Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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A win is a win, and Ohio State got a win last Saturday, 31-16 over a feisty Central Florida team. But the Buckeyes didn’t exactly look overwhelming in victory. While the offense once again was far too reliant on the running skills of Braxton Miller, the defense once again couldn’t generate pressure and showed themselves vulnerable to big plays. Even allowing for the fact that the Knights are a solid team, it was a drab, dull performance for Urban Meyer’s troops. There’s plenty for the Buckeyes to work on before a volatile California team comes to Columbus on Saturday.

Braxton’s Line: 18-of-24 for 155 yards with one touchdown and one interception; 27 carries for 141 yards and three touchdowns. Miller opened the scoring with a 37-yard run off a draw play, put the Buckeyes in the lead for good with his second score and put the game away with his third.

It’s been said before and I’ll say it again: 27 carries is way too many. Several of those were off broken plays and the Buckeyes are thin in the backfield right now, to be sure- either way, Braxton Miller has taken far too many hits in the first two games. If he keeps getting hit at this pace he’s going to get hurt, and if he gets hurt this team is screwed- because this is really not a very good football team without him.

Then again, Ohio State’s stable of running backs is tattered and torn. Carlos Hyde left Saturday’s game with a first-quarter knee injury, making freshman Bri’onte Dunn the primary tailback. Fullback Zach Boren, who had a total of one carry in his first three seasons, had seven totes last week. (He gained 16 yards and lost a fumble.) Hyde is out for at least one game. Jordan Hall may play on Saturday against Cal, which is obviously good news because someone has to take the pressure off Braxton Miller to be the primary ballcarrier.

Out of Line: Remember when Ohio State’s defensive line was supposed to be one of the strengths of the team? Yeah, me neither. The front four has been extremely quiet in the first two games, getting very little pressure on the quarterback- and paying the price. One week after Zac Dysart riddled the Buckeyes for 303 yards, UCF’s Blake Bortles fired for 249 yards and two touchdowns. (Bortles did throw three interceptions.) After two weeks, Ohio State is ranked 99^th in the country against the pass and has just three sacks.

One-Man Wrecking Machine: One Buckeye defender who has stepped up is Travis Howard. The senior cornerback has already snared three interceptions. Howard’s third pick of the season was perhaps the pivotal play of last week’s game. Late in the first half, with the score tied 10-10 and Central Florida at midfield following a Zach Boren fumble, Howard got the ball back for his offense when he pulled down a Bortles pass and returned it to the UCF 48-yard line. Eight plays later Miller scored his second touchdown to put Ohio State in front for good.

Questionable Coaching: A rash decision by Urban Meyer early in the game gave the Knights an opportunity to get back into it. With the Buckeyes leading 7-0 and facing fourth-and-one at their own 47-yard line, Meyer elected to go for it. Miller was stuffed for no gain and UCF took advantage, driving to a field goal. With the defense playing well at that point, safety-first football might have been the best option.

Critical Sequence: Howard’s interception may have been the game’s biggest play, but the biggest series of plays came early in the third quarter. Three plays after Ohio State made it 24-10 on a Miller-to-Jake Stoneburner scoring strike, Bortles threw an ill-advised pass that Etienne Sabino intercepted at the UCF 32-yard line. Three plays later, Miller tallied his third touchdown to give Ohio State an insurmountable 31-10 lead.

Around the Nation

Game of the Week- Louisiana-Monroe/Arkansas: SEC! SEC! Oh, wait. God’s Conference took one on the chin in the form of the UL-Monroe’s 34-31 overtime upset of the eighth-ranked Razorbacks in Fayetteville on Saturday evening. The Warhawks- who went 4-8 last season and finished in the bottom half of the Sun Belt standings- were the aggressors, knocking out Tyler Wilson and rolling up 550 total yards in coming back from a 28-7 third-quarter deficit. ULM converted on five fourth downs during the comeback, including the game-tying touchdown at the end of regulation and the game-winning touchdown in overtime.

For the Razorbacks there were only the jagged shards of defeat. No one stepped up. Brandon Allen, Wilson’s understudy, was dismal, completing 6-of-20 pass attempts. Arkansas gained a meager 96 yards rushing on the day and, while its defense was falling apart at the seams, failed to convert on its final six third-down situations. For John L. Smith the loss had to serve as a grim flashback to his days at Michigan State, when the Spartans specialized in blown leads and late-game meltdowns.

Big Ten Reputation and the Art of Not Giving a **** About It: As you may have noticed, this past weekend was not a good one for the Big Ten. Penn State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska all sustained ugly losses at the hands of out-of-conference foes while others, including Ohio State and Michigan, were unimpressive in victories. Naturally the punditry has taken note, with College Football News and ESPN (natch) piling on.

