When I think back to the National Championship debacle I can honestly say now that I saw a loss coming because of some glaring problems we had on both sides of the ball just waiting to be exposed by a good team. On defense, the loss of Anderson Russell was huge in the end as it made us depend on Jamario O'Neal in coverage situations against teams (Michigan and Florida) good enough to expose him. While O'Neal has the tools and potential to be a great talent for
OSU and is doing good things in back-up and special teams roles this year, his coverage skills were so poor last year I think the whole defensive backfield suffered. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that a big reason we were playing that funky zone against Florida was because O'Neal was our best option back there even though throughout the year he was constantly letting receivers get behind him. The second I heard that Kurt Coleman won the job and that Russell was back 100% I knew we would be lights out against the pass. Though Antonio Smith was solid, overall I think we're better off with Donald Washington. If Andre Amos was healthy, one could argue this is the best collective group of starters and back-ups in the secondary we've ever had at Ohio State.
Larry Grant and Marcus Freeman have joined Laurinaitis as bonified stars. What may be lost is that even though Laurinaitis doesn't have last year's gaudy numbers... he's become an even better defensive "quarterback". In 2006 he and the rest of the defense got a lot of interceptions that were simply thrown right at them. Now they're much better at reading routes and being in the right coverage on top of stuffing the run. It might sound odd but I'll take the dropped interceptions as long as he and the rest of the defense are doing that.
I'll go as far as to say that as a unit, I like this defensive line better. Without looking I know that sack numbers are down from last year, but this rotation brings terror after terror to offensive lines from the starters and the back-ups from the tackles and the ends from the freshmen and the upperclassmen. Offenses can't run, nor can the quarterbacks sit back there all day. At this point in the season I'd say there's been little to no drop-off from last year but by the end of the season Heyward, Gholston, Rose, Worthington, Denlinger, Abdallah, Larimore and Barrow will make you forget about the 2006 line... especially if Wilson comes back.
The bottom line is I've satisfied myself that no team I've seen this year including LSU, Florida, Oregon, California and USC could hang 41 points on this defense. Last year's smoke and mirrors have been replaced by fire and mortar.
You may ask how in the world are we better this year on offense? At this point we aren't which is the only reason for the question mark in the title to this thread. But if you ignore the superficial media observations about losing Ginn, Gonzales, Smith and Pittman and look at one of the main reasons for our success on offense in 2006 and so far this year you'll see why by the time we play Wisconsin, we could be better than last year. What do Troy Smith and Todd Boeckman have in common? A cannon arm and all day to throw the ball. Troy's obvious exceptions were Michigan and Florida and he was elusive enough for every team but Florida. This year Michigan has been unable to recover from it's losses on defense, so with the possible exception of Penn State and yes Illinois, no team should get much of a push on this line. Announcers tried to make the "astute" observation that Pittman got most of his big gains by running left without noting that he was running through holes cleared out by Boone and Rehring. While pointing out what we lost to the draft, the so-called experts either chose to ignore or were ignorant to what we left behind: an offensive that can dominate nearly anyone on our schedule.
Brian Robiskie is a better receiver than Ted Ginn... period. Ginn was faster... period. I predict by the time we play Wisconsin Ray Small will give us about 90% of what we lost from Ginn. Likewise I think Brian Hartline has nearly filled Gonzales' role. Sanzenbacher is a gamer and Taurian Washington is a superstar waiting too happen. Dukes and Lyons remain life's biggest mystery to me and Torrence is still a project. While Ginn was entertaining and Gonzales reliable.. I like the Robiskie, Small, Hartline connection just as much and feel the entire wide receiver group will be better than last year's... as will the running backs.
Chris Wells' ankle problem may be a blessing in disguise. I make all these predictions about this year's offense overtaking last year's by the time we play Wisconsin because this unit has yet to be hit in the mouth. We can count on that at Penn State. Sometime during that game Beanie is going down for an extended period, hopefully just to be retaped. Either way we're going to see a healthy dose of Brandon Saine... and if it's worse, the debut of Boom Herron. It means he burns a redshirt, but is the Pittman, Wells & Wells backfield more appealing than Wells, Wells, Saine and Herron? I argue the latter is even better than USC within the context of our schedule.
The biggest part of the question mark is Todd Boeckman. Sometime during the Penn State game he's going to make a mistake... but this will be the game where he shows the whole country that he knows he doesn't have to do it all himself. This will be the game that he shows the collective Ohio State offense, not one player, is the force to be reckoned with in the Big Ten. This will be the game where the question mark is removed.
