Ken
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Second Thoughts: Northern Illinois vs. Ohio State
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Well, that wasn’t as much fun as we’d hoped. The Buckeyes remain undefeated, barely, by edging Northern Illinois 20-13 on Saturday. There were stretches of very good play and stretches of uninspired play by Ohio State.
Here’s what I think.
Special Teams
The Special Teams had a great day against NIU. They were 2-2 on FG’s and they kicked well. The punt team hit boomers and their coverage team had another good outing. Although Cam had three touch backs, the coverage team was very close to downing two punts inside the NIU 5 yard line. An outstanding effort.
Defense
The defensive effort was simply outstanding. They were on the field for 74 plays, yet gave up only 190 total yards (2.6 YPP). The TD they did give up was a short-field (22 yard) drive set up by an interception of Cardale’s 2nd pass of the day.
The defense provided the winning margin via a Darron Lee 41 yard interception return with less than two minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter.
Coming off last week’s shut-out of Hawai’i, this performance against NIU indicates the defense is hitting on all cylinders. I’m just speechless..
Offense
As long as I’m on “speechless”, this offense is excruciatingly struggling. Which is a shame, since aside from WR, the major players return for Ohio State. Of course, the WR position (Michael Thomas, specifically) is the only position performing at a high level. Why is this? I think several factors come into play.
The issues are manifested in mediocre, at best quarterback play. You also see it in substandard offensive line play. I think that can be attributed to substandard offensive coaching. Let’s start with Co-coordinator/QB coach Tim Beck. I’m not exactly sure what his specific duties are, but if he was hired to develop OSU’s quarterbacks, this is a mis-hire. The quarterback play has regressed since last season. Two very talented players are merely playing, waiting to get pulled for his replacement. Now, I come to Ed Warinner. Warinner has indisputably shown that he is one of the best offensive line coaches in the business. As a co-coordinator/line coach, he is in over his head. From last week’s post-Hawaii presser, Urban responded thus:
Q. Looked like when you got back to basics a little bit kind of running Ezekiel straight ahead, that’s when you all saw some things about their defense. What befuddled you all the most about their defense?
COACH MEYER: It’s that 3-4 defense, and we have not executed greatly against it. So we’re going to go back to the drawing board, because we’ll see that three or four times. Remember, Indiana did that same thing last year.
OK, that’s a straightforward enough response and an acknowledgement of need for potential “things to address”. After all, after the VT game last season, several OSU opponents went to the same defensive front as VT to try to have the same success. So, it stands to reason that Beck/Warriner would get in some practice reps against a 3-4 front since Hawaii had some success with it, and Urban acknowledged that other teams would try to exploit this issue.
Evidently, I give the OSU coaching staff too much credit, because, per Doug Lesmerises:
“Played all odd,” Urban Meyer said to the first question of his news conference after Ohio State’s 20-13 win over the Huskies. “They changed their defense.
“Last week was all odd and then this week they went to all odd, and we’re having trouble with that right now.”
And, per Taylor Decker:
“You prepare for one defense and they come on another one,” left tackle Taylor Decker said. “Obviously everybody is going to play odd against us now, we’ve showed that we struggle against it….”
Am I to interpret this that, despite acknowledging last week that future opponents would likely try 3-4 defensive fronts, Ohio State still didn’t prep for it? That’s how I interpret it. This is inexcusable from the coaching staff.
Right now this is not a #1 team, it is a “good” team. The defense and special teams are performing at a very high level. The offense simply is dysfunctional. For all the pre-season chatter of OSU’s offense having multiple Heisman trophy candidates, with the exception of Michael Thomas’ play, no one close to playing at an All-Conference level.
The post Second Thoughts: Northern Illinois vs. Ohio State appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
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Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Well, that wasn’t as much fun as we’d hoped. The Buckeyes remain undefeated, barely, by edging Northern Illinois 20-13 on Saturday. There were stretches of very good play and stretches of uninspired play by Ohio State.
Here’s what I think.
Special Teams
The Special Teams had a great day against NIU. They were 2-2 on FG’s and they kicked well. The punt team hit boomers and their coverage team had another good outing. Although Cam had three touch backs, the coverage team was very close to downing two punts inside the NIU 5 yard line. An outstanding effort.
Defense
The defensive effort was simply outstanding. They were on the field for 74 plays, yet gave up only 190 total yards (2.6 YPP). The TD they did give up was a short-field (22 yard) drive set up by an interception of Cardale’s 2nd pass of the day.
The defense provided the winning margin via a Darron Lee 41 yard interception return with less than two minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter.
Coming off last week’s shut-out of Hawai’i, this performance against NIU indicates the defense is hitting on all cylinders. I’m just speechless..
Offense
As long as I’m on “speechless”, this offense is excruciatingly struggling. Which is a shame, since aside from WR, the major players return for Ohio State. Of course, the WR position (Michael Thomas, specifically) is the only position performing at a high level. Why is this? I think several factors come into play.
The issues are manifested in mediocre, at best quarterback play. You also see it in substandard offensive line play. I think that can be attributed to substandard offensive coaching. Let’s start with Co-coordinator/QB coach Tim Beck. I’m not exactly sure what his specific duties are, but if he was hired to develop OSU’s quarterbacks, this is a mis-hire. The quarterback play has regressed since last season. Two very talented players are merely playing, waiting to get pulled for his replacement. Now, I come to Ed Warinner. Warinner has indisputably shown that he is one of the best offensive line coaches in the business. As a co-coordinator/line coach, he is in over his head. From last week’s post-Hawaii presser, Urban responded thus:
Q. Looked like when you got back to basics a little bit kind of running Ezekiel straight ahead, that’s when you all saw some things about their defense. What befuddled you all the most about their defense?
COACH MEYER: It’s that 3-4 defense, and we have not executed greatly against it. So we’re going to go back to the drawing board, because we’ll see that three or four times. Remember, Indiana did that same thing last year.
OK, that’s a straightforward enough response and an acknowledgement of need for potential “things to address”. After all, after the VT game last season, several OSU opponents went to the same defensive front as VT to try to have the same success. So, it stands to reason that Beck/Warriner would get in some practice reps against a 3-4 front since Hawaii had some success with it, and Urban acknowledged that other teams would try to exploit this issue.
Evidently, I give the OSU coaching staff too much credit, because, per Doug Lesmerises:
“Played all odd,” Urban Meyer said to the first question of his news conference after Ohio State’s 20-13 win over the Huskies. “They changed their defense.
“Last week was all odd and then this week they went to all odd, and we’re having trouble with that right now.”
And, per Taylor Decker:
“You prepare for one defense and they come on another one,” left tackle Taylor Decker said. “Obviously everybody is going to play odd against us now, we’ve showed that we struggle against it….”
Am I to interpret this that, despite acknowledging last week that future opponents would likely try 3-4 defensive fronts, Ohio State still didn’t prep for it? That’s how I interpret it. This is inexcusable from the coaching staff.
Right now this is not a #1 team, it is a “good” team. The defense and special teams are performing at a very high level. The offense simply is dysfunctional. For all the pre-season chatter of OSU’s offense having multiple Heisman trophy candidates, with the exception of Michael Thomas’ play, no one close to playing at an All-Conference level.
The post Second Thoughts: Northern Illinois vs. Ohio State appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
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