Ohio State Is Not Playing Like the National Title Favorite Right Now

Ever since he arrived at Ohio State in 2012, Urban Meyer has defaulted to a particular motto when it comes to explaining ugly wins that have occurred while the Buckeyes remained undefeated: The best part about being unbeaten is the opportunity to remain unbeaten.

Following Ohio State's 34-27 win over Indiana Saturday, Meyer's mantra would sound something like, "The best part about being 5-0 is the chance to go 6-0."

"I've learned to enjoy it," Meyer said in postgame press conference through a forced grin. "To get on the plane here with a victory, I'll take it."

With the way the Buckeyes looked throughout their closer-than-expected escape from Bloomington, that's all Ohio State has to celebrate at the moment.

Yes, running back Ezekiel Elliott reinserted himself into the Heisman Trophy discussion with a 274-yard, three-touchdown performance as he ran rampant against the Hoosiers and once again looked like the player who entered the season as the favorite to win college football's most prestigious individual award. And the Buckeyes are in fact still unbeaten as the nation's longest winning streak remains active at 18 games.

But outside of Elliott, this Ohio State team looked little like the nation's top-ranked team. And perhaps most importantly, it looked even less like the favorite to win this year's national title.

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The reality is that the Buckeyes haven't looked like a team deserving of either of those accolades for the better part of the past month.

Ohio State's quarterback play has been shaky, its wide receivers have been inconsistent and a defense that at one time looked like the nation's most talented has suddenly shown issues in the past two weeks that didn't seem to exist in the previous three.

For the second time in three weeks, the Buckeyes found themselves on the ropes late in the fourth quarter, bailed out this time against an Indiana team playing its backup quarterback and down its star running back due to injuries.

Overall, however, the bulk of Ohio State's issues have stemmed from the play of its offense, which starts with a quarterback conundrum that remains in question heading into the sixth week of the season.

The struggles of Cardale Jones continued on Saturday, with an 18-of-27, 245-yard, one-touchdown, one-interception performance that was worse than the numbers indicated. After the game, Meyer said he didn't consider benching Jones for backup J.T. Barrett following a costly second-half interception but did admit that there were some struggles with his signal-caller.

"That's not awful," Meyer said after reading out his starting quarterback's stat line. "[But] I saw what you saw."

Meyer's actions, however, spoke louder than his words, as he relegated his 6'5", 250-pound quarterback to the role of game manager with the game on the line. That was most clear when Meyer opted to hand the ball off to Elliott on a 3rd-and-10 from the Buckeyes' 26-yard line late in the fourth quarter, a play that ultimately capped off a three-and-out for Ohio State and gave Indiana one of its final two opportunities to tie or take a lead.

Jones' up-and-down play wasn't helped much by the performance of the Buckeyes receivers, which included a pair of lost fumbles from sophomore wideout Jalin Marshall.

"Trying too hard I guess, when you lunge and you lean," Meyer said of Marshall's turnovers. "But it's got to change. And he's a smart enough kid that he'll understand that, and we'll get that fixed."

Ohio State is going to need him to.

Because while a simple solution might be to send such a seemingly turnover-prone player to the bench, Marshall has emerged—fumbles aside—as the Buckeyes' second-most reliable receiver behind Michael Thomas. Against the Hoosiers, Marshall led Ohio State with six receptions for 110 yards on the day, but his untimely turnovers were what stood out most.

Other than Marshall and Thomas (four receptions, 54 yards, one touchdown), it's been hard to find any sort of consistency from the Buckeyes wide receivers, including Braxton Miller, who received just two touches (one rush, one reception) against Indiana and has been a non-factor since Ohio State's season opener against Virginia Tech.

"I'm just sick about Braxton. I want to get him the darn ball," Meyer said. "You just get caught up in the flow of the game."

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Defensively, the game came down to one play, with cornerback Eli Apple breaking up a pass in the end zone from Hoosiers backup QB Zander Diamont that would have either tied the game or given the Hoosiers the chance to win with a two-point conversion. Afterward, no one celebrated the victory more than Apple, but that may have had nothing to do with the final play.

Had Ohio State not escaped Bloomington with a win, the sophomore corner may very well have been blamed for the disappointing performance because of two costly pass interference calls, including one on the final drive. The Buckeyes defense as a whole struggled on the day with penalties and giving up big plays, including a 79-yard touchdown run from Diamont that put the Hoosiers within a touchdown of tying the game in the fourth quarter.

After trading three-and-outs for three consecutive series, Indiana's final shot came on a 10-play, 48-yard drive, which ultimately ended with the Buckeyes pass rush forcing Diamont's final incompletion.

"We had too many penalties on our pass defense," Meyer said. "A lot of things to work on."

Fortunately for Ohio State, Elliott made up for a lot of the Buckeyes' shortcomings with a performance that saw him bust loose for three big second-half plays. Elliott scored on touchdown runs of 75, 65 and 55 yards, despite not having a consistent passing game to keep the Indiana defense honest.

With what he did last postseason, Elliott has already proven to be one of the nation's best backs. But even Meyer questioned how long he'll be able to sustain his success without some help from those around him.

"We just gotta complement that with the pass game a little bit," Meyer said. "Once again, the darn turnovers. I think all three of them were in the pass game."

They were, and despite the issues they caused on Saturday, Meyer maintains they're fixable. But until that actually happens, the Buckeyes won't look like the favorites to win this year's college football championship—although Meyer said that's the furthest thought from his mind.

As hard as it may have been to see, he's relying on his trusty motto instead.

"I guess for a 51-year-old man, I'm pretty exhilarated right now," Meyer said. "You can't tell."

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.