I’m sure all this talk about conference strength matters, given what a big deal is made of it. I’m just not sure why.

Think about it. If, in a given year, Ohio State goes undefeated, the Buckeyes will play for the National Championship- or at least get an invitation to the coming four-team playoff. You can set your watch to it. Do you really think what any other team in the Big Ten does will make any difference in that scenario? Of course it won’t.

There’s the claim that a tougher conference provides better preparation for the high-profile January games. Maybe that’s true. Then again, playing in the weak Big East didn’t exactly blunt the edge of the 2001 Miami Hurricanes. You ask me, I’ll take less competition every time. A Charmin-soft Big Ten gave a national-title opportunity to the ’07 Buckeyes, who probably would have gone 8-4 or 9-3 against an SEC schedule. That slate would have “prepared” them for the Capital One Bowl, not the BCS Championship.

I’d be about conference pride if I were a Purdue fan or a Minnesota fan. I’m not. I’m an Ohio State fan and, frankly, the Big Ten needs Ohio State to be good more than Ohio State needs the Big Ten to be good.

Lay-Down Savannah: During my junior year of high school (1991) the worst Division I football team in the state of Ohio, in my opinion, was Cleveland John Hay. Playing in the Cleveland Senate League, one of the feeblest big-school leagues in the state- this was before Ted Ginn Sr. turned Glenville into a power and even they’re the only respectable program- the Hornets went 0-10, and the vast majority of those losses weren’t even close.

The biggest blowout came in the second week of the season against a juggernaut Fostoria team that wound up going undefeated and winning the Division II state championship. At halftime of this classic mismatch, with Fostoria up 38-0, the coaches and officials agreed to go to a continuous clock for the second half. If the change was meant to help John Hay, it failed miserably. After the Redmen ripped off 38 more points to make the score 76-0, the game was called at the end of the third period.

(If there are any readers who played on that Hay team, I apologize for bringing up old stuff. In all fairness, Fostoria outscored its opponents 586-93, so it isn’t as if the Hornets were the only victims. Anyway.)

If there’s an equivalent to the ’91 John Hay Hornets in today’s major-college football, it’s Savannah State, the team you may remember losing 84-0 to Oklahoma State. The Hornets were 69-point underdogs going into last Saturday’s game at Florida State. They did cover the spread. That’s because, with nearly nine minutes left in the third quarter and the Seminoles leading 55-0, the game was called because of inclement weather. Playing barely a half of football, FSU racked up 413 total yards and scored touchdowns on seven of their eight possessions.

Fortunately for the Tigers, they have a bye week coming up before they start their Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Schedule. Considering they’ve gone 1-10 in each of the last two seasons, the more relaxed competition of the MEAC might not do any more for them than the Senate League slate did for that long-ago John Hay team.

Wither, Miami: Not too long ago a game between Miami and Kansas State would have been another classic mismatch. And, as we witnessed last Saturday in Manhattan, it still is. But it isn’t the mismatch we would have seen in, say, 1988. Doing whatever it wanted offensively and defensively, Kansas State absolutely smashed the visitors from south Florida, 52-13. This one was never close; the Wildcats jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead and it got out of hand from there.

It’s hard to believe that ten years ago Miami was still the first name in college football, the defending BCS Champion that held the top spot in the polls throughout the 2002 season and boasted luminaries like Andre Johnson, Willis McGahee, Kellen Winslow Jr. and Sean Taylor. Now they might be the fifth-best team in the state of Florida. And it doesn’t appear that this sorry state of affairs is going to change any time soon.

Miami is kind of an East Coast version of USC. On the surface, with its glamorous location and rich tradition, they seem like programs that sell themselves. But under the surface are the same blemishes- poor facilities, a mercurial fan base and competition for the entertainment dollar in cities that aren’t really sports-oriented. Miami’s status is more tenuous those that of the legacy schools like Texas and Ohio State. A couple of bad hires is all it takes for that program to slide into irrelevance, and that’s what has happened here. Al Golden is a good coach who did a masterful job at Temple. But Miami is still searching for its own Pete Carroll.

Devon Walker: Finally, thoughts go out to Tulane safety Devon Walker, who suffered a serious spinal injury in his team’s loss to Tulsa Saturday. At this time it is unknown as to the extent of Walker’s injuries as well as the long terms affects. Here’s hoping the young man makes a full recovery. This is truly a tough, brutal game.

