You know, I'd be happy with a non-explosive offense. If this team really DID have Tressel's "mistake-free and opportunistic" approach, I'd be okay with that. Pull your big plays to Ginn and Holmes right after an opponent's turnover, be disciplined and don't commit stupid penalties and don't turn the ball over, and he could run the Iso 40 times a game and I'd be cool with it. I really don't mind a team that wins every week 27-10, even if the score should be higher.
What I *DO* mind is an offense that gives the game away to the other team when the defense has played it's guts out. Our offense LOST the Penn State game. It didn't just "fail to win"...it LOST. Our defense won their battle.
We really don't need some kind of "North Coast Offense"...it won't work in the lousy B10 weather come November anyway. Just give me a big, bruising tailback, an offensive line that gets low, makes it's push and creates holes, a fullback who knows how to lay a hit, and let's go burn some clock and chew up yards. On the days that the QB can't read "See Spot Run", that will get you through. I just don't think that you can get the ball to the WR playmakers if the other team doesn't respect your running game. And for the love of all that is good and decent in this world, can we run a solid playaction?
I really don't think Ohio State needs fancy football. I don't think we need spread options, fun 'n gun, or Texas Tech's playbook. What we do need is sound offense played well, and I don't think we've seen that much.
I have no problem with Tressel's stated goals of balance, execution, being mistake-free, etc. The problem is that it's been missing for two seasons. Instead what we have is a volatile offense that either explodes (scUM, Ok State, Iowa) or blows up in your face (PSU, SDSU).
That probably puts me in the minority. It seems every poster on here has used the phrase "half a hundred" within the past month, or mentioned Rice. I seriously don't care about 70 point blowouts against Nobody State. If you want that, there's plenty of unused Red Raider merchandise on Ebay for you. However, when we can't execute at all against top notch defenses like Texas and Penn State, specifically by turning the ball over and by not gaining yards on the ground, controlling the clock and keeping the D off the field, we have issues.
It's not about scoring, unfortunately. It goes deeper than that, and we're going to be in trouble every time we face an excellent defense. (Iowa's defense was not great, btw. Iowa has some good individual players on a decidedly sub-par overall unit.) Thank goodness that the rest of the slate doesn't contain any.
