Jim Bollman (Stay calm and run Dave)

[MililaniBuckeye]

what i saw saturday was not a better-than-adequate gameplan. what i saw was excellent execution of an uncreative gameplan.

Yep. Boom blasts through a gaping hole for 57(?) yards. Braxton sweeps left and scores from 44 yards out. Braxton escapes right and launches an arching bomb that luckily made it to Smith before the DB did. Three big plays for two of our TDs and leading to a third. The fourth TD came on a 3-play, 1-yard drive.

The OL played lights out for the most part, and an emotional Boom Herron was a man on a mission. Those two factors, along with the aforementioned big plays, factored far more into our offensive success than did any game plan.

EDIT: Taking away Boom's 57-yard run and Braxton's 44-yard TD run, we rushed for 56 times for 184 yards (just under 3.3 ypc).

 

[Jaxbuck]

To me it still comes back to the start of the season.

They had all spring, summer and fall camp. They had to have known Bausermans limitations. To know that and let Miller sit as much as they did is just inexcusable in my mind.

Plus, here we are in year 11 of the Bollman OC era and its about the 8-9th time the teams overall glaring weakness is on offense.

1 can be a coincidence, 8-9 is a trend.

So nice gameplan/execution, whatever you want to call it, I have a hard time giving anyone kudos for occasional bouts of competency just because their overall body of work has set the bar so much lower than that.

Developing an effective game plan, preparing the athletes to execute it and putting an offense on the field capable of scoring points is his fucking job.

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

3rd-and-14? time for play-action.

 

[BB73]

Yep. Boom blasts through a gaping hole for 57(?) yards. Braxton sweeps left and scores from 44 yards out. Braxton escapes right and launches an arching bomb that luckily made it to Smith before the DB did. Three big plays for two of our TDs and leading to a third. The fourth TD came on a 3-play, 1-yard drive.

The OL played lights out for the most part, and an emotional Boom Herron was a man on a mission. Those two factors, along with the aforementioned big plays, factored far more into our offensive success than did any game plan.

EDIT: Taking away Boom's 57-yard run and Braxton's 44-yard TD run, we rushed for 56 times for 184 yards (just under 3.3 ypc).

Along with the big plays, tOSU was 11-for-20 in 3rd down conversions, and 1-for-1 in 4th down conversions. So there was success outside of the huge gainers.

 

[sepia5]

The offensive game plan has obviously opened somewhat since the Miami game. But, what I saw on Saturday night was that we have superior athletes compared to Wisconsin. Of course, I'd also say we probably have superior athletes compared to everyone we've played to date.

 

[buckeyesin07]

To me it still comes back to the start of the season.

They had all spring, summer and fall camp. They had to have known Bausermans limitations. To know that and let Miller sit as much as they did is just inexcusable in my mind.

Plus, here we are in year 11 of the Bollman OC era and its about the 8-9th time the teams overall glaring weakness is on offense.

1 can be a coincidence, 8-9 is a trend.

So nice gameplan/execution, whatever you want to call it, I have a hard time giving anyone kudos for occasional bouts of competency just because their overall body of work has set the bar so much lower than that.

Developing an effective game plan, preparing the athletes to execute it and putting an offense on the field capable of scoring points is his [censored]ing job.

Another point about the OC being late to the party--it seemed that most OSU fans, media, and pretty much everyone with an opinion who wasnt a member of the coaching staff could see that Joe B wasn't the answer either as starter or as 2nd string. Yet it took until the Colorado game for Brax to start, and up until last week before Kenny was named backup.

 

[dav713]

To me it still comes back to the start of the season.

They had all spring, summer and fall camp. They had to have known Bausermans limitations. To know that and let Miller sit as much as they did is just inexcusable in my mind.

This times 100. The handling of the QB situation really set back Braxton, which likely cost us at least 1 game (MSU).

Plus, here we are in year 11 of the Bollman OC era and its about the 8-9th time the teams overall glaring weakness is on offense.

1 can be a coincidence, 8-9 is a trend.

Because of this, I was pleasantly surprised with some of the competence we saw during the Wisc game.

Developing an effective game plan, preparing the athletes to execute it and putting an offense on the field capable of scoring points is his fucking job.

And this past weekend, this is what happened. OSU's offense had a good performance and a strong 2nd half showing to boot. They did more than enough to win. Was the gameplan perfect? Probably not. But running the ball is how you put games away. I'll take that over the Nebraska post-Braxton injury gameplan everyday.

 

[buckeye4ever21]

what i saw saturday was not a better-than-adequate gameplan. what i saw was excellent execution of an uncreative gameplan.

until i see a naked bootleg against a blitzing team, i'll continue thinking that bollman has little understanding of how to exploit the defenses' tendencies. yes, that is a simplistic way of critiquing our offensive coordinator, but i think that any decent tactician would have employed this play at least once already... especially against msu. you throw just one naked bootleg at the spartans and they no longer send the house each play.