Winners of the Week

Utah State: Gary Anderson has done a masterful job in rebuilding the USU program, and his fine work was reflected in Saturday’s 27-20 overtime win over cross-state rival Utah, the first time since 1997 the Aggies have defeated the Utes. Despite blowing an early 13-point lead and giving up the tying touchdown with 3:19 left in regulation, Utah State pulled out the victory on Kerwynn Williams’s one-yard plunge in the extra session. Quarterback Chuckie Keaton was the key element, throwing for 216 yards and two scores while running for 86 more. Next week comes a bigger test, as the Aggies head to Camp Randall Stadium to take on what should be an ornery Wisconsin team.

Pac-12: Although it wasn’t a perfect week- what with Colorado losing to Sacramento State, Utah losing to Utah State and Washington getting obliterated by LSU- the Pacific Coast still made a statement in out-of-conference play, defeating three ranked opponents and knocking off opponents from four of their fellow BCS conferences. Up in Corvallis, the Oregon State Beavers shut down Montee Ball and surprised Wisconsin. Down in Pasadena, Jim Mora’s energetic young UCLA Bruins took down Nebraska in a 36-30 thriller. And out in Tucson, Rich Rodriguez’s Arizona Wildcats hung 59 points on Big 12 power Oklahoma State.

Iowa State: Despite losing four turnovers and missing an extra point, the Cyclones pulled off their first road victory over arch-rival Iowa in ten years, 9-6. Paul Rhoads’s team has now won two straight over the Hawkeyes and is 2-0 overall with Western Illinois coming to Ames next week.

South Florida: The Bulls travelled cross-country for a big win on Saturday, storming back from a late eleven-point deficit to stun Nevada in Reno, 32-31. B.J. Daniels was the star, leading USF on touchdown drives of 80 and 92 yards in the last four-and-a-half minutes and launching 56-yard strike to Andre Davis to give the Bulls their first lead of the game with 38 seconds left. Daniels’s line: 363 yards passing, 53 rushing, three touchdown passes. Next for the 2-0 Bulls is an intriguing meeting with 2-0 Rutgers in Tampa on Thursday night.

Michigan State: Mark Dantonio’s defense made it eight consecutive quarters without a touchdown allowed in Saturday’s 41-7 rout of Central Michigan. Playing on the road in Mount Pleasant, Sparty held the Chippewas to 245 total yards and forced three turnovers and held the ball for more than 35 minutes. Thus far they’ve given up two touchdowns, both on interception returns.

Losers of the Week

Texas A&M: Playing their first SEC home game, the Aggies let the opportunity for a signature win slip away in a 20-17 loss to Florida. A&M led 17-7 in the first half, but critical mistakes and lousy field position made for a scoreless second half as the Gators came back. Kevin Sumlin’s team was hit with nine penalties on the day, several of them at extremely inopportune times.

Auburn: The Tigers fell to 0-2 for the first time since 2003 with a 28-10 thumping at the hands of Mississippi State. The statistics were as lopsided as the score, as Auburn was outgained 388-216 and failed to score an offensive touchdown. Gene Chizek’s team has now gone a pedestrian 8-7 since defeating Oregon in the 2011 BCS Championship Game.

Colorado Schools: Air Force’s competitive loss at Michigan looked grand compared to what happened to the state schools. In Boulder, Colorado frittered away an early two-touchdown lead in a 30-28 loss to Sacramento State. Up the road in Fort Collins, Colorado State was simply outclassed in a 22-7 loss to the defending FCS Champions from North Dakota State. The salad days of Bill McCartney and Sonny Lubick might as well be a century ago. Actually they are, come to think of it.

UNLV: The Rebels outgained Northern Arizona 428-288 and dominated time-of-possession but, as is their wont, found a way to lose to the Lumberjacks, 17-14. Leading 14-0 at halftime, Vegas gave up a punt-return touchdown, missed a chip-shot field goal and fell behind for good on a field goal with 12 seconds left. Not a good day for head coach Bobby Hauck, whose record fell to 4-23 since taking over in the desert two years ago.

Sam Ficken: Penn State’s sophomore kicker had a catastrophic day in his team’s 17-16 loss to Virginia on Saturday, missing four field goals (of 40, 38, 20 and 42 yards) and having an extra point blocked. It’s tough to feel too badly for anyone in Happy Valley these days- but it’s tough not to feel badly for this kid.

Next: The Cal Golden Bears- 1-1 with a loss to Nevada and a win over Southern Utah- come to the Horseshoe at high noon on Saturday. It’s the first meeting between the schools since the 1972 season, when Ohio State defeated the Bears in Berkeley.