Off-field issues made this year’s fall camp one of the quietest in memory as far as information about the progress of the team is concerned.
All fall the talk was about the Urban Meyer situation, not the team’s progress. As a result, there were a lot of questions to be answered in the season-opener against Oregon State.
The questions got answered in Ohio State’s 77-31 lopsided win over the Beavers, but not all the answers were what Buckeye fans were looking for.
The Buckeye offense broke in a new starting quarterback, two new starters on the offensive line and a returning offensive line starter playing a new position. Additionally, they played the game with a first-time head coach.
All those questions got answered with a resounding positive result.
Quarterback Dwayne Haskins went 22 of 30 for 313 yards and five touchdowns while throwing one interception. Haskins was downright impressive and played like a seasoned veteran from start to finish.
On the offensive line, new starters Thayer Munford at left tackle and Malcolm Pridgeon at left guard helped pave the way for a massive 721 yards of total offense that including 346 passing yards and 375 on the ground. The OSU offensive line gave up no sacks. Michael Jordan, who started at guard last year, played well at center, which was his first start at that position.
Offensively, it was an impressive day and the answers to the questions coming into the game should give OSU fans reason for optimism.
Defensively, however, it was a different story.
As was expected, OSU’s front four played extremely well and dominated up front.
The questions the defense centered on the new starting linebackers as well as the youth in the defensive backfield. Those groups played well at times, but too often got exposed when they gave up big plays in both the running and passing games.
Oregon State running back Artavis Pierce rushed the ball just 11 times but went for 168 yards including touchdown runs of 80 and 78 yards on which the OSU linebackers were invisible and the defensive backs were outrun. Oregon State put up 392 yards of total offense despite five sacks and a total of six tackles for loss by the OSU defensive front.
Linebacker Tuf Borland, last year’s starter at middle linebacker, played very sparingly as he continues to recover from off-season injury. His replacement, Baron Browning, was frequently out of position and was exploited in both the running game and short passing game.
Additionally, safety Jordan Fuller did not play due to injury. Fuller is a returning starter and was expected to be the leader of this year’s secondary. He was replaced by Jahsen Wint who appeared to struggle at times against both the pass and the run.
The return of Borland and Fuller should help shore up the Ohio State defense, but until then there will be questions about the Buckeye back seven.
Despite the defensive struggles, the offense was impressive. OSU’s 77 points tied an Ohio State record for the most points scored in a season-opener. The 721 yards of total offense is the second-most in Ohio State history, behind 776 against Bowling Green in 2016.
The previous scoring record was also established in that same game against the Falcons.
Quarterback throws…receivers catch….running backs run….LOVE IT! And how bout my man Mike Weber! Too bad most of you kicked him to the curb when Dobbins came along seemingly because he got tripped up a few times EARLY in his career. Give him the rock!!
LB Coach Davis is not getting it done with 5-star talent. Based on Urban’s recent track record in hiring friends (Davis was Urban’s best man at his wedding), Urban may want to consider this policy change: Stop hiring your buddies and hire good coaching talent (like Hartline) that isn’t connected to your past coaching tree. Coaches that you can ride hard and not protect like Smith. Grinch or Schiano need to take over LB duties. This is not a championship defense. On the bright side, we didn’t go to OT with APP State.
I owe the staff an apology for their predictions. I expected the starting offense to be out of the game far earlier than they were and was not expecting the problems the defense showed. That said, yinz were right and I was dead wrong on this one. Kudos.
LB has been an ongoing problem since Coach Fickell left and despite the talent it’s going to remain an area of concern until shown differently. On offense it was “only Oregon State” so it’s hard to grade except to say they did what they were expected to do. That and I’d be remiss if I didn’t post here what I did privately to Doc Brown that it looked to me like Mike Weber (whom I’ve often derided here) looked like last year’s J.K. Dobbins and Dobbins looked like last year’s Weber in this game, at least. Congratulations to Weber for showing a great game and here’s hoping he can continue with that.
No doubt D needs to improve. A young D cutting its teeth against OSU isn’t really that bad until the 3rd quarter. We have another week to find tune. As predicted this O is really unstoppable with a consistent passing Q.
in total agreement with everyone else–the LB coaching to me is not good at all–these are top notch, athletic recruits looking lost for the 2nd straight year..easily the weakest link at this point…the Dline played well..the seconday without Fuller looked–well–youthful and not great…this isn’t that good of an offensive team in Oregon St, although improved from last year…the 2 big 2 plays were the most alarming to me..the rb has talent but OSU can’t be giving up 2 long TD runs like that against better teams and expect tow in……the offense looks like a juggernaut but we wo;t know much until the TCU game, which looks like it could be a shootout unless the OSU defense shores up…that said, MSU and PSU almost lost at home to non-power 5 teams while OSU beat one (albeit not that great) by 45 pts….will take it after all the off-field crap. just shore up those big plays given up on defense, get Fuller healthy soon hopefully and my goodness coach p the LBs already…
LB coaching is now the.weak.link. DC calls very curious to say the.least. Not a championship defense by any means. Great offense. Haskins could have made a.difference last year, will be great, but need to see him play under a lot of pressure.
One really disturbing thing is that Buckeye opponents continue to throw outlet passes over our pass rush and there is no backup. This happened a number of times last year also. It is one of the things that needs to be fixed. Absolutely agree that linebacker play MUST improve. Also hope that Fuller’s return will shore up the secondary.
On the plus side, with Haskins arm we are never out of a game.
Offense looked wonderful, so nice not to see a million called QB runs…think its odd to focus on Wint, the actual starters in the defensive backfield were subpar. Browning did indeed look confused out there. Offense gets a high “A”, defense gets a “C” solely on the backs of the D Line. Lots to work on defensively.