Buckeyes Can’t Put It Together When on Big Stage

If Ohio State can find any solace in a 35-3 humiliation at the hands of USC Saturday night, it is this: Jim Tressel’s club won’t have to worry about being a national punch line in a third-straight Bowl Championship Series title game.That’s because there will be no third-straight BCS title-game appearance, not after being thoroughly dominated in every phase of the game against Southern Cal. For those keeping score, this is the tally of Ohio State’s shame: 114-41, that being the combined score of its last three games against elite competition.The voters surely are keeping score, and they dropped the Buckeyes nine spots to no. 14 in the latest coaches’ poll, which is part of the BCS standings formula.For all the talk the Ohio State-USC result will generate about the Buckeyes’ — and therefore the entire Big Ten’s — lack of speed and athleticism, those were not the deciding factors. Yes, USC has better athletes, and more of them. But that comparison works in the Trojans’ favor against every team in the country, even those from the SEC.If the NFL draft is the ultimate measure of athleticism, USC is no. 1 and everyone else a distant second. In the past three years, USC has had 17 players taken on the first day of the draft — as many as LSU (nine), Florida (six), and Georgia (two) combined. That trio of SEC schools includes the last two BCS champions (LSU and Florida, each of which beat Ohio State) and this year’s highest-ranked team.In fact, if there is one school that comes close to matching USC, it is actually Ohio State, the Buckeyes having sent 11 day-one draft picks to the NFL over the same time span.So what accounts for Ohio State’s failings against top competition? One obvious factor is quarterback play. In the 2006 title game against Florida, Troy Smith came in as the Heisman Trophy winner and left with the worst day of his career, while Florida’s Chris Leak enjoyed one of his best.Last year, Todd Boeckman was badly outplayed by LSU’s Matt Flynn. Saturday, Boeckman was awful, throwing for just 84 yards on 14-of-21 passing, with two interceptions, one returned 48 yards for a touchdown by Rey Maualuga to put the game all but out of reach at 21-3 just before halftime. Mark Sanchez, meanwhile, was an efficient 17-of-28 for 172 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception.It would greatly help the chances of any Ohio State quarterback if he had time to throw. While the “athleticism” argument tends to focus on the skill positions, that is misguided. The one area where the Buckeyes have simply not been able to match up with Florida, LSU, and now USC, is along the line of scrimmage. In each of the games, the Buckeyes have given up five sacks, while generating only one.Ask any coach, at any level, the key to any football game, and you’ll hear three factors almost by default: “turnovers,” “protect the quarterback,” and “pressure their quarterback.” Ohio State has failed in all three areas, including a minus-six turnover ratio.While Ohio State saw its national championship hopes destroyed, it’s hard to imagine the Trojans not making it to the title game in Miami. USC is so deep that its 12 touchdowns this season have been scored by 11 different players. Unless they get hit by an unprecedented string of injuries, the Trojans are likely to be not just favored in every game they play the rest of the way, but heavily so. While USC was making quick work of the Buckeyes, the rest of the Pac-10 was falling on its collective face.It was a weekend of carnage for the conference, which went 2-7 outside of USC, including 0-4 against the Mountain West. UCLA followed an opening-day win over Tennessee by getting edged at BYU, 59-0. Arizona State prepared for its nationally televised showdown against Georgia by losing at home to UNLV.The schedule also shapes up nicely for USC, with all its toughest games at home. As it stands, only Oregon, which visits the Coliseum in Los Angeles in three weeks, looks like it could provide even more than a speed bump on USC’s path to Miami — and Oregon might be starting a third-string quarterback in that contest. Notre Dame would need a greater miracle than the six turnovers it got from Michigan on Saturday to hang with the Trojans.Stranger things have happened. Last year, USC lost at home to Stanford in perhaps the biggest point-spread upset in college football history. And as dominant as the Trojans have been under Pete Carroll — the tally now stands at 72-8 over the last six-plus years — they tend to have at least one Pac-10 clunker each season. Barring the Trojans beating themselves, it’s as safe an assumption as can be made to pencil them in for Miami.As for Ohio State, Tressel’s challenge will be to convince his team they still have something to play for. The Big Ten appears to be a little deeper than most observers thought, with Penn State rolling over everyone and Wisconsin toughing out a win against a good Fresno State team Saturday night. Even Purdue gave Oregon a scare before falling in overtime. Tressel should also start giving more playing time to freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor, the lone bright spot against USC. As for the Buckeyes faithful, they can look north at the hated state of Michigan, where the Wolverines will struggle to reach six wins in the midst of a major rebuilding project.If Ohio State can take care of business in conference play, they’ll end the season back in Los Angeles, but at the Rose Bowl instead of the Coliseum, secure in the knowledge that USC won’t be waiting on the opposite sideline.Mr. Levine is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.

Buckeyes Can’t Put It Together When on Big Stage

Buckeyes Can’t Put It Together When on Big Stage

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