View photo.The Ohio State Buckeyes lost their first home opener in 36 years Saturday, but the season can still be salvaged with better game planning. Before a record crowd of 107,517 fans at the newly renovated Ohio Stadium, the Ohio State Buckeyes shocked many spectators when they looked overmatched against unranked Virginia Tech this past Saturday night. Virginia Tech’s 35-21 victory in Columbus reminded Buckeye fans — and the rest of the country — yet again that Urban Meyer’s empire is far from invincible after all. All the weaknesses that a relatively weak Big Ten schedule could not expose in the past two seasons were outted in a matter of three hours. It appeared the Buckeyes may have found a fix to their secondary woes when redshirt freshman cornerback Eli Apple intercepted Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer on his second throw of the game. Fellow redshirt corner Gareon Conley hinted that Ohio State was going to play a lot more bump and run coverage under new co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash — a welcomed sight to fans who watched the secondary get dismantled in the last three games of 2013-14. However, Ohio State continued to sit back and watch Brewer pick apart its defense, converting 9-of-17 third downs in the midst of a raucous crowd. “We played a few snaps of extremely good football,” Ash said Monday. “We have to sustain it for four quarters.” Meyer and offensive coordinator Tom Herman did their redshirt freshman quarterback no favors against Bud Foster’s Virginia Tech defense. On obvious passing downs, the Hokies brought the house. They blitzed from every which way and applied severe pressure to J.T…
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