Well, after having a little time to reflect on the debacle that was last night’s game, I’ve come to the conclusion that these are the things that went wrong:

• Emotionally flat and rusty team, and the 51 day layoff clearly did not help.
• Field position in the first half. When giving a team fields of 5, 6, 32, 34, & 46 yards in the first half it’s no surprise that it leads to 27 points.
• Penalties. See above. Big contributing factor to field position on two drives.
• Ted Ginn’s injury. It shrunk the field dramatically.
• Turnovers. The Bucks turned it over through fumbles and interceptions. Florida did not.
• Befuddled defense, thinking too much rather than reacting. Applying no pressure to the opposing QB. It’s a mystery to me why we were only rushing 3 and 4 and not blitzing.
• Offensive play calling, we weren’t attacking their weaknesses nor were we taking advantage of the mismatch in the run game to free up passing lanes.
• And the key problem: Offensive line play. Tackles Alex Boone and Kirk Barton didn’t stop the Florida defensive ends all night. As a consequence, any advantage held by the Buckeyes of receiver vs. secondary was negated. The O line flat out stunk it up last night.

To their credit, the defense got it together and played a strong 2nd half holding Florida to 7 points after the bloodbath that was the first half. But the offense, and in particular, the line, never got it together. Credit Florida, they played a great game. But I think the Bucks contributed to their success.

That’s it, no more about this game until next season.


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