♪ So blame me if a crime’s been done
If they need a reason, I’m the one
Blame me ♪
That is part of a song from Kentucky singer/songwriter Chris Knight that surprisingly reminds me of what I saw from Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson when he spoke with the media Wednesday night.
The song is titled Blame Me and it’s a typical story song that Knight is famous for, in the circles where he is famous, at least.
It centers around a man taking the blame for a shooting in a liquor store robbery gone wrong. He didn’t commit the crime, but he was trying to take the fall for the person who did.
On Wednesday, it was Wilson singing a similar blame me refrain on more than one occasion.
Asked about OSU’s own liquor store robberies gone wrong in the red zone this season, Wilson accepted full responsibility.
“I think in the first two games in general, anticipating what we were going to get, we didn’t get some looks as good, and put our quarterback and run game in bad positions,” he said. “It was just bad. It’s play calling, it’s guessing, not a lot of tape and whatever. Just the anticipation of what you’re doing, being sound at what you’re doing, that’s why I said immediately after the game I think I’ve got to do a better job through practice organization and game calling to put our kids in better places. I didn’t do a very good job. I was awful Saturday.”
The problems aren’t restricted to just the red zone, as you know. The struggles at quarterback and receiver cover the other 80 yards of the field as well.
When Wilson was asked about J.T. Barrett or the Buckeye receivers, he didn’t pass off the blame, and instead accepted it and admitted a need to get better at what he himself is doing.
“[Barrett] is going to look good when we, starting with me, do the job and get it going,” Wilson said. “That’s every quarterback. They get all the credit, they get all the blame. You’ve heard those lines. It’s true. But he’s not a one-man guy. He is a phenomenal manager, and it’s my job to get us in position where he can be the player he is.”
And when asked about the lack of plays being made by the receivers, Wilson simply said he hasn’t given them a chance to make plays.
With no squinting needed, one can look at the 2017 Ohio State offense and mistake it for the 2016 offense pretty easily. We knew this was always going to be Urban Meyer’s offense, I think we just thought it would look a little bit different with Kevin Wilson in the driver’s seat.
The fact that Wilson is so eagerly accepting blame is an admirable trait, and there is no doubt that he does need to find a rhythm, but many will also argue that the real problem is with Meyer’s offense or his players, and not necessarily with the man trying to make all of this work.
Wilson isn’t interested in hearing any of that, however. At least not publicly.
“At the end of the day I think I’ve just got to do a better job of piecing it together, anticipating and some practicing to get us in a rhythm and what we want to emphasize and gain some confidence and gain some momentum and efficiency as an offense, instead of being all over the place,” he said. “So far, I’ve been a little all over. That’s what we came in on Sunday, and then Monday, ‘What’s the direction?’ Not play calls or plays, but what are you trying to do? Where are you hanging your hat?”
I don’t want this to be construed as me saying that Wilson is innocent, because everyone has been baffled by at least some of the play calling — including Urban Meyer. So when Wilson accepts blame, he does it with an understanding of what he has done wrong. And for him, it’s about more than just calling the plays.
Despite the guilty pleas, however, not everyone is convinced of Wilson’s full culpability.
The Twist
Later in the song, the protagonist is expressing his guilt to the authorities, explaining why he did it and how he came to be so desperate.
That’s when the twist comes into play.
♪ What’s that you say, Sir, there were witnesses
Standing in the shadows that night
And that hold up man running from the liquor store
They say she looked exactly like my wife ♪
You see, the protagonist is partly to blame for his wife’s crimes. The song explains that he left her and the kids in a bind and stopped sending money, so even though he didn’t actually pull the trigger, he still feels guilty for what happened. In a similar, but exact opposite vein, Kevin Wilson didn’t put the Ohio State offense in a liquor store, but now that they’re there, he’s going to be responsible for shooting the Buckeyes out of it.
And the escape route is clearly still a work in progress.
The bottom line is that this is Urban Meyer’s offense. That’s not going to change. Instead, the OSU coaching staff is trying to properly mesh the good things that Wilson and Ryan Day do with what has always worked in Meyer’s power spread attack.
Over the last 10 games or so against opponents with quality defenses, however, there hasn’t been much that has actually worked.
This is the case for any number of reasons currently, and yet for every last one of them, Kevin Wilson’s answer is always the same.
Blame me.
“If they need a reason, I’m the one.”
There is way too much offensive experience on that sideline and in that press box to tell me that they are to blame and that they had no idea we had problems as we rolled into this season.
