I guess you could say I saw a Buckeye loss imminent (see my previous column) but I didn’t see it against Purdue. I think Minnesota has a good chance to do the same next week. I guess Bruce Hooley didn’t see this one coming either as he had already chalked it up as a win.

Purdue pulls off stunner, upsetting Ohio State

O? More like ‘Oh, no!’
Buckeyes’ offensive troubles boil over in upset loss

The Bottom Line

Scarlet & Gray Matter
Rob Oller’s observations on today’s game

Difficult day for offensive linemen
Purdue pressure pays off with five sacks of Pryor

On The Clock with Doug Lesmerises at Ohio State-Purdue

Ohio State beat Wisconsin 33-14 Saturday. At first glance, the score would appear to reflect a dominating performance over a good Wisconsin team (and several announcers on half-time and post-game shows said just that – “Ohio State pummeled Wisconsin”. Obviously, they didn’t watch the game.) In reality, the Wisconsin players must be scratching their heads wondering how the Badgers could have almost completely dominated the Buckeyes yet still lost by 17 points.

Look at some of the stats:

First downs -

Wisconsin 22 – Ohio State 8

Total Yards -

Wisconsin 384 – Ohio State 184

3rd down conversion –

Wisconsin 6 – Ohio State 3

Fourth down conversion -

Wisconsin 3 – Ohio State 0

Time of Possession -

Wisconsin 42:47 – Ohio State 17:13

Those same college football analysts who watch only highlights and read stats will have you believe that Ohio State shut down Wisconsin running back John Clay but holding him to 59 yards rushing. But Clay seemed to move the ball at will often bulldozing for 5-6 yards a carry. Wisconsin probably just didn’t use Clay enough.

The biggest stat that will really make your head spin was generated (or not generated) by Terrelle Pryor was his passing stats- 5 of 13 passing for 87 yards and one pick. This guy was the top recruit in the nation and he absolutely can’t throw the ball. He’s terrible. I’d love to see high school tapes of the guy because I bet all he did was run wild over little children and pass to wide open receivers. Pryor is cursed by being such a gifted runner and a man among children at the high school level. He’ll never play QB at the pro level. If he wants to play pro ball he should switch to receiver. He will be forced to do so. I guarantee it.

I need to watch the USC game because it appears that a team that can cover receivers man to man well enough to put a spy on Pryor should be able to shut him down completely.

They may not even need to do that. Pryor made one good pass all game. If I were an opposing coach, I’d give him the one touchdown pass; let him self-destruct on passes more than 60-70% of the time; play to stop the run and assign a spy to Pryor to contain his rushing. You can see why Tressel started Pryor as a freshman: the guy is at least a four year project. He lacked experience against tough opponents. Tressel is thanking god that OSU is in the Big Ten Conference which ranks slightly above the MAC in competitiveness.

This is why Ohio State will never win the big games. Against Wisconsin, yeah, they were able to get a lucky pick six. I have to give Ohio State credit on the second one as the defender actually made a good play to get it. Sure their special teams came up with a nice return. But against a top ten team, they may only get one of those breaks.

The bottom line is their offense will actually have to carry the load. When that time comes, the offense will not be able to carry it. It simply lacks the personnel and especially so at the quarterback position.

See also – Buckeye’s Big Win a Bogus Result

The latest AP top 25 poll ranks Cincinnati one better than Ohio State. Turns out the Buckeyes aren’t even the best team in Ohio. I guess Buckeye fans will have to worry about the state championship this year rather than the national championship.

Arrogant, uninformed, and over-confident.

I was listening to part of “The Big Show” on 97.1 The Fan with Bruce Hooley. Hooley was trying to stir up interest in his show by asking what team on the remainder of Ohio State’s schedule represents the biggest road block to the Buckeyes getting to the Rose Bowl. In a typical Buckeye fan fashion, he quickly dismissed just about every team remaining on the schedule with the exception of Penn State. Of course he qualified that by stating that Penn State would need to get by Illinois and Michigan on the road. If they failed to pull that off, he felt they weren’t much of a threat.

And just like any Buckeye fan, he took for a given that Ohio State would mop all of its remaining opponents at home because those games were at home. Naturally, Ohio State wins all of its games at home. It’s just a given.

Unlike Mr. Whooley, I think the Buckeyes only have two passes remaining – New Mexico State and Purdue. Beyond those two games, any of the other six games could go either way.

The Buckeyes finish with a difficult three week stretch beginning at Penn State, followed by Iowa at home, and finishing with Michigan on the road. Michigan has got to love that set up. You expect the game at Beaver Stadium to be hard fought. Iowa will probably play Ohio State just as tough if not tougher than Penn State does. If Ohio State gets by both of those teams then they have to get up for Michigan. It won’t be difficult for the Buckeyes to get up for Michigan but will they run out of gas in Ann Arbor? What if they lose to either Iowa or Penn State? I think that three week stretch will prove to be the undoing of the Buckeyes in terms of not losing another game. They may still make it to the Rose Bowl but with at least two losses and maybe three.

So far Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota have looked very impressive this year. OSU only plays Indiana on the road of the three. Indiana looked very dangerous against Michigan. I doubt they will be able to pull out anything new from the playbook against the Buckeyes as they threw out everything and the kitchen sink against Michigan.

Why is Indiana dangerous? Its two defensive ends – Jammie Kirlew and Greg Middleton. OSU’s offensive line will get a big test with those two. On offense, Tandon Doss is a weapon. I was also impressed with the play of their quarterback, Ben Chappell. He appears very poised in the pocket and is able to make accurate throws. Darius Willis ran for 152 yards against Michigan and Ohio State’s had trouble defending against the run. I will watch with keen interest how Ohio State defends the pistol offense especially when it assumes its wildcat formation.

