♪ 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.”
