Every time the Buckeyes take the field, it is an opportunity for us as fans — and, I guess, more importantly for the coaches — to learn something new about the team. Well, now that the first half of the season is in the books, OSU is heading into an insanely challenging back half in which they will need every lesson that they have learned to be expertly executed starting on Saturday in Bloomington through the regular-season finale in The Horseshoe.
Coming off of Ohio State's 45-16 win over Maryland, Gene and Matt each came to a conclusion about the team thus far that they think will help frame how they see the rest of the season.
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In You're Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides on one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it's up to you to determine who's right and who's nuts. Read the arguments and then head to the comments at the bottom of the page and jump into the debate.
Question: What was the most important thing we learned from the Indiana game?
Gene's take: Chris Henry Jr. has earned a starting job
Ohio State got the job done in Bloomington, but they now have a ton of questions to answer moving forward. Chief among those questions is the health status of the roster, highlighted by the loss of Julian Sayin for at least 'several weeks.'
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Sayin is far from the only injured Buckeye, though. Starting tackle Austin Siereveld missed a second straight game, and his status is still unclear. Running back Ja'Kobi Jackson was also a bit of a surprise addition to the injury report heading into this week, and we have heard little about what he is actually dealing with.
Ohio State was also missing a handful of key players at the end of the Indiana game, including running back Bo Jackson, corner Jay Timmons and defensive lineman Kenyatta Jackson — all of whom either sustained obvious injuries or were not on the field late.
The Ohio State beat is largely too afraid to ask real questions, so we don't really know anything about the status of these players. What we do know is the Buckeyes only have two weeks to get healthy before another tough road trip, this time to the West Coast to take on USC.
One position where Ohio State seems to be in virtually perfect health is at wide receiver. Brock Boyd was a game-time decision against the Hoosiers and did not play, but you'd have to expect that if he was that close to suiting up on Saturday, he would be good to go coming out of the bye week.
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Given all the injuries elsewhere, it wouldn't make a ton of sense for the coaches to shake up the depth chart a bit at one of its only healthy position groups, but I'm here to tell you that it has to be done.
Chris Henry Jr. is pretty clearly one of Ohio State's best receivers, and he needs to be on the field alongside Jeremiah Smith more often than not.
Despite playing on 10 snaps against Indiana, Henry Jr. made a pair of potentially game-saving catches.
On Ohio State's final drive of the second quarter, the Buckeyes were staring at a quick three-and-out after two runs for a total of four yards. Then, on third-and-6, Henry Jr. made an excellent catch right on the sideline for 21 yards to move the sticks. The play was reviewed, and Henry Jr. got his foot in bounds with control of the football.
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Then, later on that same series, Sayin took a sack on first down to set up a brutal second-and-20. That felt like it was going to be an obvious drive killer, but on the very next play Henry Jr. again got open down the sideline and hauled in a 30-yard reception to put Ohio State just outside the red zone.
A roughing the passer on top of that big gain set the Buckeyes up for what would be their first touchdown of the game.
Those were Henry Jr.'s only two catches of the day, but they came in two huge spots. Even though he hardly played on Saturday, the freshman wide receiver finished the game as Ohio State's highest-graded offensive player, per PFF.
There isn't much room out there right now for Henry Jr., with Jeremiah Smith and Devin McCuin the clear WR1 and WR2 to this point, but they need to find ways to continue to get him involved, even if that is at the expense of captain Brandon Inniss.
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Innis has put in the time and the coaches seem to love him, but I think we've seen enough in his now four years with the program to know that the ceiling there unfortunately just isn't very high.
Henry Jr. has six catches for 202 yards and two touchdowns this season in very limited reps. That is already more yards and touchdowns than Inniss had in either of his first two seasons at Ohio State, and more than Inniss has this season despite the elder statesman having five more receptions.
Henry Jr. playing only 10 snaps is criminal at this point. He is a 6-foot-5 athletic freak who was a five-star prospect and a top-15 overall player nationally for a reason. A passing attack with Smith, McCuin, and Henry Jr. out there running routes should make life pretty easy for whoever suits up at quarterback.
Especially given the team's issues in the red zone on offense, having another huge body out there oppositeSmith certainly couldn't hurt.
Matt's take: Jay Timmons is the next BIA superstar
There was a lot of good and bad that we learned from Ohio State's 19-15 victory over Indiana on Saturday,
but if I am going to focus on one thing, I'm going to go with the growing importance of true freshman Jay Timmons to the Buckeyes' defense. Timmons is no longer just a promising young defensive back who has earned a spot in the DB rotation; he has quickly become arguably the most important player on the Buckeyes' defense, and perhaps the best evidence of that came when he wasn't
on the field against the Hoosiers.
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Before we get to that, though, we need to talk about just how ridiculously good Timmons was against IU. The freshman was absolutely everywhere, flying around the field, making tackles, breaking up passes, and generally making life miserable for Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover. There was a stretch in the third quarter when Timmons made four impact plays in just seven defensive snaps.
That sequence started with a forced fumble that Earl Little Jr. recovered, and over the next six plays, Timmons added two tackles and a pass breakup. That's the sort of stretch you expect from a future first-round NFL Draft pick playing against an overmatched opponent, not a true freshman facing the defending national champions on the road.
What impressed me most wasn't necessarily the individual plays, though. It was how comfortable Timmons looked making them. There was no hesitation, no apparent uncertainty about his assignments, and no indication that the moment was too big for him. He was diagnosing plays, reacting immediately, and attacking with the type of confidence that you generally only see from players who have been doing this for years.
However, as impressive as Timmons was while he was on the field, the most revealing part of his afternoon might have come after he left with an injury.
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With Timmons unavailable, Jermaine Mathews Jr. had to slide inside to the nickel, forcing Cam Calhoun into Mathews' outside cornerback spot, and, unfortunately, that adjustment completely changed the complexion of Ohio State's pass defense.
Calhoun struggled mightily against Nick Marsh, surrendering a 19-yard touchdown and then getting beaten again on Indiana's final offensive play. Had Marsh managed to get his foot down in bounds, we'd be having a very different conversation about this game, because the Hoosiers would have taken the lead with just over a minute remaining and the OSU offense led by true freshman Luke Fahey.
Of course, we're not going to get into the absurdly blatant hold on Riley Pettijohn that prevented what could have been a game-sealing sack on that play, but I digress.
Obviously, one player's absence shouldn't be enough to destabilize an entire secondary, and Patricia and his staff need to figure out how to prevent that from happening again, if, Woody forbid, Timmons is out again in the future. But I think the biggest takeaway is just how much Timmons has already come to mean to this defense.
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We entered the season talking about Ohio State having to replace an absurd amount of defensive talent, and wondering which of the young guys would be ready to step into those enormous shoes. Well, I think we have our answer with Timmons.
Saturday wasn't simply a breakout performance; it was confirmation that the freshman has already become someone Ohio State can ill afford to lose. And with Julian Sayin potentially sidelined for the foreseeable future, this defense is going to have to carry an even heavier burden.
If the Buckeyes are going to survive the toughest stretch of their schedule, they're going to need Timmons healthy, because Saturday demonstrated that he's no longer just part of the future of Ohio State's defense. He's an indispensable part of its present.
