Best summed up thusly:
Youth, dude.
Quick thoughts:
Offense
We got away from the run a series or two too early. Ash managed the game intelligently as he got more comfortable, but got little help from the supporting structures of the passing game. Also, we have little ability to get out of bad plays. That's simply experiential - there's no quick fix.
OSU played coverage all game. They were willing to play an honest front and concede some running game if it meant completely eliminating the chance for long, one-play scores. Despite the idea that we could just run the ball every down, we actually couldn't. OSU managed to inflict just enough negative plays on us to keep us from being too stubborn. You only need one tfl to take an offense out of the running game. It's pretty simple.
3rd and 6+ is our mortal enemy.
OSU's secondary is good.
Brown, DJ, Whittaker were all very stout running the ball. Huge props to Fozzy for his heart and effort.
The WRs revealed their youth and inconsistency all game. Very little awareness in helping Ash and no answers for dealing with layered coverage.
David Ash is our starting QB, sink or swim.
Defense
When you underman the front, you expect to give up some runs, but they can't be long scoring runs. Hicks and Robinson were both exploited on bad flow, lazy reads. Similarly, if you're going to play a 3-2-6, don't fool yourself into thinking our LB personnel are run stoppers. Steve Edmond needs to see inside linebacker when you're running that scheme.
Extremely proud of the overall effort. Our DBs played damn well and Carrington Byndom bordered on dominant. Phillips was quite good, as was Vaccaro. Diggs showed well, but we all wish he could have finished a play or two. True freshman.
OSU had three scores exploiting the absence of a safety in the middle of the field (Blackmon TD, two touchdown runs). No, that's not on Gideon. He lines up where he's told. That written, he has no real role in a game like this. Diaz called a good game in many areas, but there's a reason the safety position is called SAFETY. You have to limit the ability of the opponent to score when they break a crease.
Welcome your thoughts and I'll have more in-depth post-mortems later on.