Open Thread: OSU Buckeyes at USC Trojans
September 13, 2008Cleveland Versus Pittsburgh, Weather?
September 14, 2008After last night’s miserable failure of a game against USC, I am having trouble coming to any kind of cohesive storyline. The failures were numerous. There is no focal point. As a result, I am going with bullet points. Hopefully this will be cathartic enough that I will feel better, but somehow I doubt it. I also included a picture from much happier times to remind myself that there were better times.
- Todd Boeckman is done. A lot of us were thinking this even before the season started, but now it just has to be true. Boeckman potentially had a future because there were so many returning players this season, but with Championship hopes dashed, Boeckman is officially done. He may continue to play, but it should only be to save Terrelle Pryor.
- Terrelle Pryor needs to play… a LOT. Pryor has the ability to confuse any defense. He gives the receivers a chance to get open by rolling out and avoiding the rush. He is the only one who will be able to keep this offense on the field as the offensive line fails to hold the rush.
- The offensive line couldn’t keep Boeckman off his back last night. How is that even possible? The chants of overrated coming from the USC student body might as well have referred directly to the o-line of Ohio State.
- Speaking of overrated, I have considered the wide receiving corps to be overrated ever since Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez graduated. These guys have some physical abilities, but they aren’t nearly as good as the receiving prospects that have played at Ohio State in the past.
- When you have overrated wide receivers, you should probably use your solid, and underused tight ends. Where were the tight ends in last night’s game? Especially with the pressure that Boeckman was facing in the pocket, how is it that Ballard and Nicol failed to find their way into the box score? That seems like an oversight by the coaching staff.
- Jim Tressel does not need to be fired. He has been very successful in his relatively young career with Ohio State. That doesn’t mean that there don’t need to be changes. There needs to be numerous changes. This team needs a change in culture so that they don’t come out so flat in big situations. This team also needs a change in schemes both offensively and defensively.
- Ohio State’s defensive pressure on USC looked the same as the pressure on LSU and Florida before it. Ohio State has amazing personnel in their system. That means that something isn’t working in the system. It is time to try something new.
- Ohio State’s offensive gameplan against USC looked the same as the gameplan against LSU and Florida before it, except in the second drive when Tressel alternated Pryor and Boeckman every play. The end of the drive occurred when Tressel kept Boeckman on the field for two plays in a row. Tressel never went back and forth with his two QB’s again for the rest of the game as he did on that second drive; their most successful one. Why?
That is about all I have for now. We are going to have to see some kind of commitment to changing the way Ohio State goes about its business in the coming years. They have maximized their ability with the current systems and gameplans. They can’t continue to put up these same types of games year in and year out against top competition. It is bad for Ohio State. It is bad for us as fans. It is bad for the Big Ten.
Here’s hoping that Tressel finds a way to make this program evolve, because this wasn’t just about execution and mistakes. This wasn’t about officiating, which did seem a bit one-sided. How many times did they miss offensive holding calls on USC? This wasn’t about Beanie Wells missing the game. This is an even bigger wakeup call than the previous national championship games because it happened in season without a ridiculous two-month layoff. Let’s hope somone at Ohio State is woken up this time.
12 Comments
What’s wrong with this football team? Every year it’s a let down. Tressel can’t hack it through the big games as of late. OSU is turning in to the most hated school by everyone.
1. I haven’t read the game thread, but yes, Boeckman should be done. He, Hartline, and Robo have gone as far as they can go.
2. Agreed on Pryor. As bad as the offense was, they were significantly ‘less bad’ with Pryor in. Plus he can just flick his wrist and the ball goes 50 yards.
3. This offensive line has been awful, that said, a guy going to the ground on a spin move is not a penalty.
4. Agreed again, see earlier comment about Boeckman, Hartline, and Robo. Hartline will need to come back if he even wants to sniff a first day pick at this point. Pretty bad when Herron, Sanzenbacher, and Pryor are the best players on offense.
5. Ballard and Nicol exist? The only time I saw Nicol all night was during the pregame montage.
6. Jim Tressel does not need to be fired, but his staff needs a shake up. Jim Tressel also set the tone by not playing Beanie Wells essentially declaring that ‘you do not come to Ohio State to win National Championships, you come to Ohio State to win Big 10 Championships’… which I guess is fine… but this team could win the Big 10 title without Beanie. I have a feeling that first and goal from the 5 and 10 would have been a little different than 3 points if Beanie had been in the game.
