The Battle for Ohio Was Closer than Expected
Small proved Jimmy Crum correct with his 69-yard returnThe good news, as it always is, is the Buckeyes won the game, and number 800 at that. But Appalachian State cemented the old axiom that anyone could win on any given Saturday, and despite being stocked with some of the finest talent in America, this team is not exempt from that, especially when you come out flat looking ahead to the epic that awaits next weekend.
If the Buckeyes are fortunate enough to win next weekend and finish things off this year, the 26-14 win will be regarded as that one scare or two that every championship team survives. In the interim, there are plenty of things to both alarm fans and bump the coaching into hyperdrive.
The fact that that 34-point underdog Bobcats took a 7-6 lead into halftime, further extended it with a defensive touchdown and then held onto it until late in the third quarter in a nationally televised game will do the team no favors in the minds of voters and the punditry. When you consider that it wasn’t by way of fluke and that Ohio held the yardage, first down and — gasp!! — sack stat leads at the half, you may be excused for having 2nd thoughts as a fan.
Yes, the engine was out with a sore toe and Tressel kept the exotic stuff under wraps, but the play of Bobcat backup quarterback Boo Jackson should give pause when you start to wonder if the Buckeyes can beat an elite spread team. Thankfully, USC runs more of a traditional offense and props to Ray Small for delivering for Jimmy Crum — otherwise, there’d be even more gloom in these parts.
Offense
Did we just find out how valuable Beanie really is to this offense? I admit, I thought there were enough weapons to still put up a lot of points, but there were more than a few things that stood out when he was out. The line was pwned by the Bobcat defensive line for the first two and a half quarters of the game. The Ohio kids were up to play and perhaps there was some looking ahead out of Boone and his fellow linemen, but how do you explain losing the sack battle 3-1? Give them credit for stepping up and taking over late (though some of that is genetics), but plenty to work on for sure.
Boom appeared to have the best day filling for Beanie, accounting for 50 yards on 12 rushes and picking up his first Buckeye touchdown on a one-yard run that put the Buckeyes up for good, but Tressel substituted liberally, even to the point of taking out backs that had established a rhythm. Mo Wells looked nice at times (though most of his damage was outside the tackles) and finished with 48 yards on 9 carries (5.3 a pop), but Saine continued to look tentative, picking up only 15 yards on 5 carries. He did get the 2nd Buckeye touchdown, however.
The wide receivers continue to worry. Dating to the LSU game, there have been huge stretches of gameplay where they have had trouble getting open. I know this is pure blasphemy to the Boeckman-is-the-spawn-of-Satan crowd, but maybe some of the grief he gets should be applied to the receivers. They’ve escaped pretty much blame free for the past few years, but if you think back even to the Florida game, they weren’t getting open. Hartline (2 for 14) had a couple of drops and Robo (3 for 8) didn’t appear to be himself on the day, though Small and Sanzenbacher continue to impress.
You hate to see the botched snap, but that’s just football. Those are going to happen from time to time and they’re best to happen when playing MAC schools instead of elite competition (LSU was good enough to overcome the one they had in the MNC game).
Perhaps what’s most bothersome to Buckeye fans is that the close score kept the prized youngsters on the sideline for most of the day. Pryor and the backup line did come out for the fourth series, but that was surely a series later than Tressel wanted to get him into the game if last week is any clue. He picked up a few yards and then made a bad throw to Small on third down and that was the last we were to see of LeBron in Cleats until the final drive of the game where he electrified the crowd with a couple of nifty runs.
Still, no work for Bauserman and an offensive performance that probably didn’t exactly go according to plan.
Defense
The defense turned in a mixed performance on the afternoon. On one hand, you have to love the four interceptions, the continued great play of Jermale Hines and the penetration the defensive line put forth at times. On the other hand, the Bobcat’s first rushing touchdown seemed to be too easy of a play and the spread once again gave the defense problems.
