Grading the Bucks: Week 8 -- Penn State

Well, that sucked.  There is honestly no good reason to take a loss here.  Sometimes, you just get bitten...but it's rare for Urban to lose games like this.  It obviously happens to all teams and coaches, but why did it have to happen to the world's most delusional fanbase and loser coach?

Offense: D
MVP: Curtis Samuel
When I said not to force the ball to Samuel, I didn't mean forget he was on the team.  Samuel is still electric and immensely talented, but he got very few looks in a hostile environment.  The main downside was CLEARLY the failure on the offensive line.  Last week, it was easy to chalk it up to Wisconsin being a solid defense.  This week, it was simply unacceptable.  The tackles (primarily Prince on the right side) were atrocious, but perhaps this is the youth of the team catching up to us.  Coming into the year, I don't think many of us would have been shocked to be 6-1 at this point, but expectations changed quickly when it appeared Urban had the train going on another level.  The lack of a downfield threat and a green offensive line is just too much.  JT wasn't super sharp last night, but the dropped passes (paging the Marcus "Jekyll and Hyde" Baugh) and lack of wide receiver separation made him look even worse.  Without better video down the field, it's hard for me to know if we saw JT indecision in the pocket of a lack of an open receiver.  Also, the media narrative of JT taking too many hits seemed to affect the coaching gameplan negatively as we saw few designed QB runs except in obvious 3rd and short situations.  Weber actually had a nice game that was overshadowed by the big run by Samuel but without more threats, this offense cannot rock like it should.  This unit has shown the greatest degradation over the season.

Defense: B
MVP: Jalen Holmes
Honestly, the defense was really good outside of 2 drives, but the one before half was backbreaking. Saquon Barkley is very talented and was held in check most of the night and McSorley was pretty bad most of the night.  The problem is McSorley was able to lead two drives in which the defense forgot how to cover the deep ball.  Arnette needs to improve but the lack of safety help (especially near the end of the half) made zero sense.  Give credit to the PSU receivers for making some really nice catches in a tough spot, but I would have preferred the big hitter to not happen repeatedly.  It's hard to say much about a unit that only gave up 72 yards in the second half.  The defense played well enough to win and win easily.

Special Teams: F
MVP: No one
I wanted to avoid the F because of the two positives on special teams (blocking an early field goal and recovering a muffed punt), but the negative were just too much to ignore.  Let's start with the Wilson muffed punt...I have been advocating putting no one back to field punts because the cost benefit ratio is not in the Buckeyes favor with Wilson back to receive punts.  Followed up by Booker picking up the blocked field goal while Urban was screaming at him to leave it alone.  Those 'gaffes' are nothing compared to the horrific blocked punt giving PSU hope (by the way, the defense was able to mitigate the pain even when put behind the eight ball) and the inexcusable field goal debacle.  Most of that's on the coaches, but the fortuitous bounce for the Lions and lack of cohesion with the unit were just ridiculous.  Urban Meyer teams are often lauded for their special teams, but I haven't figured out why.  The special teams under Meyer have caused me nothing but angst.

Coaching: D
It all comes down to the confusion on a key play late.  If you don't know what's going on, why do you sprint a green kicker onto the field and try to quick kick in a hostile environment in which there is swirling rain, and a myriad other things fighting against success? Call a timeout and regroup (by the way, I said this in real time as the team looked discombobulated (not a comment in hindsight).  What happened to the gameplan centered around the run game? Yes, we need to pass and sometimes go deep, but a lack of designed JT runs or any screens to expose the overcommitting D-line and linebackers mystifies me.  I like Mike Weber getting more touches, but the check down swing passes are more Samuel's area.  The final failure of the coaching staff was exposed on the last drive in which there was absolutely zero sense of urgency.  Wilson makes a key 3rd reception, stands up and drops the ball while signalling first down.  What the crap is that? You're LOSING and have little to no time left, and you TAUNT?  Teams are NOT going to roll over due to the Ohio State mystique...especially one with a somewhat recent history of success.  Much of this is the extreme youth of the team, but I would have thought it would have been coached out of them by now.  Perhaps this is the result of early success without adversity with a team of young stars used to always winning.  Welp, here's a big fat dose of reality.

Overall: F
You lose, you fail.  The O-line and wide receivers need immense improvement to succeed going forward.  No, the Bucks do NOT control their destiny (need either PSU to lose or UM to come to Cbus undefeated), but they are still in a good spot if they take care of business.  I do believe they can and have a really good chance of doing it, but this is a major 'come-to-Jesus' watershed type moment.  The good news: The Urban Meyer guy tends to push the right buttons in these situations.  Have faith.