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LGHL Another big game, another painful Buckeye disappointment; something has to change
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Another big game, another painful Buckeye disappointment; something has to change
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
This $h!t is getting old... strike that, it was already old, now it’s getting obnoxious.
Another big game, another disappointing performance from the Ohio State football team and — perhaps more glaringly — from the Ohio State coaches. During Ryan Day’s six-year tenure as OSU's head football coach, his team has unequivocally been one of the best in college football. However, they have, without fail, been stuck just on the outside of the elite circles in the sport.
Instead, their inability to beat the best teams on their schedule, on a seemingly annual basis, has thwarted any attempt to get back to where the program and its fans believe that it should be. Without question, Ohio State's roster is as good as — if not better than — any other team in college football. But that is not unique to the 2024 season, that has been the case since Urban Meyer got to town in 2012 and arguably back to the days of John Cooper in the 1990s. But despite the talent advantages that Ohio State has on nearly every occasion, when it comes to the best opposition that they face, something is always lacking.
Whether it is an inability to pressure the passer, timid playcalling, a lack of explosive plays, poor clock management, crippling penalties, bad bounces, puzzling officiating, there is always something that gets in between Ohio State and a signature victory. Sure, OSU routinely beats the Notre Dames, Iowas, Nebraskas, and Penn States on their schedule, but those should not be the benchmarks by which we are judging a Buckeye team. Instead, it should be the Georgias, the Clemsons, the Oregons, and the Michigans. Yet, time after time – 2020 against Clemson and notwithstanding – Ryan Day's squad has come up short.
Now, I am not an Xs and Os guru, so I cannot begin to tell you in any specific terms why this blue-chip defensive line has struggled to sack the quarterback in recent years. While the lack of hitts on the quarterback won’t cost you games against Michigan State and Marshall, it will cost you game against Michigan and Oregon. so why is that still a significant issue for the fifth straight year?
Yes, the advanced analytics and the access-based beat writers will tell you that it is all a mirage and that the OSU defensive line is actually one of the best teams in the country at generating pressure. But if that’s the case, then we need to stop caring about pressure, because it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on games.
To my untrained eye, it seems like the Ohio State defensive line does very little in terms of creativity. Instead, they line up in Larry Johnson’s beloved four-man front and run straight ahead into a five or six-man offensive line. If the players are able to disrupt the passer and regularly hit him that way, then have at it; that would free up the linebackers and defensive backs to make more plays.
But that doesn’t happen... ever. I don’t need Bosa Brother or Chase Young-levels of sacks, and I recognize that the game has changed, but to — without exception — see the Ohio State defensive line fail to do anything disruptive on the biggest stages is staggering.
The fact that it has happened with different players across the defensive front in multiple seasons leads to only one conclusion; the one constant, the coaches, are the problem. There have long been whispers that Jim Knowles and Larry Johnson’s philosophies didn’t mesh and that there was something of a Cold War in the Ohio State defensive coaching ranks. At this point, after years of seeing the same result, someone needs to address this, or at least ask the question of whether or not Ohio State’s most experienced and important defensive coaches’ inability to get on the same page is leading to squandered five-star talent and missed opportunities on an annual basis.
But Ohio State’s ineptitude to truly pressure Dylan Gabriel was not the only reason why Ohio State lost to Oregon on Saturday night. The clock management in the final three minutes was abhorrent. Denzel Burke had inarguably his worst game as a Buckeye. The defense’s tackling in general was horrendous. The final drive was an unceasing string of mistakes and poor decisions highlighted by the fact that the Buckeyes’ veteran starting quarterback — who had a pretty stellar game otherwise — decided to take off running with six seconds remaining and slide as time expired.
Despite the fact that OSU’s offense went for 467 yards on the day, very little seemed to go right for the Buckeyes in Eugene on Saturday night, an unfortunate, familiar refrain when it comes to the biggest games on the Scarlet and Gray’s schedule.
I don’t know what the answer is here; I truly wish I did, because as a fan, it is getting difficult to stomach this type of performance every time the lights shine the brightest. I do know that there are already people calling for the coaches to be fired, but even they have to know that is not gonna happen, not in the middle of the season and probably not after the season either... unless the wheels completely come off between now and the regular season finale.
But something does have to change, not just in order to take full advantage of all of the veteran players who returned for one last go at a title; not just to validate the decisions made by the elite transfers who came to Columbus because they believed in what Day was building, but for the health and future of this program.
If Ohio State — the program and the fanbase — was content to simply make the expanded 12-team playoff three out of every four years, then what we’ve seen in big games over the last few seasons would be fine; in fact, it would be more than fine. If Ohio State continues to wrack up 10-2 and 11-1 regular seasons, they will never not be in the playoff field.
