Ohio State is still far from a Playoff team, and it took Oklahoma to show that

Last year, Clemson took on the assignment.

That is, the Tigers humiliated Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal and showed the world that the Buckeyes weren’t even close to being one of the top two teams in the country.

This year, Oklahoma took on that assignment.

That is, the Sooners embarrassed the Buckeyes in the Horseshoe and showed the world that the “No. 2” that was attached to OSU coming into the night was not, in fact, accurate.

Sure, the Buckeyes picked up a nice road victory after some halftime adjustments in the season opener at Indiana. Maybe that fooled us into a false sense of assurance that the Buckeyes were a finished product. After all, that second half was dominant.

But it took Oklahoma waltzing into Columbus and dominating to show that Ohio State was not actually deserving of being considered one of the top two teams in the country.

And unless the Buckeyes make some big-time adjustments, that won’t change anytime soon.

Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

A lot of people are going to make this about Baker Mayfield vs. J.T. Barrett. One fifth-year senior looked like a Heisman Trophy candidate, and the other looked like he should be competing for his starting job the following week.

While Round 2 went to Mayfield (don’t forget what Barrett did in Norman last year), the quarterbacks weren’t the only factors.

Remember when Greg Schiano’s defensive backfield was supposed to pick up where last year’s group left off? Well, Oklahoma’s receivers had all sorts of separation. They caught 50-50 balls, but more times than not, they were in position to catch passes in space. That brings me to my next point, and this sort of goes without saying.

Oklahoma completely out-coached Ohio State. In every way.

Remember all that talk about the Sooners possibly taking a step back with Lincoln Riley? They took a step forward with the 34-year-old first year head coach. Oklahoma made the halftime adjustments that many thought Ohio State would make.

For the first few minutes of the second half, it looked like what we saw against Indiana. The Buckeyes appeared ready for liftoff after they opened with a touchdown drive that was capped off by J.K. Dobbins’ first career score.

What did we see from Ohio State after that? Zilch.

The Buckeye offense couldn’t get into any sort of rhythm to sustain drives, and as a result, Mayfield torched OSU’s gassed defense. And though OSU might have one of the top defensive lines in America, the defense as a hole has major problems when it doesn’t generate pressure.

That much was obvious. In two games, OSU allowed an average of more than 400 passing yards. You can rotate all the defensive ends and defensive backs you want, but that’s a schematic issue.

That’s perhaps the problem with OSU right now. It isn’t just being held back because of quarterback play. The issues are deeper than that.

Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

There’s a problem when Dobbins, running the way he is, only gets 13 carries for 72 yards. There’s a problem when receivers aren’t finding pockets of space in the defense. There’s a problem when play-action passes are making young defensive backs allow big plays in the secondary.

ESPN color analyst Kirk Herbstreit did his best to break down the offensive issues. In my opinion, he hit the nail on the head.

“What they can count on is facing defenses that don’t respect their vertical pass game and until they prove it, what they’re gonna deal with is people crowding the line of scrimmage, people crowding their short, intermediate passes and try to make J.T. Barrett uncomfortable. Make him sit in that pocket hesitating and hesitating. They’re going to have to come up with a plan and find some personnel that can help them stretch the field horizontally and vertically because it makes it very, very tough if you can’t do that.”

Everything Ohio State did just looked tough, especially on offense. And for the defense, it looked tough for a defensive line that basically had to pressure Mayfield every time or else a big play was sure to follow.

We thought things would come easier for Ohio State after the Clemson debacle. Instead, the Buckeyes have looked like a superior team for essentially one of their first eight quarters of football. And that was against a program that hasn’t won a bowl game in a quarter century.

OSU saw just how difficult things could get when Oklahoma showed up. It didn’t matter that Mayfield limped his way through the first half or that he lost his top target to an early injury. The Sooners made it look easy. That’s what a Playoff team is supposed to do.

The Buckeyes could have moments in the next few weeks when it looks easy. Lord knows those next three games against Army, UNLV and Rutgers aren’t going to be the same kind of test that Oklahoma was.

We were supposed to see just how much OSU learned from last year’s Fiesta Bowl failure. We learned that for the time being, the Buckeyes aren’t Playoff worthy. It just took us a few months earlier than last year to find that out.

But what was the only blessing of Saturday night’s loss?

It wasn’t the final exam.