Ohio State Football 2010: OSU Buckeyes Need Overhaul To Turn Season Around

This season has been full of ups and downs for Ohio State. However, last Saturday’s game proved to be the lowest point so far this season. In order to bounce back, OSU will have to refocus, regroup and really work had to address the failures of last week’s game if they want any hope of coming back from a loss that knocked them from No. 1 to No. 11 in the AP and Coaches Polls.  

One of the biggest problems OSU has struggled with this season is giving up huge runs to their opponents.

If OSU has any hope of rebounding from the loss against Wisconsin and staying in the race for the Big Ten Title, they are going to have to work harder on the defensive end to see those plays setting up and spreading out to take those types of plays down.

A problem that seemed to arise from last week’s game was ball placement.

Maybe it was an off day, and a hard adjustment for the team to be playing at night on the road, but many of the passes, especially from Terrelle Pryor, seemed to be landing at the feet of OSU receivers.

This hasn’t been a real issue this season until the game against Wisconsin. Hopefully Coach Jim Tressel saw this issue and worked hard with the team to fix it during the week.

Another reason this team may have struggled against Wisconsin is that they went from playing extremely easy teams to playing one of the toughest teams in their conference.

That would be a hard transition for any team. OSU went from playing the likes of Eastern Michigan and Indiana to playing Wisconsin. Their game experience so far in the season didn't prepare them for what they were about to face last Saturday.

Now that they have experience playing a team that matches up well with their abilities, the Buckeyes should be able to refocus and ensure they aren’t getting too cocky or looking past the game in front of them.

If OSU can address all of these issues in practice this week, and can take advantage of the fact that they are playing at home against Purdue tomorrow, they have a very good chance of coming back from their devastating defeat.

Purdue will mostly likely not be a walk in the park for the Buckeyes, but if they keep the ball in the air and keep driving up the field and through the Purdue defense, they can come out of tomorrow’s game victorious.