7. Ohio State’s defensive personnel is great… year after year they continue to put out solid contributors at the NFL level, yet they do not translate into big game special players at the college level. Clearly a scheme/coaching problem. I will never understand why Malcolm Jenkins is regulated to zone coverage so much.
8. On the second drive I thought for a moment that Ohio State might actually manage to win it, but all hope was lost when Tressel settled for a field goal. He gave up, USC knew it, our defense knew it. Tressel ball worked in 2002, but that defense was different. That defense didn’t sit back on its heels, read, and react… it made offense react to them.
I guess my common thought throughout the game was that Ohio State did not show up planning to win the game. They had the talent to hang around, but combining a poor gameplan with a coach willing to settle for field goal attempts, poor officiating, poor execution, and Todd Boeckman results in an epic fail.
I was trying not to mention the officiating too much because it would be an easy, and largely untrue scapegoat. The Buckeyes did not lose because of bad officiating. But the officiating was really bad. OSU got their touchdown called back, but every time the USC running backs got loose you could see holds worse than the one that caused the touchdown to be called back.
But I won’t allow that to be the excuse for this team. They have problems way bigger.
You pretty much wrote a summation of how I feel. Great article Craig.
I understand that having a really short memory is good for athletes so they can keep thier confidence high and forget mistakes, but it should NOT be that way for coaching staffs. I feel like anybody with a game tape can figure out what the Bucks are going to do, at least when Boeckman is in. I understand the guy took his time, did everything the team asked him to do and waited for his turn, but it was glaringly obvious that even the SC defense struggled with Pryor in the game. He really ought to start at least one or two games this year (they can be at home to make it easier on him) and get the max reps possible.
I thought Tressel’s offensive gameplan was actually pretty good, alternating Boeckman and Pryor was a good idea that would have worked better had Boeckman not sucked so much and our offensive line not been piss poor
It seems like Tressell doesn’t like risks. Maybe I am stating the obvious here. I remember the BCS game against Florida as a great example. I know you don’t change the whole program when you’re at a championship game, but OSU kept running the same defensive during the whole 2nd half (still talking about the Florida game here). No risk, no reward. Absolutely don’t get rid of Tressell–he’s produced a great team time and time again and is a fantastic coach–but now’s a GREAT time to try new things.
The officiating? Holding happens on every single play in football. They only called it on usc when they had lil plays. They called it on us on our biggest plays including that touchdown. Its not the reason we lost but it is the reason we didn’t score a td. Alex boone sucks btw everybody says he’s a 1st rd pick? Lmao yea right. We don’t have any full backs? Our rb’s can’t block worth a dam they either missed the block or got pushed right out the way. Boeckman? He sucks! He’s 25 and still is playing college football and he still locks on one wr. Tressel don’t need fired tho. Usc defense looked like pittsburgh how much they blitzed last night. I stopped getting disappointed in osu and started getting impressed wit usc. They are great
On the bright side, Beanie is well rested for the Troy game.
Truer words have never been typed than when Lars wrote:
essentially declaring that ‘you do not come to Ohio State to win National Championships, you come to Ohio State to win Big 10 Championships’
Um no it clarified i won’t risk your future for a game you morons. He’s not healthy so you play him and he injures it again he’s out for probably the season. Telling the team he wasn’t playing was to let everybody know to step they game up! They didn’t step up and got stepped on! Idiots!
Tressel needs new coordinators, no doubt. Firing Tressel would be hugely detrimental to the program.
He’s done a phenomenal job of recruiting talent (which keeps talent away from Michigan, etc). That’s going to be very difficult to replace.
Speaking of short memories, we forget that Tressel has beaten Michigan for 4 straight years!!
Does anyone miss John Cooper? I don’t!
Anyone that puts the words “Tressel” and “fired” in the same sentance should be caned.
Here’s an idea for O.C. Jim Bollman: remove “Boeckman option” from the playbook.
Agree with Shaun. Sitting Beanie told him “I care more about your health than this football game.” And that is perfectly fine with me.
Would I have loved to see Beanie in the game? Absolutely. But if he’s not healthy enough, he’s not healthy enough. No sense in sending him out to get hurt worse and jeopardize his chances at the pro level.