I guess you can count me among those "beyond help". I think that the last three years almost all of the offensive problems have been on the offensive line. It's difficult to assess the quarterbacks as a result, particularly since they've been hurt much of the time, or running for their life (think about the Kentucky game, for example).

Let's look at last season. Vick's passing numbers were very good up to the Miami game. In fact, they were on pace for Vick to become the all-time leader in Career Pass Efficiency at Ohio, but when the offensive line imploded against WMU-Buffalo-BG, his passing numbers were awful, and he got hurt as well, so he ended his career at #3, behind Tettleton and Boo Jackson. Meanwhile, when the offensive line was having a field day against Ball State and Northern Illinois, Sprague looked like he was all-MAC until he got hurt at NIU.

When I look at the data, what I see is that when the offensive line has been getting the job done, Ohio's quarterbacks have been among the MAC leaders in pass efficiency, and when the line hasn't been getting the job done, Ohio's quarterbacks have been frustrated and injured. To me that tells me that the offensive line needs to get it together and keep it together, and then the quarterbacks will be fine. What the data doesn't tell me is how good the quarterbacks would be/will be when the offensive line finally does put together a solid season from beginning to end. I hope to find the answer to that this fall, however.

Here are the top 10 seasons ever at Ohio for Pass Efficiency:
1. Tettleton 2011, 148.6
2. Tettleton 2012, 141.2
3. Bob Babbit 1962, 139.4
4. Tettleton 2013, 138.8
5. Boo Jackson 2008, 137.6
6. Sprague 2015, 136.6
7. Boo Jackson 2010, 136.2
8. Vick 2015, 134.0
9. Cleve Bryant 1968, 131.1
10. Vick 2014, 130.9

And, for a little more data, here are the MAC passing leaders from 2015:
1. Matt Johnson, BG 164.2
2. Zach Terrell, WMU 162.3
3. Cooper Rush CMU 144.7
4. Drew Hare, NIU 142.8
5. J.D. Sprague, Ohio 136.6
6. Derrius Vick, Ohio 134.0
7. Phillip Ely, Toledo 131.8
8. Brogan Roback, EMU 125.8
9. Ryan Graham, NIU 124.4
10. T. Woodson, Akron 123.1

When I look at the data, I don't see any evidence at all that QB was the problem. It appears to me that if they solve the problem up front, Ohio's QBs will be very close to the top of the MAC.

I believe Bcat's post was defending our defense, not supporting our QB. But good of you to take another shot at him.

Get real Monroe. Alabama had as good a defenses as you will find Rushing D 1st, Total D & Scoring D 3rd and yet Red Zone D was 62d. OMG 62d. I am sure Alabama has some genius fan, not, pointing out that 62d sucks and THIS HAS TO IMPROVE. Well, by God, Ohio really needs a better QB to pick other teams apart, but, by God a good QB from another team can not be allowed to have any success vs Ohio. Riight.

"Ignore"

I am digging this new ignore feature

Then, of course, there is irrational unwillingness to acknowledge the inherent truth of things that were never true to begin with. It gets very tiresome playing the role of fact checker, but occasionally someone has to do it. So, Ohio is getting "diced by a lot of very average quarterbacks"?

The fact is that last year Ohio was 4th in pass-efficiency defense, at 120.7, and even then, barely behind the league leader, Toledo, at 119.0. Or, look at the individual games. 8 of the 12 quarterbacks Ohio played had worse games than their average for the year, and some were markedly worse. In fact, the only quarterback that might fit your description of a very average QB that had an above average day Ohio was Leidner of Minnesota. Meanwhile quarterbacks like Birdsong of Marshall, Woodson of Akron, Bahl of Miami, and Bollas of Kent were all awful, and quarterbacks like Linehan of Idaho and Licata of Buffalo were under their season averages.

My concern with the Cover-4 is the reverse. It makes life very difficult for average quarterbacks, but really good quarterbacks seem to be able to take advantage of it. The three best quarterbacks that Ohio has played in the last couple years, Johnson at BG, Terrell at WMU, and Cato last year at Marshall, all had very good days against it. Ohio did much better with it in 2015 than 2014, however, so hopefully they will continue to make progress.

For some reason I never see Ohio fans credit the opponent. The Blame Game is the favorite of the loudest on BA.
[/QUOTE]

Have to take issue with this one. I recall some acknowledgement of good opponents and dug up a few recent ones here.



[QUOTE=Mark Lembright '85] from 12/19/15
SUTodd notwithstanding (and ASU can keep him), props to ASU as they hung in there and played a great game, even after losing their best player.

Have to take issue with this one. I recall some acknowledgement of good opponents and dug up a few recent ones here.