2009 Purdue game thoughts

[Woody1968]

11-07-1998: Michigan State 28, Ohio State 24

The Buckeyes entered that game as clearly the best team in the nation, and they were a four-touchdown favorite over the Spartans. Although Ohio State's collapse was one of the most maddening displays of Buckeye football ever and probably cost them a national championship, the Spartans were at least a respectable team that year. Michigan State entered the game with a 4-4 record and already owned a win over a solid (9-3) Notre Dame squad. That 1998 game was just a rare case of the Buckeyes being Sparty.

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They were 4-4 at that point, but I don't recall them finishing the season well, which probably helped Florida State in claiming that their loss to N.C. State was somehow less of a stinker.

 

[buckeyemania11]

Purdue is a better team than their record indicates...they'd have a winning record if they could hold onto the ball.

I have to disagree

this same Purdue team got pretty much handled by Northern Illinois (a 3-3 MAC team)

 

[Woody1968]

I have to disagree

this same Purdue team got pretty much handled by Northern Illinois (a 3-3 MAC team)

Yeah, and they almost beat a decent Notre Dame team and they played a good game against a pretty good Oregon team. One game does not make a season...

 

[brutus2002]

NO way LJB...nobody can knock the defense. When your playing 66% of the last two games and your offense turns it over 5 times the defense cannot be blamed. We are deep but we are asking our defense to stop teams with 5 extra possessions...good luck with that.

Another thing LJB fails to realize their kicker is unbeliebeable. If this is another team they only try 2-3 fg's instead of 5. That kid made a 59 yarder earlier in the year. Between the turnovers and the amazing kicking your talking at least 9 points another team would not have gotten. We will not face a kicker even close to that guy again this season.

Why did we not run the ball...heck at least give our defense a rest. Thats another aspect that needs to be addressed. When you are passing and getting three and outs your defense is out there even quicker.

We definately goit outcoached and outplayed...Purdue won fair and square.

The best we can hope for is a share of the B10 title.

 

[buckeyebri]

I have to disagree

this same Purdue team got pretty much handled by Northern Illinois (a 3-3 MAC team)

This same Purdue team barely lost to Oregon on the road in the second game of the year, who happens to be leading the Pac 10... They also hung 51 on the same Toledo Rockets we played....I don't think they are bad just inconsistent and maybe a team that plays to the level of talent they play against...

 

[buckeyesin07]

3. I know that the general consensus is that "Ohio State's offense sucks!" ... but did anyone notice that the defense gave up 26 points and made Joey Elliot look like Billy Burke? I know that the offense didn't exactly make things easy on the defense with five turnovers and a general lack of aptitude, but the Purdue offense didn't seem to have any real problem completing passes, gaining yards, eating clock, and ultimately scoring points.

Great post. I agree entirely with this point in particular. So many times on Saturday I was cheering for our defense to get off the field and get our offense the ball back, but Purdue really was able to keep our offense off the field. As much as people want to blame our offense, it can't score without the ball, and Purdue killed us in the time of possession battle. One drive in particular stands out to me--coming out of halftime, we were down 9-7 and it may have been a different game if our offense just could have gotten the ball back (we could have run with Saine, who was having a good game), but Purdue was able to drive right down the field for a huge TD.

 

[ArmyVet83]

The only thing I can say about this weekends game is Ohio State needs to get more agressive on both sides of the ball both with playcalling and the general attitude of the team. I could go on and on about what specifically they need to do but the first sentence sums it up.

 

[BuckeyeRob]

and not a single loss from 2004 made your list. one of the few seasons in which the bucks had as much youth on the field as they do today. interesting...

why did we loose this game? simple. purdue dominated the los on both sides of the ball. our dline got no push what-so-ever. the middle was a solid wall for purdue and our ends got pushed well up field. hell we made elliot look like a mobile qb.

the oline got flat out dominated. no thats not accurate either, it was far worse than being dominated. i have to go all the way back to 2006 against florida to see the # of look out blocks from our oline. it felt like there was at least 1 per down. these blocks, or lack there of, were the DIRECT cause of 3 of the turnovers.

run whatever offensive scheme you want with as much talent as you can find. but if one person per play wiffs a block.... its not going to work. ever.

