Welcome back to the Grumpy Old Buckeye, the voice of negativity even when things are generally pretty great, which they most certainly were not on Saturday night. Anyway, in this space I feel compelled to write about the things from each game that make me want to walk out onto my lawn in my bathrobe and yell at people about it. This week we’re talking Ohio State at Purdue.
Sleepwalking at the Start
Rashod Berry committed a false start before Ohio State’s first offensive play. The Buckeyes then lined up in an illegal formation on what officially became the first snap on offense. That’s two penalties on one snap. Good start! The pre-snap penalties continued to plague the offense. A false start on Isaiah Prince on the second Buckeye drive on a critical third-and-short was costly as Ohio State failed on third-and-long on the next play. Prince did it again in the second quarter but Dwayne Haskins bailed him out by completing a pass for a first down on the next play.
Purdue Gets Fumble Yardage for First Down
A Purdue fumble at the OSU 17-yard line was somehow spotted at the 11 instead of returning to the spot of the fumble. That helped Purdue keep its first touchdown drive alive to take a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter. The offensive team is not supposed to benefit from a fumble but that’s exactly what happened and Ohio State’s coaching staff has to shoulder some of the blame for not inquiring about the spot strongly enough.
Nothing to Show
The Buckeyes went 83 yards in 16 plays near the end of the first half and ended up with nothing. Blake Haubeil missed a chip shot field goal one play after a pass for Binjimen Victor was knocked out of his hands in the end zone and the Buckeyes had nothing to show for a long drive that could have set the tone for the rest of the game.
Let’s Stay Safe Out There!
I don’t know what Ohio State was thinking by not playing safe on the apparent field-goal attempt near the end of the first half. Knowing Jeff Brohm is a gambler, that was the obvious time to call a fake and he did. Kendall Sheffield, had he just played safe, would have easily blown up the play for no gain or even a loss, making the decision look foolish. Instead, the Buckeyes played it like a legit field goal, which Sheffield tried to block off the edge, and the Boilermakers used that against them, getting a first down and going on to score a second touchdown.
Penalties? Penalties!
Ohio State did better with the flags against Minnesota but those hankies returned in droves at Purdue. In the first half alone, the Buckeyes were flagged for eight accepted penalties that cost Ohio State 56 yards. Several of those calls were on defense, helping Purdue keep scoring drives alive. Others were costly in stalling drives like the false start on Prince mentioned above. I’ll talk about one of the really egregious second-half fouls below, but probably the worst penalty of the game was Dre’Mont Jones roughing the passer on a play where the Buckeyes had stopped Purdue and should have been getting the ball back with still a chance to pull themselves back into the game. The final tally was 10 accepted penalties for 86 yards.
Red Zone Play Calling
The Buckeyes chose to go with horizontal throws in the red zone on first drive of the second half on first and second downs — neither worked. Parris Campbell danced around on the first and gained no further yards after the catch. Mike Weber caught the second one and isn’t shifty enough to beat three guys near the sideline. It put a lot of stress on third down and (after a lot of contact) Victor couldn’t pull down the pass.
What. The. Hell.
Ohio State got within eight points to start the third quarter and then forced a Purdue punt. Davon Hamilton would have none of it. He wanted that Purdue offense back on the field and he got his way, flipping into the punter to extend a drive that resulted in the Boilermakers’ third touchdown. The replay shows Hamilton got chipped trying to turn the corner hard by a tight end but he was either so far out of control that he completely lost it or he tried to sell it. Either way it was ridiculously stupid and extremely costly. Like the field goal discussed above, Ohio State should be playing that safely. Behind on the road and getting the ball back against a team that’s shown it will throw trick plays out there, the Buckeyes should have played it safe, not crushed the punter, leading to another touchdown.
Coaches Quit
Down 15 with less than four minutes to play in the third quarter, Ohio State punted from the Purdue 37. That’s a concession speech and it took Purdue only four plays to get the ball back to that position on the field.
There was more in the fourth quarter but my brain kind of shut down somewhere along the line.
Okay folks, light up the comments section below with all of your characters. Next week is a bye week and don’t even get me started about open dates.
Is it just me or does Urban look worn out?Maybe coaching by committee while he was out has taken a toll on him and the team. There is something missing in the way of energy, toughness, focus, whatever you want to call it. And that covers the whole team
They were EXPOSED before Purdue game,they just flat out suck,these last 4 teams are licking their chops just like I said Purdue was going to do last week,Bucks defense is easy to go against you can do about anything a team wants to do!
The defense quit in the 4th quarter
Urban made a statement after the game that they had been “EXPOSED” by Purdue but I beg to differ with his comment. No they were “EXPLOITED” by Purdue because for weeks any coach in America could see the glaring weaknesses in this team and stubborn attempt by the OSU staff to keep doing the same things. Comments by Urban and Schiano indicated an unwillingness to admit their offensive scheme with trying to make Haskins a RPO QB was a disaster for the running game and their defensive scheme was nothing more than confusion and misaligned players giving up huge plays over and over. Refusing to change schemes, discipline and players is the real problem here and that lies squarely at the feet of the coaches. Everyone sees this across America – the entire defense and offensive line are complete dumpster fires. The solution is changes to coaching and players.
So Stuart Mandel wrote this about the game at The Athletic site:
“QB David Blough took plenty of shots downfield, which softened Ohio State’s defense and eventually set up big run plays or long gains on screen passes.”
So why does that not work for us? All of our passing now can’t open up our run game?
Does Chase Young still play for us? One tackle against Purdue? Seems he’s taken time off since his “coming out” against PSU.
Call me old-fashioned (I am!), but when someone commits a stupid penalty (motion, illegal procedure, offsides…) your ass comes out of the game for a play (or more). Do something dumb, you have to pay for it. The O-Line is playing so soft and scared. Talk about RPO blocking all you want, but they are constantly being pushed back.
