Caught with our pants down…that’s what today’s game looked like. It took me back to the OSU vs. Cincinnati game a few years ago, except that game was much, MUCH more stressful. In fact, my life insurance company is still pissed off that I watched that game. The probability of my death occurring before my insurance policy expires, increases…with every one of these games I watch. However, now that I’m at home, sitting on the couch, thinking about bedtime already (at 8pm), now is as good a time as any to analyze this game, answer some questions, and see if we can figure out what went wrong.

In the spirit of good psychology, let’s first talk about what went right. We ran the ball well – at least, until we put it on the ground during that crucial point in the 4th quarter with 3 minutes to go. Carlos Hyde has been impressive, considering most never expected to see him on the field (except maybe on Senior day in a couple yrs with his parents). There’s no doubt, the suspensions the Buckeyes have incurred have caused some of the young guns to step up and find some new fire. But…other than running the ball pretty well, the only other thing I liked was the “W” a the end of the game.

Okay – so what went wrong? First off, our offensive line didn’t really seem to stand up to a Toledo d-line that we clearly out-weighed. Being man-handled like rag dolls was a little embarrassing, considering we’re a D-1, Big Ten school playing a MAC Toledo.

Secondly, when we the O-Line was given their coffee and decided to join the party, Bauserman had a really tough time finding an open receiver. Don’t get me wrong, he really impressed me last week – and his improvement was impressive, even just since the Spring Game in April. I’m just not sure he wasn’t shaken up a bit by being hurried so much those first couple quarters…because when given time (and I mean, a lot of time on quite a few snaps), he didn’t check off his receivers like he did last week.

Third, our Special Teams stole a little from the O-Line’s bag o’ tricks by letting a linebacker fly thru the middle of our punt team. Tressel, if he was watching, would not have been proud of this disappointing play.

Fourth, my boy Rod Smith (as mentioned earlier) put the ball on the ground for the second week in a row…his second game as a Buckeye. What’s annoying about this stat is that he actually looks to have better field awareness than Hyde. But, there was no excuse for dropping that ball. With that said, I can’t beat him up too bad. I remember a certain player who had a lot of trouble back in the 90′s as a young running back with just this kind of thing. After keeping focused, improving his game, and sticking with the Buckeyes for 4 years, Eddie George became a Heisman Trophy winner and one of the NFL’s best running backs – probably one of the best, ever.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, our defense looked like anything but the Silver Bullets. I’m not taking anything away from Toledo here. They threw the ball well, ran some good plays, and they’re pretty fast for a MAC school…but there was no excuse for the mass quantity of missed tackles we experienced throughout the game. Again, embarrassing – film tomorrow is going to suck for a lot of players.

The only other glaring question on Buckeye fans’ minds is, “Where was Braxton Miller?” There has been talk since before the season started, that Bauserman and Miller would be splitting snaps behind center…but last week, Miller got one series in the first half (which consisted of some poor blocking and a bad snap) and then a little tick with the 2′s. Today??? Nothing… So, why? We know he’s not injured. He’s obviously a good athlete. I only have two possible answers. Either he has an attitude problem and the coaches are having a hard time putting him in the game because of said attitude…or, Bauserman, in practice, has shown himself to be the better of the two Ohio State QB’s. The only reason I mention the possibility of a “Braxton attitude problem” is because, for the second game in a row, I’ve looked for him on the sidelines and have a hard time finding him. When I do finally locate the offensive #5, he’s usually on the bench or off to the side, away from the action, rather than standing next to the other two QB’s calling plays into the game, like he should be. Very strange…

We’ll just have to see what happens at Miami. Fickell mentioned today in the post-game press conference that, contrary to original plans, he still considers the team to have 2 QB’s going into Miami next week. He said that today’s game was “flowing” in a manner where he didn’t want to take Bauserman out of the momentum of the game. We’ll have to see what happens.

Looking into next week, while the Buckeyes aren’t playing a Miami of the early 2000′s, they’re still a bigger, quite possibly better team than we saw in Toledo today. Furthermore, we’re going to be playing them on their turf – which will be a big test for our very young team. Hopefully, Fick can teach these kids a thing or two about keeping their heads up and learning from their mistakes. I certainly hope today’s game isn’t going to be the level of performance we can expect for the rest of the season. Still, I remain optimistic, and with that said, I say, “GO BUCKS!”