They couldn’t have started much better. There were some positive yards mixed in there, but the Bobcats started: punt, interception, hurt quarterback and then another punt. Then backup Boo Jackson came in and after throwing an interception to Malcolm Jenkins on his first possession, lead the Bobcats on a 72-yard scoring drive on his next possession, culminating in a 15-yard touchdown run out of Donte Harden. Boo didn’t finish with the best day throwing the ball (9/25, 0 TD, 3 INT), but his ability to escape a collapsing pocket and keep the play alive had to have frustrated the Buckeye defense. If he had been even a halfway-decent passer, this game could have been a hell of a lot scarier.
But, pockets just don’t collapse on their own. Lawrence Wilson, despite not recording a sack, had another monster game and is doing his best to get fans to forget about the Gun Show. His tip-to-himself pick was a thing of beauty and he’ll be kicking himself for a while for not taking it to the house. Thad Gibson and Cam Heyward also turned in fine games, while Larimore and Worthington each contributed a TFL.
The linebackers turned in solid, if unspectacular games. Laurinaitis lead the team with 9 tackles and had a nifty interception off of a Freeman tip. Ross Homan finished second on the team with 8 tackles, while Russell and Freeman had 6 each. I still worry about Laurinaitis and his ability to step up and make a play in the hole or the backfield. He is around the ball on every play and has excellent technique, but it appears as if he waits on plays to get to him too often.
As mentioned above, Jermale Hines’ stock continues to rise. It was his hit that put Scott out of the game and although he only had 1 tackle for on the day, he made his presence felt. It looks like he’ll be a prime dime option based on the nickel looks he got today, but with Washington and O’Neal coming back from suspension and Coleman getting back onto the field today, the defensive backfield is going to get a lot more crowded.
Special Teams
Ray’s return was huge and gave the team a cushion late in a close game, but the missed PAT is unexplainable. I guess these are similar to the muffed snap in that they’re bound to happen from time to time, but it’s just not something you see every day — even in the college ranks. Pretorius did have a missed field goal on the day, but it was from 53, so you can’t hate on a dude for that. The missed extra point did come on his very next kick after missing the field goal, so maybe that was still in his mind a little.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out Shaun Lane’s nice sideline fumble recovery considering how much flak we gave him for his dropped pick-six last week.
Notes
The Buckeyes moved to 42-3 at Ohio Stadium since the start of the 2002 season… the 800th win put OSU in a club with only four other members: Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas and Nebraska… The win moved the Buckeyes to 6-0 against the Bobcats… Robiskie extended his reception streak to 26 games… Ballard’s 25-yard catch was the longest reception out of a Buckeye tight end since Nicol caught a 38-yarder against Indiana in 2006… The four interceptions were the most recorded out of a Buckeye defense since they turned in four against SDSU in 2001… Gold medal winner Michael Redd was recognized at halftime.
42-3? Wisconsin in ‘04, Illini in ‘07, and? Not doubting it, just curious. Wisconsin beat us on the road in ‘03, no?
Go Buckeyes! The will be back in full swing with Beanie Wells in LA next week.
Vince Young and Texas.
Watching Penn State is scary right now, QB D-Clark is a presence for sure, and Royster is a stud RB, it’s shades of 2005 all over again. I’m just glad we have them at the Shoe this year.
“the Buckeyes to 6-0 against the Bearcats”
Errr, Bobcats.
Well, we kind a sucked against Akron last year in the second game of the year. Precedence.
If we had to suck, better to suck this week than next. And thi swill only bolster the Argument that Beanie is the #1 player int he country if win next week with him.
We should impeach the Senator if he ever runs Mo up the middle again.
Oh yeah. We lost to Vince Young.
Well, we lost to Ryan Hamby.
Good point about Akron last year, but at the same time, last year’s team wasn’t one of the great teams in the land. A very good one, but not a great one.
“Exotic Stuff”?? You must be kidding. The play calling is seriously questionable. Do we ever throw to a tailback, maybe once every two years. How about the TE? How about a slant. It seem like we have 3 basic plays, run left, run right and throw it deep.I have given this a lot of thought. If we had someone with an innovative mind this team would be much better as would last years. OSU Coordinators & coaches are constantly be promoted and recruited by other schools except Jim Bollman….Ask yourself why. Secondly, both lines were dominated by OU all day. Are they lazy? Fat? Slow? Uninspired? I for one am getting tired of watching it. Its great to beat up on Youngstown State and Northwestern but if you want to be respected by the nation and your fans, have the balls to make a change and stop being so damn diplomatic all of the time. I didn’t even play football in high school but i can go to the library , pick up a book about offensive play calling and mix it up and probably get better results. USC has to be licking their chops. Can’t wait!!
