For the second consecutive season, Ohio State went on the road against an unranked Big Ten opponent and laid a dinosaur egg. Last year, it was a befuddling 55-24 loss at Iowa, which ultimately cost the Buckeyes a spot in the College Football Playoff. This year, Ohio State went to Purdue and imploded in a spree of red-zone ineptitude, critical penalties and a defense that offered little more than token resistance. It wasn’t just that Purdue upset the No. 2 Buckeyes, 49-20, it was the tenor in which they did it. They pushed around Ohio State up front, out-schemed them on both sides of the ball and showed a much higher level of consistent effort. While the loss is a shock on the scoreboard, it’s really the culmination of the vulnerabilities that Ohio State has shown to this point this season. Strip down the Buckeyes’ 7-0 record heading into this game, and they’d struggled in spots against teams — TCU, Penn State, Indiana and Minnesota — that have since proven to be far from, well, elite. Ohio State’s linebacking unit has been a sieve, they’ve lacked a competent complement to Jordan Fuller at safety and Ohio State’s lack of power on the offensive line has rendered them one-dimensional on offense. Coming from behind, quarterback Dwayne Haskins threw the ball 73 times, a school record that will underscore the infamy of Ohio State throwing away its biggest goals this season. “The glaring shortcomings we had,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer told reporters, “were exposed.” Mathematically, Ohio State can technically still be in the College Football Playoff race if they win out and ultimately win the Big Ten. They face Michigan at home to end the season, which would be the marquee victory they currently lack. But realistically, Ohio State is trending in the wrong direction and will be an underdog in that game. The most concerning part for Ohio State is the general lack of energy and interest they showed at times on Saturday night. They played flat and entitled and looked like a team that expected to win because they had better recruiting rankings. Meanwhile, Jeff Brohm’s team played aggressive, assertive and never relented momentum after a fake field goal set up a touchdown that put them up 14-3 at the end of the half. Story continues Ohio State’s Urban Meyer watches from the sideline during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018. (AP) Purdue went up 21-6 after a roughing the kicker call on Davon Hamilton extended a Purdue drive after they’d punted away early in the third quarter. The Boilermakers were never really threatened from there. “We started 0-3, and we were conservative and we got our butts handed to us,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said after the game. Along with an energy and effort issue, there’s been a talent drain on Ohio State’s back seven. Purdue stud receiver Rondale Moore highlighted it all night as he slithered through Ohio State’s second level for 12 catches and 170 yards. The Buckeyes had no match-ups or answers. “We’re on fumes out of the back seven on our defense,” Meyer said. Last year’s game at Iowa looked more like an anomaly. This feels more like Ohio State’s reality, a team that could potentially win the Big Ten but has shown nothing to show it can compete with the highest echelon teams in college football. With the season halfway over, little empirical evidence exists that shows this Ohio State team could compete with Alabama or Clemson. Ohio State could still gather itself and win the Big Ten. But to do that, it will need to fix its back seven, find a running game and establish an urgency and energy that was clearly missing on Saturday night. 2) The backdrop of the day in the Big Ten felt apocalyptical. There was a lightning delay in East Lansing, Planet Hoth conditions in Madison and biblical winds in Bloomington. It was the kind of day that has allowed the Big Ten to brand its own genre of weather, as no league is as synonymous with bluster, cold and slog like Jim Delany’s Midwestern crew. The dire settings met the stakes for Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who needed to figure out a way to reverse his reputation for flopping in big games at Michigan. The Wolverines are 3-8 against Top 15 teams under Harbaugh and entered the game 1-6 against Michigan State, Ohio State and Notre Dame. No. 24 Michigan State had won eight of ten in this series entering Saturday, a run of domination that’s defined Mark Dantonio’s remarkable run in East Lansing. Throughout the chippy pregame, cold spits of rain and an interminable plod of pace thanks to a lightning delay, Michigan steamrolled Michigan State, 21-7, to firmly establish itself as the best team in the Big Ten. They’d likely be a touchdown favorite at Ohio State to end