3 halftime observations from Ohio State vs. Illinois | Buckeyes Wire

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Ohio State and Illinois have finished one half of football in what is both teams' first Big Ten game of the year. The Buckeyes went into the locker room up 21-10, and it's been the Jeremiah Smith show. The defense has been good, not great, and the offense has shown some improvement in areas we wanted to see.

We try to pull out some things from the first half of every Ohio State game, and there's been a lot of action in this one, most notably with Superman putting on his cape inside the venerable Horseshoe. But it's been more than that, so let's dive in, shall we?

Here are three things we took away from the first half in the Shoe with Ohio State and Illinois.

The Ohio State rush defense needs work

The Buckeyes gave up way too many yards on the ground in the first half. The defensive line didn't get enough push into the backfield to change the line of scrimmage; the linebackers got sealed in the second layer, and the pursuit angles weren't good.

And that's against Illinois, not the best rushing team Ohio State will face by far. It's a young defense, yes, and there's still a learning curve to go, but if the defensive line can't occupy blockers more and free up the linebackers and defensive backs to come up in run support, it's going to be hard to stop better teams with better rushing attacks. There is work to be done.

The Buckeyes have been much better in short yardage

It's been arguably the biggest issue the Ohio State offense needed to work on coming into this one. Short yardage and red zone opportunities haven't been very good, and that has to change if the Buckeyes have designs on meeting their lofty goals.

So far, much better in this one. The running backs have run harder, the offensive line has gotten a better push, and Julian Sayin is converting on some runs. It's just one half of football, but Ohio State was three-for-three in the red zone and 6-of-8 on 3rd-down conversions, a handful of those the short-yardage variety. Now, let's see it continue. There was one fail on 3rd and 2, but OSU then converted a 4th down.

What else can we say about Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith?

Jeremiah Smith showed again why he's the best player in college football, especially early on in the half. He finished the first 30 minutes with eight receptions for 150 yards and three touchdowns. More than that, though, he made catches contested, not-contested, single-covered, double-covered, and even made defenders look foolish in yards after the catch on a 72-yarder.

If Smith isn't the best player in college football and doesn't get some Heisman love this year, there should be a boycott of the voters and a serious look at how things are done. We are watching one of the best receivers to ever play the college game, and we should enjoy it the rest of this year before we see him doing some of the same things on Sundays.

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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: 3 halftime observations from Ohio State vs. Illinois | Buckeyes Wire

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