But we all know that that is not the goal at Ohio State and that should not be acceptable at Ohio State. And yet, that is what we have been forced to accept in recent seasons under Ryan Day. To the head coach’s credit, he seemingly pulled many of the levers needed to reinvent his program; he made the moves that many (myself included) thought necessary to prevent these types of situations from happening yet again. But here we are, on the short end of another marquee matchup with the same problems poking their heads up out of the ground just begging for the coaching staff to whack them with a mallet.
Just like the 2022 Peach Bowl against Georgia, Ohio State was clearly good enough to win, but little things that are glossed over against weaker opponents continue to pop up in the most inopportune of times. Balls being stripped out of the hands of normally reliable running backs; dropped snaps suddenly ending promising drives; false start penalty after false start penalty. This team is too damn talented and experienced for this to happen every single time they are in a big game. Are the players in their own heads, burned by the now-routine losses in these games? Are the coaches in the players’ heads, knowing that their reputations and jobs are on the line?
I don’t know, but I am open to exploring any explanation for why we are forced to feel like this after every single big-time game.
Perhaps there is some solace in knowing that Ohio State’s championship aspirations are not completely gone, but as I wrote earlier this week, winning this game matters for reasons logistical (Big Ten Championship berth and College Football Playoff seeding) and existential (the future of Ryan Day’s tenure in Columbus). So despite the mulligan that the 12-team CFP provides, this is a bad loss. It is bad because it is yet another signpost in a winding road littered with disappointments, and it is bad because it shows that the issues of seasons past have not been nearly as corrected as we had hoped.
The season is not over, and for that, I am grateful, but we’ve seen this song and dance before. Ohio State can beat Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Northwestern, and Indiana and we will all try to convince ourselves that those wins against varying levels of Big Ten competition are enough to prove that the problems that perennially plague the program have been remedied. And yet, when they play Michigan or Oregon or Georgia or Alabama or Tennessee or any other elite-level team, they are likely to get tantalizingly close to exorcizing their demons, only to fail for the same familiar reasons that have been haunting the team for years.
Losing 50% of your talent-equated games would be understandable, even 65% you could chalk up to bad luck. But losing 80% to 90% of your biggest games speaks to something deeper. Again, I don’t know what the answer is, or if this team and coaching staff is even capable of fixing it if they could put their finger on it. All I know is that in a sport where talent is king, Ohio State is way too talented to always end up on the losing end of these types of games.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
This $h!t is getting old... strike that, it was already old, now it’s getting obnoxious.
Another big game, another disappointing performance from the Ohio State football team and — perhaps more glaringly — from the Ohio State coaches. During Ryan Day’s six-year tenure as OSU's head football coach, his team has unequivocally been one of the best in college football. However, they have, without fail, been stuck just on the outside of the elite circles in the sport.
Instead, their inability to beat the best teams on their schedule, on a seemingly annual basis, has thwarted any attempt to get back to where the program and its fans believe that it should be. Without question, Ohio State's roster is as good as — if not better than — any other team in college football. But that is not unique to the 2024 season, that has been the case since Urban Meyer got to town in 2012 and arguably back to the days of John Cooper in the 1990s. But despite the talent advantages that Ohio State has on nearly every occasion, when it comes to the best opposition that they face, something is always lacking.
Whether it is an inability to pressure the passer, timid playcalling, a lack of explosive plays, poor clock management, crippling penalties, bad bounces, puzzling officiating, there is always something that gets in between Ohio State and a signature victory. Sure, OSU routinely beats the Notre Dames, Iowas, Nebraskas, and Penn States on their schedule, but those should not be the benchmarks by which we are judging a Buckeye team. Instead, it should be the Georgias, the Clemsons, the Oregons, and the Michigans. Yet, time after time – 2020 against Clemson and notwithstanding – Ryan Day's squad has come up short.
Now, I am not an Xs and Os guru, so I cannot begin to tell you in any specific terms why this blue-chip defensive line has struggled to sack the quarterback in recent years. While the lack of hitts on the quarterback won’t cost you games against Michigan State and Marshall, it will cost you game against Michigan and Oregon. so why is that still a significant issue for the fifth straight year?
Yes, the advanced analytics and the access-based beat writers will tell you that it is all a mirage and that the OSU defensive line is actually one of the best teams in the country at generating pressure. But if that’s the case, then we need to stop caring about pressure, because it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on games.
To my untrained eye, it seems like the Ohio State defensive line does very little in terms of creativity. Instead, they line up in Larry Johnson’s beloved four-man front and run straight ahead into a five or six-man offensive line. If the players are able to disrupt the passer and regularly hit him that way, then have at it; that would free up the linebackers and defensive backs to make more plays.
