The College Football Playoff picture got a bit murkier on Saturday night, as Ohio State went into Purdue and got blown out by the Boilermakers 49-20. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the Buckeyes lost in blowout fashion to Iowa last season — a loss that allowed Alabama to sneak into the final Playoff spot. After the embarrassing loss to a hot, explosive Purdue squad, coach Urban Meyer said the Buckeyes had some of their season-long weaknesses exposed (via ESPN.com): “The glaring shortcomings we have were exposed,” Meyer said. “Number one, off the top, is our red zone offense. We go down there a few times, two field goals and one missed field goal. We’ve never had this issue. We’re going to get a real thorough evaluation of that. And then the big plays on defense.” The Buckeyes also committed 10 penalties for 86 yards, and Meyer added that didn’t help them on Saturday night, either: “It’s been an issue this year,” Meyer said. “Not very disciplined. I think they’re effort penalties, but just, I mean, ridiculous.” Can Ohio State still make the Playoff? The road to the Big Ten title is still open for them, so we’ll see if the Buckeyes can put themselves back in the conversation.<doc-sep>After another lopsided road loss to a mid-tier conference opponent, the lack of preparation and execution is beginning to take a toll on Urban Meyer. Ohio State's head coach was blasted by media members following Saturday's 49-20 setback at Purdue, the second time in two years the Buckeyes have lost by at least four touchdowns as a favorite to an unranked opponent. Many questioned Meyer's reputation with other elites as one of college football's best coaches and most dropped hot takes involving Meyer's widely-publicized offseason drama. One of the nation's primary villains this season, Ohio State's Playoff hopes took a major blow and it's obvious most of America doesn't want to see the Buckeyes reach the final four. Here's some of the hardest shots taken at Meyer after the game in West Lafayette, Ind. :<doc-sep>Purdue puts up a rout of Ohio State, scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter to send the Buckeyes to their first loss. (2:18) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- For weeks, Ohio State Buckeyes showed obvious flaws but found ways to escape and preserve a perfect record. But when the Purdue Boilermakers dropped the hammer Saturday night, the second-ranked Buckeyes had no answers in a 49-20 loss, their second to an unranked Big Ten opponent in as many years, after they fell 55-24 at Iowa in November. Ohio State never led, committed 10 penalties, failed to score in the red zone on three of five opportunities and repeatedly caved on defense, allowing 539 yards, including 406 yards and five touchdowns to Purdue star freshman receiver Rondale Moore and senior running back D.J. Knox. "The glaring shortcomings we have were exposed," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. "Number one, off the top, is our red zone offense. We go down there a few times, two field goals and one missed field goal. We've never had this issue. We're going to get a real thorough evaluation of that. And then the big plays on defense." Meyer and players said that despite signs of trouble in previous games, they didn't see Saturday's struggles coming. Senior wide receiver Terry McLaurin said the team had its best week of practice entering the Purdue game. "We didn't come in with a mentality, feeling like we had all these mistakes," McLaurin said. "We came in actually on a high note." But the problems began right away, with a false start on the first play from scrimmage. Ohio State piled up yards but was one-dimensional on offense, as sophomore quarterback Dwayne Haskins attempted 73 passes, completing 49 for 470 yards. But the Buckeyes averaged just 3 yards per carry, and the offensive line repeatedly drew penalties to prevent the unit from finding rhythm. "We missed some opportunities, had some penalties," Haskins said. "Our offense is all about timing and momentum, and we didn't do a good job of that today. "What happened last year versus Iowa ... we can, we still make the Big Ten championship and do what we do to possibly make the playoff." Ohio State has drawn 10 or more penalties in half of its games. The flags hit the Buckeyes in all three phases Saturday, including a roughing the punter foul on Davon Hamilton early in the third quarter that extended a Purdue drive, leading to a Knox touchdown. "It's been an issue this year," Meyer said. "Not very disciplined. I think they're effort penalties, but just, I mean, ridiculous." The Buckeyes entered the game among the nation's leaders in allowing plays of 20 yards or longer and 30 yards or longer. Knox had touchdown runs of 