Ohio State Football: Winners and Losers from Buckeyes' First Month

The Ohio State Buckeyes finished the first month of the season with a 3-2 record and many unanswered questions. While the losers have outnumbered the winners on the team thus far, there are still several of each to discuss.

Here are four winners and losers from the 2011 Ohio State Buckeyes after their first five games of the season.

Winner: The Defense

The main reason that the Ohio State Buckeyes have two losses already this season is because of a sputtering offense.

The defense, on the other hand, has played extremely well despite the loss of DE Nathan Williams.

The Buckeyes currently rank 13th in the country in total defense and have allowed the eleventh fewest points. The defense has kept the Buckeyes in every game this season and has proven instrumental in at least one victory.

The defense would be even better if the offense could start putting together some drives. This  would keep the defense off the field for longer periods of time.

Winner: Carlos Hyde

Running back Carlos Hyde has quietly had a very solid season for the Buckeyes through their first five games. He stepped up in place of top running backs Dan Herron and Jordan Hall, who were suspended for five and two games, respectively.

Hyde has carried the ball 62 times this season for 296 yards and three touchdowns. He has shown power and speed along with his 4.8 yards per carry average.

With the news that Herron will be suspended for at least the next game, Hyde should continue to see a large share of the carries for Ohio State.

Loser: The Offense

The offense of the Ohio State Buckeyes has been nothing short of terrible so far this season. They cannot decide on a starting quarterback and have a lot of inexperience at wide receiver.

Nobody has stepped up and become a playmaker for a team that desperately needs one. The losses of DeVeir Posey and Dan Herron, for at least another game, means that help is not on the way.

The Buckeyes are currently ranked 108th in the nation in total offense. That is a terrible position for a team that started the season ranked in the Top 25.

Better play-calling would go a long way toward improving the offense. However, the Buckeyes need to focus on developing Braxton Miller into a solid quarterback before they start worrying about improving their record.

Loser: Luke Fickell

Luke Fickell, hired as the head coach after the departure of Jim Tressel, has not had a very successful start to his head coaching career.

Granted, he was handed a team with several star players suspended and a cloud of investigations hanging over the school. For the most part, he has dealt with those issues admirably.

However, that cannot excuse his poor game plans that have been used so far this season. He continues to use two different quarterbacks and allows very conservative plays to be called throughout the games.

He also dropped the ball when it comes to the new suspensions of Dan Herron and DeVier Posey. Considering that it is the second set of suspensions for both players, Fickell should have dismissed them from the team. That would have shown that he is serious about cracking down on the violations at the school and is serious about building a program with high character.

Fickell will have the rest of the season to try and improve a team that seems lost on what direction it needs to go. Hopefully, things will start to improve although it is unlikely that Fickell will return next season.