Buckeye Recap - mid season grade card

This season was looked at in three equal parts; USC, Penn State, and Michigan/Bowl game. Now I am not looking past Illinois because they are a very real threat to Ohio State but the Bucks should beat them.

Part 1 F++

USC kicked our ass in every imaginable facet of the game. But if Beanie had been healthy it would have at least been a game. I think.

part 2 F+

A slight improvement but they still lost a game the should have won. No where to go but up.

part 3 ??

they should pound Northwestern, struggle at Illinois but win and then who knows against what will be a very desperate Michigan team.

breakdown:

Defense B+

they have been mostly good enough. But not nearly enough big plays and take aways.

Offense D

3 games without a touchdown pretty much tells you all you need to know

Special Teams B

They have been pretty good with some big returns, Trapasso kicking well and not allowing too many long returns against them.

Coaching D

In the past the Vest has been better with less. I'm not sure what the problem is. Maybe losing a lot of assistants over the years is taking a toll of Tressel. What ever it is the offense has been more than vanilla. They need to use the talents and skill sets they have on the team. Let Pryor roll out, work on his throwing and get the ball up field occasionally to back the defense off the line and give Beanie some room to work with.

Overall Grade C

They could go 10-2 and we will all be left wondering "What If?" Of course, we are OSU fans so we always wonder what if.