Spencer: Buckeyes have few answers for offensive concerns

By JON SPENCER

NNCO

Ohio State cornerback Chimdi Chekwa snickered when told Saturday that Michigan had lost at home to the Rockets. Not the Houston Rockets, who at least boast some millionaire athletes. The Toledo Rockets.

 

“I don’t know what to say about that,” Chekwa said, stifling a belly laugh.

 

Good thing. Less said the better. The Buckeyes weren’t exactly in a position to brag after their offense rang up as many touchdowns as their defense — that would be zero — in an unexpected 16-3 slugfest with Purdue.

 

The Boilermakers came in with the Big Ten’s most balanced defense — worst against the run and worst against the pass. You’d think that would have come up at least once or twice in conversation when Beanie Wells and Terrelle Pryor were huddling up with their cohorts.

 

“You could see it watching the film,” Wells said, referring to what OSU should have been able to exploit. “It’s all on us. We didn’t execute the way we should have.”

 

Wells, admitting to fatigue from a bout with the flu, quickly grew weary of questions to which he had no answer.

 

Why can’t the Buckeyes, stopped twice inside the 10, score touchdowns in the red zone?

 

Shrug.

 

Why are the Buckeyes ranked last in the Big Ten in pass offense?

 

Sigh.

 

What can the Buckeyes do to correct their problems?

 

Blank stare.

 

Actually, Wells used the word “execution” about 94 times, or once for every yard he churned out on a day when yards were hard to come by for everybody else.

 

As a team, Ohio State finished with 222. That should have been a good half against a team giving up an average of 440. Part of the problem was that go-to receiver Brian Robiskie has become a where’d-he-go-to receiver again the last two weeks after appearing to break out of his slump with two touchdown grabs against Minnesota.

 

He had two catches Saturday for 19 yards, giving him four receptions in the last two weeks for a whopping 29 yards. Working against a Purdue defense that was giving up passing yards at a 240-per-game clip, he was practically forgotten until just before halftime.

 

Part of that obviously is on a true freshman quarterback trying to feel his way and decipher college defenses. Part of it, darn it, is play-calling that can’t let go of the fact that he was riding a school bus last year at this time.

 

The coaching staff insists the playbook hasn’t shrunk since Pryor took over the controls from senior Todd Boeckman after the 35-3 loss at USC. But there were 105,378 sets of eyes in Ohio Stadium on Saturday — not including those of a skeptical press corps — that would beg to differ.

 

“Obviously, it’s frustrating when you’re not executing, and I think that’s the biggest thing because I think we know what we’re capable of and we know how hard we work and how much goes into this,” Robiskie said. “So for us to come out here and not execute like we know we can, I think that’s the frustrating part.”

 

It looked like it would be so easy when Ohio State’s true freshman streaked 20 yards for a touchdown less than four minutes into the game. Except it happened to be linebacker Etienne Sabino and not Pryor.

 

Sabino was in the perfect place when Malcolm Jenkins burst through to block a punt from the Purdue 34. Sabino gobbled up the Baltimore chop and was off to the races.

 

Unfortunately, the offense never got out of the starting gate.

 

“A Big Ten victory that began with special units …,” coach Jim Tressel said.

 

And ended.

 

Take away the special teams touchdown and two field goals set up by OSU’s defense and the two offenses played to a 3-3 tie. Lovely.

 

In Tressel’s eyes, unfortunately, it most certainly was. It was Tresselball at its exasperating best. A field position game featuring heavy doses of defense and special teams.

Who needs offensive touchdowns? Remember 2002?

 

“If you make a big play in the special teams and if your special teams are good all day long and your defense doesn’t give up any big ones and your offense doesn’t turn it over, you have a chance to win,” Tressel said. “So how did we grow? Maybe with a further understanding that those are really primary things.”

 

Aarrrrgh!!

 

Feel better? Hey, at least the Buckeyes are officially bowl eligible.

Jon Spencer covers the Buckeyes for the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio. 

 

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