Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself.
That Napoleonic military strategy still works today - and has applications far beyond the battlefield. Let's revisit what Tulsa did to itself Saturday with only seconds left in the 1st half:
But instead of running out the clock, Tulsa rushed to get off a play on third-and-14 from its own 18. A bad snap rolled past Tulsa quarterback Dane Evans, who tried unsuccessfully to pick up the ball and it was knocked through the end zone for a safety to make it 23-7 at halftime.
Confused? We didn't specify which Saturday.
Marshon Lattimore's pick-six marked the second time in five games that Tulsa was its own worst enemy in the closing moments of a half. Last November against Navy it had the ball deep in its own end with just seconds to play and rushed to make something happen.That something was two points and momentum for Navy.
The Midshipmen then returned the 3rd quarter kickoff 90 yards and the game was effectively finished. On Saturday the Buckeyes came out of the locker room after both Lattimore's touchdown and a weather delay and proceeded to break Tulsa's back with a nine-play touchdown drive. Game over.
The Silver Bullets have been superb through two games.
The reason head coach and offensive play caller Phillip Montgomery allowed this to happen - twice - can be best described using numbers: 45, 52, 45, 21, 38, 45, 40, 42. That's Tulsa's scoring output over each of its past eight games. They like points by any means necessary.
Like Tom Herman at Houston running OSU Lite, Montgomery's strategy is lifted from his many years working for Art Briles at Baylor (the meager 21 tucked into the middle of that sequence of gaudy numbers above is from that Navy game).
It's an offense that under Montgomery has averaged well over 500 yards and 37 points per game. On Saturday it managed only a field goal while failing to reach 200 yards against a team with a defense that still hasn't allowed an offensive touchdown which is paired with an offense averaging a cool 62.5 51 points per game.
The Golden Hurricane aren't going to deviate from their strategy of scoring a ton and hoping that's enough to win. They'll get their gaudy points and wins this season. Their game at Ohio State doesn't tell you anything about Tulsa's prognosis for 2016.
It did, however, speak volumes about Ohio State.
Last November right around the same time same Tulsa was just kicking off that game against Navy, the Buckeyes were struggling to pull away from Michigan State in the 4th quarter.
You don't need to relive all of the gory details. Ohio State's offense tried doing the same thing all afternoon and never deviated despite the Spartans owning the gaps up front while being susceptible in coverage. The game ended with enough what-ifs to last us several years, with the potent combination of lousy strategy and worse execution being all Michigan State needed to win a game after leading it for zero seconds.
A season and a half prior to that Ohio State was only able to solve Virginia Tech's bear front when other teams wisely attempted to replicate it. So one week after countering Bowling Green to death for almost seven yards per carry the Buckeyes opened up against Tulsa with two straight run, run, pass, kick drives. Its third possession was pass, pass, pass, punt.
You might as well embrace it - opponents WILL come prepared for the Buckeye offense this season.
That's three nothing drives in a row to start a game, and against last season's 125th-ranked defense commandeered by 70-year old Bill Young, whom Tulsa literally hired away from a high school program last season. It produced enough anxiety to unearth awkward memories from early last season and led to uncomfortable in-game debates like The Offense is Bad, Actually vs. Maybe Urban is Deliberately Showing Oklahoma Nothing.
But then the Buckeyes abruptly changed up how they attacked Tulsa's front seven, which had come out prepared to cede nothing. After tweaking its formations to adjust for what the Hurricane defense was doing, Ohio State either scored touchdowns or hurt itself with penalties. The latter is largely a consequence of inexperience, which makes up over half the roster. It's to be expected in Week 2.
The former screams of strategic alignment among the offensive coaches.
You might as well embrace it now - opponents are going come prepared for the Buckeye offense all season long. They know #16 drives the bus. They're intimately familiar with Urban's running game concepts and defensive coordinators are going to take their shots with a green receiving corps and line. It will be on Ohio State's coaches - who fumbled this task for most of 2015 - to adapt to what they're given instead of forcing the issue.
Ohio State has many ways to move the ball.
In less delicate terms - when the shit hits fan, turn off the goddamn fan. On Saturday Ohio State did that and dominated the 2nd half 28-0 after failing to find the end zone once before the storm hit.
Ironically that extended halftime via weather delay may have helped lift some of the fog of war. While the Buckeye defense has now held two teams whose offenses combined for 144 touchdowns last season to zero (!) the offense has already shown itself to be raw, but coachable, relentless and unentitled.
Between that lousy November afternoon and last Saturday Ohio State's coaches have changed their in-game tendencies. Tulsa's have not. The home team was probably going to win that game anyway, but the visitors certainly helped them. Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself.
And if Saturday was any indication of what is to come, somebody else might have to beat the Buckeyes this season for a change.
