Hitting Rewind: Offense vs. Penn State
This makes me feel a little betterOne of the things that The Meshed One touched on Saturday night was the need for Ohio State to further diversify their offense — break out of some tendencies. A lot of us have been beating that same drumbeat for a while and probably hardest in the direction of You-Need-To-Call-Some-First-Down-Passes. Well, how’d we do against Penn State in that category? Chris rounded up the first down calls and at first glance, the play-calling was pretty agreeable, really:
On first down, Ohio State called 11 runs and 12 passes.
Nothing wrong with that. But three of those passes were spikes to stop the clock. We’re sitting at 11/9 all of a sudden, which still seems reasonable especially given the Purdue masterpiece that was fresh in our memories.
But what if we remove the 1st downs from the three drives in which passing was required (and expected)? That would be the last drive of the first half, started at the OSU 39 with 1:33 to play, and the last two drives of the game. The first of those came immediately after the Devlin touchdown and the Buckeyes with the ball at their own seven and needing a touchdown with a little over six minutes to play. The second of those drives, of course, was against a prevent defense.
So that leaves the meat of the game — six drives independent of clock or score. In those drives, there were we still have the 11 runs called on first down, but the number of passes has shrunk to four. The Buckeyes passed on first down just 26% of the time. And this was with the running game stuffed from the start.
When diversity was shown, it worked. Pryor was sacked on one of those called passes, but finished 2/3 for 23 yards on the other first downs in that group. But the playcalling is the equivalent of sending the players out on to the field with their shoes untied. I’ll say it again: the guy calling the plays should be thinking of the quickest way to get into the end zone and not about a punt you’re trying to setup in the next series.
Anyway, the pickings were pretty slim this week, so instead, just some running commentary on a couple of shots
Maybin sets the tone on the first play of the game by blowing by Browning. Penn State would work him all night long by lining up wide on him. I could be getting soft, but I hold out hope that Browning will become a good tackle. He’s only a soph and Maybin is as good a defensive end as you’ll see at this level.
Sanzenbacher is pretty wide open on this 3rd and seven pickup from the Buckeye six yard line. It was a huge play, coming up after the Lions had downed a punt on the Ohio State three and Beanie was held to three yards and no gain on the first two plays of the drive. The coverage was blown after Dane came in motion to the left side putting three wide receivers on that side of the ball against Penn State’s zone defense.
After a false start set up a 3rd and nine, this Robo completion was a huge pickup and kept the series alive for the Buckeyes to go on and tie the game at three. Definitely a good spot, this is as forward as his progress would get. No worries, the zebras would get the Buckeyes back later on.
Scirrotto gets there a tad early on this huge 33 yard reception by Robiskie on the last drive of the first half. That blur you see is the incoming ball.
The payback. This is the 2nd down play before the fumble and it was marked just short of the marker (with no measurement). The ball is in Beanie’s forward arm.
One bad play in six starts. You can’t ask for much more. Just a hell of a play out of Rubin, really. There was a ton of daylight past Rubin, but he did have Pryor by the other hand, so there’s no saying if the play would have broken for big yardage had the ball not been popped.
Team player.
A few things, I’m sitting there watching the game and kept saying to my wife “We have to get out of 2nd and 8 and 3rd and 7 or worse we can’t win like that,” Master of the obvious I know.
Browning reminded me of Tyson Walter vs Andre Wadsworth in the Sugar Bowl, they even had Beannie chipping on Maybin and he still got around them sometimes. Why don’t the Bucks move the pocket away from pressure some? Boone slowed his guy down pretty good all night, why not role over that way and give the kid a chance?
You mean make adjustments? That would make too much sense, JoseOle.
PSU was called for 1 penalty, which was declined. Look at the picture that with Bennie delivering a stiff arm… Does that look like there should be a facemask penalty on the PSU player?
Looking at the Beanie stiff-arm – just makes me PRAY that he returns senior season. I get sad thinking there may be only 4 more games of this in a Bucks uniform. He really looks like he wants to punish someone with the audacity to try and tackle him. Go Beanie.
There is simply no way to get yardage between the tackles when PSU is lined up in the box to stop it. That should have been apparent to the “braintrust ” in the press box.
Just once, I would have liked to have seen a play fake to Beanie on first down with a medium to deep pass to a wide out or tight end. It should not be this damn hard! We should not have lost this game. We just didn’t “take it ” to them.
play fake on first down and a pass to a TE – how great would that be? and wouldn’t that help the next run to Beanie?
our play calling has gone ultra conservative and very vanilla. inexplicable. sad. costly. so much talent in our backfield going to waste.
On the 20 yard pass to Saine in the 3rd quarter, Pryor had Ballard running the seam wide open. That could have gone for six if he had seen him.
He’ll hit that next season.
