Ohio State-Penn State: No Tim Beck, fresh defensive linemen, 3 more reasons Buckeyes will win

1. The offensive coaches have improved: There's an incredibly simple but highly possible explanation for every improvement exhibited by the Ohio State offense in the last five games.

No Tim Beck.

OK, not exactly that, but better offensive coaches. More specifically, better offensive coaches given some time to figure things out, which is why the offense working against Penn State in game eight when it bogged down in the week two loss to Oklahoma also might make sense.

At the start of the season, the first of the five reasons we gave for Ohio State to beat Indiana in the opener was "Kevin Wilson is a genius." And then, by his own admission, Wilson was awful against Oklahoma. 

What has happened since against Army, UNLV, Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska is just a delayed version of what so many expected when Wilson and Ryan Day were hired to replace offensive coordinator Ed Warinner and quarterbacks coach Beck. A year ago, when the offense clunkiness continued, the Buckeyes never seemed willing or able to admit the problems and fix the mistakes.

This year, we got "I was awful," and vast, on-field changes and progression.

That's good. And that's what you should see Saturday against the Nittany Lions.

A year ago at this time, after the Penn State loss, I wrote that the offensive coaches weren't getting it done and questioned the job status of Warinner, Beck and receivers coach Zach Smith. Now, you can see Wilson and Day at work.

"They made us better," Urban Meyer said this week. "It takes a minute to get a grasp. They've done a good job. So it's very comfortable. You sit in those meetings and they understand everything now."

Meanwhile, Beck is struggling in his first season calling plays under Tom Herman at Texas. He even admitted as much this week.

"I'm pressing," Beck told reporters in Austin. "I'm sure (the players) are. If I am they are. I'm trying to call the perfect play every time."

To repeat, I believe this is an obvious Ohio State change overlooked by too many people, especially as it relates to J.T. Barrett, who is playing as well as he's ever played.

Barrett and the offense succeeded under Herman in 2014.

Herman left, and the offense wasn't as smooth and functional for two seasons under Warinner and Beck in 2015 and 2016.

Now, it is smooth and functional again under Wilson and Day. It just took them a couple games to get things straightened out.

"When you look at the film, you have to look at it through the eyes of what your players can do, and then make sure you're picking the right things," Day said during the bye week. "That's what our offensive staff is spending so much of our time doing ... finding the right plays that fit who we are."

They've found them. They're using them. In 2015 and 2016, Warinner and Beck had a much more difficult time getting Ohio State to that point. You see the difference.

It's real. And it's not all that hard to explain.

2. Barrett throwing in the middle of the field: Forget the deep passing game. It's the intermediate throws over the middle that Ohio State struggled with so much last season and that they're hitting now that is making the offense reach another level.

We're written extensively about the set of routes that has developed into Ohio State's best play, and which we've seen the Buckeyes run variations off of now.

You can see the way Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley works the middle of the field for 10-to-20-yard throws. Last year, Ohio State should have been jealous of that. Now, Barrett can do it, too.

He still has a weakness on the right side of the field, but to his left and over the middle, Barrett has completed 23 of 34 throws (68 percent) where the receiver caught the ball between 10 and 19 yards from the line of scrimmage, for 467 yards. He has to hit some of those throws Saturday and let his receivers run after the catch. Expect that he will.

"I think one of the things Coach Day when he came in talked about was one-inching the underneath defenders," Barrett said, explaining how those throws work for him now. "So when he says one inch, they're jumping and the ball goes one inch over their hands. With that, that takes a lot of practice, and we've been practicing that since he first got here. And just the timing of it, like you can't be late on those throws. You've gotta understand the spacing and timing of those type of throws. 

"And you've gotta be confident and just rip the ball in there. You can't really baby it or lob it."

3. Fresh defensive linemen: Some of the Ohio State defensive linemen know their recent snap counts because there haven't been that many snaps.

Take four NFL-quality defensive ends for two spots.

Throw in five weeks of blowouts when the backups got major action in the fourth quarter.

Create a world where Sam Hubbard, Tyquan Lewis, Jalyn Holmes and Nick Bosa are in game eight of the season and barely feeling it. 

Hubbard has talked in the past of how worn down Joey Bosa was by the end of a season in 2014 and 2015 with all the snaps he played and all the double-teams he faced. Not a problem on this team.

The Penn State offensive line may feel just how fresh the OSU ends are Saturday.

"I definitely feel fresher," Lewis said. "I think the most plays I played so far, since Oklahoma, was like 30, 33, something like that. So yeah, you feel fresh. It's a lot of reps off your body. Now it's the meat of the season. Now you know you have to play at least 50 plays."

When you're chasing down Penn State running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Trace McSorley, fresh matters.

"Overall explosiveness, how we play, we never get tired," Hubbard said. "You can see the offensive linemen wearing down, and we're not wearing down, we're getting faster as the game goes on. 

"As you watch us play, we consistently play faster than anybody in the country because of how many guys we play."

4. Offensive line can't be worse than last year: You'll rarely see a gaping a hole in the offensive line of a top-five team the way the Buckeyes had a hole at right tackle last year at Penn State. Isaiah Prince had problems all game and Penn State took advantage of it. 

Prince is the right tackle again this season, but he's playing much better as junior. He's not perfect, and he's still capable of being too hard on himself and thinking too much in the middle of a game.

But he's better. He has to be.

So while Urban Meyer is concerned about a Penn State defense that he said likes to blitz 40 percent of the time, the Buckeyes have to be more prepared to handle it than a year ago. The Nittany Lions are coming after them, so the offensive line has to take it to them first.

"It's making sure you're not getting into the east-west kind of game," center Billy Price said, meaning plays when the Buckeyes are trying to run sideways behind the line of scrimmage rather than get up the field. "If you let a defensive lineman get up the field on you, you're getting bullied."

Prince was bullied last year. But it's not just the line.

Barrett has to read and recognize when the Nittany Lions are bringing pressure. Keeping the offense moving with a quick tempo should help that.

"I think we handle it well," Barrett said. "That's the thing about blitzing. It depends on how a defense brings it. If they show you the blitz, they're showing you their hand, so then we can protect it. But if the hide it, then (the defense) probably is not going to get home (and hit the quarterback.) So with both, I think we handle it well.

Barrett said the only opponent that blitzed a lot was Army, and the Buckeyes were fine that day. This will be more difficult.

Source: cleveland