Smokescreens, People. Smokescreens.
Smoke screen: a release of smoke in order to mask the movement or location of military units such as infantry, tanks, aircraft or ships. Or in Ohio State’s case: Fool USC (and the rest of America) into thinking that the Buckeyes are completely inept on offense.

People, put down the pitch forks and torches! Take a trip over to si.com. Prove to yourself that Ohio State did, in fact, have the higher score after the game on Saturday. Now we can talk. Ohio State won. The Ohio game could have gone worse; the Bobcats could have won. Remember that just last season, a college football superpower lost to the last place team in its conference (USC, USC, USC).

Execution is the most, uh, intriguing aspect of the game against Ohio. Trolling the Internet, all I can see are people getting up in arms about the offensive play calling. I can assure you that OSU will not run the (all of the) same plays against USC. Even with the bland plays on the field, execution of said plays left fans and coaches with something to be desired. I doubt Jim Tressel and staff instructed the offensive line to get manhandled or to have the defensive line be so effective that Bo(o) Jackson only had to take off to convert long third downs.

Offensively Speaking…
QB: Todd Boeckman may be the anti-Craig Krenzel. In the face of adversity, Boeckman folds with pocket aces. The replay of Todd looking away as the football flew past only to fail to recover it in the end zone basically summed up the entire game. What happens when Ohio State is down? Boeckman goes into gunner mode and starts launching ball in coverage. If Boeckman thought it was hard on Saturday, wait till next weekend. A scrambling Todd is a bad Todd while an immobile Todd is a good Todd. Terrelle Pryor couldn’t even get a block until the final series of the game. You know something is wrong when your QB has a designed run and there are 6 Ohio players pushing him back (what was up with the referees allowing that to go on for 15 yards?). Terrelle showed some aggression with a nasty stiff arm on an unassuming Ohio defensive back, which was more fight than anyone outside of Boom Herron.

RB: The trio and Pryor still managed 176 yards without Beanie Wells. Those yards came at 3-5 yards a pop, thanks in part to whatever the 5 guys in front of them are called. Should I complain about Mo Wells getting stuffed on 4th and 1? No, because it’s not going to get called against USC.

WR: We can’t blame it all on Boeckman, considering his WRs can’t get separation (with routes or pure speed) from MAC defensive backs. When Todd was on, his receivers weren’t. Brian Hartline was doing his best Mario Manningham impression and Brian Robiskie must have already boarded the plane for LA. Hartline was trying, Robiskie was merely letting the balls that didn’t hit him in the chest fly right by him. The replay of Robo getting hit in the numbers on a perfect Boeckman ball and to not even flinch was a close second in summing up the game. “He must not of thought the ball was coming his way.” Small seems to be getting progressively better, along with Sanzenbacher, but neither have a whole lot of stats to back up their play.

O-Line/TE: The real issue is the offensive line. Sometimes size doesn’t matter. Sure they look good on paper, but these guys subscribe to the “just enough to do the job” mantra. They couldn’t protect Boeckman last year when it counted, and the slimmed down versions this year can’t hold off Youngstown or Ohio. I can’t say all hope is lost, as the line did realize it was a football game and not a scrimmage and dominated (in the fourth quarter). After each play, the offensive line always seems to be a giant heap of scarlet and gray and whatever color the opposite team is. There’s nobody dominating their opponent, there’s no holes to choose from. At times, I think the tight ends (or the freshman) are better blockers. Positives? This week wasn’t USC.

Defensively Speaking…
Thanks guys! You managed to overcome the soft zone played week in and week out to force turnovers, take out the starting QB, and help win the game. Sure you gave up 254 yards to Ohio, but you only yielded 7 points. Hopefully USC’s stable of running backs won’t find the daylight Boo Jackson and some guy named Harden did.

Is there any way possible that the past couple years have been a setup for this game? Specifically, is there any chance that Ohio State scraps the zone and comes out in man to man? OSU has purposely been blown out in 2 title games just to shock USC! Maybe not, but I think a little bit too much is made about “playing man to man”. It won’t solve everything, but there’s no reason Ohio should be able to find space to work. You may remember Dantonio using zone to stop the Hurricanes, and the Trojans could be as close to Miami as any team Ohio State has faced. However, if Ohio can find it, USC will live in it. Jim Heacock, this one is on you.

Special Teams
Game ball? Shaun Lane. The football gods were shining on the Buckeyes today, something that hasn’t happened since 2005. Lane was able to stop the ball, and himself, long enough to recover the fumbled punt return.

Game ball? Ray Small. Or maybe it should be Austin Spitler. Remember Austin, it’s not a penalty if you don’t get flagged. LSU game? Flagged. Ohio? I don’t know if he considered risk versus reward right before he clipped that guy, but I’d say the reward was worth it.

Commentary
Maybe Ohio making Ohio State play a 4-quarter ball game wasn’t a bad thing. The one thing I thought before the season was that OSU had to be in more close games and earn the victories. While I didn’t think it would be Ohio that would do it, having the starters work 4 quarters to win a game is a positive sight. More so, it was the defense and special teams that won the game for the Buckeyes. Yes, let’s repeat that. Defense and special teams. The one thing that Ohio State hasn’t had to do lately is play all 4 quarters, and that’s cost them in big games. I personally wouldn’t be upset if each victory was a hard fought one. The great teams earn their stripes by stepping up in the clutch, just ask last year’s LSU.

The total collapse of the offense reminded me a lot of the Akron and Michigan State games from 2007. Ohio State’s offense looked worse against Ohio than against Akron, but there was no Beanie to save the day against the Bobcats. The mood felt a lot like the Michigan State game where a few offensive mistakes quickly turned the blowout into a 24-17 slugfest. What happened after the Michigan State meltdown? Todd Boeckman and OSU proceeded to blowout Penn State 38-17 (only 10 offensive points) in Happy Valley, so all is not lost.

Another good sign for the Buckeyes? The Virginia team that USC manhandled 52-7 in week one was up 3-0 on 1-AA (FBS) Richmond going into the fourth quarter before pulling out the 16-0 win with a 1 yard TD run with 7:25 remaining and an INT return for a TD with 2:08 remaining (failed PAT). Next up for Richmond? Towson.

Stay tuned for: The Heacock Ultimatum