Buckeye 12 Pack- Illinois Edition

Saturday Ohio State beat Illinois 24-13. I however was out of town and just watched the game Monday night. What follows are my twelve take-aways from the game.

No. 1– As always, the most important thing is a Buckeye W. Ohio State went into the game heavy favorites with an offense that averaged just under 50 points a contest. They were on the road in a Big Ten opener going against an Illini team that always gives us fits and had an extra week to prepare. They did not look as sharp as you would hope or expect, but they got the job done.

No. 2– The injury. We tease Michigan fan that the only thing they have going is Denard Robinson. Without him the UM athletic department would probably be in weekly meetings trying to determine who they would be offering the head coaching job to for next season. Truth be told, when Pryor went out in the third quarter, the Buckeye offense went to the trainer’s table as well. Fortunately, the injury may indeed just be a mild sprain.

No. 3– The offense never got into a rhythm in this one. Illinois was pumped up from the start, and essentially had 2 weeks to prepare that opening drive that put OSU in the hole 7-0. The Buckeyes, or I should say Pryor answered on their second drive aided by a long run by number 2. But the offense sputtered after that, and found itself pressing. Brandon Saine in particular, but even Herron to a certain extent didn’t have great vision in this one. A couple times they ran straight into the backs of their blockers. Herron finally started running downhill when he carried several times in a row there in the fourth.

No. 4– This next observation is not just based on the Illinois game, but we saw flashes of it again. Terrelle Pryor continues to get flustered in pressure situations. He tries to force the ball where it shouldn’t be when he feels that he has to make a big play. He did it again on the interception in this one. He locked onto Washington and didn’t even consider checking his other options. When he let that ball fly it had no shot of getting to the Buckeye wide out because the safety was reading the play like a kid’s book. He has done it several times this season, even though Ohio State has rarely been in a pressure situation. It seems like it will bite the Buckeyes at some point this season. It may be before The Game, but tell me Pryor won’t be trying a little harder to knock off Robinson.

No. 5– It’s hard to fault the defense too much, but there were way too many missed tackles in this one, particularly in the first half. My guess is that the issue was addressed at halftime, because they were better in the third and fourth quarters. When you have a receiver or back or quarterback behind the chains on third down, you have to make that tackle. Especially in the open field. Three or four times drives were kept alive with poor tackling on third down. Against more complete teams, this will hurt the Bucks.

No. 6– Special teams. I’m at a complete loss. I’ve never seen a Buckeye special team unit that is across the board this bad. It isn’t just the kick coverage team. It’s the place-kicking unit. It’s the punt protection group. It’s the punt rush group. A blocked extra-point was nullified by a penalty in this one. Same thing as before, a rush right up the gut. The punt unit is dead last in the Big Ten in net yards per punt.

No. 7– I’m guessing that I missed a good old fashioned lynch Tressell discussion about the play calling having been out of town. That’s probably for the best. He was definitely conservative, especially after Pryor got hurt. But truth be told I’m fine with what happened. His thought process probably went something like this: “we’re on the road, I don’t know how bad my QB is hurt, I’m certainly not going to run Pryor, or risk him taking off if his receivers aren’t open. Herron and the line are just going to have to put this one away.”

No. 8– The Buckeyes were again very good against the run. Leshoure is a very good back who came into the game averaging over 6 yards a carry and more than a hundred yards a game. Without that 25 yard carry in the fourth quarter, he would have finished with a pedestrian 55 yards.

No. 9– The secondary did not play as well as the stats indicate. Fayson had 8 of the 13 catches and 83 of the 132 yards the Illini gained through the air. The problem with that is scheme. As in this is a pattern against the Buckeyes. The slot WR is killing us each game. Whether it is directional Michigan or Illinois, we can’t cover the route across the middle. Again, this is something that the rest of the league will try to exploit. Losing Tyler Moeller for the the year is a big blow.

No. 10– Part the problem (for number 9) is the line backing unit. I keep hearing about how fast the OSU defense is. To be honest, I’m not seeing it from our LBs. They can get horizontal and stop the runs to the outside, I’ll give you that. But they have been dreadful in pass coverage this season. I’ve never been terribly impressed with Rolle. I don’t think he has the tools to get the job done in the position he is in. When you are part of a tradition that produces NFL ready talent every year you had better bring it strong. Can you envision Rolle playing LB at the next level?

No. 11– The offensive line didn’t do a great job at picking up blitzes. Twice our tackles missed a blitz on the outside and ended up blocking nobody. Pryor needs to recognize the blitz earlier as well and get the ball to a hot read. When the Illini did not bring extra men the protection was outstanding. Several times Pryor or Bauserman had 5 seconds to get rid of the ball which is ridiculous.

No. 12– Don’t look ahead. Next week we have Indiana. They gave Michigan all they could handle. Wisconsin is a huge game, but it isn’t the next game.

(AP Photo/Seth Perlman)