I managed to catch the first quarter of the Buckeye game this weekend which to say the least, was painful. It was somewhere in the middle of the second that my neighbor kicked me off her couch and sent me home. Something about peanut shells on the floor, wing sauce on the couch and a stream of cursing that woke the baby. Please, it’s the Buckeyes for God’s sake.

Unlike myself, my neighbor has the Dish network which recently added the BTN and already, before the first half was over, I find myself looking for yet another friend with either the Dish or Direct T.V.

What I saw of the BTN however, I liked. I actually got to watch an entire pregame show without any mention of SEC speed, Marc May telling about the greatness of USC or Lou Holtz defending Lloyd Carr. Finally, here was a network that understands the importance of the Big Ten and even more so, understands that Script Ohio isn’t just a quaint tradition, it is stuff the boils blood.

However, all that aside, what I did see of the Buckeye offense was nothing short of pathetic. Who cares that the safety was overturned on a questionable call. The Buckeyes should never have been in that situation. If they can’t drive their way past Akron’s front line to get out of the end zone, we have bigger issues.

Bigger issues like five turnovers. Five turnovers may play against small schools in north east Ohio but it just won’t work against a Pac 10 school. Especially a Pac 10 school full of confidence after ending Boise State’s 14 game winning streak.

The Defense looks good. At least against Akron and Youngstown State. Akron was held to a total of 3 yards rushing, a total of 69 yards on offense and the Buckeye D kept them off the scoreboard (yeah, we had the ball when they scored both their points, remember?)

Once you get past the turnovers, the Buckeye offensive numbers don’t look all that bad. Like I said, I only saw the first quarter or so. The Buckeyes improved during the second half but it really was the only direction to go. Chris Wells put up 143 yards of a total 196 yards rushing. The quarterbacks (Boekman and later Schoenhoft) completed 20 of 31 for a total 167 passing yards. The second half improvement may have had more to do with fatigue than anything else. The field was hot and Ohio State does have a little more depth than Akron (I hope). The performance was nothing to write home about and next week will be a much better test. Tressel said post game that the offense has a lot to work on next week and I’m sure they will. The defense seems to be improving, let’s just hope the offense catches up.