Mark Rea: Ask Me After Oklahoma
The wording might have differed from person to person, but the offseason question was always the same. After having lost so many marquee players to the NFL, and with so many inexperienced youngsters up and down the starting lineup, could Ohio State really compete for the 2016 national championship?
My answer: Ask me after the Oklahoma game.
Easy victories against the likes of Bowling Green and Tulsa make everyone feel good about the Buckeyes, but they really didn’t do very much to answer the question about what kind of season year five of the Urban Meyer era really has in store.
For now, we have small samplings of an offense that played lights-out in the opener and then couldn’t get out of its own way in the first half against Tulsa.
What exactly is it about threatening weather conditions that Ed Warinner and Tim Beck don’t like? The same co-offensive coordinators who wouldn’t give Ezekiel Elliott the football last year in the rain against Michigan State unveiled another unimaginative game plan during the first half against the Golden Hurricane. Curtis Samuel, who ran and caught passes totaling 261 yards and three touchdowns against Bowling Green, was afforded exactly one touch in the first quarter against Tulsa. One touch? To the guy the head coach refers to as his No. 1 playmaker?
It’s not like the table wasn’t set early for the blowout that eventually came. Cornerback Marshon Lattimore made a diving interception on the game’s first play from scrimmage to give the Buckeyes possession at the Tulsa 16-yard line, but the offense that had gained a program-record 776 yards the week before fizzled and had to settle for a field goal.
The offensive unit as a whole really didn’t get in gear until the second half. Perhaps Warinner and Beck spent a good portion of the lengthy weather delay devising a new plan of attack, or perhaps Meyer spent that time treating his assistants the same way Alabama head coach Nick Saban treated offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin late during the Crimson Tide’s 38-10 victory against Western Kentucky. With less than a minute remaining in that game, Saban ripped off his headset and launched into Kiffin, screaming at the assistant while Kiffin simply put his hands on his hips and listened. When Saban was asked after the game what the argument was about, the four-time national champion head coach replied, “There are no arguments. Those are called ass-chewings.”
Whether anything similar to that occurred in the Ohio State locker room during the protracted halftime is anyone’s guess, but the Buckeyes returned for the second half and proceeded to amass 259 of their 417 total yards and all four of their offensive touchdowns for the afternoon.
If the old coaching adage is true, and teams improve the most between the first and second games of the season, Meyer and his offensive coaching staff might want to take a long, hard look in the mirror before heading to Norman. The Buckeyes are going to get much more of a test from Oklahoma than they ever did from Bowling Green or Tulsa, and it might be worth their while to put together a more imaginative game plan.
On the defensive side of the ball, there are not nearly as many question marks, although some small problems remain in terms of defending inside slant routes and getting to the opposing quarterback on a consistent basis.
This year’s defense has proved itself to be an opportunistic bunch, creating three turnovers against
Bowling Green and six more against Tulsa. That’s the most turnovers by the OSU defense in the first two games of a season in nearly 30 years. The Buckeyes began the 1987 season by creating eight turnovers in the season opener against West Virginia and got one more in game two against Oregon.
Sophomore safety Malik Hooker appears to be a real ball hawk, accounting for three interceptions in just two games. His two picks against Bowling Green were more athletic while the one he returned for a touchdown against Tulsa was of the technical variety. Hooker correctly read where Tulsa QB Dane Evans wanted to go with the football and jumped a slant route – not an easy thing to do for a safety.
Not too long afterward, as Mother Nature began peppering the Horseshoe with monsoon-like conditions, Lattimore picked off a wounded duck from Evans and returned it 40 yards for a score. Hooker and Lattimore allowed the Buckeyes to turn what was a getting-too-close-for-comfort affair into a comfortable 20-3 halftime lead, proving again that sometimes the best offense is a good defense.
There were other highlights, of course, including a pair of textbook blocks delivered by tight end Marcus Baugh and Samuel on quarterback J.T. Barrett’s 11-yard touchdown to open the second-half scoring.
Still, it’s hard to get a handle on whether Ohio State is as good as a team that has won its first two games by a combined 125-13 margin or if it simply gorged itself on a couple of cupcakes.
