Jeff Amey's Breakdown and Comments from Ozone

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Football

By the Numbers

By Jeff Amey

Over the course of the past six seasons and 64 previous breakdowns to this one, there have been some pretty tough games to rewatch and break down. The National Championship game against Florida comes immediately to mind, as does pretty much every game in the middle part of the 2004 season, especially the Iowa game that year. I didn’t feel as bad after any of those losses as I did after rewatching this one to break it down.

Since the Michigan State game of the 2005 season, Buckeye fans have been living the high life. In the span from that game up until the beginning of this week’s game against USC, Ohio State had won almost all of their games, moved the ball pretty well, and made two National Championship appearances. While the losses in the National Championship games hurt, we readily forgave the team and moved on to the next season with cautious optimism for another run the next season. We ignored the media’s claims that the Buckeyes were over-rated and made their runs due to relatively light schedules.

It’s time we started listening.

While the media will never get me to believe that the 2006 teams wasn’t the real deal, maybe we should start looking at the 2007 and 2008 versions of the Buckeye team with a tad more critical of an eye. There have been some weaknesses that have been exposed embarrassingly in three of Ohio State’s last six games that have been there all along. We’ve just chosen to ignore them. It’s time to take a closer look.

Run/Pass Breakdown

63 Total Plays--210 yards--3.3 ypp

30 pass (48%)--21/30 for 137 yards 2 INT

33 runs (52%) for 73 yards--2.2 ypc

12 Offensive Possessions

Ave. of 5.3 plays--17.5 yards

Ave. start--OSU 20

First Down--28 plays (44%) for 103 yards

14 pass (50%)--8/14 for 41 yards 2 INT

14 runs (50%) for 62 yards--4.4 ypc

Ave. gain of 3.7 yards

Second Down--20 plays (32%) for 47 yards

9 pass (45%)--8/9 for 40 yards

11 runs (55%) for 7 yards--0.6 ypc

Ave. of 9.1 yards to go

Ave. gain of 2.4 yards

Third Down--15 plays (24%) for 60 yards

7 pass (47%)--5/7 for 56 yards

8 runs (53%) for 4 yards--0.5 ypc

Ave. of 8.7 yards to go

Ave. gain of 4.0 yards

Conversions--6/15 (40%)

Playaction Passing

2/5 for 12 yards 1 INT

First downs--15

7 by pass

6 by run

2 by penalty


FORMATION BREAKDOWN

Two back formations--2 plays (3%)

1 pass (50%)--0/1 for 0 yards

1 run (50%) for -1 yard--(-1.0) ypc

Shotgun formations--46 plays (73%)

25 pass (54%)--18/25 for 120 yards 1 INT

21 runs (46%) for 34 yards--1.6 ypc

One back formations--10 plays (16%)

0 pass (0%)

10 runs (100%) for 30 yards--3.0 ypc

Pistol formations--5 plays (8%)

4 pass (80%)--3 /4 for 17 yards 1 INT

1 run (20%) for 10 yards

RUN TYPE BREAKDOWN--33 attempts

Counter/trap--2 (6%) for 7 yards--3.5 ypc

Draw--1 (3%) for 2 yards--2.0 ypc

Option--9 (27%) for 44 yards--4.9 ypc

Power--6 (16%) for 22 yards--3.7 ypc

QB run/scramble--14 (42%) for 0 yards--0.0 ypc

Sweep--1 (3%) for -2 yards--(-2.0) ypc

Other Stats of Note

* 7 offensive penalties for 55 yards

* Ohio State did not start on the USC side of the 50 (Best Start--OSU 27)

* 1 for 2 in the red zone (1 FG)

* 6 sacks (5 in second half)

* 2 turnovers (2 INT)

* 16 of 63 plays took place on USC side of the 50 (25%)

* 22 of 63 plays went for no gain or loss (35%)

* Number of plays of 10+ yards--9

* Second half offensive production--21 plays for 29 yards (2 first downs)


There you have it, and rest assured it didn’t get any better watching it a second and third time through. It’s time to take off those Scarlet and Gray colored glasses and see this team through the eyes of (sometimes harsh) reality. Criticisms over the past few seasons have been lost in the shuffle of “we’ve got to get better’s” and “we fought hard’s”. If you’re expecting this to turn into a slam of the entire program, however, you won’t find it here. While there are some changes that could and perhaps should be made in several areas, the program itself has probably never been in this good of shape.

