Ohio State Football: Grading the Buckeyes' Week 3 Loss to Miami

It was not a good night on Saturday night for the Buckeyes, as OSU suffered possibly its most embarrassing loss in three years, 24-6, to Miami, Fla.

Ohio State looked putrid offensively outside of some good running, and the defense was only average through most of the game.

All in all, Ohio State looked like a team missing some of its best players, especially Terrelle Pryor.

Here are the grades from Saturday's loss to Miami.

Quarterbacks: F

When you only complete four passes as a team, there is no other grade to give. 

Joe Bauserman probably should never see the field ever again for Ohio State, and Braxton Miller needs time to learn the speed of the college game.

Miller showed he could move the offense a little, but needs to learn to better protect the football.

Ohio State just doesn't seem to have the ability to pass this year, whether it be personnel or coaching.

Running Backs: B-

Jordan Hall returned with a vengeance on Saturday and the other OSU backs combined for the rest of the day's offense.

They couldn't find the end zone, but it's hard to when the defense has no respect for the pass, and given OSU's QB situation, who could blame them?

Carlos Hyde also had 52 yards rushing for the Buckeyes, proving that Hall can be a good running back for this team.

They will need him to help the team tread water until Dan Herron returns from suspension.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: F

Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, none of their receivers could do what Allen Hurns (pictured above) did. 

There were no catches for any Buckeye WR or TE, and several receivers also dropped balls.

In that instance, this is a very easy grade to give. 

Offensive Line: C+

Oddly enough, the offensive line was not to blame for OSU's struggles, as it is on most days.

The line did not have too many issues and had a solid game for the Buckeyes.

Having Corey Linsley back definitely helps the line out by providing more depth up front. It will help much more when Mike Adams comes back in Week 6.

But even a good offensive line doesn't matter much when the defense stacks up the box big-time.

Defensive Line: C

The Buckeye defensive line lost a little bit of punch without Nathan Williams, who could miss some more games after having his knee scoped.

The line was able to get some pressure on Jacory Harris and force two picks, but they also got pushed around by Miami's offensive line on Lamar Miller's big running day.

Ohio State's line has some potential, but needs major seasoning as there are a lot of young players up front for the Buckeye defense.

They need to be able, however, to generate more push to deny the running game more often than they did on Saturday.

Linebackers: C-

Ohio State's lack of depth at the LB position is starting to show itself in a bad way.

The Buckeyes saw Andrew Sweat get hurt and play through injury, while Storm Klein stepped up and had a good game.

Etienne Sabino was beaten a few times in the game and looked out of position at times.

For a team that looked very deep to start the season at LB, the fact that they are now so thin there is stunning, and it will come back to hurt this team much more over time.

Defensive Backs: B-

The Buckeyes did get two interceptions on Jacory Harris, but they also got burned multiple times by the Miami QB as well.

Corey Brown and Bradley Roby each had their first career interceptions for Ohio State, and they mostly shut down the airways.

Harris only had 123 yards passing, but he made big throws when he needed to in the red zone and Ohio State couldn't stop it.

The secondary might not be that much of an issue this year, but they will need to step up more if the front seven cannot create more havoc.

Special Teams: C+

The Buckeyes did not make most of the mistakes in special teams like they did in last year's win over Miami.

They contained the Hurricanes' explosive return game and had a couple of solid punt returns as well.

Drew Basil finally made a field goal, as he had a pair on the night to provide Ohio State with its only points.

The special teams did their job, but they only impact about 8 percent of the plays in a game.

Coaching: F-

Luke Fickell followed up a bad coaching performance last week with an even worse job on the big stage in South Beach.

The offensive coaches failed to try to help the QBs get some easy completions in safe plays to try to generate rhythm.

But the worst crime may have been Fickell's refusal to use a timeout late to try to stop the clock.

That sends a message to the team that, as a coach, you have no confidence in them to get the job done. That should never, never happen unless you're down by a massive deficit.

Fickell has his work cut out for him trying to keep the ship afloat all year long. But his future doesn't look good at all. 

Intangibles: D-

For a team that said all along they wanted to shock the world and defy all of their skeptics, they proved their skeptics right on Saturday.

It didn't look good for Ohio State, no matter how you look at it. 

And for two weeks until Herron, Adams and DeVier Posey return, it doesn't look like it will get any better.

If Ohio State wants this season to be any sort of success, they need to start the freshman Braxton Miller at QB and let him learn and take his lumps. 

Starting Joe Bauserman no longer makes sense for this team at this point.

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