Id be right there with you if this were not a reoccurring theme with the offense of Ohio State. Outside the 2006 season, the offense has been anywhere from downright putrid bad to barely mediocre. I say that based off the final season NCAA rankings it is RARE when OSU finishes the season ranked in the top 50 on total offense. With the caliber of athletes the buckeye are able to recruit there is no excuse for being this inept. its unacceptable and it has to change.

Tressel SAYS his goal is 200 rushing and 250 passing. How many times do they reach that goal? 2001 65th in total offense. 2002 72nd in total offense. 2003 OSU 93rd in total offense. 2004 98th in total offense. 2005 32nd in total offense. 2006 26th in total offense. 2007 62nd in total offense. 2008 76th in total offense. YTD OSU is 91st in total offense.

Only the 2003 and 2004 offenses were worse than this years offense. 2005 and 2006 OSU finished above 50th in total offense and it took a heisman winning quarterback to accomplish that feat.

The evidence is overwhelming for those willing to face the truth. The problem is the offensive staff. We do not have guys getting picked off this staff with any regularity to interview for HC jobs or OC jobs. That is very, very telling. IMO there needs to be a major shake up on the offensive side of the ball. Take out the Troy Smith years and the evidence is clear that the offense is just plain bad from a philosophical point of view. Too many kids go on to the NFL from the offensive side of the ball for it to be anything but coaching and scheme.

 

[cincibuck]

Agree completely, looking back on this game that will be one of the big things that stand out to me about it. I'm curious as to how the hell you can say that the play was over and forward progress was stopped if no whistles were blown. Can't say for sure our offense would have done anything with the ball but that play kept purdue in it early.

OK, someone's got to be devil's advocate here. Was the receiver not stopped? Was his forward progress not ended? Was the whistle blown? I don't know, but then I spent a couple of years with the artillery and my hearing ain't the best, but how some guy sitting in some press box, more than a hundred yards away and behind a screaming crowd can claim to hear that it wasn't blown dead causes me to wonder. The fact remains the play was over and the whistle should have been, may have been, blown.

 

[EidoloN]

I don't want to totally single out any positions, but our offensive struggles, I believe, stem from the QB position. Teams are loading the box and daring TP to beat them, which, I don't believe he is doing. Kirk Herbstreet said it right in the lack of progression with TP's development. He is my favorite player, and such a phenominal athlete, why is he not being utilized correctly?

I think it comes down to his mind set. He preaches he wanted to go to a school that develops NFL quarterbacks, and that I think is hurting him. He is trying way too hard thinking about the NFL and what he needs to do to become successful in the league, instead of using his athletic ability to open things up for him. The development will come. Once teams respect what he can do with the ball in his hands, it will open things up for his arm.

Also, I think the play-calling is too predictable. Numerous times, I was calling the plays before the snap. Teams know JT ball. Our offense isn't as horrible as people say/think. We move the ball well, at times, it's just inconsistent. It gets me a little heated at times that we have such phenominal athletes that want to come to OSU and we struggleand are inconsistent on the O side of the ball. But then I realize, we are a young team, and things can/will get brighter.

 

[buckeyesin07]

OK, someone's got to be devil's advocate here. Was the receiver not stopped? Was his forward progress not ended? Was the whistle blown? I don't know, but then I spent a couple of years with the artillery and my hearing ain't the best, but how some guy sitting in some press box, more than a hundred yards away and behind a screaming crowd can claim to hear that it wasn't blown dead causes me to wonder. The fact remains the play was over and the whistle should have been, may have been, blown.

So because you believe the whistle should have been blown (which is, at best, a dubious proposition in my opinion, as it seemed that the WR was still fighting forward when the ball was stripped), you think it was OK for the refs (many of whom had just signaled OSU's possession of the ball and none of whom blowed his whistle), to conclude after the fact that forward progress was stopped, that the whistle should have been blown, and that possession actually should be given back to Purdue (note I use the phrase "given back" because every ref near the play gave the ball to OSU by signaling OSU possession)?