If Ohio State gets past Indiana, Wisconsin should prove to be an even bigger test. More will be revealed about Wisconsin after they play on Saturday at Minnesota.

A lot of “ifs” remain for the Buckeyes, I see at least one more loss with the possibility of maybe even three more. Brace yourselves, Buckeye fans.

Shades of Robert Reynolds and the Jim Sorgi choking incident, Kurt Coleman with the late head shot

Well after watching the video replay of Coleman’s late hit, I’m trying to figure out what kind of bullshit Tressel was trying to float when he said, “We do not agree that it was ‘premeditated’ or that he was ‘targeting a defenseless’ player.”

It looked exactly like he was targeting a defenseless player. McGee was already wrapped up (unable to get out of the way) and down when Coleman took a cheap shot to the head. You will see McGee’s head snap back in the video. This guy Coleman is supposedly a co-captain. What a complete lack of class but I’ve come to expect no more from the Buckeyes over the years. I’m not sure how Tressel can even try to defend that play.

If you watch, you’ll see Coleman laughing as he heads to the sidelines. I think the guy should be kicked out of football altogether. Well the Big Ten has given Coleman the opportunity to yuck it up all next weekend at home in Columbus as he won’t be playing vs. Indiana.

Maybe we should nickname Coleman, The Guillotine. Perhaps Reynolds is now coaching the defensive backs at Ohio State. Not surprisingly, Reynolds pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors stemming from a domestic dispute in 2006. Was he choking his wife?

“These past four weeks, we kind of had an edge over other teams,” Homan said. “We were pretty much football players from 8 in the morning until 8 at night. So you could study football, football, football and not have to worry about schoolwork and homework…”

And I thought Tressel had locked them out of the building . . . .

Despite this all day football focus, OSU still couldn’t get prepared for USC.

Co-captain and Ohio State safety Kurt Coleman has been suspended for one game by the Big Ten Conference for a flagrant personal foul against Illinois’ Eddie McGee which occurred during the closing moments of the Ohio State – Illinois game. Coleman will not play vs. Indiana this weekend. Apparently, Jim Tressel did not agree with the decision and expressed his disappointment in the Conference’s ruling.

“Obviously, we will abide by the one-game suspension from the Big Ten Conference, but we feel as if there was poor judgment throughout,” Ohio State’s statement reads. “We concur that Kurt’s hit was late and a result of poor judgment; he was thus penalized and removed from the game by his coaches. We do not agree that it was ‘premeditated’ or that he was ‘targeting a defenseless’ player. The decision to suspend points to the conference office’s feeling as if there was poor judgment by the game officials for their decision not to eject at the time. In our estimation, the final ‘poor judgment’ is in levying a one-game suspension in this particular case. We will abide by the decision, learn from it, and move forward.”

I don’t think that the Big Ten levied the suspension because the hit was “premeditated” but I do think that helmet to helmet hits, especially on a QB, are generally targeting a defenseless player. I’ll have video of the hit soon up on the site.

Coleman’s absence may help loosen up OSU’s defense, and we may see more of Indiana’s Doss again. Breakdowns in Michigan’s safety play led to several big gains by IU.

Here’s Carlos Brown’s second touchdown vs. Indiana. How’s this for blocking? Brown is lined up to the right of Forcier here.

Here’s the handoff to Brown. Note Indiana’s defensive end who is frozen as he has to account for Forcier if Forcier decides to pull the ball back out of Brown’s hands and keep it himself. Check out the left side of the O-line crashing down on IU’s defenders.

Ok, things are starting to open up and Brown sees a lane down the left side.

He takes it – all IU defenders are accounted for.

We have to give some love to not just the O-line but check out that receiver making the final block to clear the way to the promised land. I think that was Greg Mathews doing the dirty work! Nice!

Here’s Indiana’s first score. Let’s see if we can see how the Hoosier’s turned this into a big gainer. As you can see, Indiana is lined up in its wildcat formation and has two receivers lined up on the strong side and a third receiver almost at the sideline. From the formation, it appears as if they plan on running to the right side of the field. Michigan appears to have one of its safeties playing up near the linebackers, and they definitely appear to be buying Indiana’s attempt to sell a run to the strong side of the field.

Ok, now it looks like a running play to the weak side of the field. The two receivers pull to the left side of the field. It appears as if Indiana’s offensive line is trying to push the defenders to the right. Check out the receiver on the far right side. He hasn’t even moved yet.

Indiana has faked the handoff on the first option and the Michigan defenders have, for the most part, bought the fake.

Quarterback keeps the ball. One of Indiana’s receivers had a shot to block Mouton but goes right by him. That’s Mouton in the backfield with the bead on the QB. See Michigan’s safety, Kovacs, at the 23 yard line. He is focused on the quarterback. He doesn’t account for #2 who has swung around and is getting in position for the pitch.

QB is starting to pitch the ball here. Kovacs is still frozen in time. Same IU receiver that ran past Mouton is running right past Kovacs as well.

Mouton clearly has the QB. Kovacs? Earth to Kovacs? GET THE PITCH GUY! Kovacs is locked on the QB resulting in . . .

TOUCHDOWN Hoosiers! Kovacs has no chance of making the play here. Cissoko appears to have a good angle but IU’s receiver blows by him, down the sideline and into the endzone.

Kovacs is a nice story being a walk-on and all but he blew this play big time!

Coach Rod gives a little teaser on the spread offense.

Rich Rod on the zone read option. You can see why Forcier appears to be the headier quarterback than Pryor – he can make the quick decisions required by the zone read option.