Ohio State football is only two games into the season, but the Buckeyes may have already suffered a serious blow to their national title hopes.
The No. 8 ranked Buckeyes suffered a shocking loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday night. Playing before a record crowd of 107,517 at an enlarged Ohio Stadium, the Buckeyes threw three interceptions including one returned for a touchdown in losing 35-21.
“Our opponent really did a good job preparing for us. They exposed us a little bit, some of the weaknesses on our team,” Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said after the game. “It was rather obvious what it is.”
Some believe that the loss could be a sign of a difficult season for Ohio State football. After the game, Meyer said that his players failed to perform, and warned of what could happen if they continue to play below expectations.
“I’m a little bit surprised. I thought our skills guys would perform better,” Meyer admitted. “I still have confidence that we have enough skill on this football team to get by people. I know it didn’t look like it — but we have to get by people. Or you’re going to see what you saw today. You’ll see it every week.”
Bleacher Report writer Ben Axelrod noted that the Buckeyes have an alarming lack of offensive firepower, which was evident in the poor performance from redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett.
“For the second consecutive week, Barrett didn’t find much help from an offensive line that’s still in the process of replacing four starters from a season ago, but even more glaring issues were apparent for the Buckeyes on Saturday,” Axelrod wrote.
The loss was an early blow to Ohio State football, who fell all the way to No. 18 in the Coaches Poll and No. 22 in The Associated Press Poll. With one early loss, Ohio State football will have to be perfect the rest of the way to have any hope of reaching the new College Football Playoffs.
