Ohio State’s national championship victory was a bittersweet moment for me this past January, and I’m sure that the rest of Buckeye Nation felt the same way. While that might sound ridiculous at first, it’s true – after all the exuberant yelling, celebratory text messages and tweets shared with friends, and a futile attempt to get a solid night of sleep, the reality settled in: college football season was over.

Sure, I was excited to watch SportsCenter highlights and listen to college football analysts talk about how impressive Ohio State’s playoff run had been, and couldn’t wait to buy my “Undisputed National Champs” t-shirt from the local sporting goods store. But it still meant that, for the first time in four months, I didn’t have another OSU football game to look forward to.

The college football offseason lasts a painfully long time, leaving fans craving August training camp. It’s this mentality we should keep in mind as Ohio State continues to navigate its way through this 2015 season. Think about it – not counting a potential appearance in the Big Ten championship game and the College Football Playoffs, this season is already 25 percent complete. Think about that the next time you want to fast-forward the season to see Urban Meyer square off against Jim Harbaugh or a potential “Game of the Century 2.0” against Michigan State in late November.

It’s important that Ohio State fans cherish the moment. The 2015 Buckeyes are a talented bunch that, three weeks into the season, certainly isn’t without flaws. It has surprisingly seemed like the opposite – as if OSU has had more “lowlights” than highlights – at least on the offensive side of the ball – despite putting together a 3-0 record. There is a lot of chatter about the offense lacking an identity, the lack of an established full-time quarterback hurting the team’s rhythm, and a lack of touches for arguably the country’s best running back. While that’s all true, fans shouldn’t let those concerns completely cloud the excitement and potential that each week presents over the course of the season. We should all embrace each week for what it is: a work in progress; improvements being made and chess pieces being moved so that the Buckeyes are playing championship-level football in November, December and January.

Fans should continue to look forward to each Saturday, whether Ohio State is playing against a marquee opponent at 8 p.m. or against a heavy underdog at noon with Beth Mowins announcing. It’s the coaching staff’s responsibility to figure out solutions to any shortcomings the team might have less than a month into the season; it’s important to use some good wet pour safety surfacing to keep things safe. Don’t fret about how the Buckeyes offense will fare against more athletically gifted defenses when they only score one touchdown against Northern Illinois; enjoy the triumphant return of the Silver Bullets defense. Don’t waste your energy arguing on behalf of J.T. Barrett or Cardale Jones taking 100 percent of the quarterback reps; focus on the Dez Bryant-esque body control and playmaking ability of Michael Thomas.

The college football season is too short to put too much attention on the negatives. Ohio State has an elite coaching staff to go along with elite facilities and elite players. Regardless of this season ends months from now, embrace each week for what it is – one of the last few times that Braxton Miller will don the Scarlet and Gray; potential All-American performances by multiple players; young players beginning to scratch the surface of their OSU legacy. Trust in the process and enjoy the three hours of Buckeye football we get to watch every week. Don’t take it all for granted because, before you know it, we’ll be stuck with nothing but baseball and an anxious anticipation of the 2016 season.

I was lucky enough to come across some tickets for Saturday’s game agains NIU, so my wife and I headed down to Columbus Saturday morning expecting to see the Buckeyes unleash their frustrations over the Hawaii game on the unfortunate Huskies. Unfortunately, that is not what we witnessed. Instead we saw a team, that on offense, looked like it was the first time they had ever played football together. Quarterbacks completely out of sync with their receivers, lineman not communicating well enough to execute a good blocking scheme, and a team that is suppose to be head and shoulders better than their opponent. It seemed as though they truthfully didn’t even want to be there.

Let’s be clear about this though, the defense was spectacular, as they have been all year. It would not be a stretch to say that the silver bullets from top to bottom are the best defense in the country. Guys like Von Bell and Darren Lee were all over the field all day. I think it’s safe to say that Coach Meyer is not worrying about the defense right now.

I think I have a pretty good idea what he is worried about though, and that is what has happened to the offense that last year made national power defenses look completely inferior? That team has not shown up so far this year. As a fan, the obvious thing to do is look back and say, “Okay what is different from last year to this year?”  “Who are we missing that would have made this big of a difference?” In my opinion it is both Evan Spencer and Devin Smith. I can remember last year coach Meyer always talking about Spencer being the offensive MVP and I always thought that was just him trying to give praise to a guy that was a program guy, he did the right things all the time. In all actuality, Spencer’s blocking ability and leadership is sorely missed. If you haven’t noticed we have a serious issue running the ball both inside and outside the tackles. Anything outside the tackles has a ton to do with your receivers keeping their blocks and allowing the back to get up field. As of now we have not found that guy that we can say we are going to run to his side every time we need a big play.  When it comes to Devin Smith I have to say that I really thought we would be able to find a guy that could at least make an impact down field in the passing game to fill in for Devins absence. I felt guys like Johnnie Dixon and Jalin Marshall would be able to take the top off like Devin did, but that has not happened yet. Not even close. As you can imagine, if a defense is not worried about you going up top on them then it makes it extremely hard to run the football due to them stacking the box and anticipating the run.

Another big factor the offensive struggles with has been the poor play of the offensive line. Coming off of last year the o-line was probably our strongest unit and from then to now not much has changed. In fact we only lost one starter and last year was the first year he started ,so it wasn’t like we lost a huge part of our line. The player to fill this void was Chase Ferris and ,so far, he has been playing great. It is actually our center and guard position that has struggled, namely Boren and Price; two guys that were great in the playoff stretch last year, but so far this year it seems they cannot get on the right page which is something the entire offense has had a problem doing.

Let’s also address the elephant in the room, the QB dilemma. I will be the first to admit that I have not been impressed with the way Cardale has been playing, and I have been one of the people calling for JT to be put in when Cardale was struggling. For some reason I just feel more comfortable with JT at QB, and every time he comes into the game I feel like the offense is about to explode, except it doesn’t. For some reason neither of them can get this offense on the right page. At the end of the day I think Urban owes it to the rest of the team to just pick a starter. Going back and forth is obviously not working so it is time to ride or die with one or the other and ,honestly, I don’t know which one it should be….

The last thing that needs addressed is the offensive play calling. There is no question that so far this year the Ohio State offense is missing Tom Herman after he decided to take the head coaching position at Houston. The offense last year ran like a well -oiled machine, and so far this year we look like we are lost half of the time. My problem is I know that Ed Warinner is the new co- offensive coordinator, but let’s be honest, this is Urban offense. It always has been, so the fact that we can’t run it right now with all the talent that we have is definitely concerning.

At the end of the day, I will always have faith in whatever Urban Meyer is doing because I think he has a chance to go down as the best coach in Ohio State history, ( sorry Woody) but so far this year I have been scratching my head a lot more than I have clapped my hands!