Assuming that forward progress was stopped, then the refs made a mistake by not blowing the whistle and signaling OSU possession of the ball. I do not think that they should have corrected that presumed mistake by, after the fact, saying that forward progress was stopped and therefore it is still Purdue ball. This particularly should not have occurred without official review (not sure if that's a reviewable call, admittedly). I have watched a lot of football in my day, and I have never seen officials handle a situation like that before.

A major gaff by the officiating crew, in my opinion.

 

[buckiprof]

I thought the call on Browning wasn't that bad. It looked like a block in the back to me, and it did spring Saine.

On the line of scrimmage, there is no block in the back. While I agree that the holding call was ticky-tack, it did spring Saine and I don't disagree with the call as there was grabbing of the jersey...hence holding.

What did upset me about that play, and why there shouldn't have been a holding call, is the fact that Browning didn't really engage and drive. He kinda got there and stopped and that put him in the position to hold.

 

[Tlangs]

OK, someone's got to be devil's advocate here. Was the receiver not stopped? Was his forward progress not ended? Was the whistle blown? I don't know, but then I spent a couple of years with the artillery and my hearing ain't the best, but how some guy sitting in some press box, more than a hundred yards away and behind a screaming crowd can claim to hear that it wasn't blown dead causes me to wonder. The fact remains the play was over and the whistle should have been, may have been, blown.

By that definition Pryor's first fumble should have been "forward progress stopped" and negated. If the whistle isn't blown and the knee isn't down....fumble.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

2002 72nd in total offense. 2003 OSU 93rd in total offense. 2004 98th in total offense. 2005 32nd in total offense. 2006 26th in total offense. 2007 62nd in total offense. 2008 76th in total offense.

2002: 14-0, #1 ranking
2003: 11-2, #4 ranking
2004: 8-4, #19 ranking
2005: 10-2, #4 ranking
2006: 12-1, #2 ranking
2007: 11-2, #4 ranking
2008: 10-3, #11 ranking (#9 AP)

7 year totals: 76-14 (.844), average BCS ranking = 6.4, average total offense ranking = 65.6

I'd really rather not look at offensive production in a vacuum, because clearly offensive production is not in any way correlated to success on the field, at least as far as the Buckeyes are concerned.

Over the past seven years, Ohio State's defense has given up an average of 15 points per game, so the goal for the offense should be to score 16 or more. Offensive overkill against overmatched teams might pad your stats, but it doesn't give you any extra credit in the "win" column ... and as Oklahoma has proven in its recent losses (Florida, BYU, Miami, Texas), it doesn't really help you against good teams who can actually play some defense.

Saying that the Buckeye offense should gain more yards and score more points is a simple solution (a simpleton solution, actually), but it is misleading. Racking up more yardage and running up the score on hapless opponents like Toledo and Illinois and Indiana would certainly have improved the Buckeyes' offensive statistics for this season ... but it wouldn't have helped Ohio State to beat Southern Cal or Purdue. The real issue is this: What changes need to be made to the Buckeye offense so that it can carry the team, and win the game, when the defense and special teams aren't up to the task? Is the problem talent? Technique? Coaching? Play calling? Formations? Schemes? Philosophy? Tempo? Chemistry? Strategy? Tactics? And what are the solutions? Any suggestions? Or is bitching about the offensive numbers as far as you are willing to go?

Tressel SAYS his goal is 200 rushing and 250 passing.

I'm pretty sure that his real goal is to score one more point than his opponent.

Too many kids go on to the NFL from the offensive side of the ball for it to be anything but coaching and scheme.

What exactly do you mean by "coaching and scheme"?

The evidence is overwhelming for those willing to face the truth.

I love when people go to the "face the truth" card, as if that somehow makes YOU the REAL Buckeye fan....

 

[jwinslow]

When was the last time the NFL was excited about a QB or OL from OSU? after 04? Sims was good, but excited is probably a little overstated.