Reactionary Offensive Changes Cost Ohio State its 2015 Dreams
Saturday afternoon, the Ohio State offense finally looked like the juggernaut it was expected to be all season in a victory over rivals Michigan.
Against a top-ranked defense, the Buckeyes put up 42 points and registered 482 total yards. The flow of the offense seemed to be in the rhythm of a year ago in the final game of the regular season.
Credit to this change was given to co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Ed Warinner’s move from sideline to the press box to call plays directly with quarterbacks coach Tim Beck.
“We had to make a move,” head coach Urban Meyer said. “We were not getting that game called.”
The week previous, the Buckeye offense was stuck in the mud, scoring only 14 points and registering 132 total yards in a 17-14 home loss to Michigan State. This performance prompted Meyer to make the move and put his two offensive coordinators in the box, but it wasn’t the first signs of offensive issues.
In the first three home games of the season, the OSU offense seemed out of sorts, averaging just 32 points per game in non-conference contests that are supposed to be stat compliers.
The reason for that was blamed on quarterback Cardale Jones, who was eventually benched for J.T. Barrett. While the offense ran more smoothly in Barrett’s first start against Rutgers, the issues weren’t fixed, but nothing was changed.
Warinner remained on the sideline with Beck calling plays from above as the offense scored just 28 points in back-to-back games ahead of welcoming the Spartans to Columbus, but it was the loss that forced the hand.
“We talked about it all the time,” Warinner said. “Just how to manage five guys and manage an offense from the press box is somewhat hard. We made a decision and realized that we needed to do something different for this one and we did.”
Talked about it, but didn’t do anything.
Standing on the sidelines allows easy communication with players, but makes it difficult to see what’s going on in the game. Having Ohio State’s two play callers in the press box, along with Meyer down below, allowed plays to come in quicker because both coaches had a better view of what needed to be called.
“Part of playing fast is what’s the next call,” Warinner explained. “Well is it second and 10 or is it second and five? Is it third and two or is it second and eight? The situations, you see them. You don’t have to wait for someone to tell you then process. You just see it all and go.”
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The question remains, why did this not happen earlier for Ohio State?
The Scarlet and Gray played three games this season where the offense compared to last year and other changes were made, but this decision was held until the end of the year, when things were too late.
The nation expected Ohio State’s offense to come alive against Michigan State and finally live up to expectations. Instead it played its worst performance in years and likely cost OSU a chance to accomplish the team’s goals this year.
Too little too late for the Buckeyes.
Entire article:
http://theozone.net/Ohio-State/Foot...nsive-Changes-Cost-Ohio-State-its-2015-Dreams
