COLUMBUS — Second thoughts on Ohio State's 37-17 win against Maryland after rewatching the television broadcast.

1. We’re starting with the defense this week because that group deserves some shine while much of the conversation around the Buckeyes currently centers on what’s going on with the offense.

Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles talked this year about being unpredictable in lieu of always being aggressive. The hope is that operating that way could help limit the number of explosive plays that OSU allows. So far, so good.

Knowles is still blitzing some and could find himself blitzing more in some of the bigger remaining games. For now, the mere threat of a blitz provides opportunities for Knowles’ defense. We saw a perfect example of that on Josh Proctor’s interception return for a touchdown in the first half against Maryland.

The defense showed an aggressive structure pre-snap, which could’ve signaled that Knowles was ready to send six blitzers and play man coverage on the back end. Maryland seemed to respond in kind and was baited into throwing a pass right into the waiting arms of Proctor after the defense dropped into zone coverage.

Though he’s dialed things back a bit, Knowles’ reputation for aggressive calls, especially on third down, seems to benefit him. We’ll see if that shifts as teams watch more and more of the Ohio State defense this year, and then how Knowles counters that if necessary.

Ohio State’s defense still needs to clean up third-and-short situations. Maryland converted 8-of-18 third downs, but six of those conversions came with four or fewer yards to go.

On the season, Ohio State’s defense has allowed conversations on third-and-3 or shorter 13 times on 25 tries (52 percent). They’ve allowed only 12 conversions on 49 tries (24 percent) on all other third downs.

2. J.T. Tuimoloau got after the quarterback more in this game, which was surely a welcome sight for fans who’ve wanted to see that kind of production from the third-year defensive end. He finished with 1.5 sacks against the Terps, finally getting on the board in that category.

Obviously, anything, that Tuimoloau can provide in that area is going to elevate the ceiling for this defense. But I sometimes feel like we get too caught up in what we want Tuimoloau to be and lose sight of appreciating who he is. And he’s a real difference-maker against the run.

He had a couple of run stops in the first half that helped keep Maryland from sustaining a drive.

On the first, he navigated around a pulling tackle on a gap-scheme run — the kind of run that was giving Ohio State some problems in the first half — and hit the running back at the line of scrimmage to help hold him to a short gain.

Later, Tuimoloau shrugged off the block attempt from a tight end like it was nothing and helped bring down Maryland’s backup quarterback on a designed run to get the defense off the field on fourth down.

Tuimoloau makes plays like this all the time. One fair criticism to throw his way is that he probably has a few too many missed tackles when he does get himself in position to stop runs early, but his ability to play the run is one of the strengths of this defense and something the unit will need to continue to rely on as the linebackers work through some stuff.

3. There’s been a lot of discussion about the play of linebackers Tommy Eicheneberg and Steele Chambers after the last two games, and I think it’s a conversation worth having. Knowles admitted that the pair didn’t play their best game against Notre Dame, and things didn’t look much better against Maryland.

It’s noteworthy that Knowles has given Cody Simon some more playing time in place of Chambers, particularly on run downs — though I’d lump Simon in with Eichenberg and Chambers in not having an especially strong outing against the Terrapins.

The pin/pull runs that Maryland relied on seemed to give that group problems, and the Terps realized it because they kept spamming the defense with those schemes. They came into the game with nearly a 50-50 balance between zone and gap schemes. Against Ohio State, 23 of their 28 designed runs were gap schemes, per Pro Football Focus.

Ohio State’s struggles came on the heels of Notre Dame seemingly giving the linebackers issues with two-back runs and plays that created new/extra gaps to account for. Chambers said the linebackers played with “bad eyes” against Notre Dame. That also seemed to be an issue against Maryland.

In a world where Knowles is asking the linebackers to be more read-and-react than he did last year when he often sent them like missiles toward the offense line to stop the run, it’s fair to wonder if that suits the skill set of the personnel.

I’m not ready to call it a concerning issue just yet, because the linebackers played those runs better in the second half. You can see Eichenberg play it patiently on the play below, navigate a block, and make a play at the line of scrimmage.

The defense just needs more of that, especially if teams are going to keep testing their ability to stop pin/pull plays.

4. OK let’s talk run game, because we all see that Ohio State isn’t very good at it.

There are far too many zone runs that look like this, where nobody on the offensive line accounts for a linebacker.

This is Ryan Day’s base run play, outside zone, and the Buckeyes aren’t very good at executing it. They haven’t been all year. You can see on the play above how the offensive linemen struggle to work combo blocks together and then climb to the second level. These plays won’t work as long as linebackers can flow to the point of attack unencumbered.

There was a time earlier in the season when gap schemes, the kind of pin/pull runs that Maryland was using to give Ohio State’s defense problems, looked more comfortable for the Buckeye offense to execute.

Then on Saturday, those runs looked like this:

Tight end Gee Scott couldn’t kick out the cornerback, so pulling guard Matthew Jones had to help him instead of picking up someone else at the second level. And then tackle Josh Fryar followed up by pulling directly into tight end Cade Stover. It looked like the play could have been blocked for a nice hit if executed properly, but it wasn’t, so it gained only three yards.

It’s a combination of play-calling and scheme that keeps this run game in neutral. I’d question just how good it could be no matter what Day calls — because this just doesn’t look like a good run-blocking offensive line — but OSU clearly needs to find what works because the answer isn’t to stop running the ball entirely.

Nothing about this offense is especially efficient, and that feels like a byproduct of running so much, so ineffectively on early downs. Prior to taking a 37-17 lead late against Maryland, Ohio State ran 47 percent of the time (18-of-38 plays) on first and second down for an average of 3 yards per carry. Half of those runs went for 2 or fewer yards. Ohio State’s average yard to gain on third down was 7 yards.

OSU finished 3-for-12 on third down against Maryland and now ranks No. 67 in the country with a conversion rate of 40.3 percent. It’s seen a slight uptick in instances of third-and-7 or more to go this year, with those plays accounting for 41 percent of their tries, compared to 37 percent last year.