the season the way each team has looked so far this season. Lock this in as the most important victory in Harbaugh’s four seasons in Ann Arbor, as a loss would have put the program back in the spin-cycle of big-game futility. Led by the suffocating defense of coordinator Don Brown, Michigan held the Spartans to 94 total yards, .7 yards per carry and 0-for-12 on third downs. That was Michigan State’s lowest total since 1947. Spartan quarterback Brian Lewerke revealed after the game, according to MLive.com, that he played with an injured shoulder that impacted his accuracy. That may have explained his gruesome line — 5-for-25 for 66 yards, which according to ESPN was the lowest completion percentage by a Big Ten quarterback in the past 20 seasons with a minimum of 20 attempts. Harbaugh’s first three seasons had been largely a tease at Michigan. They’ve handled business against most inferior opponents, won a majority of the games they were supposed to and then consistently flinched when the spotlight got brightest. Will today mark a pivot from that reputation?<doc-sep>No. 2 Ohio State had not been sharp since their come from behind win at Penn State on Sept. 29. The Buckeyes couldn't put away Indiana or Minnesota at home until the fourth quarter of each game. On Saturday, they got stomped in the fourth quarter -- and the other three quarters for that matter -- in a 49-20 loss at Purdue. If you think Ohio State can still make the College Football Playoff, you're technically right, but I would not hold my breath. It was a loss like this that kept the Buckeyes out of the playoff last season. It depends on what other teams do, but for now, what Ohio State is doing is the bigger problem. It was unlikely that Purdue could win a game like this without Ohio State's help, and the Buckeyes were only too happy to provide it. Purdue had two touchdown drives kept alive by Ohio State roughing penalties, once against the punter and once against the quarterback. The Buckeyes shot themselves in the foot all night, picking up 10 penalties for 86 yards. They also missed a 33-yard field goal attempt and got stopped on fourth and goal from the two-yard line. The capper on the evening was when Purdue kicked off after scoring its last touchdown. Ohio State's Johnnie Dixon III watched the kickoff roll to a stop at the one-yard line before realizing he had to pick it up. By then, the Boilers swarmed him and the Buckeyes had to start their drive at the 1. David Blough threw for 378 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Boilermakers on a night when both teams struggled to establish the run. But it was three big runs by Purdue running back DJ Knox that ultimately did in the Buckeyes. Knox had a 16-yard run to convert a third down in the third quarter that led to a Purdue touchdown to put the Boilers up 21-6. Then, he ran for touchdowns of 42 and 40 yards in the fourth quarter to extend Purdue's lead to 35-13. Rondale Moore added an insurance TD on a play that can only be described as, um, Rondale Moore. Ohio State has dropped out of the College Football Playoff projections after the loss. Michigan, a 21-7 winner at Michigan State on Saturday, has replaced the Buckeyes. The Wolverines are projected to be the fourth seed, facing No. 1 seed Alabama in the Cotton Bowl. Expected No. 2 Clemson is projected to take on third seed Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.<doc-sep>Answering The Questions: OSU-Purdue Ohio State had trouble keeping up with Purdue WR Rondale Moore On Saturday, we posed Ten Pressing Questions for Ohio State’s game against Purdue. Today, we answer those questions. * 1. Can Ohio State establish the run (again)? – This was a huge no and, ultimately, another feeble effort. The Buckeyes netted 76 yards rushing on 25 attempts (3.0 average). It marked the fifth straight game where Ohio State has averaged less than 4.0 yards per rush. Keep in mind, that had only happened six times in OSU’s previous five seasons combined (total of 68 games). Something is deeply wrong here with scheme, play calling and execution. * 2. Can Dwayne Haskins stay hot? – Well, when Ohio State could not run the ball and then fell behind by three touchdowns in the second half, the Buckeyes went almost exclusively to the pass. Haskins ended up 49 of 73 passing for 470 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, which was returned for a touchdown long after the game had been decided. Haskins set new OSU records for completions, attempts and yards as he shattered all of those records. So in one regard, yes, Haskins was hot. But this production did not translate to nearly enough points. OSU was 0-for-3 on touchdowns in the red zone last week against Minnesota and 0-for-5 on touchdowns in the red zone against Purdue. (It