Ohhh, rat farts! OSU loses to Purdue

Just wanted to get a video of how I feel out of the way right off the bat.  So, that game sucked.  There was nothing positive to take away from it (though as Rock tweeted, Kurt Coleman is the only one who likely gets no blame after this one).  The O-line sucked.  Pryor sucked.  The play-calling sucked.  The Boiler-up chant sucked.  The special teams more or less sucked (catch a punt often, Ray-Ray??).

I really don’t feel like going through the whole game because it’s going to cause me to throw up in my mouth.  Instead I’m going to focus on the things that stood out to me, sort of like a Craiggy McCraigs bullet point post.

• One gripe about the refs then I’m off it – if Pryor’s first fumble was a fumble and not halted forward motion, then the fumble by the Purdue receiver in the first quarter was.  You can’t call one a fumble and the other one a non-fumble.

• Pryor’s execution is horrendous.  He threw the ball 4 feet over Jake Ballard’s head in the fourth quarter on 2nd and goal from the 2.  Ballard is 6’6.  Terrible.  There were many occasions where he forced throws (his two INTs) and even the touchdown in the fourth was a duck that I couldn’t believe hit one of our guys in the hands.  I’ve been one of the most patient in waiting for him to develop, and it’s just plain not happening.  If we’re going to try and develop him into an NFL style QB, hire a QBs coach from the NFL.  Otherwise the kid’s not going to learn.

• Why Tressel never even considered pulling Pryor is beyond me, and honestly scares the crap out of me.  He was playing scared and looked totally shell-shocked in the second half.  He was afraid to run and was forcing throws and pitches all over the place.  There was a comment on the open thread about the people wanting to pull Pryor are like the ones that want to pull Quinn, and he needs to learn – no.  Not at all.  Pryor has been starting for over a full season.  He hasn’t improved and had four (FOUR!!!) turnovers in this one game.  There is a difference in their situations, and I still think that Pryor should have been pulled.

• The playcalling was pathetic.  Once the team was down the run game disappeared.  When the passing game was doing nothing, the run was never returned to (unless it was a terrible off-tackle that was blown up from the start).  Rittenberg has it right – we had it coming with this offense.  What’s more troubling for me is the fact that our offense moved in the two-minute drill.  Why don’t we see a similar offense all game if that’s when the offense is most productive and consistent?

• Our O line is beyond crap.  If Jim Bollman is still around after the season I might give up.  He’s toast and needs to be gone.  How Bryant Browning is still playing is beyond me.  The false start penalties on first down are ludicrous.

• Let Hazell be the O-coordinator and let it rest.  I’d like to know for sure who is calling the plays.  This game was terrible and I want to know who is to blame.  Yes, there’s a huge blame blanket that goes on everybody – but we deserve as fans to know who exactly is calling the plays.  Unfortunately, we’re not going to know.

• Matt Hinton is calling this the worst loss of Tressel’s career.  It’s hard to argue with this – yes, the Northwestern game in ’04 was rough, but they were a bowl team that ended up 6-6 as Luke from 11W pointed out to me.  Purdue is not a bowl team.  To steal from Peter King, this loss is Carrol-esque.

• I don’t know if Tress needs to go – I still think he’s earned his stay and does a great job representing the university (which is extremely to me as an alumnus).  That being said (and we’ve gone through this before) – the coaching staff needs to be turned over.  I mean like a total gut-job.  Bollman and Heacock are dunzo.  The talent is there on the roster, and it’s just not being developed properly.

Rat farts.