Thoughts on OSU vs. Va Tech | Week 2 (2014)

There are a lot of ignorant post(ers) flying around on here.  It’s unbelievable how many stupid things are being said about this game.

Let’s start with the most obvious and work our way down to the ‘hidden’ stuff…

1)      The offensive line was atrocious; especially the right side (RG and RT) of the line.  Va Tech blitzed the majority of the night, and it sure as heck felt like the majority of those blitzes were coming from the face of Barrett (i.e., the right side, over the RT and RG).  IMO, this was GENIUS by the Va Tech coaching staff.  Get to the young QB… put pressure on him… put it on him IN HIS FACE so he can see the pressure and get flustered.  Of course an R-Fr QB is NOT going to have the same level of composure as a Senior-level QB.  He’s an R-Fr… he’s going to make Fr-level mistakes.

2)      Which brings me to my second obvious point… Tom Herman (Buckeye OC) was outcoached all night by Bud Foster.  I saw ZERO, and I mean Z-E-R-O adjustments.  As SOME posters have suggested, where were the quick routes?! (i.e., slants, screens, etc.)  Why were we trying to run so many Go/Deep routes?!  The ONE TIME we tried running a screen was late in the game.  Wilson flared out to the left, the blitz was on (like it was all night), and Barrett simply overthrew Wilson.  The announcers were even saying that had it been a better ball, Wilson had 40 yards of free running ahead of him.  Morever, where was the TE utilization all night?  Why weren’t we bringing a TE to the right side of the line to assist with the pass-blocking?  How many players were drawn up/designed to get the TE the ball?  We’re supposed to have this great senior leader at TE (Heuerman), and not a single target for him.  When the defensive is pressuring your young QB all night, you HAVE TO counter-attack with quick hits.  Bud Foster simply OWNED Tom Herman and out chess’d our “Mensa mastermind” all night.  It was embarrassing.

3)      Barrett.  The kid is getting crucified and I think unfairly so.  While I’m still not “sold” on him quite yet, I did think he threw some spectacular passes and his receivers let him down.  Corey Smith dropped a sure touchdown in the endzone (I’m sorry, but a catch there completely changes the momentum and tactics of the entire game).  Barrett put a dime right in Evan Spencer’s bread-basket on a deep ball, and granted there was a defender’s hand in the play, but it sure looked to me like the ball hit Spencer square in the hands and he simply didn’t make the catch.  I’m sorry, but when a QB gets the ball THAT close and on-target, the WR has to make a play.  Also, the last interception of the game, I don’t believe the announcers talked about this, but that pass was tipped from BEHIND.  Again, Va Tech blitzes… there’s pressure… and I think it was a DE or OLB that had gotten behind the play, and he snuck up from behind Barrett and it looked to me like he nipped part of the football; hence why the pass was so short and there was completely no one around.  Barrett had absolutely zero time all night (again, credit to Va Tech’s D coordinator, Bud Foster) and was essentially scrambling for his life.

4)      Which brings me to my 4^th point… I forget which poster it was, but someone said “Why are we trying to mold Barrett into a Braxton offense; he can’t do it.”  Are you friggin kidding me?!?!  It’s the exact OPPOSITE!  Look at that one drive where Barrett had 4 QB runs (whether they were designed or not).  It ended/resulted with a touchdown!  This coaching staff is not designing ENOUGH plays for Barrett.  They need to get Barrett out of the pocket (how many rollouts did you see?), design some QB draws, etc.  While Barrett hasn’t done enough yet to “sell me”, he HAS done enough to demonstrate to me that he can run a Braxton-style offense.  He has ENOUGH speed to escape the pocket.  He had ENOUGH moves to elude defenders.  He has ENOUGH touch to deliver the ball in tight pockets.  GET HIM OUT IN THE OPEN AND LET HIM MAKE PLAYS!!!  Run him into the ground.  Heck… I know we were all worried/concerned about protecting Miller and not getting him banged up (because if we did we had ‘nothing after him’), but damnit… TREAT BARRETT THE SAME!  Unleash the reigns.  Let me make plays.  We saw what we did on the drive where he ran the ball 4x… he made some plays with his feet (i.e., eluded defenders) and we scored a touchdown on that drive.  RUN HIM INTO THE GROUND!

