COLUMBUS, Ohio – There is no shortage of criticism of the Ohio State football team after the first loss of the season last weekend. Many people are focusing on an offensive line that yielded six sacks and 11 tackles for loss during a 24-21 loss.

Buckeye Nation has not handled the loss well as they have lit up talk radio, message boards and sports bars with more than a smattering of doom and gloom. The Ohio State football team does its best to insulate itself from much of the outside noise but they are well aware of a concerned fan base that had grown quite accustomed to Ohio State winning just about every game it lined up for under head coach Urban Meyer.

"The crazy thing is that we have only lost five games in like five years," offensive guard Billy Price said on Monday. "We sit here and the world is ending and the sun came up and it is incredible, it is like 'Wow'. We are very blessed to be at a university such as Ohio State where you only lose five games in five years, take advantage of that, that is incredible."

Ohio State's last two losses have been by a combined six points and both losses have seen the Ohio State offense underperform from the standard that they had been playing at up until that point of the season.

2016 has seen Ohio State's passing game take a major step backward in terms of productivity since the completion of game four against Rutgers and has many people worried that this regression may keep the Buckeyes from achieving the annual goal of a Big Ten title and more.

"(A loss) is not an occurrence that happens often but we grow from this, we get tighter together and we focus in on us and we don’t worry about everyone else and the fans," Price added. "Everyone is a couch coach; everyone thinks they have the whistle. We have to focus on who we are, the guys in that room, and that is what matters to us."

There is no questioning how young the Ohio State offensive line is with a true freshman in Michael Jordan, and young players with Jamarco Jones (true junior) and Isaiah Prince (true sophomore). The Buckeyes lost some key depth on the offensive line before the start of the season with an injury to JUCO signee Malcolm Pridgeon and to reserve guard Demetrius Knox.

For an offensive line driven team, the margin for error is thin with few players who have seen significant playing time.