should be noted OSU’s final possession ended at the Purdue 19-yard line as time expired, so that one should not count.) But 0-for-7 on touchdowns in the red zone over two weeks is abysmally bad. Some are asking for run/pass specialist Tate Martell to have more of a presence in the red zone. Maybe that would help and they can give him some run/pass options down there going forward. * 3. Which wide receiver will have the breakout game? – Haskins completed passes to 11 different receivers as K.J. Hill and Parris Campbell each had nine catches. That gives Campbell 41 grabs in five games. Terry McLaurin and Johnnie Dixon each had touchdown catches. We aren’t sure what is happening with Austin Mack and C.J. Saunders, who each appeared to leave the game suffering from concussion-like symptoms. * 4. Can a tight end make an impact? – The tight ends had combined for eight catches in seven games coming in. They got five more here with Luke Farrell grabbing four and Rashod Berry one. * 5. Is Thayer Munford healthy enough to start at left tackle? – Munford missed practice time as he suffered injuries in last week’s win over Minnesota. But he was able to start and play the game. The Buckeyes allowed just one sack, although as noted the run game came to a complete halt. * 6. Can the Buckeyes keep Purdue QB David Blough in check? – Purdue came into the game ranked seventh nationally at 330.8 ypg. Blough stayed hot as he hit on 25 of 43 passes for 378 yards and three touchdowns. He was masterful as Purdue sustained drives and exploited mismatches with the OSU secondary. * 7. Can the Buckeyes get pressure on Blough? – The Buckeyes gave it the old college try once again. But there was not enough pressure on Blough to move him off his game, particularly as Purdue pulled away in the second half. OLB Malik Harrison had one sack while ends Chase Young and Jonathon Cooper shared one. Even worse, OSU routinely brought blitz pressure with the linebackers and simply could not get home. * 8. Can the Buckeyes keep up with speedy WR Rondale Moore? – This was a complete no. Moore had 12 catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns. He also had 24 yards rushing and 49 yards on kick returns, giving him 252 all-purpose yards. His coup de grace came late in the game as he caught a short pass and had OSU safety Isaiah Pryor try to throw him to the ground. Moore somehow stayed on his feet and kept churning for a remarkable 43-yard touchdown. * 9. Will cornerback Damon Arnette play? – Arnette was injured in the Minnesota game last week and did not travel for the game to Purdue. Jeffrey Okudah filled in for him. This put tremendous stress on the secondary. When Kendall Sheffield went out briefly with an injury, nickel back Shaun Wade had to move back to corner. It was a rough night for all involved, although Okudah was generally decent in coverage. * 10. What impact will the weather be? – The game was played with temperatures in the 30s and wind chills in the high 20s. The teams combined for 848 yards passing, so I’m not sure the weather impacted the passing game. The wind was blowing pretty hard from the north, so teams playing with that wind had it somewhat easier. * Bonus Question: Can Ohio State get to the open week at 8-0? – This was a spectacular no. Ohio State missed opportunities early and then gift wrapped points by the bunches for Purdue, which knocked off a team ranked second or higher for the first time since beating a No. 2-ranked Ohio State team there in 1984. There are so many issues with this team that must be addressed during this muchly needed open week. Yes, they need to rest. But they absolutely must drill on all pertinent fundamentals (i.e. blocking and tackling). Most importantly, however, they must get healthy. They need Arnette and DT Robert Landers, among others, to be present and accounted for during the stretch run. The coaches need to devise a new strategy for running the football. The offensive line needs to get back to basics on run blocking, although the use of run-pass options has hemmed them in to the line of scrimmage to avoid ineligible receiver downfield penalties. Ohio State ran 98 plays in this game. Maybe the time is come to sub some fresh linemen onto the field – as their opponents do midway through every prolonged series. Hmmm.