Ohio State’s vulnerability, Oklahoma’s return and more takeaways from Week 12

Bill Connelly is a staff writer for ESPN.com.

The 2020 college football season has entered its home stretch, even out west, where the Pac-12’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it regular season is halfway over. Which stories stood out to me in a wild Week 12? Let’s dive right in.

What on earth is wrong with Ohio State’s pass defense?

On Friday, I wrote about title contenders and the questions they still need to address to reach the promised land. I could come up with only one “if” for Ohio State, but it turned out to be pretty pertinent:

The Buckeyes are 91st in passing success rate allowed and are struggling to force obvious pass situations. Despite having a pair of dynamite corners in Shaun Wade and Sevyn Banks, new defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs has chosen to mostly play a pretty passive zone coverage. … Is this the week Coombs gets more aggressive? Or is this going to be an actual problem the rest of the season?

We don’t have full Saturday charting data yet, so I can’t say with certainty how much zone or man coverage Ohio State played beyond the norm. But whatever the Buckeyes tried in Saturday’s 42-35 win over Indiana, it didn’t work.

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