Quarterbacks

Here we go again. After a couple of seasons of relative stability at the quarterback position, it looks like we’re headed for another controversy. The players in the drama have remarkable similarities when it comes to style of play, but the age and maturity levels are drastically different this time.

Going into this game against USC, how Todd Boeckman would handle the pressure the Trojans were sure to bring on him was on everyone’s mind. Could Todd make the Trojans pay for putting on pressure and could the Buckeyes move the ball consistently with him at the helm? I think we all know the answer to those questions.

We were also intrigued by the promise of Terrelle Pryor getting significant playing time against the Trojans. Would Pryor be able to handle the pressure serious playing time in a venue and against an opponent as well respected as USC? How would the Trojans defend him? Can he pass the ball? Could the Buckeyes move the ball consistently with him at the helm? Not all of those questions were completely answered, but the hints that we got Saturday night indicate that he might be a better choice than Boeckman at this point.

To better illustrate, I did a very simple breakdown of the offense in both halves when each quarterback was in the game. I don’t think the results are going to surprise you.

Boeckman was under center (well…in the shotgun) for 31 of Ohio State’s 42 first half snaps. On those plays, the Buckeyes gained 103 yards for an average of 3.3 yards per play. He also turned the ball over twice. Pryor was only in for 11 first half snaps, but the Buckeyes managed to gain 78 yards on those plays for an average of 7.1 yards per snap.

The second half was worse for Boeckman. He took seven snaps and lost 18 yards on those plays for an average loss of 2.6 yards every snap with another turnover. Pryor, on the other hand, took 14 snaps in the half and managed to gain 47 yards on those plays, averaging 3.4 yards.

For the game Boeckman took 38 snaps for 85 yards (2.2 yards per play) with three turnovers and Pryor had 25 plays for 125 yards (good for 5.0 yards per play) without turning the ball over. It wasn’t a stellar night for either quarterback, but it’s obvious which one had the better night of the two.

What does this mean for the Buckeye offense? If Boeckman continues to struggle (as he has for several games in a row dating back to last season) and the offense seems to click better when Pryor is on the field, you have to think that it’s going to be increasingly hard to keep him off the field.

Just keep in mind that all is not wine and roses with Pryor yet. He is a gifted runner, but he’s making freshman decision-making mistakes and it’s not clear how well he’s picked up Ohio State’s passing game at this point. Of Pryor’s nine pass attempts on Saturday, only three were more than simple dump-offs or screens, and he was very quick to take off from the pocket in this game. Pryor is obviously the future for the quarterback position at Ohio State, I’m just not sure the future isn’t now.

Grade--Boeckman D-, Pryor B- I separated the two quarterbacks this week because the gulf between their play was so large. Is it a matter of when and not if Pryor supplants Boeckman as the starter?

Running Backs

It’s hard to grade a group that got so little action in a game of this kind of importance. Boom Herron got the bulk of the halfback carries (10) and actually did a pretty good job when the ball was in his hands. He wasn’t stopped for negative yardage on any of his carries (short gain of 2 yards). For all of the hand wringing about the back situation going into the game, I thought Herron did a decent job. Maybe he could’ve made a bigger impact if he had gotten more carries (more on that later).

There’s not much else to add about the other two halfbacks. Brandon Saine and Maurice Wells both had a couple of touches in this game, but neither got a touch when the game was still really in doubt.

Pass blocking, from all three backs in the game, was an adventure all in itself. Most of the time the backs were sent on swing routes (I’m guessing because they couldn’t handle USC pass rushers). This is where it looked as if Beanie had made the biggest strides since his freshman season, and probably where Ohio State missed him the most.

Grade--C Solid, but nothing spectacular from this group. It’s hard to make much of a judgement this week from lack of touches.

Receivers

Solid. Not spectacular. That has been the description of the wide receivers since Anthony Gonzalez and Ted Ginn left Ohio State. It’s the same this week. There is nothing wrong with this set of Buckeye receivers, but there isn’t anyone that puts fear in the minds of defensive co-ordinators and helps take pressure off of the quarterback with his mere presence. Teams have been content to single cover these guys and blitz at will, and there’s nothing to indicate anything changing until this current group moves on.

Grade--C The Buckeyes are badly in need of a player that is a threat to take it the distance every time he touches the ball, or at least someone that other teams have to think about double-covering.

