It's Iowa all over again: But will OSU rebound as in 2017?

It was 350 days between inexplicably bad losses and Urban Meyer doesn't have any more answers now than he did then.

"We lost a game last year and came right back," Meyer said Saturday night after unranked Purdue went Boiler upside the head of No. 2 Ohio State, 49-20. "We're going to work our you-know-what off and get this right."

Ohio State's head coach essentially said the same thing last year after a shell-shockingly bad 55-24 loss at Iowa.

His Buckeyes wouldn't lose again until Saturday night, claiming a Big Ten Championship and having their way with Sam Darnold and the USC Trojans in the Cotton Bowl during what grew into a 12-game winning streak.

But here's something scary to ponder with everything else as OSU heads into an obviously much-needed bye week:

As bad as things seemed when the Buckeyes left the field in Iowa City last Nov. 4, that team — as a whole — was better than this one.

We knew it, but kept hoping the season-long problems — or "glaring shortcomings" as Meyer called them — wouldn't come back to haunt OSU.

Some of us tried to tell people the Buckeyes could lose this, especially given past trip-ups in West Lafayette, but we figured it would come in a shootout.

Not with Ohio State sitting there with 6 points well into the third quarter.

Where's the second dimension to this offense? (OSU might as well design its running plays on the side of a milk carton.)

Where's the impact talent at linebacker and in the secondary?

Most importantly, perhaps, where's the leadership among the so-called brotherhood that's going to bring the Buckeyes back from the brink?

J.T. Barrett isn't walking back through the door. Neither is Billy Price.

Quarterback Dwayne Haskins, with eight career starts to his credit, probably doesn't feel any more comfortable taking the bull by the horns than he looked on that ill-fated keeper at the Purdue 2.

Besides, he's already got plenty on his plate, like icing his right arm for hours.

There are seven captains on this team. Or were, until All-America defensive end Nick Bosa walked out the door this past week to heal up for the NFL Draft.

So who's going to step up?

Terry McLaurin, one of three senior captains in the receivers corps, along with Parris Campbell and Johnnie Dixon, said this is where leaders earn their stripes.

"It's so easy to shout and get happy when we come back and beat Penn State, but how do you act when we take a loss like this," McLaurin said on the Ohio State Radio Network post-game show. "My job is to make everybody treat this as a learning experience ... make sure everybody's invested because we need everybody from the last guy on the roster to the seniors."

Just like the players need to hold each other accountable, so do the coaches. Until it was too late, Purdue was the team with the more aggressive mindset. The Boilermakers had the better scheme on offense and defense.

The two teams hadn't met since 2013. If you didn't know Purdue coach Jeff Brohm was only in his second year, you would have thought he spent the entire four years between meetings game-planning for the Buckeyes.

On defense, the Boilers brought so much heat early that Haskins had an itchy trigger finger the entire game, rushing passes, throwing off-target, never getting comfortable.

He was the quietest 49 of 73 for 470 yards in college football history.

On offense, Purdue withstood OSU's early pass rush and quarterback David Blough's touch of wildness to find ways to get the ball to true freshman Rondale Moore in space.

Moore was easily the best player on the field Saturday night and that's saying something, considering the performances of Blough and running back D.J. Knox. Blough threw for 378 yards and 3 TDs, Knox rushed for 128 yards and 3 TDs, including 42- and 40-yard breakaway scores, and Moore caught 12 passes for 170 yards and two TDs, making the Buckeyes look silly in the process.

Which brings us back to coaching. Meyer has never been one to stick his nose too much in defensive affairs and since returning from his three-game suspension to start the season he's left things as they were without him, entrusting the offensive play-calling to co-coordinators Ryan Day (the only undefeated head coach on this staff) and Kevin Wilson. 

Will they be evaluated during the bye week?

"That's part of the whole week," Meyer said. "I do love our coaching staff. I want to make sure ... we've got a lot of work to get done this week."

All of the Buckeyes' Big Ten goals are still in play, but this debacle probably crushed any hopes of Ohio State climbing back into the playoff hunt. Notre Dame could keep two Power 5 conference champs out of the Final Four and a Big Ten title could be cheapened in the playoff committee's eyes because it would likely come over a West Division team that has lost at least twice.

Ohio State didn't get in last year despite finishing the regular season strong against Michigan State and Michigan and beating 12-0 Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game. It wasn't the loss to worthy adversary Oklahoma that cost the Buckeyes, it was the beat-down by Iowa.

The playoffs shouldn't be Ohio State's focus at this point anyway. Gaining more than 3 yards a carry and allowing less than 40 yards a carry should take higher priority.