Football Truth 101: The Browns and Buckeyes Lost Up Front

Posted By: County Sports Network January 13, 2026

When I was watching my favorite NFL team and my favorite college football team every weekend this season, I thought, at least in one extremely important regard, that I was watching the same game.

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The Ohio State Buckeyes had a lot better team than the Browns, of course, but they both struggled — j way too many times mightily, on the offensive line. In fact, it was the biggest weakness for both teams.

And you can’t struggle on the offensive line and expect to have a productive team. The Buckeyes did it — masked it — for much of the season because they had so much talent everywhere else. But it reared its ugly head in the playoffs, which is a bad time for it to spring up. The Browns struggled all year with it, which hurt both the running and passing games. immensely.

In fact, as I have written here any number of times, I would love for the Browns to use their two first-round NFL Draft picks — and other choices as well — on offensive linemen.

In the NFL playoff games over the wild-card weekend, and then the two College Football Playoff semifinal games on Thursday and Friday nights, you saw the benefit of a strong offensive line. The team that didn’t play so well in the offensive line, the Oregon Ducks, got run out of the stadium.

So, keep an eye on the line in whatever games you watch the rest of the season. You’ll see the key to success, and for the Browns, it’s an especially big key because they have so much work to do.

Steve King

READ NEXT: Ohio State Beats Michigan

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