Buckeyes Stumble to Win Against Lowly Bobcats

After a week of media coverage on Beanie's toe, it was time to get back to the business of football. The Buckeyes entered Saturday looking for a final tune-up before the epic matchup with USC on September 13th. Instead of cruising against an in-state MAC opponent, Ohio State nearly had its season come crashing down. And as the game unfolded, I'm sure every fan had the exact same thing going through their head, "If we're playing like this against Ohio, there's no way we can beat USC in LA".

Yes, Ohio State won 26-14. But the third-ranked Buckeyes could barely generate any offense much of the stay and struggled to stop a backup quarterback on third down all day. The score almost seems deceptive, given that Ohio State trailed heading into the fourth quarter. Before our analysis, a few quick links.

*Bill Livingston says this is not what OSU needed before USC.

*Chris Dufresne thinks the Buckeyes just looked ahead a little bit.

*Maurice Wells generously grades Ohio State's running game at B-.

*Brian Hartline more accurately calls the effort "pathetic".

So what to make of this game? On the positive side of the ledger, there were no major injuries and Ohio State record is now 2-0. That's pretty much it. If you're looking for a silver lining from the game, the defense forced 5 turnovers, an area they targeted for improvement heading into the season. The bad?

*The offense was absolutely dismal in almost every phase of the game. That starts with the vanilla game plan from coaching staff, who apparently took a page out of the 2003 Tressel-ball playbook and expected to bore Ohio to death. The offense play-calling was unimaginative, conservative and showed little signs of adapting as the struggles became apparent.

*Todd Boeckman looked tentative, immobile and not in command of the offense. With no Chris Wells, Ohio State fans might have expected to see the Buckeyes open up the passing game a bit. But the early throws were all short hooks, screens and other plays that were easily sniffed out by an aggressive defense. Boeckman is a sixth-year senior, Brian Robiskie is a senior and Brian Hartline is a fourth-year junior. They've been around too long to play such a disappointing game.

*The offensive line had its lunch handed to it by the Ohio defense. This is the most troublesome aspect, that Ohio could apparently penetrate at will, pressuring the quarterback and sniffing out predictable runs. The interior line featuring Steve Rehring, Jim Cordle and Ben Person was particularly bad. Bryant Browning did not look much better, and one is left to wonder how long it will take J.B. Shugarts or even Mike Adams to take over at right tackle. Problem is, it certainly isn't going to happen this week.

*The running game sputtered, though it's hard to tell how much of that was caused by the line. Maurice Wells and Boom Herron each had a few nice runs to disguise the stat lines. Brandon Saine functionally disappeared until the fourth quarter. The three combined for 26 carries and 113 yards, which is unacceptable against a team that just lost to Wyoming. Fans may be reminded of the post-Maurice Clarett era, when an underachieving line left Lydell Ross fighting for his life behind the line of scrimmage.

*The defense was adequate plus - I suppose giving up one TD is a reasonable "down" effort. We can't count the Boeckman end zone fumble TD against them, and OSU needed every one of the turnovers. But the third-down conversions were troublesome, and there were plenty of times Ohio missed open receivers. If they hit a few of those passes, Ohio State might be looking at a loss.

*Perhaps worst of all, the freshmen got virtually no playing time. Terrelle Pryor played one series and saw some late action. Ditto for Posey, the linemen, and a handful of others. If they aren't trusted to play against Ohio in a pressure situation, can you really expect to see them against USC? I'd say the answer is no, so if you're expecting a bunch of creative packages for Pryor to run against USC, don't get your hopes up. Tressel does not have a history of doing that, and you're more likely to see one set of predictable draws or read options.

There's no way to sugarcoat this - it was an awful effort at almost every level. That said, there's no reason to jump off a bridge...yet. Yes, if Ohio State brings this effort next week, they'll lose badly. But if Chris Wells can be at 85%, the coaches open things up, and Boeckman plays to his potential, Ohio State can beat USC. These seniors came back for a reason, and it wasn't to get embarrassed by Ohio U. So Buckeyes fans should get focused for the Trojans and leave the complaining for some other time.