First, I want to congratulate Oregon and their fans - terrific statement win, for what I think is a very good team. Ohio State didn’t lose this game, Oregon won the game, by being better in every facet of the game.
On the Ohio State side, the defense was very bad, considering the level of athletes, that the Buckeyes had on the field. I believe Kerry Coombs does not possess the coaching chops, to be a successful DC at Ohio State, although he is admittedly a terrific recruiter. The defense doesn’t seem to have a workable scheme, they know they are more talented than most teams, and seem to think that will be enough, in most cases (sometimes it is). Against Oregon, Joe Moorhead (former PSU OC) knew we were going to run press-man coverage, and was exploiting our D mightily, but Ohio State seemed INCAPABLE of playing zone defense (because they don’t know how), and that is an indictment of Kerry Coombs as DC. I didn’t care for him, in his last stint at Ohio State co-DC, and I don’t think he can fix this, because he doesn’t know how (lacks the knowledge).
With regard to the offense, the huge O-Line couldn’t get any push against the opposing D-Line, and consequently couldn’t run the ball, making the offense one dimensional (congratulations again Oregon - good job). I don’t understand why a good, strong Ohio State line with depth couldn’t physically force the issue at times, but they couldn’t. Stroud needs experience, when he gets that, I want him take more initiative in running the ball, when there is nothing there, or the play breaks down (otherwise, this loss isn’t on Stroud). I think he goes into these games with too much nervous energy, wanting to do well, hence the constant throwing high (I think he gets over this issue). The rest of the offense was acceptable.
As a team, the Buckeyes have just been given a huge wake-up call. They haven’t lost any conference games yet, and there is still ample time, for Kerry Coombs to ask people, with more defensive knowledge, how to fix his defense (but they should be searching for his replacement all-season long, and hire someone impressive in the off season, no matter how high his buy-out is). Hopefully they can fix the offensive line issues that prevented them from running on Oregon successfully (do they lack some of the toughness of previous lines?). It is a tall order, given how bad the defense played, but they need to improve, and the immediate schedule allows for that kind of slow growth. Good luck Buckeyes, you have a lot to work on.
