The story of tonight’s game can pretty well be summed up with this statement: Ohio State gained 10 yards more through the air in the final two plays of the game than they had in the first 59 and a half minutes.
The Miami Hurricanes struck for two first quarter TD passes from Jacory Harris, then put the game away with a time-consuming drive in the fourth quarter, and handed the 17th-ranked Buckeyes a humbling 24-6 loss in south Florida, dropping Ohio State to 2-1 on the season.
But truly, can Joe Bauserman or Braxton Miller be faulted too much for the 36 total passing yards?
After all, this was supposed to be Terrelle Pryor’s team in 2011. Of course, since Pryor now plays for the Oakland Raiders of the NFL, he was not exactly available tonight for the Buckeyes.
But Pryor is gone and no sense belaboring the point. It is what it is.
And what it is now is — OSU needs to find a passing attack that can function against teams that aren’t nicknamed Zips or Rockets.
Harris hit Allen Hurns twice from three yards out in the opening quarter, and Miami led 14-0 before the Buckeyes dented the scoreboard on a 22-yard Drew Basil field goal midway through the second quarter. Basil struck again from 24 yards out less than four minutes later, and OSU was within 14-6, but Jake Wieclaw hit from 25 yards as the clock expired to end the first half, and Miami led by 11.
After a scoreless third period, Miami iced it with a 14-play, 69-yard drive that took 9:37 off the clock, scoring the final touchdown of the night on a 1-yard Mike James run with less than a minute to play.
The Buckeyes racked up 165 yards on the ground on 37 carries, led by Jordan Hall’s 87 yards on 14 touches, but until the final minute OSU had 13 — that’s right, 13 — net yards passing.
Bauserman finished 2-of-13 for 13 yards, while Miller was 2-of-4 for 23. Both of Miller’s completions came as the clock wound down, so take them with a grain of salt.
Harris finished 16-of-23 for 123 yards and the ‘Canes rushed for 247, led by Lamar Miller’s 188 yards on 27 carries, as Miami outgained the Buckeyes 370-201.
Next for Ohio State are the Colorado Buffaloes next Saturday back in Columbus in the last tune-up before Big Ten play commences in two weeks.
Looks like Coach Fickell has some work ahead of him figuring out who is going to be the field-general going forward, because folks, this Miami team is not the juggernaut they used to be, and by making the OSU passing attack look so bad, they gave incentive to every salivating Big Ten team that might have been watching.