Ugliness in South Beach

After tonights game, I am ready to say the Bucks are going to be a mediocre team this year. The offense was disgusting. We don't have a QB ready for the job. There are 0 targets to throw to outside of Stoneburner, and he can be double teamed and rendered ineffective. The defense was okay, but got torched several time on the run. A better QB would have chewed us up. Special teams were better, but nothing special. Jordan Hall was the highlight of the evening, and for some reason Fickel went away from him in the fourth quarter with plenty of time left. They are not going to be able to overcome the loss of so many starters from last year on both sides of the ball.

The coaching was a complete failure tonight. Fickle showed his inexperience. And to me, the lack of Tressel is highlighting just how bad Jim Bollman is. We need a new offensive coordinator, but that is nothing that hasn't been said for years. It is just worse now that Tressel isn't around to make up for some of it. Fickle better recover quick, because the last two games have not ben impressive. If he doesn't I would expect Urban Meyer to be getting some phone calls in the near future.

So let's summarize.

• QB is bad and inconsistent
• We have a severe lack of wide receivers right now. Posey will help but can't do it by himself.
• Our run defense is suspect.
• Our kicker is 2 for 4
• Our running game is sufficient right now
• Coaching decisions are suspect

This is not Buckeye teams of the recent past my friends. This is going to be a long year.

Now I know I shouldn't partake in jumping off the cliff so soon, but look at the schedule. I see two more almost guaranteed losses (Wisconsin and Nebraska), and at least two more probable losses in Michigan State and....this is difficult....Michigan. So that would put them at 7-5 and in a lower tier bowl, a.k.a., Detroit in December. If it was up to me, I would ask for a bowl ban this year and get it over with.

I guess I would consider this a lowering of expectations for this season rather than a full jump off the cliff. Be happy with 9-3.