Alright, the greiving process is over. My thoughts on the game have already been beaten home….
I honestly think PSU played a stellar game, and we did too on Defense, and to lose a game by six-inches hurts. We all knew this freshman mistake would happen eventually, but even that wasn’t so much his fault as it was a superb play by the safety to go for the ball. He scraped down the line and met LiC at the perfect point to knock the ball loose. Just a solid defensive effort by #9.
Now, on to not scoring a TD in 3 GAMES! Are you kidding me? With all the talent? We might as well not even HAVE TE’s because they are non-existant in the game plan. We have thrown to the TE like 3 times total this year, 1 for a TD, 1 for a huge gain, and 1 dropped……my heart hurts, I think I’m having palpitations like “The Ultimate Warrior” did……
I’m surprised there was even an article done on the offense for the penn state game since they didnt even show up. This has to be one of the shortest posts done by this site. Of course it wasnt there fault, the bucks didnt do a damn thing on offense. And yes that was a facemask on Scirroto. But can you really blame him, that was his only way to defend himself as Beanie was engraving his facemask
I saw a picture of Tressel today on Bucknuts during his Big Ten press conference. The man looked worn down and dejected.
‘The man looked worn down and dejected.’
Who wouldn’t be? The guy gives absolutely everything to his team and University, pays it forward, makes boys into respectable young men, wins over 80% of his games, brings home hardware and says all the right things knowing that EVERY single time he loses, everyone in the country, (including his fan base) pretty much calls him a fucking idiot.
IF we would have came out of that game with a victory, despite the lack of offense, the game would have been regarded as a Tresselball masterpiece. We lost, so everyone and their brother suddenly knows everything about Ohio State, Penn St., and what has held this team down for years. It is what it is.
I’m not disagreeing with the criticism of this year’s team or the ineptitude of it’s offense, I believe that is warranted. Not defending the big game goose eggs or the bad national perception. I’ve been here with you, through every painful second of it. I would just urge all to appreciate Jim Tressel and what we have now, we will certainly miss it when it’s gone.
Amen Tyler, I agree 100%.
I also agree with Tyler. I will never understand when I see posts calling for coach’s heads on a team that has gone 10-2, 12-1, 11-2 and (hopefully) 11-2 in the last four seasons. (Not to mention that each loss was to a ranked team or national champion)
The only wish for a change in regards to Coach Tressel would be to have him coach with more ’swagger’. I want him to be Woody’s ‘Because I couldn’t go for 3′ as opposed to Cooper’s nail-biting.
ToledoBen, the talent on this roster could go 8-4 un-coached. I don’t think you’ve seen any of us calling for Tressel’s head, but it’s time for Bollman to go.
0 touchdowns in the two biggest games of the season. And don’t forget, he’s also the O-line coach.
BuckeyeSki – #9 wasn’t trying to poke the ball out. He was just tackling Pryor behind the line of scrimmage. He was wrapping with both arms, and his left one happened to hit the ball.
But that was a bad decision by Pryor. He never ever ever runs forward up the middle; he always tries to bounce his runs to the outside and it drives me crazy. There was a shot in the Wisconsin game, from that weird camera hanging over the field, that showed him tuck it and run, and he had 15 yards of green in front of him right up the middle of the field, but he stopped, pivoted, and ran backwards and to the left, trying to get AROUND every defender on that side of the field. I keep telling myself that these are things we signed up for when we threw Boeckman out the window in favor of a true freshman, but this one little thing has been bothering me for several games now. And it ended up biting us in the ass, big-time.
I also agree with Tyler. Buckeye Nation is often guilty of double standards (I’m by no means excluding myself). Under Tressel, our football program has reached heights unknown since the time of Woody. However, Tressel would agree that he’s not getting paid to be a nice guy and to “pay it forward.” He’s getting paid to win football games. And, while he’s won 7 of them this year, he hasn’t won the two that have mattered the most. 9-10 wins is a great year for some programs, but Tressel is a victim of his success and standards. 9-10 wins is unexcusable considering the level of depth and talent. As a fan base, we’re all collectively asking, “What have you done for me lately?” I think Tressel would agree with our sentiments and frustration.
Hey Beanie, Pryor is losing the fumble. REACT.
Jack: I agree that it was a bad decision NOW, but its hard to get on the kid too much. How many times have we seen Pryor make that play in his short career already? One-on-One on the outside – I’ll take Pryor everytime!!!
It was an aggressive move that he didn’t need to make at that point in the ball game, but if the defender doesn’t catch a break by punching out the ball – chances are we would all be sitting here saying that Pryors bounce to the outside was what sealed the deal in the win against Penn State. It’s time for us all to move on from that play….
