Ohio State Football: Report Card for the Buckeyes' Second Game

Ohio State's opener of the season against Akron was as good as most people hoped.

Their follow-up game against Toledo...not so much. 

In a game where Ohio State looked flat, disorganized and uninterested at times, the Buckeyes almost got upset at home by a very good Toledo team 27-22.

That is obviously not what they were hoping for after their blowout win against Akron, and more so not what they wanted going into next Saturday's showdown at Miami in the "Ineligibowl."

Here is the report card for Saturday's win.

Quarterback: C-

After Joe Bauserman looked surprisingly good in Week 1, the former baseball player crashed back down to earth in Week 2.

Bauserman did throw a TD pass, but he was very inaccurate through most of the game and failed to read the blitz.

And despite his struggles, the coaches kept him in the football game instead of putting in the freshman Braxton Miller to see what he can do.

In short, Bauserman proved to be who we all thought he was, and the Buckeye fans rained boo's all throughout Ohio Stadium. 

The question is how long will Luke Fickell keep Bauserman as the starter before he is forced to start Miller ala 2008 with Todd Boeckman and Terrelle Pryor.

Running Backs: B-

Big Carlos Hyde was able to get into the endzone finally, as he had two touchdowns for Ohio State in the win.

But is the fact that Ohio State is going with the bottom three of its top five backs starting to catch up to them?

Jaamal Berry only played a handful on snaps coming back from a hamstring injury, and the team did not know about Jordan Hall's extended suspension until the night before the game.

While the timing of Hall's extended suspension was borderline ridiculous to announce it within 24 hours of kickoff, the fact that he couldn't play did hurt the team after he was likely a major part of the gameplan.

And it's becoming painfully obvious that Rod Smith has ball control issues: two games, two fumbles.

Dan Herron can't come back soon enough, although it would help to get Berry healthy and more involved as a changeup to Hyde.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: B

Jake Stoneburner and Verlon Reed are slowly starting to look like really good passing options for Ohio State. 

Stoneburner caught his fourth TD of the season, and Reed made a pair of nice catches as well.

But the injury to Corey Brown, likely a high ankle sprain, will really hurt a position that couldn't afford to have any more injuries.

Freshman Devin Smith led the team with 67 receiving yards and should play a big role next week in Miami, but that is still asking a lot of a true freshman.

This receiving corps really needs someone to step up for the next three weeks and play lights out before DeVier Posey comes back to help pick up some of the slack.

Offensive Line: D+

This performance was typical of a Jim Bollman offensive line: lacking physicality and attitude and being passive.

They were unable to open up many holes for the running backs to find daylight and they failed to give Bauserman time to throw the football.

In short, it was a sloppy job up front that didn't surprise fans who had watched the Buckeyes in the past few years.

The line should get a little better, as Corey Linsley should return on Saturday after serving a two-game suspension and could replace Marcus Hall at RG.

That move will add some much-needed depth, but they will need Mike Adams back to really get back to where they used to be.

Defensive Line: B+

For not having Nathan Williams for most of the game, the defensive line, although they did have some issues defending certain plays, did pretty well.

The grade is much higher because they stepped up and made big plays late in the game, especially with the dominance of John Simon, John Hankins and Michael Bennett.

The fact that Fickell is able to rotate multiple players into the line and keep the productivity reality, the same has to be a very comforting feeling for the Buckeye coach.

They may have the greatest amount of depth up front more than most other positions on the field, and it shows in their performance on the field.

Linebackers: B

While the linebackers weren't totally overwhelming for Ohio State, they did have a very solid performance.

Storm Klein made a nice interception and Andrew Sweat came up with some big tackles at opportune times for the Buckeye defense.

And for those who had never heard of Ryan Shazier, his big block on a punt return could be a sign of things to come when he gets into the base defense in the near future.

This unit will be good once again, but the young players just need to learn to be less reckless and play more intelligent football.

Their athleticism is very good, it just needs to be aimed a little more efficiently. 

Defensive Backs: A-

Travis who? Third-year sophomore Dominic Clarke has stepped into Travis Howard's spot and been spectacular in pass coverage.

Bradley Roby has done some nice things as well, and if C.J. Barnett can develop some better hands, he would've scored himself a touchdown in that game.

It obviously hurts depth without Howard and backup safety Corey Brown as both players are still waiting, like Jordan Hall, to hear when they can play again.

But Clarke's emergence has the Ohio State cornerback corps looking like college football's version of the Philadelphia Eagles' secondary of Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Asante Samuel, at least when Howard comes back.

Special Teams: C-

Chris Fields' punt return for a TD was the only thing that saved this grade from being an F.

Ohio State clearly has problems in field goal kicking, as Drew Basil still has not kicked a field goal this season, and that will be a huge problem if he doesn't find some confidence.

The Buckeyes have also had a second punt blocked in their last three games and could not contain Eric Page in the return game.

It's clear that when Ohio State decides on a new coach, they need to hire a dedicated special teams coach to help this unit, because it has now underwhelmed to start each of the last two seasons.

Coaching: F

Really, when you look at how unprepared this team was and how little energy they played with for most of this game, there really is no other grade to give the coaching staff.

Bollman reverted to his old Bollman form and called a very predictable gameplan including poorly-timed reverses. The defense took almost the whole game to figure out Toledo's offense basically ran through just two players.

And, of course, there was the brain-numbing move of not playing Braxton Miller when the offense was struggling.

Fickell said afterwards the flow of the game did not call for Miller to play, except that the game had no flow. The offense looked stagnant and needed a jumpstart, especially after Brown's injury.

At least Ohio State didn't lose, for Fickell's sake. If they had lost, it would be a guarantee that he would not be coaching the team after this season.

Intangibles: C+

For as bad as Ohio State looked, give them credit for making some plays when they absolutely had to.

When they needed a lead going into the half, they got it done.

When they needed to score in the red zone, they got it done.

When they needed a last-minute defensive stand, they got it done.

That's what winners do.

But it's clear that the suspensions are hurting Ohio State's players somewhat, and they had to have been distracted by the fact that they found out the night before this game that three players would not be able to come back after it was assumed they would be back.

Hopefully, they are able to get those players back for Saturday and just tread water until Week 6 when the Suspended Four return and Ohio State is back to full strength, or as close to that at this point.

In the meantime, Ohio State travels to Miami and will look to have a better showing against the U in South Beach.

For more college football updates, follow me on Twitter @bielik_tim.