Dwayne Haskins set several passing records in the loss, which was the only hairline positive that I could find.
The now 7-1 (4-1 Big Ten) Buckeyes have a bye week to try to pull some of this together before returning against Nebraska at home.
Olentangy Offerings
1) I'm going to start with the one positive before I go rogue and seem like an ingrate for the Buckeyes daring to lose a football game.
Dwayne Haskins set team records for passes (73), completions (49) and for yards (470).
Haskins threw two four-quarter touchdowns and just one interception, although it could have easily been a few more as some ham-handed Boilermakers dropped a few would-be picks.
Did Haskins play great? No, but he's one of the few that I'm going to go a little easy on.
2) A few plays that made you think this was not the Buckeyes night.
A first-half bomb to a wide-open Terry McLaurin that Haskins overthrew by five yards made me think a little, but there were two plays that were key in setting the stage.
Late in the first half with the score just 7-3, Ohio State seemed to have held the Boilers to a field goal attempt, Jeff Brohm pulled off a fake that caught Ohio State sleeping, got the first down and Purdue would then score a touchdown to lead 14-3 at the half.
3) The other came in the third quarter after Ohio State used their opening drive to cut the lead to 14-6 and stopped Purdue's first drive of the half to force a punt.
Ohio State would then rough the punter to give Purdue a new set of downs and they would score a touchdown.
I would never feel like the Buckeyes would win after that.
4) Much will be written about the lack of success in the red zone and it's justified.
Dwayne Haskins had three passes hit his receivers in the end zone, only to have them drop them or bobble them enough to allow the Purdue defender to stick his hand in there and bat the ball away.
Even still, that was not the main issue.
5) That was the running game, which had zero holes to run through.
Otherwise, explain to me why a team with JK Dobbins and Mike Weber combined for just 67 yards on twenty carries.
That is all on the offensive line with Isaiah Prince, who has been really bad (I'll try to be nice) in the last two games and the badly miscast center Michael Jordan, who for some reason was taken away from guard, where he was excellent in 2017.
6) And then there is the inability to defend against the pass with Purdue's David Blough throwing for 378 yards and the very scary Rondale Moore finishing with two scores and 170 yards.
The pass defense hasn't made any progression, they have gotten worse.
Safeties leaving receivers alone, a pair of overrated corners (Damon Arnette did not play in this game due to injury) that some think have a chance to be first rounders (those people must not watch games) and linebackers that take not only poor angles to get to the pass catcher, they tend to bounce off them when they do.
Much of that is on defensive coordinator Greg Schiano, but don't let secondary coach Taver Johnson off the hook- it's his bunch that looks worse by the week.
7) Even still, if you didn't watch the game, you would look at 49-20 and say it was an Iowa type rear end whipping.
It was a little different, even though I didn't feel great about it, the points that made it ugly came late in garbage time.
Against Iowa, those points came a bit differently, but the ending was the same.
8) Ohio State committed ten penalties, many at awful times- a roughing the passer in the second half by Dre'Mont Jones stands out as especially bad.
This is the most penalized Buckeye team in the Urban era with just under NINE a game.
9) As bad as this loss is- Ohio State controls its own destiny- win out over Nebraska and Michigan at home and on the road against Maryland and Michigan State and they are going to the playoff with a win in Indianapolis against Wisconsin or Iowa, the likely representative from the other division.
It won't be easy, but at least it's on them and without having to rely on others.
10) I had been talking for a few weeks that this game concerned me.
Unlike the Iowa loss last season, which caught me by surprise, I feared this game.
A road, night game against a team that likes to throw and a young and fearless head coach.
Purdue was the "trap game" that wondered about from the time that it seemed that Benny Beaver from Oregon State was grabbing slant patterns for fifty-yard gains-Purdue was the game that I thought could bite OSU.
You expect the two Michigan's and Penn State to be tough games and those can easily go against you, but when you look at the schedule for the unlikely loss, this is the one that stood out.
When Purdue started 0-3, some wondered, I didn't as those three losses were by a combined eight points and when they trashed a then ranked Boston College, you could see them coming together.
If I could see it, you would like to think our football people could as well.
11) Finally, let's talk Urban Meyer, who not only has lots of things to fix, but he might want to look into the mirror.
I'm not going to be one of the guys screaming for his head, but for the second year in a row. Meyer has brought a heavily favored team to a town with a middle of the pack team waiting for them and was ripped to shreds.
Iowa played a perfect game and Purdue didn't make mistakes either, but Iowa never found that level again last season and even though Jeff Brohm seems to have Purdue on the rise, they aren't likely to play this very often.
In these situations, you have to look at being prepared and that goes to the head man.
It's not unfair to at least consider Urban Meyer as one of the problems in the loss.
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