Football
Help Wanted: Buckeyes Still Looking for Power Run Game
By Brandon CastelIf Ohio State had posted a help-wanted sign after Saturday night’s heartbreaking 18-15 loss to No. 3 USC, it might have looked something like this:
Help wanted: Big Ten offense in need of an identity. Will provide mobile quarterback, but power-run game not included. Doesn’t need to be flashy, but must produce more than 88 yards on the ground against good teams. Inexperienced backs need not apply.
During his 2002 speech at the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, then second-year Head Coach Jim Tressel said that if his team could run the ball for 200 yards a game, he felt like they could win most of their games.
This became Ohio State’s offensive identity, and it is this philosophy that has helped Tressel to a 7-1 record against archrival Michigan.
In seven victories over the Wolverines (2001-02, 2004-08), Tressel’s offense has averaged nearly 177 yards per game on the ground while picking up 4.2 yards per carry against the Maize and Blue. In three of those victories (2004, 07, 08), the Buckeyes managed to eclipse that 200-yard rushing mark, but in their one loss to that team up north since Tressel’s arrival in 2001, the Bucks managed only 54 yards on 25 carries in a 35-21 loss in Ann Arbor back in 2003.
In fact, in Ohio State’s 15 losses since the end of the 2001 season, Tressel’s first in Columbus, the Buckeye offense has managed to average less than 100 yards per game on the ground and fewer than 3.0 yards per carry.
After two games this season, the Buckeyes are currently ranked 81st in the country in rushing yards per game (120.5) and 80th in yards per carry (3.54). While many people point to Terrelle Pryor’s poor passing performance against USC as the biggest cause for defeat, they have overlooked the fact that Ohio State managed just 88 total yards on the ground against the Trojans, an average of 2.9 yards on 30 carries.
“Different things happening,” guard Bryant Browning said.
“Guys missing assignments, maybe a guy missed a cut or something like that. Things happen throughout the game and you just try to get better and work on it the next week in practice.”
It doesn’t take a football guru to realize that it makes it tough to pass when you can’t run the football. Now, this brings up the whole chicken vs. the egg debate about whether it was OSU’s ineffective passing attack that allowed USC to put eight or nine guys in the box to stop the run or the Buckeyes’ unproductive run game that allowed the Trojans to focus solely on stopping Pryor, but either way you want to slice it, the Buckeyes know they must get better at running the football.
“We know what we can do. We know as an offensive line, we can move people. We know we’ve got great backs and we will stick to it,” Browning said.
“As an offensive line, we have to open up lanes. We know we’ve got great backs in there with Boom (Herron) and (Brandon) Saine and a couple of those young guys, so we feel like we just have to open up lanes and give them a chance to show what they can do.”
In that same speech back in 2002, coach Tressel said that his “consistency formula” asked his offense to get four yards on first down and at least half the distance on second-and-long situations. According to Jeff Amey’s latest “By the Numbers” piece, the Buckeyes took care of the second down portion by picking up an average of 9.2 yards per play. They came nowhere close, however, to hitting the mark for Tressel’s consistency formula on first down, as they averaged 0.9 yards per rush (14 carries for 12 yards) and just 2.1 yards per play on their 20 first-down attempts.
“(We’re) just not executing like we needed to, not finishing plays like we needed to,” Herron said.
“That’s the big thing, just finishing plays off and making a way for us to put some points up on the board.”
The Buckeyes managed only 15 points in their week-two loss to USC and are currently 84th in the country in scoring offense at 23 points per game. They were unable to convert on a must-have, short-yardage situation for the second-straight week, as the offense was stuffed on three straight attempts from inside the USC three-yard line.
“Me personally, I hate it and that’s something that we’re definitely going to get batter at,” Herron said.
“If were in the red zone, or at the two-yard line, we have to get the touchdown. We have to put points on the board.”
They will likely need some points on the board this week as they play a Toledo team that is 15th in the nation in scoring at 42.5 points per game, so the Buckeyes know they had better find a way to rediscover their run game in a hurry.
“We know that the first two games we didn’t get it going like we wanted to, but at the same time it’s early in the season. We’re working hard and I’m sure that we’ll get it going,” Herron said.
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