting during the game about their shock at how often the Buckeyes were out of position and incorrectly reading plays.

There’s a fundamental issue with this defense that starts with coaching.

Schiano said Maryland’s whole scheme is designed to create confusion, “but if you watch it, there’s people there. So there’s a couple plays where we ran a couple blitzes, but not the ones that (stick) out in your head. And then the pass plays are one-on-one plays.”

That’s not true.

Ohio State refused to break some stubborn tendencies and Maryland attacked the Buckeyes in a way to create a numbers advantage on a side of the field. On the 81-yard touchdown run 50 seconds into the game, the Terps ran a simple motion that sucked the cornerback inside.

And an easy run to the left broke for 81 yards. Schiano and Meyer went right to corner Damon Arnette after the play, making it clear he should have contained it. But if that’s happening to a veteran in week 11, is it really on him?

Schiano is out of answers. Opposing offenses are licking their chops. In a true matchup of Ohio State’s defensive minds vs. opponents' offensive minds, the Buckeyes haven’t won a battle all year.

So the players aren’t as good as usual. But this is beyond that excuse. Schiano thought practice went well, thought the plan was good -- and this happened again.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter why,” Schiano said. “It falls on me, it falls on the coaching staff, because we have to get them ready to execute the technique with the scheme the way we employ it for that weekend. And we didn’t do a good enough job today. But that’s not college football.”

He’s right about who this falls on.

But he’s not right about college football. It doesn’t have to be like this. It’s not like this everywhere, not all season, and it’s not usually like this at Ohio State.

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