Offensive Line

This group has been catching a lot of flack this week, not all of it undeserved. I do think that some Buckeye fans are taking it a bit too far, however. I feel that the perception offensive lines are greatly influenced by the guy taking snaps behind them, and that Todd Boeckman makes this line’s jobs much harder than it has to be. Teams have figured out that the best way to disrupt the Ohio State offense with Boeckman under center is to bring a lot of pressure. Constant and varied blitzing is going to make any offensive line look bad.

On a similar note, opposing teams have also figured that they can try to take away the running game and force Boeckman to beat them with his arm. The Buckeyes have seen more guys near the line of scrimmage, and more blitzing this season than they did all of last year. This isn’t to excuse the line from the problems on offense, but it helps to keep things in perspective.

There have been things leveled at them such as a lack of fire and competitiveness, not without merit. When is the last time you can remember an Ohio State offensive line simply dominating an opposing defense for a full game? There have been some complaints about the zone blocking scheme, saying that it’s too passive, again not without merit, but that is the nature of the beast in college football today, especially with the prevalence of spread and multiple offenses.

Grade--C- It certainly wasn’t a good game for the offensive line, but I don’t think they are the root of the problem.

Total Offense/Coaching

There is only so much criticism you can lay at the feet of the players in this current situation. There are issues with personnel, but the problems on offense go deeper than any one player or position group with the possible exception of the quarterback position.

The 2002 season cemented into most Buckeye fan’s minds that Jim Tressel was an excellent big game coach. The game against Miami for Ohio State’s first National Title since 1968 was satisfying on so many levels, but the most important one for a lot of fans was “we finally didn’t blow the big game”. Tressel has lived on that reputation ever since.

Since then a disturbing trend has emerged. In games where Ohio State has been an underdog (a rarity) or up against nearly equal talent, the Buckeyes have performed rather dismally on offense. Wisconsin and Michigan in 2003, Penn State, Michigan, and Texas in 2005, Texas, Michigan, and Florida in 2006, LSU in 2007, and now USC in 2008. Ohio State has won a few of those games, but the common thread in almost all of them is mediocre offensive numbers.

There are two common threads in most of those games. One is questionable and panicked play calling and personnel decisions. The other is rather pedestrian, and at times horrible, quarterback play, with the more horrible games skewed towards the present. Even Craig Krenzel’s play in the National Title game in 2002 was pretty pedestrian. He completed four passes the whole game. It could easily and truthfully be argued that the defense had more to do with that win than Krenzel did.

So what am I getting at? Other than the 2006 season (which was even more amazing considering what came before and has come after), the quarterback position has been a weakness in a Jim Tressel offense since he took over here, and even that season features a loss in which the quarterback play was terrible against a team with roughly equal talent.

The blueprint for defending a Jim Tressel offense has developed over the years, and while not every team has the athletes to make it work for them, when Ohio State plays teams on the same level as they are, that blueprint is being followed ruthlessly, and in recent years, embarrassingly effectively. Simply put pressure on the Ohio State quarterback, attempt to take away the run, and make the Buckeyes throw the ball and work their way down the field in small chunks. Teams are betting the Buckeyes won’t be consistant enough to sustain drives, and for the most part, they’ve been right.

Why is that true? Two reasons. One is because Ohio State quarterbacks, in my opinion, don't progress. How much improvement from season to season have we seen with a Buckeye quarterback under Tressel with the exception of Troy Smith, whose exception stands out all the more with each passing game? Craig Krenzel was a winner, but he never really improved over his career. Justin Zwick never fulfilled the promise of his recruitment. Todd Boeckman has spent six years in the program, yet he doesn’t look like he’s made much, if any, improvement on his play from the end of last season.

The other part of the problem comes from the coaching staff having very little in place in the offense to combat teams that like to bring a lot of pressure. The wide receiver screen have gained recent favor, but the Buckeyes don’t run middle (HB) screens or draw plays to at least make the defense think about something else besides rushing the passer in passing situations. At least with Troy Smith they had to think about his mobility, which is probably why the offense had more success that year than in any other.

In this week’s game I found two things about the play/formation calling simply amazing (and not in a good way). Through the first 20 offensive plays of the game (at this point it was 7-3 USC), Boom Herron ran the ball eight times for 34 yards, good for a little over four yards per carry. In the last 43 offensive play calls, Boom would be called on to run the ball only two more times, gaining a further 10 yards. Why, when a player is having that kind of success (modest as it might have been), would you completely abandon it? He was instrumental on Ohio State’s only scoring drive of the game.