But that doesn’t happen... ever. I don’t need Bosa Brother or Chase Young-levels of sacks, and I recognize that the game has changed, but to — without exception — see the Ohio State defensive line fail to do anything disruptive on the biggest stages is staggering.
The fact that it has happened with different players across the defensive front in multiple seasons leads to only one conclusion; the one constant, the coaches, are the problem. There have long been whispers that Jim Knowles and Larry Johnson’s philosophies didn’t mesh and that there was something of a Cold War in the Ohio State defensive coaching ranks. At this point, after years of seeing the same result, someone needs to address this, or at least ask the question of whether or not Ohio State’s most experienced and important defensive coaches’ inability to get on the same page is leading to squandered five-star talent and missed opportunities on an annual basis.
But Ohio State’s ineptitude to truly pressure Dylan Gabriel was not the only reason why Ohio State lost to Oregon on Saturday night. The clock management in the final three minutes was abhorrent. Denzel Burke had inarguably his worst game as a Buckeye. The defense’s tackling in general was horrendous. The final drive was an unceasing string of mistakes and poor decisions highlighted by the fact that the Buckeyes’ veteran starting quarterback — who had a pretty stellar game otherwise — decided to take off running with six seconds remaining and slide as time expired.
Despite the fact that OSU’s offense went for 467 yards on the day, very little seemed to go right for the Buckeyes in Eugene on Saturday night, an unfortunate, familiar refrain when it comes to the biggest games on the Scarlet and Gray’s schedule.
I don’t know what the answer is here; I truly wish I did, because as a fan, it is getting difficult to stomach this type of performance every time the lights shine the brightest. I do know that there are already people calling for the coaches to be fired, but even they have to know that is not gonna happen, not in the middle of the season and probably not after the season either... unless the wheels completely come off between now and the regular season finale.
But something does have to change, not just in order to take full advantage of all of the veteran players who returned for one last go at a title; not just to validate the decisions made by the elite transfers who came to Columbus because they believed in what Day was building, but for the health and future of this program.
If Ohio State — the program and the fanbase — was content to simply make the expanded 12-team playoff three out of every four years, then what we’ve seen in big games over the last few seasons would be fine; in fact, it would be more than fine. If Ohio State continues to wrack up 10-2 and 11-1 regular seasons, they will never not be in the playoff field.
But we all know that that is not the goal at Ohio State and that should not be acceptable at Ohio State. And yet, that is what we have been forced to accept in recent seasons under Ryan Day. To the head coach’s credit, he seemingly pulled many of the levers needed to reinvent his program; he made the moves that many (myself included) thought necessary to prevent these types of situations from happening yet again. But here we are, on the short end of another marquee matchup with the same problems poking their heads up out of the ground just begging for the coaching staff to whack them with a mallet.
Just like the 2022 Peach Bowl against Georgia, Ohio State was clearly good enough to win, but little things that are glossed over against weaker opponents continue to pop up in the most inopportune of times. Balls being stripped out of the hands of normally reliable running backs; dropped snaps suddenly ending promising drives; false start penalty after false start penalty. This team is too damn talented and experienced for this to happen every single time they are in a big game. Are the players in their own heads, burned by the now-routine losses in these games? Are the coaches in the players’ heads, knowing that their reputations and jobs are on the line?
I don’t know, but I am open to exploring any explanation for why we are forced to feel like this after every single big-time game.
Perhaps there is some solace in knowing that Ohio State’s championship aspirations are not completely gone, but as I wrote earlier this week, winning this game matters for reasons logistical (Big Ten Championship berth and College Football Playoff seeding) and existential (the future of Ryan Day’s tenure in Columbus). So despite the mulligan that the 12-team CFP provides, this is a bad loss. It is bad because it is yet another signpost in a winding road littered with disappointments, and it is bad because it shows that the issues of seasons past have not been nearly as corrected as we had hoped.
The season is not over, and for that, I am grateful, but we’ve seen this song and dance before. Ohio State can beat Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Northwestern, and Indiana and we will all try to convince ourselves that those wins against varying levels of Big Ten competition are enough to prove that the problems that perennially plague the program have been remedied. And yet, when they play Michigan or Oregon or Georgia or Alabama or Tennessee or any other elite-level team, they are likely to get tantalizingly close to exorcizing their demons, only to fail for the same familiar reasons that have been haunting the team for years.
Losing 50% of your talent-equated games would be understandable, even 65% you could chalk up to bad luck. But losing 80% to 90% of your biggest games speaks to something deeper. Again, I don’t know what the answer is, or if this team and coaching staff is even capable of fixing it if they could put their finger on it. All I know is that in a sport where talent is king, Ohio State is way too talented to always end up on the losing end of these types of games.
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