Ohio State Football: How the Buckeyes Will Look Different After Their 2nd Bye

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Uncomfortable, awkward and unfortunate. These are the words that Urban Meyer has used to describe Ohio State’s second bye in the past four weeks.

While Meyer has expressed concern with his team maintaining its newfound momentum through its week off, he’s also found multiple ways for the Buckeyes to benefit from it.

Health aside—every team could use an extra week of rest this time of year—a little self-scouting revealed tendencies and inefficiencies not previously noticed by the Ohio State staff.

Couple that with an additional two weeks of player development, and it could be a new-look Buckeyes that you see taking the field this Saturday in their return against Rutgers.

Red-Zone Revival

While the Ohio State offense has been humming so far this season, ranking 12th in the nation in yards per game (524) and fifth in points per game (44.6), Meyer has noticed a disturbing trend that could spell disaster for the Buckeyes in the long run.

Of Ohio State’s 28 trips to the red zone this season, just 19 have resulted in touchdowns, a 67.9 percent conversion rate that Meyer clearly isn’t satisfied with.

“It’s not very good at all,” Meyer said. “For what we expect, it’s not very good. There’s a couple styles that teams are starting to play us. It’s not the players’ fault, it’s our fault. Coaching errors—whether that be tempo—we have to do a better…

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