It was as perfect
of a start as Buckeye fans could possibly imagine, up 27-6 on the #14 ranked
Nebraska Cornhuskers in the 3rd quarter, in Lincoln, with a true
freshman manning the controls at quarterback.
Then, in one moment, it was like the whole world got turned upside
down. Star Nebraska linebacker Lavonte
David ripped the ball away from Braxton Miller deep in Cornhusker territory,
leading to a Nebraska touchdown. Then,
on the very next drive, Braxton Miller got hurt, and would not return. The tide was shifted for good, and Nebraska
pulled off the largest comeback in school history (Also tied for the largest
collapse in Ohio State history) and ended up winning 34-27.
3-3 isn’t where I
expected to be right now in the year, but considering we were about 20 yards
away from losing to Toledo I guess it’s not the worst thing that could
happen. Welp, here goes.
Offense
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| Braxton's coming out party got ended a little early |
- We’ve found our
quarterback. For 3 and a half quarters,
outside of an untimely ball being ripped away from him, Braxton Miller looked
as good as advertised. He was throwing
the ball well, and his dangerous running ability was keeping the offense moving,
and he finished with 10 carries for 91 yards, and also went 5/8 for 95 yards and
a TD as well. The way the team performed
offensively when he went down just shows how valuable he is. He’s still got a ways to go, but overall I
came away very impressed.
- Carlos Hyde is a
baller. 13 carries for 104 yards and 2
TD’s? Awesome stats. Awesome play as well. He showed some speed I don’t think anyone
knew he had during his 63 yard touchdown run that was reminiscent of Beanie
Wells against LSU in the NCG. He pounded
the ball old-school style and picked up first downs with the box stacked. Overall great performance, I came away very
impressed. He deserves to get the ball
even with Boom coming back. His last 3
games combined, he has 24 carries for 177 (7.3 YPC) yards and 3 TD’s.
- Philly Brown is a
difference maker at receiver. He was
able to separate from DB’s, and made some plays when he got the ball in his
hands. His big catch and run at the
start of the game was crucial to Braxton’s confidence, and he also had his man
beat deep late in the game when Joe Bauserman underthrew him.
- Stoneburner
showed some great speed on the throwback TE screen. Sure doesn’t move like a TE.
- Mike Adams had,
perhaps the best offensive line performance I’ve ever seen at Ohio State. He played like a man possessed. His return also allowed us to get our best 5
OL out there, with Andrew Norwell sliding to LG and Jack Mewhort moving to
RG. If there’s a better offensive
lineman in the country, I haven’t them.
- False starts
continue to be a problem. Shugarts had
his usual one, but Mewhort picked up another one as well. Don’t see what’s so hard about not moving
until the ball is snapped.
- Chris Fields did
a great job getting open. If Braxton
could’ve put one of his passes about 6 inches lower, then Chris is in the
endzone celebrating a TD.
- Was not impressed
with Jordan Hall today. Didn’t do much
in the return game, and struggled on the ground. Everybody has down games, and Hyde did play
great to off-set this, but we needed a big game from Hall.
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| Carlos Hyde ran for 104 yards and 2 touchdowns on 13 carries |
- Bauserman… just
wow. 1/10. 13 yards.
1 INT. One of the worst
performances I’ve ever seen. I’m sure
you’ve already seen the Joe Bauserman passing chart by now, and the sad part is
that it actually gives him credit for more passes completed than he has on the
road all year (He is 3/24 on the road).
I understand he’s worked hard, he’s a true Buckeye, yada yada yada, but
the point is with his play he should not be playing quarterback at Ohio State,
ever again.
- Kenny Guiton was
warming up at the end of the game, before the defense let Nebraska run the last
4 minutes of clock off, but he should’ve been in earlier. Joe couldn’t do anything, you gotta at least
put in Kenny and let him do something with his legs because Nebraska was just
pinning their ears back without a running threat at QB to account for.
- I have regularly
railed against Jim Bollman, but I am here to give the man props. His gameplan and play-calling for 3 and a
half quarters was nothing short of incredible.
The throwback TE screen was brilliantly run, called, and executed. He put Braxton in situations where he could
succeed, and running to the weakside of formations away from the safety support
for the entirety of the game was a very good call as well.
- At the same time
though, he did an awful job once Braxton went out. When Braxton was in (3.5 quarters), we ran
the ball 33 times, passed 8 of them.
When Bauserman was in (1.5 quarters), we passed 10 times, and ran
8. Given how ineffective Bauserman was
through the air, that’s just inexcusable.
- Hated the
decision to punt from the 32 yard line.
See, that was the situation where Jim Tressel wins us this game. On 3rd and 13 from the 32, rather
than dropping Joe back to pass again, Tress would’ve ran the ball, picked up a
couple of yards and centered it, kicked the FG, and gone up 30-20 and put all
of the pressure back on Nebraska.
Instead, Fickell passes it, doesn’t get it, takes a delay of game to
give Buchanon some room, and punts the ball away. It would be the closest we got to anything
the rest of the game.
Grade: C+. If Braxton had been able to keep playing, this
probably ends up as an A. But I just can’t
let the final quarter and a half and the blown FG opportunity out of my
head. Bauserman’s poor performance also
drags it down. Gave it a + just because of
the first 3 and a half quarters.
