As the Buckeyes put up three 100-yard rushers, it may be time to stop waiting on the passing game.
View full sizeDan Herron broke free on this third-quarter run against Indiana, easily reaching the 100-yard mark -- finishing with 141 against the Hoosiers.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A game with three 100-yard rushers in the same uniform doesn't come around all that often. Given recent trends, it should happen again for Ohio State in 2033.
Dan Herron (141 yards), Carlos Hyde (105) and Braxton Miller (105) on Saturday became the first OSU trio to hit triple digits since Dante Lee, Scottie Graham and Carlos Snow did it against Northwestern in 1989. It has only happened two other times in Ohio State history: Leophus Haden, John Brockington and Rex Kern in 1970 against Duke, and Galen Cisco, James Roseboro and Donald Clark in 1956 against Indiana.
So it's not easy. But it sure is easier than Ohio State throwing consistently.
Saturday's 34-20 win over Indiana may have been the final sign. It's time to stop waiting for the passing game to find itself. Let go of the dream. It's not Braxton Miller's fault entirely. He still doesn't have anyone to catch the ball, at least not on the kind of routes the Buckeyes are running.
"We could have thrown the ball a little more, but hey, the run was working," fullback Zach Boren said. "The line controlled things up front, which made it easier."
This all sounds very familiar. Miller finished 5-of-11 for 55 yards. Last week against Wisconsin, he finished 7-of-12. Before the Wisconsin game, I wrote that seven completions a game might be the number Ohio State needed for the offense to work. It seemed like Saturday might be the exception to the rule. It did not seem like the type of game in which the number of completions would go down.
Center Mike Brewster was fired up about the running game, and talking about when the passing game comes around. But what if that doesn't happen?
"Then we'll keep rushing," Brewster said with a laugh. "We'll keep rushing. We've got a lot of good guys up front and the best fullback in the country, there's no doubt in my mind about that. And the running backs we've got, it's a good combination."
That's not true in the pass game, where running sharp routes continues to be an issue. Offensive coordinator Jim Bollman talked specifically about a play in the red zone on Saturday, when the Buckeyes emptied the backfield and put Miller in the shotgun on second-and-goal from the 8. Indiana blitzed, and the six-man pressure sacked the freshman easily.
Bollman said it should not have been difficult to identify that blitz and find the hot route. Clearly, that didn't happen. But Bollman didn't necessarily blame Miller. He wasn't sure if the hot receiver was ready for the ball.
Primarily, what was Bollman happy about? That Miller didn't put the ball up for grabs. What happened on the next play? Miller scored from 20 yards out. On a run.
Where's the pistol? Against Wisconsin, Ohio State ran out of the pistol formation almost 40 percent of the time, typically lined up with Miller in the shortened shotgun with Herron behind him and Boren next to him. Against Indiana, the Buckeyes used the formation just twice.
Considering how well the formation seemed to work last week, and how the Buckeyes, despite their big yards, sometimes weren't able to run the ball consistently against the Hoosiers, this seemed an interesting choice.
"It went on the shelf for a little while," Bollman said of the formation. "There are a few weeks left in the season. It could easily come back."
Asked why the Buckeyes didn't go back to that formation which had seemed to work so well, Bollman said, "We thought for the things we were doing this week, it wasn't a big gigantic necessity for us. Can it come back next week? Certainly."
More Simon: Consider this the weekly reminder that John Simon is good at football. The junior defensive lineman continues to prove his value every week. Saturday, he led the Buckeyes with 10 tackles, including three for loss.
At this point, All-Big Ten looks like almost a sure thing. Now All-American honors and the Big Ten defensive player of the year award have entered the conversation.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2011/11/when_it_comes_to_the_air_game.html
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