Analysis of this weekend's contest between the Buckeyes and Golden Gophers
This weekend was dubbed by ESPN.com’s Pat Forde as “Insanity Saturday,” but for the Ohio State Buckeyes, it was business as usual. Another dominating performance from the defense, some big plays out of the offense and a misleading 23-point victory.
I say misleading because once Malcolm Jenkins intercepted Minnesota’s Adam Weber deep in Buckeyes territory near the end of the first half, this game was over.
A lot more went right than went wrong for OSU, but this team still has plenty of areas to improve in.
Offense
Todd Boeckman delivered his second straight solid start-to-finish performance on Saturday, and that’s all the Buckeyes need him to do. As long as he continues to complete more than 60 percent of his passes and not turn the ball over, the Buckeyes will continue to succeed.
What was puzzling out of the passing game was the use of tight ends. While Jake Ballard and Rory Nicol only accounted for three of Boeckman’s 18 completions, they also had a few drops that killed drives in the first half. With receivers as talented as the ones Boeckman has to work with, the offense should be looking more north-south than short dump off plays. Once Boeckman started looking downfield at the Brians (Robiske and Hartline), the offense started succeeding again.
In terms of the running game, Beanie Wells has officially gotten going. Nobody is stopping this guy any time soon. He was running into multiple tacklers all day, but he’d push them back three yards before falling. When the line opens up holes, Beanie will hit them and the running game will succeed. The only issue for this facet of the offense is back up running back.
Rather than using a third down back, Coach Tressel prefers to give the starter a breather by putting the back up in for an entire series. The problem is that back up tail back Maurice Wells isn’t getting it done. Mo Wells’ career average of 3.4 yards per carry is over two yards fewer than Beanie Wells’ 5.6. Until Brandon Saine returns from injury, Beanie will be the only reliable running threat.
Defense
277 yards, a couple drives deep into Ohio State territory, including a 13 play touchdown march. You’d think that the defense struggled (relatively speaking). That’s until you look at what Minnesota’s been doing this season. Coming into this game, the Gophers were averaging more than 490 yards and 35.5 points per game.
In other words, the Buckeye D imposed their will yet again.
What impressed me most was the way the defense responded to adversity. After the Gophers scored in the second quarter, the offense was forced to punt. The Gophers drove all the way to the OSU 22 yard line before Jenkins’ interception ended the threat and, for practical purposes, the game.
Bottom line is this: With the exception of maybe LSU, OSU has the best defense in the nation.
Special Teams
The Achilles Heel of this Buckeye squad continues to be a problem area. I feel like a broken record here. This week, it was no return game whatsoever and a blocked extra point.
This team needs to change it up and get some new blood out there. The return game is the most troubling at this point. Given the upsets this weekend, OSU and its fans are thinking big, but this team is going to need to excel in all three phases of the game in order to beat an LSU or a USC. Special teams need to contribute.
Overall
Unlike many other top-ten teams, Ohio State took care of business this weekend. It wasn't flashy, it wasn't fancy, but they got the job done and dominated this game from start to finish. Most pleasing was another good game from both Todd Boeckman and Beanie Wells.
Minnesota, like Northwestern, wasn’t much of a test for OSU. Purdue is looming on the horizon, and might represent OSU’s most difficult road challenge all season. We’ll find out in six days if the Buckeyes deserve their new, lofty ranking or if this was the rebuilding year that the experts predicted before the season started.