Ohio State offense has some holes as the Buckeyes trail Notre Dame: Doug Lesmerises halftime thoughts

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Thoughts from the first half of Ohio State vs. Notre Dame, with the Buckeyes trailing 10-7:

* Jaxon Smith-Njigba getting hurt on the second series of the game felt a bit like Ted Ginn Jr. getting hurt on the kickoff return to open the 2006 national title game. That’s probably going too far, but both were receivers that the OSU offense was built around. And you could feel their absences in how the offenses tried to function without them. Against Florida 16 years ago, the Buckeyes couldn’t overcome it, because Ginn was done for the night.

Smith-Njigba came back in the game on the last series of the second half and got back in the action, but he was limping a bit and wasn’t himself.

I predicted JSN to gain 2,000 receiving yards this season. That’s taking a hit with missing almost all of the first half. He had two catches for 3 yards. With Julian Fleming and Kam Babb out with injuries before the game, the Buckeyes at times were missing three of their top five receivers. Brian Hartline said he also trusts second-year player Jayden Ballard and walk-on Xavier Johnson, but no one thought the Buckeyes would be putting Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka and Ballard out in three receiver sets in the first half of the opener.

* Jim Knowles went for broke on his first snap as Ohio State defensive coordinator, calling a corner blitz, and Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner read it and threw to the man left open by the blitzer. The result was a 54-yard catch and run to Lorenzo Styles, the son of a former Buckeye player. Coming in hot, Jim. Assume he wishes he had that one back. It led to a Notre Dame field goal.

* We’d asked Knowles since he got here about the stand-up rush end position he calls the Jack. It’s the Jack until the position is mastered, and then it becomes the Leo. Either way, it’s taking one of the defensive ends and moving him around the line, looking for openings and hoping to throw off the QB. That Jack players needs to really understand the defense and think in concert with Knowles, so it seemed like it might not be used much early in the season if the Buckeyes weren’t ready for it yet.

But they brought it out early with sophomore Jack Sawyer, the player we knew would be first up in that spot, operating as that movable end for at least a series or two.

* Knowles has been heaping praise on safety Lathan Ransom. So maybe it’s not a shock that after Josh Proctor started, Ransom took over from him in the second series and stayed in as a starter. This isn’t what we expected, though. We thought Proctor solidly was one of the top two at safety.

* It’s not a split, but the Buckeyes are sharing the running back load between TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams. Henderson took two series and then Williams one, and then the Buckeyes repeated that, in the first half. That’s about what we expected.

* Making his first career start, Notre Dame quarterback Buchner is handling himself well. He’s not making mistakes, which is keeping Notre Dame in the game when the Buckeyes are missing their best receiver. Buchner was 8 of 10 for 128 yards.

* Notre Dame won the yardage battle in the first half, 181 to 149. The OSU defense played pretty well. Giving up 10 in a half should mean a lead with this offense.

* Even with JSN out, the OSU offense should be better than that. You could feel C.J. Stroud missing Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson at times. There were a few plays where Stroud seemed to expect the receiver to make a read — like settle in front of a defender in an open window — and the receiver finished the route, and the result was an incompletion.

The Buckeyes just have to worry about winning the game. I expect the offense will figure it out and Ohio State will win this. But as a start to a Heisman campaign, that wasn’t it. Stroud looked like a quarterback missing his guys while completing 11 of 17 passes for 99 yards. It’s understandable, but he didn’t rise up and single-handedly carry the offense.

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