While the Buckeye victory was never in doubt during the 73-20 rout of Eastern Michigan on Saturday, OSU’s secondary appeared to be a bit suspect.

Missing key contributors such as Chimdi Chekwa, C.J. Barnett, Travis Howard and Nate Oliver from the defensive backfield, the silver bullet defense surrendered its highest point total of the season, giving up five completions of 20 yards or more, including touchdown passes of 13 and 32 yards. At times, the Eagles aerial attack exploited the banged up Buckeye secondary.

“It’s definitely unacceptable. You don’t want that to happen,” cornerback Devon Torrence said about the numerous big plays surrendered by the secondary. “But those guys are on scholarship, too, and they’re going to make plays, but you don’t want those types of things to happen … so you have to keep working hard and fix whatever happens.”

Because of the array of injuries plaguing the defense, youngsters such as redshirt freshmen Corey Brown and Dominic Clarke have been thrust into the mix to help fill the void.

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And although there might be a learning curve as new guys come in, safety Tyler Moeller said the mistakes in the secondary must be corrected.

“When a guy comes out there for the first time and hasn’t been playing with the same people, sometimes those situations occur,” Moeller said. “But I’m not exactly sure what happened. We’ll go to the film room tomorrow and just adjust and improve.”

Even with the issues and lack of experience, safety Orhian Johnson said the guys filling in are still perfectly capable of getting the job done.

“Our coaches wouldn’t put anyone in a situation they wouldn’t be able to handle,” he said. “So we are expecting those guys to go in there and do the job that they’re expected to do just like if they were a starter.”

No matter whose shoulders the defensive deficiencies fall on, one thing remains: There is still plenty of room for improvement.

“Obviously we have to get a lot better,” free safety Jermale Hines said. “I think we will with our coaching staff and the players we have around here. I think we will get better.”