My Thoughts.....Purdue

The Ohio State Buckeyes traveled to West Lafayette, a tough place for them in the recent past, and were thoroughly embarrassed.  Dwayne Haskins was the lone bright spot in the debacle.  His 49 completions for 470 yards are the most completions and yards in a single game in Ohio State history.  Haskins attempted 73 passes, 21 more passes than Ohio State had ever attempted in a game before.  It was due to the alarming lack of a consistent rushing attack and terrible offensive line play, which finally hurt the Buckeyes so a loss at some point was inevitable, but one by this margin, to a three-loss Purdue team, is still shocking.  The running game produced an absolutely putrid 76 yards in 25 attempts, making this the fourth consecutive game in which Ohio State averaged less than 3.5 yards per carry.  They reached the red zone five times and came away with just two field goals.

This was yet another game in which Ohio State’s defense gave up yards in chunks.  Only two teams (Connecticut and Kent State) have given up more plays of 20+ yards than Ohio State.  The defense now ranks 91^st nationally, giving up a whopping 5.88 yards per play  Once again, the back seven looked totally lost for much of the game.  The worst total defense of the Meyer era, up until now, was in 2013, which gave up 377.4 yards per game, good for 47^th in the nation.  Thus far, this defense is giving up over 390 yards per game, or 70^th among BCS teams.

\Seemingly every issue that arose in the first half of the season occurred again here.  The most undisciplined, penalized OSU team I have seen in a long time committed 10 penalties for 98 yards and are averaging 8.3 penalties a game.  Most of them are not “judgment calls” where the ref gets a bit “ticky tacky” (at least not in this game).  Isaiah Prince again had problems with false starts, bringing to mind J.B. Shugarts who struggled with that during his Buckeye career.

However, that shouldn’t take away from the job that Coach Jeff Brohm has done at Purdue, turning their season around from a 0-3 start which included a loss at home to Eastern Michigan.  Now, they have won their last four, including two over ranked teams.  The most undisciplined, penalized OSU team I have seen in a long time committed 10 penalties for 98 yards and are averaging 8.3 penalties a game.  Most of them are not “judgment calls” where the ref gets a bit “ticky tacky” (at least not in this game).  Isaiah Prince again had problems with false starts, bringing to mind J.B. Shugarts who struggled with that during his Buckeye career.

Clearly, this is a team that is fortunate this humiliation didn’t happen earlier in the season.  A through ass-kicking was only a matter of time.  One can only hope that the bye week will offer a much-needed break and chance to turn things around and this galling performance can serve as a catalyst for the change that needs to happen.  With teams like Michigan State and Michigan waiting in the wings, the time for that chance is now, or Ohio State will be in for at least one more humiliating loss.