Toledoben-
So is it OK to be a mediocre team? O.K. I realize that 11-2 is not mediocre, but for gods sake I just want to win a big game every once in a while. I want to beat a top ranked opponent sometimes. People all around the country regard OSU as a mediocre team. And this is not true, we’re not mediocre, not with all the talent that we have, epsecially not with Tressells potential (we’ve seen Tressell at his best-and we know he’s good). It’s just extremely frustrating because Tress seems stubborn… when he can’t adjust to plan B if plan A isn’t working.
The thing that hurt the most was when Maualuga said after the USC game: “They did everything we saw on film, nothing changed” That’s embarrassing!
I’m tired of watching these boring defensive games when I KNOW that the current drive will likely result in a punt. I don’t know if Tress is calling the offensive plays, but we need a new strategy (NOT a new HC OBVIOUSLY), but a new OC (and Tress needs to let this new OC call his own plays). I’ve learned that things won’t change this year, so maybe next year???
“I realize that 11-2 is not mediocre, but for gods sake I just want to win a big game every once in a while.”
I’d say that right now, Ohio State is indeed mediocre. Two losses after nine games, and no touchdowns in three of those games, is indeed mediocre.
“…the talent on this roster could go 8-4 un-coached.”
I think they’re on pace for that record. The Northwestern game will be very, very tough, and Illinois gives them fits in Champaign. I still think the m*ch*g*n game, because of its nature as the historically best rivalry game in college football, will be tight.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them at 8-4 to end the season. This team has some real soul-searching to do.
They’re going to blow Northwestern apart, anyone that has watched the Wildcats actually play in a game can see they don’t have the talent to contend with Ohio State. You’re going to see screen after screen blown up in the backfield against n-western. And anyone that has watched Illinois all season knows that they aren’t the same team they were last year without Rashard Mendenhall. The option-type plays that gashed us last year only work when you have two legitimate running threats, and Dufresne ain’t that great. Jenkins will contain Rejus Benn and the game won’t be close.
Michigan, on the other hand, will be a brawl. I can’t wait for that game, and I think they’ll stay in it until the 4th quarter. I fully expect the Buckeyes to be 10-2 going into Bowl Season, with one last shot at redemption in the Rose Bowl against USC, or against a great SEC team in the Capital One Bowl. Either way, I don’t think these seniors go out on a bowl-game loss.
The heartbreaking loss to PSU in 2005 sparked one of the greatest runs in Buckeye history. Look for that to repeat, except this time we have Pryor and better recruits coming in. Things will get nasty fast for the opposition.
Jason – Don’t get me wrong, I was not referring to any posts by the 11W guys, but by those on message/comments boards on various sites. The fact that someone actually felt the need to launch firecoachtressel.com just astounds me.
BG – I know that your question was actually rhetorical, but no it’s not ‘ok’ to be mediocre. It just seems that our collective expectations have become that it’s all or nothing. Which will only lead to a lot of years of disappointment.
Its a broken record ” The Play Calling sucks”. I’m kinda hoping for another loss so we can lock up a Florida bowl game. If our staff wasn’t one of the worst in the nation we would be undefeated.
I give credit to the defensive coaches they are letting our guys play and use their talent.
Offensively I figured we put all the shitty play calling behind us vs MSU. I was wrong. I think we could pull a guy off the street and have better results then the current offensive staff. We had the same play calling in 02′ and every game was close. Tressel ball doesn’t work in major D1 football. Open up the offense and maybe Ohio State will start to get respect.
How about Throwitdownfield.com? Or pleasedontrunmwellsupthegut.com ? The play calling sucks. Everyone can see this. Almost every year except for 06′ we have put up shitty numbers. No TD’s in 3 games this year? Beanie wells Top 5 pick, Robo, Hartline, 3 good Tight ends, B Saine, Ray Small. Small, Robo, and Beanie were recruited by USC. So its not the talent level. All you have to do to stop Ohio State right now is put 8 in the box because Tressel is coaching scared!!! Bottom line, Start to produce or just quit calling the plays. I still believe the future is very bright but after Pryor leaves do you think anyone will want to have this shitty offense to run?
Agree with JB…If Pryor makes the bounce out it’s “game over”. BTW, thanks for showing the Beanie spot I talked about on Monday….we get a correct spot & all of this is a moot point.
JB and Allen: I don’t care that “if he makes the bounce, it’s ‘game over.’” The play — and the playcall — in that situation is to get the first down. Your whole team is doing what they can for THAT goal; you need to follow suit. Ten guys are selling out to accomplish something, and they opened up enough room for him to get the first down rather easily. It was a bad decision to put all that work to waste because you’re terrified of putting your head down and running up the middle.
i was in the “if he makes the bounce, it’s game over” camp, but you make a good point. They all sold out for him to go forwards, and with just a couple minutes left, you can’f afford that turnover. But oh well, live and learn. Next time he’ll think twice about that