Ohio State’s pass rush has gone from a strength to a problem the Buckeyes can’t ignore.
Through nine games of 2026, Ohio State has only 11 sacks, a number that stands out for all the wrong reasons. Since the Buckeyes started tracking sacks in 1981, they had never finished a season with fewer than 20. And with three regular-season games still to play, this group is already sitting on historic ground.
The slide has been especially steep lately. Ohio State has managed just two sacks over its last four games, leaving the Buckeyes at 1.2 sacks per game. That’s below every previous season low in the tracking era, including 1982 and 2001, when Ohio State averaged 1.7 sacks per game and finished with 20 sacks in 12 games.
The numbers get even uglier when the comparison widens. Ohio State is tied with Illinois, Penn State, Purdue and Rutgers for the fewest sacks in the Big Ten this season. Only Texas A&M, with nine, and Stanford, with six, have fewer sacks among Power 4 teams.
Kenyatta Jackson Jr. leads the Buckeyes with three sacks. Riley Pettijohn is the only other Ohio State player with more than one, sitting at two.
The defensive ends as a group have produced just 5.5 sacks, with Jackson accounting for three, Qua Russaw and Epi Sitanilei adding one apiece and Beau Atkinson contributing a half-sack. None of them has recorded a sack in the last four games, and Ohio State’s only two sacks in that stretch came from defensive backs blitzing: Jaylen McClain against Indiana and Jermaine Mathews Jr. against USC.
It hasn’t just been a sack issue, either. By other measures, the pressure has been lacking too.
Pro Football Focus ranks Ohio State’s pass rush 95th out of 138 FBS teams. Hudl IQ has the Buckeyes at a 14.7% pressure rate, better than only 15 other Power 4 teams, and Ohio State has moved the quarterback off his spot on just 21.2% of passing plays, which ranks 14th-lowest among Power 4 defenses.
Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia has pointed to quick throws as part of the explanation for the recent drought, and there’s some truth there. USC and Oregon didn’t need much time to get the ball out while picking apart Ohio State.
But over the full season, the Buckeyes have still faced enough time-to-throw opportunities to make the lack of disruption more glaring. Hudl IQ says Ohio State is one of only 22 Power 4 teams whose opponents have averaged 2.8 or more seconds to throw.
That pressure problem has shown up in the broader defensive numbers, too. Ohio State led the nation in passing yards allowed per game last season, but this year the Buckeyes have fallen to 35th in that category. The missing pass rush is a major reason why.
“We're not getting enough of a pass rush. That's just the bottom line,” Ryan Day said Tuesday.
“So that's the challenge to the staff. We've got to tighten up the coverage.
We've got to get more of a pass rush.”
The Buckeyes’ sack rate under Day has fluctuated before, but this season is tracking well below the rest. Ohio State is averaging 1.2 sacks per game, which puts the team 120th in FBS. That’s a sharp drop from 2024, when the Buckeyes averaged 3.3 sacks per game and ranked third nationally, and from 2019, when they averaged 3.9 and ranked second.
Personnel has played a role. Ohio State lost three of its top five sack leaders from last season in Caden Curry, Arvell Reese and Kayden McDonald.
Jackson hasn’t taken the expected leap as a fifth-year senior, and the rest of the defensive line hasn’t produced a reliable edge threat. True freshman Khary Wilder showed some early promise as a pass rusher, but he has played only two snaps in Ohio State’s last five games, both against Oregon, apparently because the Buckeyes don’t trust him enough against the run.
Scheme has mattered, too. Patricia’s defense often asks edge rushers to cage the pocket and keep quarterbacks contained, especially when the opposing passer is a running threat, instead of letting them fully attack upfield. Patricia said Tuesday that the plan changes from week to week based on the matchup, but he also acknowledged the defense has to be better against the pass and on third downs.
Ohio State ranks 83rd nationally in third-down defense, allowing opponents to convert 39.7% of their tries. That’s a sharp drop from last season, when the Buckeyes ranked 10th in the FBS and allowed a much lower conversion rate.
“We've got great confidence in our guys and the players that we have on the field to go out and execute, and I just got to do a better job of making sure that they understand the details of everything that they have in those moments, for sure,” Patricia said.
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