<doc-sep>Ohio State certainly didn’t look like a championship team in its 49-20 loss at Purdue on Saturday night, and one might say the Buckeyes haven’t looked like a championship team all year, or at least for its past few games. Yet even though the Buckeyes are no longer undefeated, and were defeated in ugly fashion in West Lafayette this past weekend, their chances of achieving their biggest goals for this season are still alive. If Ohio State can win the rest of its regular-season games, it will still win the Big Ten East. If the Buckeyes can win the rest of their regular-season games and the Big Ten championship, they’ll still have a good shot at making the College Football Playoff. And if the Buckeyes can win their way back into college football’s top four and make the playoff, it remains possible that they can still achieve their top goal of winning a national championship. So as the Buckeyes move forward from their 29-point loss to the Boilermakers, and into their bye week with an eye toward the remainder of their season, they’re still motivated by the same objectives as they were before. “We can still make the Big Ten championship, and we got to do what we do to possibly make the playoffs, but we still have a lot of football ahead of us,” Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins said after Saturday’s game. “Right now, we’re 7-1. Not what we thought we were going to do vs. Purdue, but we still have an opportunity to go win some more games, so we’re going to make the most of it.” For Ohio State to make a run at a conference title or anything beyond that, it has to play better. The Buckeyes scored a season-low 20 points on Saturday night even though Haskins set a single-game school record for passing yards, largely because they scored just six points in four trips to the red zone, while running for barely more than three yards per carry (76 yards on 25 attempts). They gave up a season-high 49 points and 539 yards on Saturday, as their defense continued to be plagued with allowing big plays. Ill-timed penalties were also costly on Saturday for the Buckeyes, who have now committed 8.3 penalties per game this year. RELATED Just Like Iowa Last Year, Ohio State's Nagging Problems Result in Upset Loss to Purdue The Buckeyes recognize that they cannot accomplish their goals without improvement in all three phases of the game. “We've just all got to look in the mirror and see what we could have did better,” said Ohio State wide receiver Terry McLaurin. If they do that, though, the Buckeyes remain confident that they can elevate their play to the championship-caliber level they strive to achieve. “It’s not just one thing or another, it’s a collective unit, and we’ve got to figure out how we can play better football together,” Haskins said. “And once we figure that out, we’re going to be where we need to be.” “We can still make the Big Ten championship, and we got to do what we do to possibly make the playoffs, but we still have a lot of football ahead of us.” – Dwayne Haskins Unexpected losses to teams they should have been able to beat have seemed to have a rallying effect on the Buckeyes that has led to stronger play after those losses occurred in recent seasons. After suffering a 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech in its second game of the season in 2014, Ohio State concluded the season with 13 straight victories to win a national championship. After a 17-14 loss to Michigan State in 2015, an Ohio State team that had played underwhelmingly all year rolled to a 42-13 victory over Michigan and a 44-28 victory over Notre Dame in its final two games of the season. And after a 55-24 loss to Iowa last season – which Saturday night’s loss to Purdue felt an awful lot like a repeat of – the Buckeyes bounced back to win their final five games of the year, including three games against top-15 teams (Michigan State, Wisconsin and USC). “When you’re on a roll, it’s not like you feel like you can’t get touched, but you don’t know what taste is like to lose, and it almost makes you recalibrate and get your mind right,” McLaurin said. “Look yourself in the mirror, all of us men in the locker room, and see what you can do to get better. Not what the guy next to you can do, what you can do, and as a leader, that’s my job to make sure everybody feels that.” Though there’s reason to be concerned about the issues that have plagued the Buckeyes all season, and finally caught up with them in their eighth game of the season, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer expressed confidence after Saturday’s game that his team will bounce back again. “We have good players, good coaches,” Meyer said. “We’re going to get to work. We lost a game last year and came right back. So we have good guys, and we're going to work our you-know-what’s off, and get this thing right.” Ohio State safety Jordan Fuller was hesitant to compare what happened on Saturday night to what happened at Iowa last year, but he too expressed confidence that the team will bounce back from defeat, though he said it’s now more important than ever for the Buckeyes – especially for team leaders like himself – to work in harmony and get better. “We just got to stick together, and we still have a lot of football left this season,” Fuller said. “These moments obviously you don’t want, but it’s all about how you respond. And we have the talent, we have the leadership, we just got to really self-evaluate over this week and into next week and get on the right track.” RELATED Videos: Urban Meyer, Dwayne Haskins, Terry McLaurin and Jordan Fuller Discuss Saturday's Loss at Purdue<doc-sep>
