Purdue v. OSU
A few gameday notes....
To start off with excuses would be an insult to the Boilermakers. Purdue played their hearts out today and beat the Buckeyes fair and square. Congratulations to them on the well deserved win.
Now let's dissect the game from a Bucknut perspective. I sounded the alarms about this type of letdown after last week's win against Wisconsin. (And apparently Sandra has been warning us all since high school
). In a close game, Buckeye nation was not confident Terrelle Pryor could lead the offense to a critical score. Unfortunately, it turns out we were right.
In the past, the team survived on stimey defense and stout special teams play. On Saturday, those areas of strength weren't enough. It now appears the blueprint to defeat the Buckeyes is out in the open. Shut down our running game and blitz Pryor on 3rd and longs. Force Pryor to beat you through the air. The Boilermakers executed this to success.
Pryor was grossly ineffective and hurt the team more than he helped. There is no excuse for 5 turnovers either. (2 ints, 2 fumbles by Pryor). Turnovers have no place in Buckeye football. The whole idea of OSU football revolves around controlling the ball, limiting turnovers and playing smart ball. Pryor did not play Buckeye football on Saturday and deserves every bit of criticism he's receiving.
Where do we go from here? For those of you who suggest that our offense converts into a spread or option style, read my explanation against this a few posts above. We don't have the personnel to run it effectively. That's not our game. For those of you who suggest benching Pryor, that's not going to work either. On the bench is Joe Bauserman. He's no better.
In order to be effective on offense, this team needs to get back to what they are built for. We need to control the offensive line and be able to run the ball effectively. This will take pressure off Pryor. But more than anything, we need to play smart ball and this starts with the QB. I am amazed at the slow maturation process of our 2nd year QB. Hopefully all is not lost though and he will continue to learn and get better. One can only hope. If not, Coach Tressel has some serious recruiting to do in the offseason to find his replacement.
A few gameday notes....
To start off with excuses would be an insult to the Boilermakers. Purdue played their hearts out today and beat the Buckeyes fair and square. Congratulations to them on the well deserved win.
Now let's dissect the game from a Bucknut perspective. I sounded the alarms about this type of letdown after last week's win against Wisconsin. (And apparently Sandra has been warning us all since high school
). In a close game, Buckeye nation was not confident Terrelle Pryor could lead the offense to a critical score. Unfortunately, it turns out we were right. In the past, the team survived on stimey defense and stout special teams play. On Saturday, those areas of strength weren't enough. It now appears the blueprint to defeat the Buckeyes is out in the open. Shut down our running game and blitz Pryor on 3rd and longs. Force Pryor to beat you through the air. The Boilermakers executed this to success.
Pryor was grossly ineffective and hurt the team more than he helped. There is no excuse for 5 turnovers either. (2 ints, 2 fumbles by Pryor). Turnovers have no place in Buckeye football. The whole idea of OSU football revolves around controlling the ball, limiting turnovers and playing smart ball. Pryor did not play Buckeye football on Saturday and deserves every bit of criticism he's receiving.
Where do we go from here? For those of you who suggest that our offense converts into a spread or option style, read my explanation against this a few posts above. We don't have the personnel to run it effectively. That's not our game. For those of you who suggest benching Pryor, that's not going to work either. On the bench is Joe Bauserman. He's no better.
In order to be effective on offense, this team needs to get back to what they are built for. We need to control the offensive line and be able to run the ball effectively. This will take pressure off Pryor. But more than anything, we need to play smart ball and this starts with the QB. I am amazed at the slow maturation process of our 2nd year QB. Hopefully all is not lost though and he will continue to learn and get better. One can only hope. If not, Coach Tressel has some serious recruiting to do in the offseason to find his replacement.
