Football
Line Working to Be Cohesive Unit after Disastrous Situation at Purdue
By Brandon CastelFive linemen exploding off the ball in unison.
It’s a thing of beauty, especially for football purists, but it hasn’t been a thing of consistency at Ohio State in some time.
While this year’s offensive line appears to be playing at a higher level than the one from last season –which isn’t saying a whole lot – they certainly didn’t show it two weeks ago in the team’s 26-18 loss at Purdue.
After the game, center Michael Brewster made some interesting comments that may help pinpoint exactly why the Buckeyes had so much trouble moving the ball against a team that came into the game with a 1-5 record.
“They were running some blitzes and I was trying to make some calls but they were expecting the snap count when I popped my head back up.”
By “they,” Brewster was actually not referring to the Purdue defensive line, but to his own teammates on the offensive line. Even with a bipartisan crowd at Ross-Ade Stadium – one that had more Purdue fans in the second half than in the first – it became exceedingly difficult for the other four or five guys up front to know when they were supposed to fire off the ball.
That might not sound like a doomsday scenario to the average sports fan, but it can disrupt an offense in ways few other things can. Whether it means guys jumping early or late, it has the potential to change the course of entire game.
The snap count is designed to be an advantage for the offense, to help players, especially offensive linemen, get a split-second jump on the defender.
Instead, it worked the opposite way against Purdue.
“It was a big issue. We didn’t know when Mike was snapping the ball or when he was making calls. A couple guys on the line would be late, including myself,” tight end Jake Ballard said.
“That’s a weapon we have to use, the snap count, we have to beat the defense off the ball so we can get to them before they get to us. When we’re not doing that, that’s definitely in their favor.”
When Terrelle Pryor is under center, he makes the calls for the snap count, but when he is in the shotgun like he was for 55 of the 59 offensive plays at Purdue, that responsibility falls to Brewster. The idea is that the other linemen will be able to hear him better, but that certainly wasn’t the case in West Lafayette.
“He would just make calls a little later than we thought. We thought the next thing out of his mouth would be ‘set, hut,’ so guys were jumping. Or he’d have a fast count, but all the blame’s definitely not on that,” Ballard said.
Give credit to the Boilermakers, who came in with an excellent game plan that included waiting until Brewster had jerked his helmet up after making the protection call up front before shifting their line at the last second. That forced Brewster to change the protection call on the fly, which many of his teammates mistook for the snap count.
“When he would pick his head up, now (their defensive line) is shifting, and we were on the road and it’s loud. When they shift, they’re expecting the count and now our guys are expecting the count too because maybe they can’t hear it,” said senior Jim Cordle, who was playing in first game since injuring his foot against USC.
“When he picks his head up they know there’s a certain amount of time before he snaps the ball so when he made a call a couple times after (the Purdue defensive line) moved, now (we are) jumping on that because they think that’s the snap count.”
The end result was four false starts in the second half and a complete breakdown of protection that, more often than not, left Pryor scrambling for his life.
“They brought pressure from a whole different level. I think they had a good game plan on us,” Pryor said after being sacked five times by the Boilermakers.
“That pressure they were bringing was something different.”
In reality, it only seemed like something different.
OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel said after the game that he didn’t really see anything new from the Purdue defense except maybe the frequency with which they brought their blitz.
While Pryor shouldered most of the blame for the struggles on offense two weeks ago, and certainly some of it deservedly after turning the ball over four times, it was as much the fault of the offensive line as it was the quarterback.
“It was a combination of a lot of things,” Ballard said.
“We started getting down, people started jumping off-sides, people started getting mad at each other and we just needed to calm down. It can definitely be adjusted in the game, it’s just unfortunate it took a loss for us to figure that out.”
According to Cordle, who will likely make his second straight start at left tackle Saturday, the Buckeyes took a long, hard look at the situation during last week’s practice and made some significant changes that appeared to work against Minnesota, although playing at home certainly had something to do with that.
“We’ve definitely done some things to address that as far as double-pumping the head and changing the snap count and did a good job; I think we only had one (false start) this week.”
But where do the Ohio State coaches weigh-in on what happened at Purdue?
“I don’t know if it’s any one thing that you could say was wrong or happened,” said John Peterson, who coaches the tight ends and offensive tackles.
“The key element at this point, being removed a few weeks, is did you learn from those mistakes and are you progressing towards being better.”
With New Mexico State on the docket for this weekend, we likely won’t know the answer to that until the Buckeyes take the field against Penn State in Happy Valley a week from Saturday.
Help us bring you more Buckeye coverage. Donate to the-Ozone.
Click here to email this the-Ozone feature to a friend...or even a foe.
Return to the-OZone Front Page
(c) 2009 The O-Zone, O-Zone Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, rebroadcast,rewritten, or redistributed.