5)      “Weapons”.  I’m so tired about hearing how many “weapons” this team has.  And yes… it does have “a lot”… but damnit… we have SO MANY ‘WEAPONS’ that we’re not getting enough people on the field/targeted.  Va Tech did an amazing job of distributing/spreading the ball, but we’re out there rotating guys in-and-out and no one is developing any sense of cohesion, groove, or rhythm.  D.Smith = 1 target. Spencer = 1 target. C.Smith = 2 targets. R.Smith = 0 carries.  Heuerman = 0 targets.  If we don’t substitute QBs because it’s a “rhythm” game, then why can’t it be a “rhythm” game for other positions as well?  I understand you have to substitute skill players because they’re running full-out sprints, but for the love of god can we develop a sense of timing and cohesion between our QB and his “weapons”.  I said it last week, and I’ll say it again… no one on this team is going to receive enough targets/carries to be statistically anything at the end of the season.

6)      Special teams.  The two missed FGs hurt.  People have to remember… Nuernberger is a Fr, so naturally he’s going to miss a few here & there throughout the season… But he can’t be missing back-to-back FGs.  That’s a back-breaker.  But to be fair… he should have never been in that position as C.Smith should have caught that one in the end-zone.  Inexcusable.

7)      The defense.  (Sigh).  Where oh where to even begin…  I thought for the most part, the defense played alright.  The first half they were faced with stopping Va Tech almost all half with a short-field.  Aside from 1 or 2 plays, I thought Michael Bennett was a ghost.  Bosa was getting some solid pressure (LOVED the sack/fumble), but I thought Va Tech did an excellent job of scheming AWAY from him (I fear we’re going to continue to see this all season… at least for until Noah Spence returns – which, by the way, I think he was SEVERELY missed tonight).  Washington was kind of a ghost.  Steve Miller and/or Frazier were COMPLETELY non-existent.  Neither of those two have done anything to demonstrate that they can handle the spotlight of being a starter.  (Again, Spence can’t get back soon enough).  But more importantly… I think all of this can be attributed to the fact that Va Tech’s O-Line was surprisingly good (or at least better than I anticipated).  I thought Va Tech’s O-Line did a very nice job of handling our monsters, and I wish we would have brought the house more.

LB’s… Curtis Grant has actually turned into a very solid run-stopper, but boy-oh-boy does he suck when it comes to providing pass coverage.  I watch him out there and he’s just a flower in the wind.  One need not look any further than how many receptions Va Tech’s TE’s (6+2=8) and RB’s (5+1=6) had (=14).  Granted all of those aren’t necessarily contributed to him, but as a MLB, you’re certainly responsible for keying the TE’s and RB’s.  And C.Grant was nowhere to be found when these guys were running wild.
Perry and Lee… They’re “just guys”.  I do think Lee is one of our better defensive players, but let’s be real here… neither of these guys are “special”.
McMillan… While I was happy to see him finally get on the field at LB (and sure enough his 1^st play is a tackle for loss), I was quite frustrated to see that one play was the extent of his night.  I’m not saying we need to start this guy, but I would like to see him receive some snaps.  I’d hate to essentially bury a COULD-BE repeat performance of Ryan Shazier’s freshman season.

Secondary… While it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was last season, there were still some head scratchers to be had vs Va Tech.  D.Grant was seen maybe an entire 2x all night (which is EXCELLENT!)  That’s what you want out of your corners.  Apple had a nice INT at the beginning of the game, but then after that he looked to be giving up that 5-10 yards of “buffer-space” the majority of the night, which p!$$3$ me off because I thought Chris Ash agreed that he was going to play more press coverage and not give up the weak $#!& like we did last season.  Vonn Bell had a terrific game.  My boy Tyvis Powell was too quiet, IMO.  We need to see a little more noise from him, IMO.  Other than that… I didn’t think the secondary was all that awful.  Yeah we gave up 9 of 17  3^rd Downs (boy did that hurt; and many of which were LONG 3^rd down conversations), but for the most part I thought our secondary looked better than it did last season.  I just think it was the SCHEMES that put the defense in a losing position. (Again… getting back to the theme of getting OUT-COACHED!)

