Ohio State Buckeye Offense: One Man Show, One Man Target

As was the case with many Buckeye fans Saturday, my evil thoughts started just 25 seconds into the meltdown at Purdue. Terrelle Pryor coughed up the first of his three fumbles on his own 20-yard line. The Boilermakers recovered, but were held to a field goal by a still-tenacious OSU defense.

Maybe, I mused, Terrelle was a ringer when tabbed as the nation’s top high school quarterback. Maybe the No. 1 college football prospect in the Class of 2008 should have focused on his other love, basketball, where dribbling the ball is expected.

Maybe some scouts from the ranking services are laughing their asses off over the way three Big Ten schools gushed over a recruit who finally pledged to, as he called it at his high school press conference, the “University of Ohio State” (that and the Vick eye shadow incident explain a lot in themselves).

But I can’t put much blame on Terrelle Pryor for this loss, despite his losing two of those fumbles and tossing two interceptions. Yes, one fumble led to a Purdue field goal. One interception led to a Boilermaker touchdown. Ten points given away in a game decided by just eight.

Ray Small’s kickoff return fumble on his own 13-yard line donated another three points to the opposition.

But what can you expect when 89% of your offense was Terrelle Pryor? The man generated 255 yards of the Buckeyes’ total of 287. He and he alone kept the Bucks in this game. It was embarrassing for the nation’s seventh ranked football team to lose to a 1-5 squad. But without Pryor’s fine effort we’d be held in worse contempt.

All Purdue coach Danny Hope had to do was advise his team to keep their eyes on Pryor. Put on blinders and focus on the big quarterback. He’s easy to spot. He won’t be ducking behind linemen. And ignore those other guys in the backfield. They won’t do much damage.

That advice would be right on the money considering that a piddling 32 yards of offense came from Brandon Saine’s seven rushing attempts. It was like there were no other running backs on the OSU side of the ball. For a while I thought the Buckeyes had come up with some new sort of formation: The “Phantom L.”

Coach Jim Tressell, you should have followed my advice on how to take the heat off Pryor (see my previous posting “Making Better Use of Terrelle Pryor: The Joe Schmoe Plan”). At this moment the Minnesota Gophers are thinking they, too, know how to beat the Bucks next Saturday in Columbus.

The Gophers fell to Penn State 20-0 attempting to stop a varying stable of rushers. Too many guys to keep up with. At bare minimum, Joe Paterno’s team always has “two” many guys. But in Columbus next week, all the opponents have to do to shut down the OSU offense is watch, follow and attack Terrelle Pryor.

We’ve heard all kinds of excuses for the recent lack of scoring: Injuries, the flu, the dog ate the playbook. Coach, you’ve got a great prospect in Pryor, no doubt about it. The guy would run himself to death to win. Some future year he may still become a Heisman candidate.

Right now Pryor needs some attention-getting-devices to distract and disrupt opposing linemen. I’d start thinking about rotating some of those highly touted frosh running backs with Saine.

Better yet, move Pryor to running back in tandem with Saine. Put Joe Bauserman in as quarterback, even if only for a series or two and see how it fares. Let Joe head up a wildcat that gives Pryor the time he needs to throw or run.

Now that we are barely in contention for the Big Ten championship, use the next two games to work on a multi-facet offense. Posing some options to the opposing defense will ultimately slow them down and create holes for Pryor the runner as well as open up passing routes.

But the problem with the present one-man team is that opponents only have to shoot at one target.