The back half of Ohio State's schedule is finally here.

This is where offenses will usually start playing away from their tendencies from the first half of the season. In this case, head coach Ryan Day seemed to be doing just that.

In 2021, Ohio State's run game has pretty much consisted of mid-zone and G/Y Counter.

This has been the Buckeyes' bread and butter up to this point and has helped produce the No. 1 offense in the country.

Day alluded on his radio show that this would be a great week to throw off tendencies for future opponents and work on some things they haven't got going yet. And, boy ,did they do just that.

Ohio State got to the ground game early against Indiana's defense.

Indiana presented Ohio State with a 3-4 Tite front with Cover 4 early to try and present Ohio State issues with its heavy zone-running scheme.

In a 3-4 Tite front, the defensive line will be aligned with the nose in a 0, and both ends in 4-I (inside shoulder of the tackles) techniques. Some teams will walk up both of their outside linebackers (Jack and SLB) and cover the tackles, or play them from depth with the same responsibility.

As Cody Alexander, the author of the blog Match Quarters, said, "most high school and college spread offenses use speedy backs to run the ball outside or cut it all the way to the backside once the over pursuit has been walled." With the 3-4 Tite front, defenses can eliminate the inside zone, making reads harder for the quarterback and force teams to bounce plays outside to open defenders.

It's no surprise that Ohio State features mid-zone in its running game attack. This is the Buckeyes' base-run scheme, and go to it quite often. The premise around the Tite front is to prevent cutbacks and try and cover up all available offensive lineman. This will muddy the vision for the back, and make it difficult on offensive lineman to create movement.

Indiana lined up to Ohio State base formations like the diagram above. Indiana's Jack linebacker always aligned with the tight end in a stand up position, with the three interior defensive lineman in the Tite front.

Indiana's goal was to plug cutback lanes and create one-on-one blocks on zone runs. Ohio State's answer to this defense was to get to outside zone and split outside zone, where the aiming point for the back is outside the play-side tackle. In essence, the goal was to get the ball to the edge if at all possible.

Ohio State did get to their base-run concepts in mid-zone and G/Y Counter, but its adjustment and goal was to get to outside zone.

On Ohio State's first possession, it went to outside zone early.

As you see here, the path of the running back is wider than it would be on any other zone concept. The goal is to set an edge and get the ball outside. The Jack linebacker for Indiana forces Ohio State senior tight end Jeremy Ruckert to kick him out instead of maintaining a reach block, where the ball will get cut back.

The goal of Indiana running the Tite was to prevent cut-back lanes, and that did not go as planned.

Here is another example of Ohio State running outside.

The aiming point of the back and the path by the offensive line give it away. Ruckert is again trying to maintain a reach block and is successful in doing so. Indiana slants its defensive line into the run concept and the Hoosiers over run the play. This forces a cut back into the backside C gap, which the backside defensive end cannot make the play. The boot away from outside zone holds him just long enough.

It is worth mentioning that Ohio State likes to run their zone concepts where Ruckert comes across the formation away from the call side, likely a tendency breaker for the next several weeks.

This view really solidifies how the outside zone hits and how in unison the offensive line is.

The aiming point on outside zone for the guys up front is the outside number of the nearest defensive lineman. Each offensive lineman should take a somewhat similar first step, with the goal to reach each defender. When this doesn't happen, like above, the block turns into a kick out and the ball is forced back inside.

Ohio State rarely utilizes RPO's, but did so off of the outside zone.

What really impressed me more on Saturday was the use of play action off the same run concepts that were so successful.

Day did a fantastic job using a layered approach to play calling off of the same run looks that got them so much mileage, something that the head coach utilizes a lot.

Ohio State had a ton of success running play-action off of outside zone concepts. The fast flow up front forced linebackers to play the run-first and aggressive, which opened up play-action flood concepts.

Play-action serves many purposes in an offense.

First, play-action is a quarterback-friendly concept. Most offenses are designed to use play-action off base-run concepts where everything looks the same. This will trigger run first linebackers and open up throwing windows.

Play-action reads for quarterbacks are usually progression reads, which is again a quarterback-friendly way to throw the ball. If a certain receiver isn't open, the quarterback then moves on to the next read in the progression.

This essentially takes all the burden off the quarterback to understand and read a defense post snap, taking the thinking away and giving him more confidence.

With some big-time games coming up on Ohio State's schedule, it will be useful to utilize some play-action concepts to take some pressure of quarterback C.J. Stroud.

With Penn State coming into town, it will be interesting to see what Day has planned for one of the best defenses in the country.

Penn State has one of the better defensive coordinators across college football and will definitely have a plan for the Ohio State offense. The Nittany Lions are aggressive and will bring pressure to Stroud, stopping opposing pass offenses with ease, while struggling against the run.

With Ohio State's rushing offense taking another step forward against Indiana, I expect Day to have a fantastic rushing game plan against Penn State.

This seems to be where teams are starting to have success against this defense, and with the talent Ohio State has in the backfield, there is no reason Ohio State doesn't have success in the run game.

The question will remain how Ohio State will match up with the Penn State defense.

As Penn State's offense does not scare anybody, what game plan will Day bring to the table Saturday?

Does he devise a plan to rush for 350 yards? Or does he have some more play-action concepts he hasn't utilized off the run game that should have success Saturday?

Only time will tell.

I do not feel confident in letting Stroud sit back in three-and-five-step concepts against this pass defense even with the likes of wide receivers Chis Olave and Garret Wilson. I do have confidence that running the ball will win this game, and utilizing play-action to relieve some stress of Stroud will go a long way.