8)      Punt Returns…  I haven’t seen this mentioned yet, but can someone PLEASE explain to me WHY we did not ‘bring the heat’ on any of our punt returns, especially the two times we had Va Tech pinned inside their own 20 (even inside their own 10, if I recall correctly once).  When Meyer was at Florida, it seemed like the Gators were ALWAYS aggressive and blocked a punt a game (it felt like).  I thought we were VERY lackadaisical in this regard.  The announcers even put up the stat… I forget what it was, exactly, but it was something like Urban Meyer teams are 20-1 when they get at least 1 blocked punt a game.  This (IMO) could have been a HUGE adrenaline shot that this team o’so desperately needed.

9)      The stadium… In no way am I going to hang responsibility of this loss on the fans, but The Shoe really is one of the most OVERRATED hostile environments IMO.  How many home games has Ohio State lost of recent?  1 already this year.  2 in 2011 (MSU and PSU).  USC in 2009.  PSU in 2008.  Illinois in 2007.  Texas in 2005.  Wisconsin in 2004.  Maybe I’m just being a little too ambitious, but I feel like we lose waaay too many “big time” games at Home to be considered 1 of the more “hostile” environments in College Football.  Plus, I thought our crowd was awfully quiet most of the game (granted the team wasn’t really giving them too much to cheer about), but watching essentially Wisconsin at LSU… a game where LSU was down the majority of the game… LSU’s fans were in it almost the entire game.  It sure felt like more of a “hostile” environment than anything we saw/heard last Saturday at the Shoe.

10)   I don’t know why everyone (people and media sites) are saying “Va Tech ‘stuns’ Ohio State”.  1) Va Tech is from a Power 5 conference. 2) Va Tech should have been ranked going into the game/maybe-even-season.  3) Va Tech is probably the 3^rd, maybe 4^th, (certainly AT LEAST 5^th) best team in the ACC.  Gotta figure FSU is ahead of them. Surely Clemson is (with the way they played against Georgia).  Next is possibly Va Tech (unless you’re counting/including Notre Dame).  MAYBE there’s one ‘hidden’ team above Va Tech, but after that, certainly Va Tech is the 5^th best (likely 3^rd or 4^th) best team in a conference (the ACC) that is vastly superior than our very own beloved Big Ten.

11)   Which brings me to my next point… How far has the Big Ten fallen off?  All these seasons we’ve been sticking our head in sand; denying what everyone around the country has already been saying for quite some time… but the simple fact of the matter is… the Big Ten is an awful conference at this point in time.  The SEC, ACC, Pac 12, and probably even the Big XII are all ahead of the Big Ten by now.  Ohio State loses to Va Tech, Purdue gets humiliated by a MAC school. Rutgers narrowly escapes a MEAC (what the hell is the MEAC?!).  Nebraska nearly loses to MCNEESE STATE (isn’t that a high school in Florida? /sarcasm).  Iowa struggles with Ball State (another MAC school).  Minnesota struggles with Middle Tennessee. Northwestern loses to Northern Illinois (another MAC loss embarrassment).  Michigan State falls to Oregon (another out of conference loss).  Michigan puts up a Brady Hoke (donut) against Notre Dame (another embarrassing loss).  I don’t think this conference has ever been weaker.

12)   Which brings me to my final point… recruiting.  All around the Big Ten, schools are celebrating 3-star commitments.  Meanwhile, schools like Alabama, LSU, Florida State, and USC are bringing in a range of 5 and 4 star recruits with some scattered 3-star guys.  And here… Saturday was the biggest recruiting day of the year for Ohio State, as many of the country’s top prospects were on Official visits for what was supposed to be a celebratory night, and we put up THAT kind of performance.  #NotAGoodLook.