42 and 40 yards, while Moore had a 43-yard touchdown reception and repeatedly gashed the Buckeyes' defense. "Tackling was a big thing tonight," safety Jordan Fuller said. "It's never just one thing. There's a bunch of things we have to get corrected." Meyer said he remains confident that his coaching staff can make corrections in an open week before Ohio State resumes play Nov. 3 against Nebraska in Columbus. He said the open week will help Ohio State get healthier, especially in its defensive secondary, where several key players are hobbled. Senior offensive tackle Isaiah Prince, who struggled Saturday with several penalties, addressed the team after the game. Another offensive lineman, Billy Price, spoke to the team after the Iowa loss in 2017. Ohio State went on to win the Big Ten championship and the Cotton Bowl while finishing No. 5 in the final CFP selections. "Our program is prided on our O-line and D-line," McLaurin said, "so for somebody to step up like that and say something at a time like this, it's necessary. There's no pointing fingers. It's all about looking in the mirror and see what we could have done better. "We got hit in the mouth, but it's about how you come back from it."<doc-sep>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The end came for Urban Meyer at Florida when he lost assistants he trusted and tried to do too much himself while leading a new staff that didn't inspire the same faith as when the Gators won two national titles. If Meyer is having trouble with his assistant coaches at Ohio State right now, it's not the same problem. It's an overreaction to that problem, with this coaching staff the opposite of that later Florida staff. Then, Meyer had coaches he didn't know as well and didn't trust as much. Now, he may have coaches he knows too well, and coaches he trusts too much. Every time Ohio State loses, like Saturday night's 49-20 loss to Purdue, the view is that the Buckeyes were out-coached. And that's not wrong. Unless the Buckeyes are playing Alabama or Clemson, they'll probably own the talent edge. Meyer is 77-9 at Ohio State. The losses came to Michigan State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, Penn State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Iowa and Purdue. In only the two Clemson losses and the Oklahoma game (mostly due to Baker Mayfield) would you say the Buckeyes had less talent. More talent usually wins. When it doesn't, looking at the adults making millions (or at least hundreds of thousands) of dollars is the place to start, as opposed to with the unpaid amateurs. The Buckeyes appear to have one great assistant coach right now in defensive line coach Larry Johnson, or probably two with quarterbacks coach Ryan Day. When they won the national title in 2014, they probably had six in Johnson, Kerry Coombs (corners), Luke Fickell (linebackers), Chris Ash (safeties), Tom Herman (quarterbacks) and Ed Warriner (offensive line.) The co-offensive coordinators, Day and Kevin Wilson, are a rising star who was heralded for leading the Buckeyes to a 3-0 start during Meyer's absence and a former head coach at Indiana who lit it up as an offensive coordinator before that. The co-defensive coordinators, Greg Schiano and Alex Grinch, are an overqualified former NFL head coach and a hot name plucked off the Washington State staff after he did a great job as the defensive coordinator there last season. They're all at a low point right now. The offense can't score in the red zone and the defense can't stop giving up big plays, and those coordinators are on the hook. Meyer, like Hue Jackson with the Browns, is ultimately responsible for everything, and a loss like this starts with him. He's also 182-31 with three national title rings, so he's shown he knows how to do this. But he's also responsible for hiring assistants. And on that front, I think he has missed on a few recent hires. Johnson is the only assistant remaining from Ohio State's 2014 title team, and I don't think the Buckeyes have substantially improved on any hire since and have taken a major step back on a few. I've railed against overpaying assistants, the middle men of college football, in a world where multimillionaire coaches and multi-talented players really determine wins and losses. That's because a place like Ohio State should be able to hire good people. No one is irreplaceable, as long as you replace them. At Florida, Meyer found trouble with a staff he didn't know, after long-time Meyer loyalists like offensive coordinator Dan Mullen left. "I think he's adjusted to the whole staff situation," Mullen told me in the spring of 2015, when the Buckeyes were basking in their national title. "I think he had a group of us that were there a long time and that there