No offense, but…
Right: Sophomore wide receiver DeVier Posey goes up and snares Ohio State’s only offensive touchdown in the second quarter vs. Wisconsin. (Getty Images)
If you happen to look at only the final stats without checking out the line score or box score, one would think that Ohio State lost rather handily against Wisconsin on Saturday.
The Badgers held an edge in first downs (22-8), net yards rushing (118-97), net yards passing (250-87), total offense (368-184), and time of possession (42:47-17:13). In sixty minutes of football, Wisconsin ran 89 offensive plays while Ohio State managed to get just 40 snaps off.
Of the Buckeyes’ nine offensive possessions that did not come at the end of the game, OSU was held to five three-and-outs before punting, and only two of those were sustained drives that went for 12 or more yards.
The first of those drives came in the waning minutes of the second quarter as quarterback Terrelle Pryor directed Ohio State 88 yards in seven plays that took just one minute and 22 seconds off the clock as he hit DeVier Posey in the end zone on a 32-yard pass play that put the Buckeyes ahead 14-10 with 40 ticks left before intermission.
“We knew we needed to get a touchdown when the score was 10-7,” Posey said. “Coach told us that we were going to get a touchdown, so we pulled together as an offense and got it done.”
The only other scoring drive began late in the third quarter and continued on in the fourth as Ohio State marched 60 yards in nine plays that resulted in a 37-yard field goal by Aaron Pettrey. Of course on the play before the field goal attempt, facing a third-and 2 at the Wisconsin 13, Pryor dropped back to pass then tried to make a play with his legs and was sacked by O’Brien Schofield for a loss of seven along with an intentional grounding penalty when Pryor flicked the ball out of bounds.
Two scoring drives gained 146 yards, but out of Ohio State’s 10 other possessions, the Buckeyes managed to get a measly 36 yards.
While the offense was pathetic, the defense was stellar.
Wisconsin entered the red zone just three times, but only scored once and that was after a poorly throw pass by Pryor that was returned by Culmer St. Jean down to the OSU 12 yard line. Then it took a fake field goal run of nine yards by Chris Maragos for the Badgers only touchdown early in the second quarter that tied the game at 7-all.
“I think coming into the game that we were near the bottom of the conference in red-zone percentage, so it was a big emphasis for us in practice to get better, senior strong safety Kurt Coleman said after the game. “We did a good job for the most part today and adjusted well in adversity.”
The Buckeyes scored the game’s first points when Coleman intercepted a Scott Tolzien pass and raced 89 yards down the near-sideline to put Ohio State ahead 7-0.
With OSU leading 14-10 at halftime, the Buckeyes took a 28-13 lead without running an offensive play after Jermale Hines returned an interception 32 yards back to the house and Ray Small returned a kickoff 96 yards without being touched for another score.
I will have to give plenty of credit to Wisconsin and their defensive game plan. It seems they their main concern was to contain Pryor, and they were able to do that by staying in their lanes and they rarely over-committed. Pryor, for the most part, was kept in the pocket and was sacked twice. Overall, Pryor was just 5-of-13 passing for 87 yards.
But if Ohio State is going to win another Big Ten tittle, Pryor has to play better that he did against Wisconsin the rest of the year. At times he looked confused, and at other times he let his frustration show. After six games this season, one would think his development should be farther along than it is.
The running game wasn’t much better. Brandon Saine gained 55 yards on 14 carries, though 31 of those yards came on one play. Boom Herron had only two rushing attempts before leaving with an ankle injury that has bothered him the last couple of weeks.
Defensively, the Buckeyes gave up chucks of yardage, sort of a “bend but don’t break” philosophy, and surrendered just 13 points, though the Badgers did rack up 368 yards of total offense, which is about 100 yards more than OSU’s average allowed.
One thing Ohio State was able to do defensively was control the line of scrimmage. Tolzien was sacked six times and was harassed all day, thus resulting in poor decisions and bad throws that led to the two interception returns for touchdowns.
Luckily, the Buckeyes have three very winnable games in the next three weeks against Purdue, Minnesota and New Mexico State before having to face Penn State, Iowa and Michigan to close out the season. That should give head coach Jim Tressel and his offensive coaching staff enough time to go back to the drawing board.
