Coach V: The oblong shaped football bounces Ohio State's way

By – Coach Venable: I think the depth of both rosters was very evident on this night. I thought both rosters were pretty much equal in talent and the way they were used. I don’t believe it gets much closer than tied after three quarters and a one score lead with three minutes left. The plot thickens as the losing team has the ball on the one with first down and four chances to tie or go ahead with a two point conversation.

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However, red zone scoring has been a year long thorn to said offense. Losing eight yards on second down settled the contest for all practical purposes. The old “don’t take the ball off the LOS inside the two” once again struck a fatal blow in an extremely tight contest. Despite the constant badgering from the press box, this game was much closer than those broadcasting loudly hinted from start to finish. Despite the two turnovers in the last three minutes, this was one well played game by both teams.

It’s my opinion that two calls (plays) determined the outcome of this game. The first was immediately after a Longhorn touchdown tied the score 7 to 7 there was around 40 seconds left in the half with the ball on the minus 25. The rule of thumb for this situation is play screen and draw and swarm to the ball keeping everything in front of the secondary. For some strange reason we chose to sim pressure with our safety and left a huge void between the RB and the WR’s blocking our remaining DB’s and three OL barreling straight ahead for additional blocking. 75 yards and six points later we gave back the lead without a fair fight.

The second fatal call was the GL second and one where we tried to skirt the end with a sweep toss into an open formation. This offered us our three receivers blocking their DB’s. That matchup has about zero chance to be successful. Film study tells us that dog won’t hunt. I bet the scouting report would offer the same information. I realize we don’t have a GL back healthy but we have other options that won’t lose eight yards and just might gain that yard needed to tie the game. I would bet on us to hit at least one short pass in four tries, but we liked other options better.

The two areas that I felt we were slow to adjust were the short middle on pass coverage and checking the pass down to the RB about twenty times. I stopped counting at eight plays where they hooked up around eight yards deep while we covered air around 15 yards depth. We made it too easy for Will Howard. They kept several drives active with dump throws to wide open RB’s or TEs and they ran for additional yardage to move the chains.

I know we had front line receivers injured and unable to produce 100%. I’m not sure our backup receivers were separating quick enough to catch Quinn Ewers’ attention but it’s strange we had to throw flares to our RB’s as often as we did. The strategy worked for two touchdowns but both those throws were down the field instead of flares behind the LOS. Our ground game needs some power adjusting—we need to be strong enough to get one yard when the situation calls for best man wins.

Some thoughts:

3 Ewers—played extremely well until the final three minutes where he was put into a very tough situation.

0 Moore —made good catches with runs.

2 Golden—made three good plays but played at about 75 %.

5 Wingo—good plays both times he touched the ball. Will never understand why we kept the wraps on this talent.

11 Bolden—still the best weapon we own—-good player.

23 Blue—two good touchdowns catches—wish he got more touches.

26 Wisner—just not a breakaway back—blocked well in pass pro.

52 Campbell—alternated with Hutson—pass blocking very average.

54 Hutson—played RG half the snaps—sometime chickens—sometime feathers good then blah.

56 Williams—had his usual penalty and gave up sack at the end.

65 Majors—still plays well, we will miss him and his steady play including quality snaps and calls.

76 Conner— pass pro good—run blocking not.

78 Banks—not his best game but better than most—next level headed.

81 Davis—poor run blocking—caught one pass.

85 Helm—bad penalty—good receiving—good player needs blocking improvement to become great player.

0 Hill Jr—made many good tackles—needs improvement in pass coverage.

3 Guilbeau—made three nice plays— pass coverage very average.

4 Mukuba—good player, we will miss him and his leadership.

5 Muhammad—best game in last three.

7 Barron—played well we will definitely miss his play and leadership.

9 Holmes—he played well again—best third corner in my opinion.

11 Simmons—super edge as a difference making freshman.

15 Norton—made three good plays but missed sa GL tackle.

16 Taaffe—leader but hasn’t tackled as well lately as he did early.

18 Lefau—very average results—needs to be more productive.

25 McDonald—good game against run—needed more snaps.

33 Gbenda—good big hit tackle and pick—too many misreads on run fits.

45 Broughton—one good sack. Lost LOS twice.

88 Sorrell—one good sack—very average production.

91 Burke—good game good sack on option—improved every week.

95 Collins—lost the LOS twice—two good tackles.

99 Lole—one good TFL—steady player.

We had a great year. We could have won this game with just a bit of good luck. Both QB’s were stripped on sacks. Broughton strips Howard on the minus 15 and Howard recovers when it bounces back to him. Ewers fumbles on plus 15 and ball bounces to defender who scores from 85. If both fumbles are recovered differently the opposite happens—we score from 15 while they merely dodge a bullet and have 85 yards to score. That’s why they made the damn football oblong—they wanted it to bounce awkward and unpredictable. Maybe next year will be our year. Be loud and proud—we were close.