By: MATT MARKEY (ToledoBlade.com) —
COLUMBUS - The current off week on the schedule has given the Ohio State football team time for an extended self-analysis, and some extra digestion of the recent 13-6 loss to Penn State that could very well cost the Buckeyes any chance at a fourth straight Big Ten title.

Coach Jim Tressel, who pushes the buttons and calls the shots on the offensive side, admitted that some of the most central issues for his 7-2 team reside in that unit. With the Buckeyes going without an offensive touchdown in one-third of their games, that part was pretty simple.

But Tressel did not want to heap the blame on any specific aspect of the offense, even though the offensive line has been frequently fingered as a likely culprit in the unexpected struggles, along with issues created by the change at quarterback from senior Todd Boeckman to freshman Terrelle Pryor.

“I just think the inconsistency that we’ve had across the board offensively - not just up front - has lent itself to not being ecstatic about our offensive performance,” Tressel said.

The same Buckeyes that put up 45 points on the road against

Michigan State a couple weeks ago, managed just a couple of three-point kicks in the 13-6 loss against Penn State in Ohio Stadium.

That Michigan State score was inflated a few degrees by five Spartan turnovers and a pair of defensive touchdowns scored by the Buckeyes. Ohio State had 332 yards of offense in that game, just above its season average of 318 which ranks the Buckeyes 95th in the nation out of 119 Bowl Subdivision teams (formerly Division I-A). The only team in the Big Ten with worse offensive numbers is 2-6 Michigan, with 286.5 which is 111th nationally.

Tressel started the bye week by giving his team a couple of days off, and then planned to spend some practice time working on the basics.

“I think whenever you have a setback, typically you go back and examine how well you are doing in your fundamentals,” Tressel said.

“That’s hard to do in the course of a season, because you go from one week to another facing a different defensive concept, and so you have to do different things against different styles of defenses. So you lose a little bit of that individual fundamental time. I think whenever you go back and look at your film, it’s typically fundamental errors, versus anything else.”

At least some of those malfunctions had to take place up front, since the Buckeyes accumulated just 86 rushing yards against Penn State, with a meager two yards per carry. Powerful and explosive tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells rushed 22 times for only 55 yards - one of the toughest outings in his career.

“We couldn’t run the ball, and that’s why we lost the game,” was the succinct analysis of Ohio State offensive lineman Jim Cordle. “We just couldn’t run the ball effectively, or with any consistency.”

Tressel used some of the same words earlier this week, while using the bye period to take stock of where the Buckeyes are in their development with three Big Ten games left on the schedule.

“Well, I think the consistency of the offense has not progressed,” Tressel said. “The consistency, and the fact that we haven’t been able to really find out who we are and what we do best. We haven’t gotten to that point.”

Buckeyes punter A.J. Trapasso, third in the Big Ten with a 42.3 yards per kick average, said that with the goal of playing for a national championship now gone, and the road to a Big Ten title uncertain at best, the Ohio State seniors need to hold the team together for the final month of the season.

“This is not what we saw for ourselves,” Trapasso said. “This is not how we saw our season panning out. We didn’t get it done. It’s been all about the seniors all year, and we have a lot of pride. We’re a family. We have pride, and it’s evident on the field.”

The Buckeyes play Northwestern on the road next Saturday, then travel to Illinois the following week before closing the season at home against rival Michigan on Nov. 22.

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