Defense
- Bradley Roby,
once again, continues to play great. He
made a lot of plays, and I feel very confident in saying he’s going to be the
next NFL corner to come out of Ohio State.
- Travis Howard,
once again, continues to struggle.
Dominic Clarke has got to be given an opportunity… I sat there blatantly
pointing out all of the times Howard
messed up because they were so obvious.
- Etienne Sabino is
probably the most physically gifted LB in the Big Ten, but mentally he’s nowhere
near as strong. He takes poor angles, is
slow to react, and struggles in coverage.
He does make some pretty good hits when he gets there (Just ask Taylor
Martinez), but his deficiencies more than outway his good play. I would like to see Ryan Shazier get a shot
at the WLB.
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| Bradley Roby continued to impress |
- Christian Bryant
had his worst game as a Buckeye. He had
the blown coverage that led to the TD off of the option stepback pass, and he
also missed a tackle in the open field that sprung Rex Burkhead for 6. He’s still young, hopefully he can learn from
this, but he did not play well. On the bright
side though, he did destroy Taylor Martinez’ soul.
- Flat out, our LB’s
just aren’t very good this year. Sweat
is a hard worker, but he’s too slow and misses too many tackles, Sabino is an
amazing physical specimen but can’t put it all together, and Klein is probably our
best of the bunch, but he just hasn’t been that great either. Shazier and Curtis Grant both look good,
would love to see them get some time down the stretch since both of their
redshirts have been burned. I’m
wondering if it’s because of the players, or if Mike Vrabel simply isn’t cut
out to coach yet.
- The defensive
line was pretty average. For most of the
first half, they clogged up running lanes, but once again the lack of a pass
rush was killer. With the news that
Nathan Williams won’t be back this year, they had better find a pass rusher
soon or Wisconsin could indeed get quite ugly.
Broke down in the second half and just got mauled.
- Heacock and
Fickell did a good job in the first half shutting Nebraska down on the ground
and holding them to 6 points, but the 2nd half was just
atrocious. Looked like our defense had
never seen a zone read before. The touchdown
drives were long yardage wise but short time wise, we missed tackles and blew
assignments, and overall played one of the worst halves of defense I’ve seen in
a decade.
Grade: F. Completely and thoroughly
dominated in the second half, gave up 100 yards to 2 different guys, and also
let Taylor Martinez throw for 191 yards and 2 TD’s. Poor tackling, poor pursuit, blown assignments,
and physical domination. All add up, to
one of the most historic collapses in Buckeye history.
Special Teams
- Ben Buchanon was
good once again. Had two key punts drop
inside the 20 yard line, and helped out enormously.
- Drew Basil did what
he was asked, just like last week. Hit 2
FG’s, and perfect on extra points. Damn
shame he didn’t get the chance to try for a 3rd FG, like I mentioned
before.
- Jordan Hall was
adequate in the return game. He has
solid numbers, but we didn’t have that great of a starting field position for
most of the game
- Kick coverage did
a pretty good job overall, outside of one return against one of the nation’s
best returnmen.
Grade: B.
Did what they were asked to do.
Not spectacular, but not bad either.
So, the Buckeyes
sit at 0-2 during this crucial 4 game stretch, and 3-3 overall. The Big Ten title streak is over. The BCS bowl streak is over. We’ve got a young team, who went through an
emotional roller coaster en route to the biggest collapse in Ohio State
football history. We’ve still got to
travel to Illinois to take on the #16, undefeated Illini. We’ve still got the superpower-like Wisconsin
Badgers coming to Columbus in 2 weeks.
All is not lost
though, my friends.
 |
| Could Urban Meyer be the next coach at Ohio State? |
We can still turn
this season around and finish strongly.
There’s a very real chance that we go 5-1 to cap off the year and have a
possibility of 9 wins including the bowl game.
I think Fickell has zero chance of being retained as HC right now, and
expect the Urban Meyer-for-head-coach train to be kicked into high gear.
We’ve got to
build around Braxton Miller, and improve every week. We’ve got a very young roster, and a lot of
those guys are seeing the field right now.
It’s crucial to the future success of this program that they continue to
get better and get reps.
Also, think about
this, how many times in the past decade has Ohio State had the chance to be a
spoiler? I count twice, 2001, and
2004. We’re used to being the big dog on
the block, fending off upset attempts, but now we get to attempt to upset
people, with more talent than a typical 3-3 team. We get to play spoiler. Last time we sat at 3-3, 2004, we finished
4-1 and beat a Rose Bowl bound Michigan team by 2 touchdowns thanks to the
development of Troy Smith, and his development along with other young guys
helped to set the stage for back-to-back BCS bowls and a run at a National
Championship in 2006 and 2007.
I’m not sure who
will be coaching Ohio State next year, but I can tell you this, how we perform
next year will be determined in large part by how our young guys play over the
next 6 games.
We’re 3-3, .500
right now. Let’s see if this season pans
out like 2004, where we finished 4-1 with a bowl win and a big-time win over
Michigan, or if the team crumbles and falls apart like in 1999 and 2000,
resulting in John Cooper’s firing.
Regardless, I’ll be supporting this team, and watching every damn minute
of every damn game. Hopefully, you’ll be
doing the same.
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