Couldn't have said it any better. I'm baffled at Bollman's unwillingness to force development in the passing game. OSU has better athlete's than everyone on it's schedule yet we continually underperform as an offense. The defense maximizes it's strengths and personel, why can't we do the same with our offense. Our inability to be creative keeps opposing teams in games with our play not to lose offensive scheme. While the run might have been working we should still be throwing the ball on on 3rd downs to keep it out of Wisconsin's hands to avoid any potential comback. Pounding the same running back 33 times isn't the smartest thing either and it's a good way to get him injured. Where's Hyde at, especially when it comes to goal line carries? Anyone can call 28 diverse run plays out of 30 plays when staring at a list of running plays. It's when an offensive coordinator can diagnose what the defensive is throwing at them over the course of the game and use his athletes to best exploit the matchups. You can't run the ball 90% of the time and be successful in the NFL or against top tier SEC teams. We need to stop playing down to the big ten and play like we are a top tier SEC team, then we won't look suprised when we match up against them.

 

[Bestbuck36]

It all comes down to not being predictable. This is what we've screamed about for the last decade. Doesn't always have to be run, run, pass, punt. JT is gone. F the punt if you can get a touchdown instead. I agree its better than a turnover but if you move the ball, you have a chance to score and allow your defense to freaking breathe a little bit.

This week we saw an outstanding call on the option left. If you watch pre-snap, Wisconsin shifted left which played straight into a perfect Option left situation. Great call. The runs by Boom were just great reads by Boom and great blocking up front. Give credit where its actually due.

What most of us would like to see is more passing on first and second down. That leaves longer yardage to go if we get nil, thats understandable. However, given that Braxton is prone to make something happen, 1st and 2nd down have become our down to catch the defense out of position, thus, big play potential. If they play run defense against us on the first two downs they will more times than not leave us long yardage to go for goal on 3rd downs. Thats not a percentage play we want all of the time and thats what we've been getting.

I'm hoping after this week, they allow Braxton more room to create on first and second down knowing that the OL and Boom are going to get needed yardage on the next downs. Being unpredictable will only loosen things up for our playmakers.

I loved the Option looks. I love the possibility for misdirection and gimmick plays. I love the TE screen. Do more of these once in a while to throw the DC off the scent and Bollman will be more successful.

 

[scarletmike]

I understand an unease to let your true freshman QB throw a lot of bombs to your freshman WR corps, but there are more than just slow developing, 15+ yard pass plays that exist. And almost every single time we have actually run one of those shorter routes, it has ended up pretty good. Why have we not seen a bunch more slants, screens, and other short options into the flats? Sure, if they're stacking the box it's a little riskier to throw over the line, so you try to spread them out with an option or bootleg (as mentioned not too many posts ago). There has been a glaring deficiency in how they've called Braxton's development so far, and his athleticism, skill, and quick learning abilities have bailed them out at times. Short passing routes exist, and they work. Oh, and they also open up running lanes because they force a stacked box to spread out to keep the short field protected. I'll take Boom's (or Braxton's) ability to make defenders miss all day one on one versus having to run through a stacked box every time.

 

[cbrian815]

Even if we give Bollman credit for coming up with a good game plan against the Badgers (which I am perfectly willing to do) the fact remains that it took entirely too long to get to this point.

I am hopeful that this team has found its identity and will be able to get rolling on offense in the final weeks of the season and into the post season (Indiana is the perfect team to start with), but even if that happens, that in no way excuses Jim Bollman for taking over half a year to figure out how to run his offense.

Once again, I pray that this team and Bollman have found their groove, but he still ABSOLUTELY needs to be gone at the end of the season or we will go through the same bumbling search for an offense at the beginning of next year.

The offense getting better if that is what you want to call it is all about the return of Boom and Adams. It will get better when Posey returns also. Where JB totally messed up is he decided to start and play JB, even though all through spring and our early games he could and should have been developing BM. That was a horrible decision and with as many years coaching he has....unexplainable. JB has more talent on his team than any other in the big10 and the fact that we are ranked 110 out of 120 teams(right now) in total offense is embarrassing. Epic fail. I would have been canned years ago if that was my job performance. Go Bucks

 

[Woody1968]

How many runs did we have for 0 or negative yardage? Especially on first down??? Mili's post above illustrates the struggles we had on just two possessions, and those struggles were not relegated to only those two drives.
I cant understand how anyone could watch that game and honestly think that the offense was prepared for success. That was the epitome of underachievement...

Um, yeah, two possessions where we scored touchdowns. Forgive me if I don't immediately fly into panic mode...

 

[Poe McKnoe]

The offense getting better

That's my biggest gripe about all this. (this is taken out of context but I'm on a phone). It's this far into the season, and yet again we've found success with a run based attack with a mobile QB to take advantage of broken plays. I just described OSU for the past 10 years minus Boeckman. It is unfortunate that it's halfway through a season and we're just now figuring out what we do good on offense.

 

[Dryden]

It is unfortunate that it's halfway through a season and we're just now figuring out what we do good on offense.

That is to be expected with so many freshmen on the field. I just see a lot of parallels to 2004.

With so many young pups out there, most of the time it's impossible for anyone to know what the playcall actually was versus what the kids are running around doing.

 

[ysubuck]

I think that people are going to be very bent out of shape after this weekend.

Many (including me) are looking at the Indiana game as a chance to "practice" and get the offense even more comfortable and to work on the passing game.

What I think we WILL see is a very vanilla run heavy offense against a totally over matched Indiana team.

IMO this game should be treated like a practice and Braxton should be throwing down field in the first half.