Offense Sputters in Rematch of 2002 National Championship

After the ugly performance at home against Toledo, it seemed as if the Buckeyes could only get better. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. The Buckeyes were absolutely manhandled by Miami's defense and the 'Canes racked up the most rushing yards given up by an Ohio State defense in recent memory in a 24-6 loss last Saturday.

 The Buckeyes' offense was clearly the main cause of the bad game. They just weren't able to move the ball at all, especially through the air. They gained an underwhelming total of 209 yards. The worst part about this is that only 35 of these yards were gained through the air. Joe Bauserman, the fifth-year senior, looked absolutely awful. Bauserman started off the game by leading the offense to back-to-back three and outs, which basically killed any momentum or motivation the team had. He was never able to pick it up either, finishing 2/14 for just 13 yards. There wasn't really anything positive to take out of his performance. Almost all of his passes were either off target or they were poorly thrown, and the only two passes he completed were swing passes to the running backs. Braxton Miller, the promising freshman, never got a true chance to shine. He was played briefly in the second quarter, but was promptly taken out after an interception off of a tipped pass that really wasn't his fault. Again, it made little sense for coach Luke Fickell to keep in a struggling Joe Bauserman instead of playing the more versatile and exciting Braxton Miller.

If there was anything positive to take out of this game, it was how well returning junior Jordan Hall ran the ball. Hall is playing his first game after serving a two game suspension for taking $200 from a booster at a charity event. Hall was seemingly the only Buckeye who was motivated to play in the game. He rushed for 87 yards on 14 carries for a 6.2 yard average.

The last thing that bothered me was the poor coaching of Luke Fickell. Other than the quarterback situation, Fickell completely mishandled stopping Miami's rushing attack and managing the time at the end of the game. Miami ran all over the Buckeyes for an astounding 240 yards, and Fickell just couldn't find an answer to stop them. The time management at the end of the game was the thing that irked me most. It was still a two possession game when Miami was running out the clock on one of the final drives of the game, but you couldn't tell from how Luke Fickell was reacting. Fickell failed to take even a single timeout as Miami drained over nine minutes from the clock. It was almost as if Fickell had just given up.

Although the Miami game was very disappointing, the Buckeyes need to bounce back this week. They'll be playing this week as an unranked team for the first time since November of 2004. It's important for Ohio State to get a convincing win against Colorado so that they can build some confidence before heading into the difficult conference schedule.