Also confusing to me was why Ohio State took so many snaps out of the Shotgun against the Trojans. Between regular shotgun and Pistol (a shortened shotgun with a back lined up behind) formations, Ohio State took 51 out of the total of 63 plays. To me, that is not Ohio State football, at least not with Boeckman back there running the offense. Which brings me to my next point.

Early in Coach Tressel’s tenure at Ohio State, he said that Ohio State would be running offenses that suit the personnel they have and not recruit to any kind of system. In essence, this is saying that Ohio State’s offensive identity is not to have an identity that opposing teams can key on. The problem with this, to me, is that the Buckeyes have nothing on offense to hang their hat on. When the chips are down, there isn’t something I see that they look confident running.

All in all, the blueprint to beat this current group of Buckeyes is right there for everyone to see and use. It is going to be up to the coaches to either scheme their way out of this problem by coming up with counters to the main parts of it (more screens and draws in passing situations), or change personnel. As it sits right now, I think the Buckeyes are in the same place they’ve been the past few seasons. They will win their non-BCS games, have a good shot of winning the Big Ten, might end the season in contention for another National Title, but if they play another team with roughly equal talent, the possibility of another embarrassing defeat looms.

Grade--D If not for the two long drives in the first half, this would be a clear F. If the coaches could’ve stuck to what worked in those two drives, things might not have turned out as bad.

Total Defense/Coaching

It’s time to call a spade a spade. Ohio State’s defensive front seven is over-rated. Frankly, I am amazed that this group managed to end up near the top of most of the defensive categories to end last season. I chalk some of that up to a pretty weak schedule.

The Buckeyes are lacking that certain something up front that separates great defenses from merely good ones. I don’t see fire and intensity up front. I don’t see defensive linemen penetrating, shedding blocks, and making tackles. Instead I see defenders occupying blockers, hoping for someone else to make the tackle. I see blitzes that aren’t very well disguised or designed that never seem to get home.

I don’t see linebackers stoning blockers, shedding them, and making tackles. Instead I see an all-American Butkus award winning linebacker get blocked and pushed five yards downfield, finally shed the block, and make a nice form tackle…seven yards from the line of scrimmage. Not just once, but several times.

I see a defense that has no answer for a simple toss sweep. The defensive ends are always pinned inside. The linebackers aren’t scraping, they’re either running into their pinned defensive end, or over-pursuing. The corners and safeties are being blocked by opposing wide receivers. If I was an opposing coach, I would call nothing but sweeps until the Buckeyes can prove they can stop it.

This might seem to be a bit overly harsh, especially given the effort on Saturday night (which was definitely there…the defense never quit, as it seemed the offense did at 28-3 down), but effort doesn’t give them a pass. The Buckeye front seven needs to start playing like the other team stole their football and no one is going to stop them from going to go get it back!

Grade--C Holding that USC offense to 28 points might prove to have been a feat in itself by the end of the season, but there’s no way losing by 32 points is going to get you anywhere close to an A grade, no matter how much effort was put out.

Special Teams

There’s really not much to say here. Ohio State made one field goal, missed one field goal, punted several times from deep in their own territory, and were able to force USC to punt the ball only three times. They struggled on kick returns, but at least got several chances to practice considering USC kicked off to the Buckeyes six times (that’s two more than they had seen in the first two games combined). Like the rest of the Buckeye team this week, it was no better than just plain average.

Grade--C- The missed field goal hurt when any kind of points might have provided a psychological boost, and the kickoff returns were below average.

Despite all of the criticism of the players and coaching staff leveled here and elsewhere, I don’t feel that coaching changes are necessarily the answer, or that Jim Tressel should consider his good relationship with the Buckeye Nation to be in jeopardy. Despite his weak areas, Tressel has led the Buckeye program through seven of the greatest seasons in its history. I think he understands that there are problems, and if nothing else, he will work harder than anyone else to at least try to fix them. I give him credit for developing his current offensive scheme from late 2004 through 2006 when it seemed as if the offense had really gone nowhere under his tenure up to that point.

Tressel will have to do something, though. One blowout loss can be attributed to bad luck. Two can be a coincidence. Three and you’ve got a trend. Let’s hope we all learn something from this loss, and we never have to see another game like that again.