Ohio State coach Urban Meyer sat shell-shocked behind a rectangle table as he met with the media briefly at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday following his team’s 52-49 win at Indiana.

He stared blankly at one reporter for several seconds when quizzed about all the missed tackles and broken assignments where the Hoosiers picked up huge chunks of yardage without being touched.

When asked what’s happened to the defense, a subdued Meyer replied: “I don’t know. I’ve got to get more involved to find out. I don’t think you can pinpoint one thing.

“I’m not sure what my feeling is right now other than I’m anxious to get back home and get to work. I wish we were in the office right now because we’ve got to get things right.”

It was the most points allowed by the Buckeyes since a 63-14 defeat to Penn State in 1994. It also was the highest-scoring game by the Hoosiers against OSU since the teams began playing in 1901.

The Buckeyes, who remained undefeated at 7-0, gave up two TDs and a two-point conversion in the final 2:18 and needed to recover an onside kick to preserve the win. But despite being shredded by perhaps the Big Ten’s worst team, they climbed one spot in the Associated Press Top 25 to No. 7 with the help of losses by West Virginia and South Carolina.

The OSU defense at times has looked like a model from the Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan. They’re giving up an average of 400 yards per game. They allowed 323.5 while going 6-7 last season.

“We’re not very good in some areas right now,” Meyer said. “We’re exposed. Spread offenses are exposing us right now.”

The Buckeyes are playing shorthanded. They’re so thin at linebacker that fullback Zach Boren switched to the position in practice during the week and ended up leading the team in tackles with eight.

But the team was somber as it left the visitors’ locker room and boarded busses to catch a charter flight home.

“That was a terrible job to close the game,” senior cornerback Travis Howard said. “I felt like guys got too comfortable, and they made a run.

“We came in and told ourselves we’d hold this team to maybe a touchdown, and them putting that many points up is just horrendous.”

OSU notched 50-plus points in consecutive games for the first time since 1996, and quarterback Braxton Miller and running back Carlos Hyde became the first Buckeye pair to rush for 100 years each in back-to-back outings in 37 years.

But the offensive outburst was overshadowed by defensive woes that don’t appear to be easily fixable.

“I’m embarrassed for everybody. We let up on the gas, and they were able to put points on the board to make it way closer than it should have been,” cornerback Bradley Roby said. “It’s very disappointing.”