The Ohio State Buckeyes failed at one specific area their last time out, and according to Jeremiah Smith, they have it fixed.
The Ohio State Buckeyes came out in a dogfight against the Indiana Hoosiers in the Big Ten Championship Game at the beginning of December. They really won the game between the 20-yard lines, but when they got to the red zone, they fell apart.
Twice, the offense pushed the football inside the 10-yard line, and twice, they came up with zero points. The first time, it was a failed quarterback sneak where Julian Sayin slipped and accidentally put his knee down, the second was a missed chip shot kick that left the Buckeyes empty.
On the defensive side of the ball, Indiana entered the red zone twice themselves and while one time they had to settle for a field goal, the other time Fernando Mendoza threw a nice touchdown pass to give the Hoosiers the lead.
With the loss, the Buckeyes only fell one spot in the rankings and still did enough during the season to earn a bye week in the first round of the playoffs. In that time, the Buckeyes honed in on one thing: situational football.
Jeremiah Smith was asked about what the Buckeyes worked on during their time off, and with his game face on, he responded:
"We couldn't score in the red zone, we didn't win the situations. I feel like over the last couple of weeks, we have been doing a good job of winning the situations and doing better in the red zone. I feel pretty good about the game plan, and I'm very happy.
Situations are where a football game is won and lost. In close games, it's four or five plays that ultimately decide the outcome of a football game, and you never know when they are going to come. But, when you get into the "have to have it" situations, you need to execute.
Those situations are typically third and mediums, redzone trips, fourth downs, coming out, two minute drills, and four minute drills.
If a team can be flawless in their situations, they are going to put themselves in an awesome position to win the football game.
Reading between the lines of Smith's comments, the approach down by the goal line will hopefully be different. Against Indiana, the Buckeyes majored in heavy tight end sets, which removed either Carnell Tate or Jeremiah Smith from the field.
If it were me calling plays, I would want my best two players on the field when it was time to score touchdowns. Hopefully, the Buckeyes employ that strategy on Wednesday night.
Regardless of what they ultimately decide to do, Jeremiah is locked in and ready to take it to his hometown team.