I was there today, and it was far worse in person than it looked on the tape of the game I set on my way out the door – if that’s imaginable. The last time I saw an OSU team come out that slow, flat and uninspired was the Florida game. I heard a similar take to Sean’s about the OSU offensive staff on 1460 when I was driving home. I saw a couple of interesting wrinkles, but OU saw them coming (Pryor’s back pass comes to mind). Horrible.
Anyone who thinks this Ohio State team is going out to California and dropping 35 on USC is on crack. Absolutely on crack.
Ohio State will have to win a close, competitive, low-scoring game to win in LA, and I just don’t see that happening. That game today was absolutely embarrassing.
And I’m sunburnt. (Those OU fans were obnoxious as all get-out.)
The missed PAT was, I think, the result of a bad snap and/or hold. It didn’t look to me like the ball was lined up as it should have been when Pretorius kicked it, hence the shank.
Lots of little annoying things today. A whiffed block on the ONLY OU player in position to tackle Ray Small on a screen pass that was set up to go for big yards. Multiple drops from the normally very reliable Robiskie and Hartline, including three on a single drive. Snatches of Bad Boeckman, although as Jason points out, a lot of the sloppiness today wasn’t his fault. Sanzenbacher might have been our best receiver today, and even he drove me nuts cutting back behind the first-down yardage on at least two occasions while trying to get more yards–though thankfully he got the yardage back both times. Dane, we love the effort, but on a day like today, just get the damn first down. And I don’t think today was the coaching staff’s finest, either. I have tons of respect for Jim Tressel, but sending Mo Wells into the line on a dive play on fourth-and-one was a disaster that I could see coming from Findlay.
Lots of props to OU. Solich and Bobcat fans should be extremely proud of the effort.
It was sixty minutes of suck, but the win still counts. Maybe it shouldn’t, but it counts.
Matt, thanks for the correction — should be fixed now.
Sean, the playcalling frustrates me just as much as the next guy, but you know they weren’t busting anything fancy out against the Bobcats, despite how dire the circumstances got. “Exotic” is a relative term when applied to the Buckeye offense, but we’ll see some stuff next week that we haven’t seen before.
Also, Beanie caught two balls out of the backfield last weekend after catching only four all of last season, so they appear to be trying to work that in. Perhaps they don’t have the same faith with Herron catching balls out of the backfield?
There is plenty to be concerned about — and maybe Tressel deep down likes that. The coaches have stuff they can ride the guys on all week. I wouldn’t put it past him at all to take the hand off the throttle in games like these for just that purpose.
As FB said, it was truly 60 minutes of suck, but it’s a “W” and I’ll withhold judgment until next Saturday night.
this story is missing mention of the lost ND banner.
I really think some of us need to calm down. I do agree that a team with this much leadership and talent shouldn’t have close games like this – PERIOD.
But let’s step back a bit….
1. The Bobcats came into The Shoe after a tough loss in a game they felt they should have won.
2. Teams from Ohio always step up their game when they roll into C-Bus. A lot of these kids had dreams to wear scarlet and gray and playing in that stadium every week and this ONE game is their sole shot in actually saying they played a meaningful game in The Shoe.
3. Our leader in every way was on the sideline.
4. Our play calling was vanilla at best due to the coaching staff looking ahead.
5. We played flat, again due to looking ahead.
Everything was setup perfctly for Ohio to come in and give us a good game.
Yes we made mistakes, but I’ll take a game like this heading into USC week over a 41-0 route. Our senior led team just got smacked in the face and I would bet anything that this week of practice will be the best week of practice they have had in a LONG time.
I hope to God USC watched that game and they hope thats the team that strolls into LA, because it’s not going to happen. We are sitting 2-0 and have showed USC nothing.