How does your 2nd string QB get zero snaps in a blowout? At a minimum he could have gotten some garbage time near the end, he needs to get some experience. Expect him to transfer after this season, unless Haskins declares for the NFL.
Just found Andrew Sweat’s (ex-Buckeye LB) twitter account this morning. Worth reading, very honest and knowledgeable comments on what he’s seeing (short version, o-line and lb play are the worst he’s ever seen at OSU).
First game of season I knew it would be a painful year with the defense. How many negative records did the defense set this year? They don’t seem hungry or instinctive. Poor tackling, out of position, cb’s that wont turn their heads around. LBs are non existent. Thats not OSU football. And the D coaches. What the hell???
Haskins? One of best QBs at OSU in a long time in terms of passing. But he will not run that ball. Clearly, he is afraid to get hit. If he is a yard from 1st down and an opponent gets too close, he is not going to make an effort to secure that 1st down. If the run game is non existent, how easy is it to disrupt the passing game? Offensively, they are one dimensional and any team studying film can figure that out.
We’ve had some disappointing seasons in the past but the direction of this program this season is long past concerning.
Not sure what anyone was thinking. Supposedly the aggressive obnoxious behavior of Purdue during the game must have worked because it seemed to throw everyone out of kilder. Michigan pulled the same thing at Michigan State and got away with it and a win. I am a Buckeye through and through and get sickened when these cheap antics sidelines the buckeyes. Is urban Meyers not up to the coaching task or perhaps there is a share the wealth pact in the big 10. I also despise the stream of bad calls that emanates from the officiating staff for the home teams. Someone should be fired,… but I guess there is just too much money in football so my vote goes for boycotting the whole damn mess.
Why are my comments not shown?
Out coached! Out played! bottom line!
I know everyone is pissed off and hurting but I have a feeling that Ohio State is going to run the table, and win the Big Ten. As a coach myself, I have seen many times where this will galvanize a team. There are a lot of people saying negative things about the Buckeyes right now,and rightfully so. However, the way the Buckeyes respond to adversity will dictate their success. There are things to be fixed and the coaches will earn their money in the next couple of weeks doing just that. Life teaches you when you get knocked down…to get back up! Here is our chance. My high school team lost to a rival in regular season and came back and beat ’em in the championship.I hope we see Purdue again. If so…get ready for a fist fight Purdue! Go Bucks!
@Buckeye…these coaches who should be fixing things are college coaches that are well paid. These same coaches did not have their team prepared to play and have allowed mediocrity to infiltrate their team. I’m a realist, not a dreamer….I am also an OSU alum…what I saw was horrendous…I see more losses in their future…But we can take heart, at least for now, Joe Burrow made a great decision to leave and has his team that plays stiffer competition ranked #4.
Your last point would be better except your timing is wrong. The coaches quit sometime around the middle of the Penn State game.
I take it back to Schiano’s ludicrous comment coming out of TCU, when asked about the defenses shortcoming and getting gashed. That they tried to be too exotic.
Good point, James. I’d forgotten about that. 🙁
OSU has talented and smart players. Our OL coach should have been fired by now. Our D played fine. OSU lost the game when we had 4 possessions deep in Purdues territory and came away with 3 points. In the past OSU would have scored 3 TDs giving them a 27 to 14 lead. The poor mediocre Purdue run D shut down 2 of the best running backs due to horrendous OL play. Urban keeping him leads me to believe that well drop at lesstc2 out of our last four games.
@ Kurt Mews…In whose world did the defense play fine? The idea of the defense is to STOP the offense from scoring. Obviously, a team who gives up 49 points did not STOP the offense from scoring. Last night was a clown show….two penalties to start the game, followed by an offense that could not get the ball into the end zone….BUT the QB set a school record in passing….hey put that stat in your trophy case.
The last 6 minutes of the 4th quarter took forever to end. We kept making mistakes and they kept scoring. I can’t wait to see how many fans will go to the Nebraska game. I hope it’s a noon game.
Recruit players that have something between their ears. Some of these guys are plain dumb. Coaches have fault, but how many times do they need to repeat their instructions and the players can’t learn them and execute?
Once again, everyone knew going into the game, what Purdue was going to do to attack the 11 players opposing Purdue’s offense, (I would call them a defense but they haven’t reached that level yet). Still no attempt to take away their best players, a la the Trace McSorley game plan(NONE). I find it mind-blowing that we can’t scheme game by game to shut down specific opponents strengths. Instead we play “exotic” and get lit up by any good to mediocre skill player that gets the ball…. we make every opponents skill players look like ALL-Americans every week. The stubbornness of this coaching staff to refuse to change has once again resulted in an embarrassing, lob-sided loss to an unranked,less talented team. I want the season to end and The Urban Myer era to be over….bring in a fresh staff that can DEVELOP players, not recruit track stars that can’t play football, and not 4 & 5 star players with no heart, and uncoachable…..This is the worst Buckeyes team i can remember in a long time….only reason they are 7-1 is because they have played no one except Penn State, and They(PSU) beat themselves by poor coaching choices at critical times..we got outplayed.What scares me the most is Urban said he didn’t see this coming…..Wow…..he IS clueless.. just like his staff
It’s all getting old. To be the 2nd highest paid coach in FBS and come out week in and week out with this performance is truly unacceptable. When we lose lately, we just don’t lose, we get blown out. Bill Davis has made our LB’s look 3rd rate. Our defense can’t cover or tackle, but hey let’s let all our friends be on the coaching staff. the Kids deserve better than this. We have the most talent in the Big10 as far as players. However, our coaches have been in decline since Herman, Combs, Fickell, and Warriner left. This isn’t Buckeye football.
We have linebackers?