Sweetheart, you’ll find
Mediocre people do exceptional things all the time
– OK Go

Law Buckeye over at the Rivalry, Esq. asks “What to Do With Terrelle the Terrible“? It’s worth the time to read.

At this point, many of us are wondering that exact same thing. What to do? I think it was clear to everyone except Jim Tressel that Bauserman should have been given at least a chance to come in and see what he could do against Purdue. He couldn’t have done much worse, right? Instead, Pryor comes back in and subsequently drops back to pass. Again. The Terrelle Pryor Project has, thus far, been stymied. It’s not time to give up, but it’s time to try something new.

This goes beyond his mechanical issues, his mental weaknesses and his overall psyche. No one is doubting his athletic abilities. It is clear the boy (and please, people, let us remember that he is a young man. Show the kid some respect) has been blessed physically. But they aren’t being used to the fullest. He needs to be put in situations where his athleticism is what matters, not his decision making. His maturity and growth has been nonexistent as a passing quarterback. For now, let it go. If it really loves you, it will find its way back to you.

Let him become a run first QB. Run only, even. It’s the wildcat with a back that is still a threat to throw the ball. When Pryor commits to the run, he does amazing things. The shimmy-shake with the hips. The long strides. He appears to be avoiding contact because I think he’s been told to do so. His golden shoulder isn’t so shiny now, so let him put his shoulder into someone’s chest and make them think twice of taking him on.

Split him out wide and let his speed and size abuse opposing corner backs. How quickly people forget how effortless his catch against Texas in last year’s Fiesta Bowl was. He could be doing this on a regular basis. As an excellent basketball player, we know Pryor should be able to jump out of The Horseshoe. Let’s see what happens there.

Heck, do what Law Buckeye suggests with the simplified version Vince Young’s primitive responsibilities. He’s already staring down Posey, so it can’t be that hard to tell him “Pick a man. If he isn’t open, RUN.” And make sure he sticks to it. There is no room for running east and west. Head up field, young man.

These are not new, original ideas. I doubt anything will ever come of this line of thinking. Who knows what the coaches are thinking at this point. I certainly don’t know what’s going to happen (actually, I do, but the optimist in me still hopes something will change). Something has to change.

I’m not really sure what I can say to make sense of that absolute implosion of a performance by the Ohio State offense. It just doesn’t make sense to me that we can score on a drive of four plays, where Brandon Saine runs and catches and goes wild and we never go back to it.

It is a breakdown of epic proportions. There is plenty of blame to go around on this one. The majority of that blame will be placed on Terrelle Pryor’s shoulders but he’s not alone. The offensive line played like they were over matched by an undersized Purdue defensive line.

The coaches deserve their fair share of the blame because they clearly did not prepare the team for the Boilermakers.

The refs are not blameless, but here again the coaches need to be aware that they need to pressure the officials when the occasion calls for it. If the correct call on the forced fumble is made, the tone and momentum of the game completely changes. Who knows what happens after that.

And I am in NO WAY blaming Doug Worthington for this loss, but that face mask was just painful. It was a shame the game ended that way. Other Buckeyes were in position to stop that play well short of a first down and we get the ball back with a minute plus. But who knows what happens. We should never have been in a position like that.

A complete institutional breakdown. How a team with as much talent as the Buckeyes have is in a situation like this is simply mind boggling.

I don’t know what else to add. Congrats to Purdue for game planning and playing out of their minds.

The Buckeyes (and their fans) have a lot of soul-searching to do this week.

Again, I present Ohio State versus Purdue by the numbers. I’m just presenting the data.

But yeah

Tolzien just wants to slap hands!

What a game of football. In a game where defense and special teams almost outgains (but outscores) the offense, a game where the offense runs three plays in the third quarter but the team outscores the opposition 14-3, you wouldn’t think things would go your way. But this is a team sport and we’ll take a win however we get it.

The Defense (now capitalized and bolded) was AWESOME. The fact that they had to play better part of thirteen minutes in the third quarter and still only gave up three points cannot go unstated. This unit is golden

The offense? I have a pessimistic view of the offense and a somewhat more optimistic view. For now, I’ll just say that things did not look very promising out there today.

An ugly win like this probably won’t win over any voters, but was still impressive how it happened.