By the way… Yes, USC looked FREAKISH in their opener, but it was against Virginia. Today, Virginia could only put up 16 against RICHMOND – only 9 more points than they put up against USC.
Their QB almost had a better day against USC than he did against Richmond going 21/29 for 204 yards – No TD’s and 2 picks against Richmond vs. 18/35 for 155 yards – No TD’s and only 1 pick.
They rushed for 91 yards against Richmond vs. 32 against USC.
I’m not saying that USC isn’t good, but let’s not claim defeat just yet…
You know, coming into the season, I was almost certain that Beanie Wells would be named a Captain. I expected Boeckman to get the nod as well, because hey he’s the 17th year senior quarterback and it’d be kind of awkward to not give him the nod. And yes Robiskie is a senior and deserving of praise, and Boone would be as well if he wasn’t such a loudmouth. But I’ve always thought that Beanie was the real motor behind this team, and I think today bears that out. The Captain thing probably isn’t a big deal, but I think its a farce to pretend that Beanie isn’t the most important player on that team. The other players can say all they want to cushion their egos about how they don’t think the outcome would have been different without #28 between the tackles. But on this team, there are many good players, but only a few elite, NFL knock-out type players: Beanie, Jenkins, and some days J-Lau. And probably Pryor, but that remains to be seen. If the team wants to beat USC, the good players need to step up, and play to the great level, if only for one game.
The Bucks played listlessly, that’s for sure. Of course, just because they played poorly this week doesn’t mean they can’t play up to their considerable potential next week. Here’s hoping. Also, while Virginia might not be very good(didn’t Steele pick them behind Duke?), I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Youngstown St. just lost to South Dakota State by 40-7…while getting outgained by 300 yards. Wyoming lost to Air Force by 20, as well. So…yeah. Doesn’t necessarily mean much, I suppose, but neither team has exactly faced the gauntlet yet.
Matt,
The last sentence of your post says it all! Maybe the team need to watch the movie, “Hoosiers”. To use an analogy, the field is one hundred yards for both teams and each get four downs and equal number of timeouts. I remember ‘02 when the Miami players were “licking their chops”, ready to feast on the slow farmboys from OSU. They went on how our D would never touch their QB. Remember the nightmare that Dorsey lived through? We unleashed against a “superior” team and in the end brought home the crystal. OSU has to take chances against SC, the injured Sanchez is simply too good to leave him untouched all night. If you have a copy of that game watch it tonight and you will see the plan for the SC game. As fans we can only watch and hope that the Buckeyes will be prepared for next week. One thing for sure, Beanie alone won’t be the answer. Everyone will have to “play to the great level, if only for one game.”
I continue to be amazed at how many people think the problems yesterday were a matter of “looking ahead” to SC. That is ridiculous nonsense that I hope makes people feel better … I, for one, am worried that we get rolled next week.
This is the worst coached elite team in America
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. How soon we forget the past. Allow me refresh your memory:
Year Record (Conf) Big 10 Finish Bowl Game
1988 4-6-1 2-5-1 7th (tie) No Bowl.
1989 8-4 6-2 3rd (tie) L 14-31 Hall of Fame Bowl
1990 7-4-1 5-2-1 5th L 11-23 Liberty Bowl
1991 8-4 5-3 3rd (tie) L 17-24 Hall of Fame Bowl
1992 8-3-1 5-2-1 2nd L 14-21 Citrus Bowl
1993 10-1-1 6-1-1 1st (tie) W 28-21 Holiday Bowl
1994 9-4 6-2 2nd L 24-27 Citrus Bowl
1995 11-2 7-1 2nd L 14-20 Citrus Bowl
1996 11-1 7-1 1st (tie) W 20-17 Rose Bowl
1997 10-3 6-2 2nd (tie) L 14-31 Sugar Bowl
1998 11-1 7-1 1st (tie) W 24-14 Sugar Bowl
1999 6-6 3-5 8th (tie) No Bowl.
2000 8-4 5-3 4th L 7-24 Outback Bowl
All time record against Michigan: 2-10-1.
Be grateful for what we have now.