Let’s see what happens when the Buckeyes take a decided step up in competition with their first road test of the season. Then, and only then, will we begin to get a handle on what kind of season 2016 is really going to be.
The Numbers Game
- Ohio State created six turnovers against Tulsa, the most in a single game since a 43-10 victory against Fresno State in the 2000 season opener. Mike Doss and David Mitchell accounted for four of those turnovers – each recovered a fumble and each had an interception – with three of the four going for touchdowns. Donnie Nickey and Matt Wilhelm also had interceptions – Wilhelm’s also went for a score – against Fresno State QB David Carr, whom the Houston Texans made the first overall pick of the 2002 NFL draft.
- This marks the first season since 2007 in which the Buckeyes have not allowed an offensive touchdown in the first two games of a season. That year, OSU allowed only two field goals during the 38-6 season-opening win against Youngstown State and a lone safety a week later while posting a 20-2 win against Akron.
- Hooker and Lattimore became the first Ohio State teammates to record interception returns for touchdowns in the same game since Devon Torrence and Travis Howard did it during a 38-14 win against Penn State in 2010. Hooker also became the first OSU player since Howard in 2012 to grab three interceptions in the first two games of the season. Howard had two in the season opener that year, a 56-10 victory against Miami (Ohio), and added another the following week during a 31-16 win against Central Florida.
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With 55 yards on the ground against Tulsa, Barrett moved into the No. 4 spot all-time in career rushing yards by an OSU quarterback. Barrett now has 1,750 yards, which pushed him past Rex Kern (1,714, 1968-70). The top three are Braxton Miller (3,284, 2011-15), Terrelle Pryor (2,164, 2008-10) and Cornelius Greene (2,080).
- After a 9-7 loss at home to Football Championship Division rival Illinois State, Northwestern fell to 0-2 for only the second time in the past 12 seasons. The Wildcats lost nine starters from last year’s team that finished 10-3, and rebuilding at Northwestern is light-years away from rebuilding at Ohio State. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop some social media nudniks from suggesting the slow start placed head coach Pat Fitzgerald firmly on the hot seat. If NU school officials were smart, they’d treat Fitzgerald – the winningest coach in program history – to the same kind of long-term, ironclad contract Kirk Ferentz enjoys at Iowa.
Upon Further Review
As much as the continuity of the NFL game is being ruined by penalties called on virtually every other play, the flow of the college game is being threatened by replay under its current implementation.
Not only does each scoring play and turnover get reviewed – I have no problem with that – play is interrupted for another look seemingly every time a player struggles to reach the first-down marker or makes a sideline catch. And many times, replay either doesn’t show enough evidence to overturn a call or officials simply flat out make the wrong call.
It happened twice in the first quarter of the OSU-Tulsa game. Ohio State receiver Johnnie Dixon made a sideline catch during which replay appeared to show Dixon getting a toe down inbounds and cradling the ball after he hit the ground. The play was ruled an incompletion on the field and, despite evidence to the contrary, remained an incompletion after being reviewed.
Later, on the final play of the opening period, Tulsa running back Justin Hobbs gathered in a pass and appeared to fight through OSU cornerback Gareon Conley for a third-and 5 conversion. Replay appeared to show Hobbs had gained the necessary yardage, only this time officials overturned the call on the field and ruled Hobbs was a half-yard short of a first down. As a result, the Golden Hurricane were forced to punt.
Earlier in the day, Central Florida linebacker Demeitre Brim was ejected after a second-quarter hit on Michigan receiver Eddie McDoom was ruled to be targeting. Replay of the hit appeared to show Brim hitting McDoom in the upper chest with his shoulder pad as the receiver turned around, but officials confirmed the call on the field and Brim’s ejection was upheld.
Those three instances, along with several others, bring into question whether replay is worth the time, effort or money involved. However flawed the NFL system might be with coaches able to challenge no more than three plays per game – and only two if they lose a challenge – it seems a better way.
At least NFL games aren’t taking upwards of four hours to complete. Not yet anyway.
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