was a big security blanket, and all of a sudden when he didn't know anybody in the room, I don't know if he knew ... it was a different type of situation for him." The reaction? At Ohio State, after losing his initial staff, Meyer has hired people he knows too well. He went for the blanket instead of the best available. And that's showing up now. Look at what happened with former receivers coach Zach Smith. Hiring a staff that you are too close to personally can lead to problems. Linebackers coach Bill Davis is the most obvious issue now. The best man in Meyer's wedding, he spent more than two decades coaching in the NFL, but he'd never coached in college before his friend gave him a job replacing Fickell. Davis had been an unpaid helper with the Buckeyes the year before, and his hiring for the 2017 season was too easy, and obviously wrong from the start. No national search for the best possible replacement would have landed on an NFL assistant fired many times who hadn't recruited or coached teenagers before. The linebackers have lacked fundamentals and confidence since Davis arrived. For everyone wondering now why Davis is employed by the Buckeyes, welcome to my corner. It will be a shock if Davis is back next season, and it would show Meyer values personal loyalty over performance if he is. While Warinner has revamped and revitalized Michigan's line this season as the offensive line coach for the Wolverines, the line here has struggled under Studrawa. Some of that is due to recruiting failures that occurred under Warinner. But Studrawa is another long-time Meyer friend and was the line coach on Meyer's first staff at Bowling Green. Studrawa had a long career in the college game, but he was ousted at LSU after seven seasons and had dropped down to Maryland for two seasons before he was hired in 2016. Right now, Michigan's offensive line under Warinner is better than Ohio State's offensive line under Studrawa. Warinner was promoted, out of necessity and over his skill level, when Meyer named him offensive coordinator in 2015. OSU fans weren't sad to see him go after 2016. But from 2012 to 2014, he was a great offensive line coach for the Buckeyes. Meyer replaced him with an old friend, and the line right now isn't where it has been. At cornerback, Meyer replaced Kerry Coombs with Taver Johnson.<doc-sep>
Michael Conroy/Associated Press The Purdue Boilermakers blew out No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday night, 49-20, and after the game, Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer offered a blunt assessment of his team. "The glaring shortcomings we have were exposed," he said, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com. "Number one, off the top, is our red-zone offense. We go down there a few times, two field goals and one missed field goal. We've never had this issue. We're going to get a real thorough evaluation of that. And then the big plays on defense." Meyer also touched on the team's 10 penalties in the contest. "It's been an issue this year," he said. "Not very disciplined. I think they're effort penalties, but just, I mean, ridiculous." Giving up big plays doomed Ohio State down the stretch. Already trailing 21-6 in the fourth quarter, the Buckeyes allowed D.J. Knox to scamper 42 yards for a rushing score. After matching that touchdown two minutes later, Ohio State again allowed Knox to find paydirt, this time on a 40-yard run. And Purdue put the game away late, with David Blough's 43-yard touchdown strike to Rondale Moore and Markus Bailey's 41-yard interception return for a score. Video Play Button Videos you might like Despite the score, Ohio State had no issue moving the ball between the 20s, finishing with more first downs (31-24), total yards (546-539) and time of possession (31:17 to 28:43) than Purdue. But the Buckeyes failed to score in three of their five trips inside the red zone, managing just two field goals from those opportunities. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, was that Ohio State struggled to gain any traction in the run game, rushing for just 76 yards. That put an incredible burden on quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who finished 49-of-73 for 470 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. "I never thought I would have to throw the ball 73 times for us to win," Haskins said after the loss, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). "You've got to do what you do to win. We just didn't do that today." With the loss, Ohio State's national title aspirations took a blow, but the Buckeyes remain a contender in that regard. Addressing the issues exposed by Purdue will be the key for a Buckeyes team now fighting for its Big Ten and College Football Playoff life.