Buckeye Stock Market Report: Buckeye offense struggles against

After each Ohio State game during the 2021 football season, LGHL will offer its market analysis of the Buckeyes’ performance. Using a standard bond rating system, we’ll evaluate the offense, the defense, and the special teams, according to this formula:

AA (yeah, I may also use + and -): Very Strong

A: Strong

BBB: Adequate

BB: Facing Major Uncertainty

Then, we’ll take a look at any individual players whose performance stood out (in one way or another!) and assign them a stock rating: Blue Chip, Solid Performance, Penny Stock (akin to a junk bond, dangerously high risk).

Quick Overview

A nine-point win. Four field goals. Two offensive touchdowns. Déjà vu: the Nebraska game was nearly a replay of the Penn State game the week before.

In November, as things get sticky, you take any win and move on to the next game. At least that’s what Ryan Day says. But he’s got to be worried about the Ohio State running game, about the red zone offense, about the lack of big offensive plays, about C.J. Stroud’s decision making this late in the season.

With the Buckeyes’ overflowing receiver room, nobody seemed concerned with Garrett Wilson’s absence from the game. But what about Stroud? Did the young quarterback miss his favorite receiver the way that Justin Fields missed Chris Olave in last year’s Big Ten championship game? Did Stroud seem nervous, unsure? He certainly wasn’t as accurate as usual, and he didn’t play as smart.

One wonders, too, about some of the coaching decisions. Ohio State gave up on the running game at halftime. TreVeyon Henderson rushed 14 times in the first half, but only seven in the second. OSU appeared to take control of the game after Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s 75-yard catch and run touchdown made the score 17-3. But Nebraska answered with a long touchdown pass of their own to make it 17-10. The Bucks ran Henderson three times on the next possession for six, one, and a loss. A bad time for a three-and-out, and the coaches turned away from the run.

Even on OSU’s first possession, they had it fourth and one at the Nebraska 43 and went for it. Surely, a running play would pick up the yard, but, instead, Stroud threw a long pass over the middle that tight end Jeremy Ruckert couldn’t pull down. Maybe we’ve come to expect magic. A surprise call for a touchdown, but what we got was a demonstration of a lack of confidence in the run and turning over the ball on downs. Late in the fourth quarter, when the Bucks needed to run the clock and the running game was finally beginning to click, with Henderson gaining 10, then 22 yards on a couple of carries, the Bucks chose to pass on first down. Stroud gets sacked and fumbles. Lucky to recover.

And on defense? Husker quarterback Adrian Martinez started to run the ball, as he’s well capable of doing, in the second half – on designed runs and especially on scrambles. Where was the linebacker spy? Somebody needed to be assigned to the quarterback. Probably Steele…