This coaching staff has lost all credibility with me. I don’t trust a word they say.
As coaches, how can they not look at the first half of game one and not already be critical and self-reflective? I say they were. . .but what’s wrong can’t be fixed in a week.
My feeling is that the players we have are not very good. The receivers and the QB are not very good. The coaches are trying to shoulder the blame, so that they don’t damage the draft-ability of today’s front-line players. The fear is that if that happens, the recruiting momentum will falter and then the wheels will REALLY fall off the wagon.
So what’s the solution? Move on from JT Barrett and fire Zack Smith.
When I see flares, bubble screens, seam passes, slants, misdirection passes and a whole host of other creative O plans fail, I will blame KW. Until then, it looks like the old Urban Meyer O, an uncertain JTB drops back with WR’s not moving and the D stuffing the line of scrimmage. It looks like the older brother bribing the younger brother to tell dad that he’s the one that broke the front window when they were playing catch in the front yard with the hard ball, and older sibling is the one that broke it.
Here’s a thought for all of you. It’s safe to assume that a control freak like Urban Meyer must authorize any of his staff to speak with the media, especially on controversial topics such as this. I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall during THAT chat…As the writer briefly mentions- and likely believes- the real one to blame lacks the proper character to admit it. This is what bugs me as a fan for 4 decades. I’m tired of the coach speak which is nothing but deliberate lies to the fan base. This OC publicly throws himself under the bus while the real problem sits in his office, hoping the next 3 weeks of likely wins will buy him some more time to get things his way. Sad.
It is laudable that Kevin Wilson wants to take the blame, but it rings hollow. The problem with the offense is that has become predictable and boring. Just like last year. It is so bad, it is unwatchable at times. Beck was an easy foil. But, it wasn’t really his fault either. I suspect that the game plan going in is exactly what we are seeing — and what we are seeing is what Urban Meyer calls the “Ohio State offense.” Zach Smith is teaching the WR to play “Ohio State offense”. And JT Barrett is the best QB to run the” Ohio State offense”. I am not sure the playcalling really matters all that much. Maybe the problem is the Ohio State offensive philosophy itself. There may be a thousand formations but there really only seem to be five plays (and 3 of those seem to have the Q-Run as the first option). It is now a boring predictable and unwatchable thing. It is ugly and weak and pathetic and inexcusable. And it was that way when Kevin Wilson got here.
These big games are hard to stomach. And it’s not just about winning and losing. This offense is not a bad offense, per se — against average teams. It is just boring and unpredictable – even when it works. I used to think that we always had the advantage in every game because Urban Meyer was on the sidelines. Now, I am not so sure. The OSU offense has changed very little since 2012. I am not sure that it was really all that new then either. It seems like in every big game the other side is crowing about how easy it is to defend. It’s not like Dabo Sweeney is a genius even if 31-0 makes a strong case. Anybody watching the OSU offense week in week out could see that train wreck coming.
I know lots of fan bases would like to have OSU success, and this may sound spoiled when you consider that Meyer is 61-7. But, I want to see Ohio State play excellent football. That is the standard. If I were an Iowa or Purdue or Illinois fan with limited talent and resources I might be excited to be watching a ranked team in a big game win or lose. But, this is Ohio State with the best talent, the best resources, and supposedly the best coaches in the land. Time for the product to match that. Time for the OSU offense to play “Above the Line.”
Well said!
If I go to see one single scary movie each week with one of my five kids, by the time I get to the last kid I can prepare him for the scariest parts of the movie. I’ve been watching Urban’s offense for six years, and I could prepare a defense for this show. Let Kevin Wilson be Kevin Wilson.
Amen
The common denominators are painfully obvious…Beck and Warriner are gone. Kevin Wilson did not become a poor offensive mind over the summer. Let’s be honest, the problems are as follows in this order of importance 1) Urban’s insistence on running “his” offense handicaps anyone in the OC position because they are forced to run an offense that is outdated and has the sophistication of a Jr. High offense and can’t work without generational talent (Zeke, Garvin, etc); 2) JT Barrett. Anyone looking for him to improve mechanically or arm stregnth wise in year five is dellusional. He is who he continues to show you he is; 3) Urban spent his first few years recruiting RBs and athletes to be WRs…and well, these converts (Campbell, McLaurin) look just like guys who aren’t really WRs. Combine this with the fact that in year 4 and year 3 we are looking for these guys to be producers when they never have produced in their career and you get a pathetic passing game.