Joel Klatt: Indiana exposed Ohio State's biggest weakness in Big Ten Championship

The Indiana Hoosiers put the clamps on the Ohio State Buckeyes, only giving up 10 points to win the Big Ten Championship. In the process, analyst Joel Klatt believes that Indiana exposed a major weakness in an incredibly well-regarded Ohio State team.

Klatt, who was on the broadcast, had a front-row seat to the game. There, as he’d explain on The Joel Klatt Show, he noticed that Ohio State was being tested in short yardage for, arguably, the first time all season. There, the Buckeyes were consistently coming up short.

“This is the first time that we’ve seen them have to play offense really under the gun,” Joel Klatt said. “And, you know, it wasn’t great in short yardage. When you look at short yardage for Ohio State, and I made this point on the broadcast, last year in the Playoff, they were really good in short yardage situations because they had a big, mobile quarterback that they could run in those scenarios. Fourth and ones, third and ones, Will Howard was converting a lot of those. Zone reads, quarterback power, and now they don’t have that. They also had two backs that were physical, namely Quinshon Judkins, who was very physical in nature. So, they were very good in short yardage in the Playoff last year. Under the gone, they could get it done.”

Ohio State, like many national championship winning teams, underwent a good deal of roster turnover. That includes to the entire backfield. So, while that unit has played well, it remains true they’re not overly experienced in short yardage situations because that’s a challenge that simply hasn’t come up much.

“This team hasn’t had to do that yet. So, we didn’t really know. They hadn’t had a chance at short yardage plays under the gun. In fact, the first time we saw that was in the first half against Michigan when they failed to get in on one of those redzone possessions inside the 5-yard line. Had to settle for a field goal. All of a sudden, it creeps up again. In that game, they tried to quarterback sneak, it didn’t work. They couldn’t get it done. Their big back, [CJ] Donaldson, is a guy that doesn’t get in a lot. So, they go with Bo Jackson. He’s a true freshman,” Klatt said.

“They’ve got a quarterback [Julian Sayin] that’s a pocket quarterback and an offensive line that hasn’t gotten it done at the line of scrimmage in those situations. It’s a good offensive line. They haven’t been great in that moment. So, that’s a clear weakness and they’ll have to address that moving forward.”

This season, Ohio State is second nationally in third down conversions, converting on 54.93 percent of their opportunities. The Buckeyes are also 12th on fourth down conversions, converting on 68.75 percent of those chances. So, the point about short yardage Klatt brought up is related fairly strictly to those short yardage chances. Still, in the College Football Playoff, Ohio State will see defenses that can force those situations.

Ohio State has a first round bye in the College Football Playoff. Then, they’ll take on either Miami or Texas A&M in Arlington for the Cotton Bowl.