Ohio State’s Defense Has “Room To Improve” Against Quarterback Run

"We can’t allow that to happen in the next few weeks ... Those are game-changing plays."

Although Ohio State is coming off its best game of the season in terms of points allowed in the 21-7 win at Northwestern, the Wildcats notably converted 9-of-20 third-down attempts on Saturday.

Four of those conversions came via quarterback Brendan Sullivan, who scrambled for first downs in a situation where the Buckeyes were among the nation’s best coming into the game (26.36 percent).

“I think our third downs have been good throughout the year. Not pleased last game,” defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said on Tuesday. “The quarterback run is always a difficult component in that short-yardage life, and I thought we had been doing well with it, but we didn’t have a good game with the quarterback run.”

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Overall, the defense has vastly improved this season, Knowles’ first at the helm. And while he believes they’re “ahead of schedule” in terms of how quickly he expected the turnaround to happen, the true barometer will be the regular-season finale against Michigan.

“We’ve felt like we’ve been playing good, but we know that there’s a lot of room to improve,” redshirt junior safety Ronnie Hickman said on Wednesday. “Just little mistakes, stuff that we know we can fix. It’s not a thing where they were just flat out beating us.

“It was all mental stuff, stuff that we were able to watch on film and kind of dissect and realize what we did wrong. We can’t allow that to happen in the next few weeks … You’ve got to get off the field and you’ve got to win in those short-yardage (situations). Those are game-changing plays.”

Ohio State likely won’t be challenged on the ground this weekend by Indiana, which averages just 78.7 yards per game, second-worst in the nation. But that will change in a little more than two weeks when Michigan comes to Columbus.

The Wolverines are led by running back Blake Corum, who is fifth in the country with 1,187 yards, while quarterback J.J. McCarthy could also make things difficult for the Buckeyes with his legs, as he averages 5.2 yards per carry and has scored two touchdowns this fall.

“Coming into November, we can’t let that stuff get to us,” Hickman said of the quarterback run. “It’s just a matter of tightening down on all the little things. Our coaches have done a great job of rebiting on stuff that we might have slipped up on in the past.”

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