College football’s newest tradition is Ohio State roaring up the rankings and then getting stomped by at least four scores. Last year the Buckeyes were throttled 55-24 at Iowa, a 31-point whupping delivered by a genteel Hawkeyes program that went on to finish 4-5 in Big Ten play. On Saturday Ohio State was steamrolled 49-20 by Purdue, a team that opened this fall with losses to Northwestern, Eastern Michigan, and Missouri (combined 2018 record: 12-10) before winning its last four games. The Buckeyes entered this weekend at no. 2 in the AP poll, undefeated with an average margin of victory of 27 points. Then they lost by 29 to Purdue. Man, first Drew Brees sets the all-time NFL passing yards record, then somebody makes a movie about Neil Armstrong, and now this. What a month for Purdue. (Fun fact: The longest any Purdue graduate has ever gone without mentioning Neil Armstrong in conversation is 47 seconds, a mark set by Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson while arguing with a referee in a 1997 Bucks-Pistons game. I cannot comment as to whether Robinson mentioned Purdue’s big drum.) Dating back to the 2016 College Football Playoff, Ohio State is now 24-4 in its last 28 games ... with all four losses coming by at least two touchdowns, and three of them coming by about 30 points. When the Buckeyes lose, they get absolutely smoked. Do the Buckeyes just forget that they have to play in certain games? When Ohio State coach Urban Meyer told investigators in August that he has “significant memory issues,” maybe what he meant was that he sometimes forgets how to do every part of his job. Last year’s loss to Iowa was largely the product of turnovers. Then-Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett uncorked a pick-six on the first play from scrimmage and tacked on three more interceptions by the game’s end. But Saturday’s rout wasn’t the result of a handful of bad plays. The Buckeyes didn’t turn the ball over until they were already down by 22 points with two minutes left in the fourth quarter. They just got hit by a big Purdue freight train, like an unfortunate Red Dead Redemption horse. The Boilermakers outgained them by about 2 yards per play. Time and again, the Buckeyes failed to tackle Purdue wide receiver Rondale Moore, who finished the contest with 12 catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns. Rondale Moore with the DAGGER (via @CBSSportsHQ) pic.twitter.com/9trRGH7dZJ — SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) October 21, 2018 Moore is a 5-foot-9 true freshman who can squat 600 pounds. If you’re not into weightlifting, that’s enough to change the course of an entire college football season with your thighs. In the long term, the biggest upshot of Purdue’s rout is that it serves as America’s formal introduction to Boilermakers second-year head coach Jeff Brohm. (Well, I guess the second introduction; the first came in 2001, when Brohm provided the greatest, most pro-wrestling moment in the extremely brief history of the XFL.) Brohm is an offensive whiz who attacks every part of the field and believes the flea flicker should be a regular part of teams’ offensive game plans. In his first head-coaching stint, at Western Kentucky, he helped the Hilltoppers churn out the most efficient offense in the FBS. Two years after his departure to Purdue, WKU ranks 100th nationally in yards per play, while Purdue has vaulted from 108th to 10th in the statistic. It’s easy to envision a world in which Brohm is the head coach at his alma mater Louisville next fall (Bobby Petrino’s act has worn thin without Lamar Jackson), and it’s just as easy to see some of the biggest powers in the sport—or maybe even some NFL teams—wanting a piece of his schemes. In the short term, the upshot of this result is that we’ve officially reached the chaotic part of the college football calendar. It’s not really college football season until there’s a chill in the air and thousands of students rush a field to celebrate a potential playoff team’s sadness. In 2016, Penn State stunned the Buckeyes in State College after blocking a field goal and taking it back for a touchdown; in 2017, Syracuse downed Clemson in the Carrier Dome after Eric Dungey picked apart a defense full of future NFL draft picks. And now we have Purdue’s strobe light field storm. Ohio State’s national championship dreams are not dead.