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Greg Schiano says Ohio State defense has worked on tackling since Purdue loss

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Ohio State did plenty wrong in West Lafayette on Saturday night. There wasn’t one thing in particular that led to a 49-20 blowout loss to Purdue.

There was one simple thing that defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said his unit has been working on this week, as the Buckeyes are in the middle of a bye week. That one thing? Tackling.

It sounds pretty basic, especially for this point in the season, but the Buckeyes defense had 20 missed tackles against the Boilermakers. Schiano said that’s something that has never happened while he’s been on the sidelines in Columbus.

“Up until last week, I wouldn’t have said tackling is a problem,” Schiano said Wednesday. “When you look at it as a coordinator, you look at your whole defense. How many tackles did you miss? And if you’re in the five, six, seven, eight range for a game, that’s usually pretty good. That’s two per position group. You know, we had 20 missed tackles. We’ve never had 20 missed tackles as long as I’ve been here.”

Tackling was certainly a problem for Ohio State, particularly when it came to wide receiver Rondale Moore and running back D.J. Knox. Both players shook off Buckeye defenders multiple times throughout Saturday’s game.

For Ohio State, that’s a trend that can’t continue. And it’s something that has to be cleaned up quickly with Nebraska, Michigan State, Maryland and Michigan remaining on the schedule.

“Twenty [missed tackles] is unchartered waters,” Schiano said. “We made it an emphasis. Had that not happened, it wouldn’t have had to be an emphasis, but it certainly is now for the defense.”

Ohio State is back in action on Nov. 3 against Nebraska.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB