Five Things: Michigan
Boom scored on a nifty screen to give him 3 TD in 2 career games against Michigan. (AP: P. Sancya)Key Drives Control Momentum
While the year’s version of the The Game never quite turned into the runaway we thought it might, the Buckeyes were able to put together TD drives when they mattered most. The fact Pryor and company were able to engineer TD drives to answer both Michigan scores allowed the Buckeyes to keep the Wolverines at arms length and just as important, also kept UM and the home crowd from ever seizing momentum in a rivalry where losing it can come with heavy consequences.
The first answer came in the 2nd quarter after Michigan’s Jason Olesnavage nailed a 46 yard FG to bring Michigan to within 7-3. Saine got it started with an inspired 14 yard rumble before a Pryor scramble for 9 yards. After a -1 carry for Saine, he and the offensive line answered with a 3 yard run on 3rd down giving OSU their first such conversion of the day after 0/4 start. Then it really got nasty.
From the OSU 46, Pryor called his own number perfectly executing the read option as he sucked up Graham with a nice fake to Saine before getting a kickout block from Stoneburner springing the rangy Pryor for 25 yards down the Michigan 29 yard line. On the next play, Saine took a misdirection handoff to the left and raced untouched to the endzone with help from a great bock by Cordle. Six plays. Eighty yards. All on the ground. Momentum recaptured.
The next opportunity to lose the Mo occurred after Jonas Mouton intercepted a tipped Pryor pass putting Michigan in business at the OSU 49. On the 8th play of the drive, a misaligned Buckeye defense would surrender an 18 yard TD pass to Vincent Smith drawing Michigan to within 4 points, 14-10, with 10 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Cue the rushing attack…
After an illegal block forced OSU to start at their own 11, the offensive line buoyed an 11 play, 89 yard TD drive taking over 5 minutes off the clock in the process allowing the Buckeyes to once again seize control of momentum – and a 21-10 lead. With the hogs opening lanes, Boom, Zoom and TP had gashes of 13, 17, 13, 12 and 23 yards before a perfectly executed – and unexpected – screen pass to Boom on 3rd and goal allowed him to find the endzone for the third time in 2 games against Michigan. The drive was straight up bully material thanks to spirited efforts from Cordle, Browning and Boren, in particular.
Pryor’s Mental Game Takes Some Strides
While Pryor’s passing numbers (9/17, 67 yards, 1 INT) were far from dominant, I feel good about the strides he’s making from a mental standpoint. It wasn’t long ago that myself and many of the faithful were openly wondering if he was capable of grasping the mental complexities of playing QB at an elite level. Obviously, he’s still got a ways to go but you can’t argue the progression we’ve seen in recent weeks.
Yesterday, he built on that growth showcasing an improved ability to realize every play can’t successful as evidenced by his willingness to throw the ball away when receivers weren’t open and no scrambling lanes presented themselves. One example in particular came on a 3rd and 10 on the possession following Coleman’s late first half interception of an attempted Forcier to Robinson bomb. Pryor bought himself some time by scrambling left toward the sideline then fading back a few steps before calmly lofting the ball out of bounds. I was especially satisfied with this decision because it followed up a missed opportunity for six when he overthrew Posey on a 1st down bomb before throwing a risky dump off to Carter that DC dropped but was close to being intercepted. In the past, those two plays leading up to 3rd down might have gotten in TP’s head forcing him to try and do to much on 3rd down but not in this case. I hate to get too excited about a three and out, but I love the mental approach he showed.
Of course, the other story illustrating Pryor’s (hopefully) mental emergence was his handling of the read option. He appeared poised with his head up as he read the end and made the choice of keeping or handing off. As noted, his keeper for 25 yards off a fake to Saine that preceded Saine’s 29 yard TD was a thing of beauty as he faked the 1st rounder Graham out of his 0-fer-OSU jock. There were at least 5 other examples of such heady play by Pryor. Let’s just hope this is the beginning of a trend and not a fluke at the hands of inferior competition because if Pryor can get the read/option down, this offense can be dangerous.
Stefanie
I had the pleasure of meeting Stefanie Spielman twice at golf outings supporting her crusade against cancer and like with any of you that have met her, she left a lasting impression. In my brushes with her greatness, I remember being so impressed with how impassioned she was about the cause and how positively she spoke and projected herself in the face of such horrible circumstances.
We were aware that Stefanie was really struggling recently though I think many were caught off guard by the news of her passing. Still, sensing a new beginning was near for her, I have to say I’m somewhat pleased that this occurred around The Game because I think it will entrench her and her fight as another part of the storied rivalry forever. I know it’s not the same as Bo dying on the eve of the game but there’s no doubt Tressel and his players were touched by the Spielman’s. Right up there with Woody and Archie, I can’t think of a Buckeye more beloved than Chris.
To see the “SS” stickers on the helmets and the signs in the stands shows just how close the Buckeye Nation truly is and for that I think we’re all grateful we’re a part of it. RIP Stefanie. Your work and lasting impression will carry on.
Big Plays Not Without Luck
Two of the game’s biggest plays featured some good fortune and we’re assuming it was karma smiling on Tressel as a reward for living such a wholesome, clean life.
In case you missed it, Tressel was way out of the field trying to call timeout just before the snap producing Pryor’s majestic screen pass to Boom for six. Doc Tressel suggested the play but there was confusion as to whether or not they could get the play set up to beat the play clock. The refs didn’t see the Vest and Pryor promptly tossed a tear drop over the oncoming 8 man front and Boom waltzed in for a 21-10 lead.
The karma Gods also dialed up the misdirection counter Saine took 29 yards to the house giving the Bucks a 14-3 lead. Apparently, the wrong play was signaled in by a student manager but it worked to perfection as Saine raced untouched to the end zone. Priceless.
Defense Takes Advantage of Mis-Tates
Judging from the lack of blitzing and what looked like a pretty vanilla defensive scheme overall, it appeared Heacock and company were content with slowing the run while forcing Tate Forcier to avoid mistakes in a bend but don’t break approach that yielded 5 turnovers.
The blueprint allowed Forcier to throw for 226 yards but his 4 INT and unforced fumble in the endzone killed any chances for an unlikely upset. The Buckeyes were particularly tough in the red zone allowing one TD in three UM trips inside the OSU 20.
The Buckeyes would record just two sacks on the day but with Tressel focused on winning the turnover and rushing game battles, the Bullets held the Wolverines to 80 yards rushing (2.6 per) and held a +4 in turnover margin. Game. Set. Match.
Individually, Homan showed again he is clearly OSU’s best linebacker (12 stops) and Hines (9) did a solid job in a spy role when Robinson was under center. Devon Torrence also made a name for himself in the rivalry recording 7 stops and an INT in the endzone to thwart a Michigan drive that had reached the six yard line.
The strength of the Bullets, the d-line, also turned in big plays with Heyward recording 1.5 TFL in addition to his TD via fumble recovery to give OSU a quick 7-0 lead. Thaddeus Maximus also stepped up with a 4th quarter INT and 4 tackles.
Finally, props to seniors Coleman, Worthington and Russell. The trio leaves Columbus with a perfect record against Michigan and all made plays in their final appearance in Ann Arbor. Coleman overcame a slow start and turned in a magnificent performance with 4 tackles, 2 breakups and 2 picks. Russell chipped in 5 stops and a pass breakup while Worthington bullied his way to 5 tackles.
This game is always bitter-sweet, sweet being Michigan, bitter being the last game until the bowl.
If you had told me at the beginning of the season, we would be 10-2, B10 champs and headed to Pasadena, I would take it every time. Great season. I give alot of credit to the coaching staff for settling things down after Purdue and the players for re-focusing and playing great down the stretch.
That being said, I think Oregon will be our next opponent, and given the speeed of their offense, it should be a formidable matchup. Ball control will be the name of the game, right up JT’s alley.
I totally agree with you. This team has come a long long way and I can’t wait to see them play the Ducks in the Rose Bowl.
I live on the West Coast, and watch a lot of Pac-10 football. I think we can expect the same kind of gameplan against the Ducks. Running the football all game. Watch the Bosie St. flim again. The Broncos ran the ball down their throats. There is no doubt in my mind that we can pound it on them.
Absolutely. If we can’t convert on 3rd downs to keep drives moving, we’re toast. We’ve got to win the time of possession battle.
Thoma also needs to learn how to punt between now and then. Field position will win/lose the game, too.
…almost ironic that field position is going to be the difference in the game and it is this year’s Tressel coached team that is questionable.
Agree about the run game, tho. Right off the top of my head I do not think either Oregon team has come up against our caliber of defense. Couple that with our ever-emerging run game (compared to their rush defenses) and I like our chances.
Feeling good about this one, guys.
great post. can’t wait till Jan. 1st.
11W, thanks for another great season of pre-, post- and in-game analysis! I can’t believe the regular season is already over… now what???!!! **Note – we are going to miss Kurt Coleman a lot next year and whichever DL decide to jump early.**
With the five TO’s the Silver Bullets created, I’m sure we were all disappointed that we didn’t put more points on the board… (i.e. 2008’s 42 points). But alas, a win is a win… and it’s not like the BCS standings matter this year (to us).
Lastly, the Tradition jersey looked much better on player than it did on mannequin. Maybe Nike will roll out a home version next season.
Great post Chris. However, I’m not sure that Tate’s fumble was unforced; I watched the game again last night (and I’ve also seen pictures of the play), and Cam Heyward either hits Tate’s hand, or hits the ball out without touching Tate’s hand to cause that fumble. Cam should be given a forced fumble stat, as well as a fumble recovery. It was an extremely athletic play, and because Thad Gibson came in and laid Tate out as Tate was trying to get the ball back, Cam was able to get up, grab the ball, and take it back into the end zone. I’m sure that’s a play that we will be watching over and over again in the coming years. Great stuff.
You could very well be right. I didn’t even pay attention to that during my rewatch on Sunday. I’ll have to go back and look though I’m sure some other commenters can probably weigh in. You know I’d rather give Cam the credit! Dude is a beast. We’re gonna miss him. (whenever he leaves…)
It is TAINT, never refer to this scUM player again by Tate. He will always be Taint Forcier.
Great game…… and Great O-line play once again! Pryor looks like he is getting his head together and his reads were great…. that INT was not his fault as it went in and out of the hands of the receiver. The two bombs to Posey were overthrown, but better overthrown then underthrown and intercepted. Overall this was a good showing for the Buckeyes and now they must put in some wrinkles for the Rose Bowl.
The entire offense is back next year minus Ballard and some of the crappy line. Good thing or bad thing?
what part of the crappy line are you refering too? Cordle? We are so quick to hammer these guys when they play bad why can’t we praise them when they play well . This oline…with the exception of one game, Purdue, has played well all year and got better and better…overcoming the flu…injuries…and more injuries….Maybe you could do better
Are we in agreement that the Jack Tatum hit award should go to Sabino?
It will still be undecided because the scUM player’s paralyzation hasn’t been confirmed
what? too soon?
Hines is slowing becoming my favorite defender. Everytime he makes a tackle it is like he is auditioning for the WWE with his clothes lines.
you may as well not link any video from the big ten network on “good shizzy” – good luck ever getting that crappy website to load.
If you add back the 37 yards TP lost (2 sacks, 1 grounding call) in pass attempts to our official rushing numbers and subtract those 3 plays from our 50 rush attempts, we averaged out at 6.2 yards per carry. Pretty impressive.
BTW, if you subtract the lost yardage of the interception (assume it is an incompletion and we punt putting them on the 20), which amounts to 31 yards lost on the interception to the 37 lost in the sacks and grounding, we got MINUS 0.05 yards per pass attempt. Since the Purdue game, JT has put TP on a very tight leash — safe passes only.
Given these two facts, it is clear both why we won and why we didn’t blow them out.
SERIOUSLY MIKE G!
Your telling me that because TP is throwing it less and shorter means the senator has put him on a tight leash?
Here is how I see it, WE ARE GETTING RUSHING YARDS! Over the past four games we have gotten over 200 yards rushing. Didn’t have that early in the season! When the offense is getting that much rushing and is in control of the game there is no need to throw it deep. Also TP is throwing deep about as many times as he did before. The two exceptions are that he is over throwing them (which is a progression to underthrowing them and getting intercepted) and he is not tossing up arm punts like he used to do.
What I am witnessing is better decision making on busted plays (no fumbles, no arm punts) and his mechanics are improving on the deep balls. He has a long way to go but I defy anyone to tell me he HAS NOT improved over the past four games.
Oh yeah, I’ve said it before and will keep saying it, TP is a much better QB when the line is holding. The O-line should get tremendous props for the stellar play over the past four games.
QUIT THE HATE! RELISH THE FACT WE ARE GOING WHERE WE MOST LIKELY WERE GOING ALL SEASON, THE ROSE BOWL!
The best thing to happen to TP was Purdue Harbor. It was almost like he got a ‘come to Jesus’ mental adjustment and was able to stop playing like someone with something to lose and is learning how to play like someone with something to gain.
I am also very impressed (and may I say suprisingly so) with how he is handling the sitution as well. Seems as tho his leadership skills are starting to evolve. I say this as someone who has been critical of TP’s demeanor in the past.
We may be at the very beginning of something magical and I can hardly wait!
I miswrote the BTW paragraph.
BTW, if you add the lost yardage of the interception (assume it is an incompletion and we punt putting them on the 20, which amounts to 31 yards lost on the interception), to the 37 lost in the sacks and grounding, we got MINUSS 1 yards from our passing game, or an average of MINUS 0.05 yards per pass attempt. Since the Purdue game, JT has put TP on a very tight leash — safe passes only.
I don’t think Pryor’s play had a thing to do with bad competition. He has been progressing each week after that Purdue debacle and there has been good play against really good competition since then. I think we are starting to see him put it together. I would be very very surprised if he didn’t make a huge step forward in the Rose Bowl.
I’m in agreement that if you are going to miss on a bomb, you must miss long. Todd Boeckman always said he’d rather miss short, but I think maybe he just didn’t have the arm to get it out there. He always left the bomb short instead of hitting a guy in stride. I know leaving it short let’s your receiver make a play on it, but he wasn’t throwing to Randy Moss. Any play the defender has just as good of a chance to make a play on it, I don’t like.
It will be a hard wait until New Years Day. However, this quote from Tressel gives me so much more confidence:
“Now we have to get a little bit better at throwing the ball if we’re going to compete on January 1. Part of it is we’ve got to call passes, we understand that.” (from the ozone)
That really addressed my only criticism of the game plan: where did the passing go? Did we call like three passes in the second half or something? I understand that the run was working, but we are going to have to a passing game in order to beat the Ducks.
Besides, with Pryor’s improved decision making, I almost think he deserves to have more pass plays called. I want to see him put up some killer numbers and get some recognition, because I could not have been more impressed with his mental play since Purdue.
what’s a pass?
The queston is not “What is a pass?” but what is a a pass attempt. Run attempts vs pass attempts. Those are the relevant variables.
southbay was being sarcastic dude!
only slightly.
well, they have like 6 weeks to improve the passing game. fingers crossed. but I’ll take the 200+ rushing yards a game every week thanks.
I do hope they can improve on the passing but I doubt it will happen before the bowl game. Even though TP has not been extremely crisp on the passes to the flat, I am encouraged that we have been able to get good yards on first down by using those plays. As well as I can remember in the first 4-5 games all we did was run up the middle or run the option on first down.
200+ on the ground tends to mean a win, so I would take that over trying to do too much in the air.
When this young group of WR’s come in next year with experience (Posey will be a bonafide #1 and Carter should anchor done the 2) we will see things open up the way we want.
meant down
It’s that idiotic play that got Woody fired. No wonder we don’t run them anymore.
Was very pleased with the game. All the clamoring about not having a blowout is a bit much, as any win over TTUN is a great win. Our D may have sent Taint with his bags packed right back to San Diego to play for a cellar dweller Pac10 team after that performance. Welcome to the rivalry young man!
Its just now setting into my mind that the season is over, and that KC4 won’t be patroling the secondary for us next year. Hats off to my boy Hurt Coleman, gonna miss him more than anyone realizes.
PS: I’m still VERY happy that Russell Anderson is out of eligibility. Hope dude got his degree while he was there…..
I think you are wrong – he played really well the last half of the season.
RA may have played better in 2nd half of season, he didn’t becessarily play ‘really well’.
On Coleman’s 2nd intercaption, AR was trailing his man by a couple steps.
In recruiting news, I caught this bit about Shariff Floyd, huge Big Daddy Wilk style defensive tackle out of the Philly area, who is rated by some as the top d-tackle in the country. Floyd has a lot of suitors, but if we can start stockpiling d-tackles like him, we will be a top 5 program for a long time coming.
Although the article is more centered on Floyd’s background, check out that small detail about Floyd’s headgear of choice, in the first paragraph:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/football/2009-11-22-top-recruit-floyd_N.htm
Holy shitballs, I’m sold. I read about him in the Buckeye Sports Bulletin, and remember him because his name is “Shariff”, which I hope is pronounced “Sheriff”, because thats the coolest name ever. Plus I like his punishing mentality. The buckeye hat is good news, we’ve been all over him for a while…
I love the quote about special ed classes making him an SEC player.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=232007
Check out these stats…from the QB who was told “he wouldn’t start at Michigan” !
Dick Rod is an idiot…. why not let this guy run the offense… good coaches can change the offense to his players, not the other way around…… can that be why so many players left the program?? Dick rod could be winning now with this guy… glad he left for Arknasas!
I don’t know if I’m glad that he’s down there or that dick rod is up there.
My namesake had awesome receivers that could make a play on the ball so he got sloppy with his fundamentals. When he played a team that was as athletic as us, that philosophy hurt him.
Arm Punts are good. Particularly when you can out throw our punter. What happened to Thoma? The last few games, he lost like 5-10 yars off his punts.
uniforms were sick! just put the silver helmet on em i would like to see somin pro combat for rose bowl. tried to buy one but the only place is ebay for 250.00. i applaud osu for changin it up, good for recruiting
I will never see how having a different uniform will help recruiting at all. Beating Michigan and turning their stadium into a shitty version of the shoe north helps recruiting. Being in a BCS bowl every year helps recruiting.
Bittersweet is definitely the word. It’s difficult to accept that the season is already over. I don’t even want to think about who will be leaving early. We still have the Rose Bowl to look forward to, though Oregon is just the type of team that can pick apart our defense.
Tough call on the poll. Can we have a D MVP and an O MVP?
On D KC4 is obviously the big player. Honorable mention to Heward though. Everything starts at the line, and Cam is the man there.
For offense, Saine gets my vote. Consistently gets big gains and fights for every yard. Has acquired some moves too. Turns out that injury really held him back in previous years.
In terms of recruiting this weekend couldn’t have been worse for scUM. That had something like 8-12 potential recruits at the game to witness our fans completely take over the Big House. The O-H-I-O four corner cheer was amazing.
If I am a top recruit and see this happening, not sure I would be to impressed/excited to suite up of DickRod!
I think this defense will certainly contain Oregon unlike anything they’ve seen this year. I think Oregon’s defense is questionable at best, often relying on their offense to outscore opponents to win. So, the big question mark is the Ohio State offense, who have relied almost entirely on running the football to win all of their November games. They’re going to need the passing game from Pryor to top Oregon in Pasadena.
Regardless the outcome, it’s still the Rose Bowl! Strong season. Go Bucks!
Don’t you think having a month off will give them plenty of time to work on the passing. You know Oregon is going to come out looking for the run and playing accordingly. As much flack as Tressel can sometimes get, he can be creative. If they show in practice plays will be there downfield, he’ll come out early and try to burn them deep. They’ll mix things up, and in my opinion blow the doors off of Oregon.
I hope you are right but the time off didnt help the passing game last year so I hate to assume it’ll be different this time around. I’m hopeful, but far from certain.
Yeah but Pryor was all jacked up in that game too.
I mean hurt not excited.
I think they work on deep passes all the time in practice. I think they worked on them all offseason last year, too. Pryor scored 2 TDs in the spring game of over 40 yards. But this season, the passing successes have really only come against the weakest of secondaries. We have to commend the offensive line for really coming around this year, opening up 200+ yards per game in the latter half of the season…which only adds to the worry because Pryor is also getting the time to throw, he’s just really not that good yet, and the receivers have the dropsies.
So no, I don’t necessarily have confidence that they’ll suddenly “find it” over the next 6 weeks. If he doesn’t think the passing game is at 110%, Tressel will probably try to out-muscle them like he always does…waiting for the other team to physically tire out, which as we all know is the recipe for disaster against good teams. The Buckeyes are going to need a complete effort to beat another conference’s champion (and a higher-ranked one at that). It still has the potential to be a great game.
Agreed. I fully excpect us to dominate in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
Here are my end of the season points:
1. TP has progressed. He still needs some polish, and reciever help. Posey needs to try and reach on those overthrows. Show some effort son!
2. As much as I would like to see them score 4 offensive TD’s per year, ball control (mostly) works. If the light (which has went on) starts burning in TP’s head, the playbook is gonna open up, a la Red Kryptonite in 2006.
3. The line has been stellar as of late, keep it up.
4. Our DB’s have been torched at times, yet lead the Nation in INT’s. Good recovery.
5. If our defense (like 2005) match our offense (2006) and it’s not one but not the other, watch out. Our O was young. If Thad and Cam stay…Miami is in for a world of hurt.
6. We gotta win the Rose Bowl. Absolute must win. Get the monkey off of our backs.
7. The Big Ten needs to add a team, and I am sorry for the purists, but here is reality: The layoff now-a-says is too long. Everybody said the SEC was nuts for doing it back in the day, and look how it’s worked out. 4 of the last 11 MNC’s, with a potential for a 5th. Move the scUM game back to it’s normal slot, take Thanksgiving off, and play for a title. If we win, it’ll keep us sharp, if we lose, we’ll we didn’t need to be there anyway. Give me Pitt (won’t happen because of Penn State), UC, Notre Dame (won’t happen), somebody.
8. The new uni’s: liked them off the field, didn’t on…the mesh leg vents looked like wet candy canes. Helmets where ok, jerseys where okay. Give me the 2005 version, even with some mod’s and I’ll be happy.
i agree with adding a 12th team. but who? everyone points to ND, but they have a lot to lose. like lots of games and lots of money.
and what would the conference name become? we can’t be the big 12 obviously, and i hate anything that says “Midwestern such and such”, just sounds dumb.
hated the new helmets. jerseys were alright, pants were whacks socks were awesome.
Who knows who the other team could/ should be…very tough one right there. Conference name??? Stumps me. North Coast Conference? Big Ten + 2? (Fabulous Four +1 used it for a while). ND is losing games and Money but they are too stupid to realize it. We could go back to the Mid-Western Conference, Like MidWest 12? NFC, really.
Couldn’t agree more, the season should run ’til the first week of December, sounds like Tress is against it though.
with the way the regular season schedule plays out next year, if we added a 12th team we would play in to the first weekend in december, without adding a week off between the regular season and the supposed championship game. 2nd weekend in december with a week off. I think that would be perfect.
That’s what bothers me about adding a team and having a championship. Usually it’s not the 2 best teams playing. If Nebraska makes beats Texas, is Nebraska really the best team in the Big 12? I just don’t like it. If there was a way to just take the 2 beswt teams in the conference and let them duke it out, it’d be ok, but otherwise I just dont’ likke it.
there’s pros and cons to each solution. you just have to take care of business and win every game, that doesn’t change.
It’s just funny that when Tress was 4-1 in bowls,and 3 of them were BCS, the layoff meant nothing.
The layoff still means nothing. It’s the worst excuse in the history of sports.
i see you are not familiar with the work of Les “don’t look at me” Miles from this past weekend.
Quick! Someone design the Big Ten name with a 2 to replace the 1.
ha! i was trying to picture how that would look.
The layoff really doesn’t and shouldn’t mean anything but sometimes it seems that it does.
On Big10 expansion…
Add Cincy or Pitt. Make it North and South divisions.
South: OSU, PSU, Indiana, Purdue, Illini, Cincy or Pitt.
North: UM, MSU, NW, UW, Minny, Iowa
Call it the HyperMegaKickAss Conference
I swear the same people complaining about Pryor’s game are the same people complaining about Tressel’s conservative approach. Pick a side people.
In my mind, the OSU coaching stafff did exactly what alot of struggling teams fail to do, close up the playbook. (ahem, Browns, ahem).
I don’t care how we do it, as long as we are in the W column. I’ll pin the Purdue loss on TP, but why should the PU offense be able to score 26 on our D? And despite the early int, TP played well enough to beat USC, it was the D who couldn’t stop the 90 yd drive.
Im giving Pryor a B+ on the season, the kid works his ass off and we will all be grateful to have him when it’s all said and done.
I couldn’t agree more. The worst thing you can do to a team that isn’t executing is expand the play book. They already can’t grasp normal plays, why open it up to more chance of catastrophe?
run the rock til the d-line breaks and throw when it’s prudent. even if the deep ball’s were long, they weren’t INTs and it kept scUM’s defense honest(not that it would have mattered).
I’ve read somewhere that suggested that the new conference name could be The Big X if we added a 12th team. X being the Roman numeral for 10 and also being a variable in Algebra, meaning it can represent any number. Not saying that’s the best name, just a suggestion that I didn’t think was all that bad.
Big X it is. I’ll e-mail Delaney tomorow.
Great call out on the Stefanie Spielman thing. My only real connection there was running the benefit 5k a few years ago, the first race of any sort I ever ran. For the game on Saturday I pulled out my old T-shirt from the race, to wear under the lucky t-shirt I usually wear.
It’s horrible that she passed, but really cool as the team celebrated the impact that she was able to have on the OSU community and for cancer research. Their family is in my prayers.
“he faked the 1st rounder Graham out of his 0-fer-OSU jock.”
and this is why this is the best blog going….
thought the pants looked good on the model, in the pics, etc. but in the game the red stripe almost blended into the grey. looked rosey pink. not so good. am thinking red needs a black stripe between it and grey so it can stay a nice solid scarlet and not blend like that. I blame Nike. don’t they have somebody who is aware of this kind of thing?
You guys have to go to Black Shoe Diaries and read the “Early Games Thread” about the OSU and Michigan game. Do they know we beat them? Do they know that we actually beat the hell out of them or is it my imagination?
Comments were pretty funny. What a bunch of self-absorbed asses.
No see, we didnt beat them, it was just that they didn’t show up for that one. It’s a huge difference when you get dominated and it’s your own fault not the other team being way better.
great game what can be said laughing at the scum listening to the cheers drowning scum in that giagantic outhouse ( it was brought to my attention toilets flush)what i see is this team as a version of the 2004 2005 seasons all rolled into one the purdont game kinda like the 3 game stretch of 2004 novemer of this year kinda like the 2005 season alot of talent just starting to meld into a team. so i believe that in the rose bowl you will see a team getting ready for the 2010 campaign and a victory over the pac10 champ (dont say oregon yet the beavs are good) this would lead into what would amount to the 2006 season, just with a better ending. NICE….
On the subject of the Big House and toilets: I am happy to report stage one of their stadium redesign has resulted in massive improvement in the quantity and quality of pissers. Cudos!
Wow, how bad was it before? My friends said the line was practically around the stadium.
I was there and believe me, the toilet situation is PATHETIC!! There are simply not enough and I almost pissed my pants waiting for a port a pot to open up. What makes it worse, there was only one TV back by the concession area to try to see what was going on and then you need to get into another line to get back into the stadium. You have to show your ticket each time to get back into the stadium which is another 10-15 minute wait to get back to your seat. They really have done NOTHING to enhance the fans experience in the stadium. IT SUCKS and if I was a michigan fan and had to go there I would wear Depends.
Won’t go back. The people are weird and they all suck.
There is a completely brand new restroom facility with about 100 urinals (which happen to be eco-friendly waterless models) which I walked into with no line and no waiting, right near the main entrance to the stadium. There are also clearly marked “entrance” and “exit” signs (unlike Ohio Stadium) so people aren’t trying to enter on both sides creating a ridiculous clusterfuck.
In 2007 when I was up there, all I found was port-a-johns, with ridiculously long lines, and disgusting conditions… I’d say they are on the way to a massive improvement in pissers up there. You guys just must not have found the promised land.
I will concur that the people are a little weird up there (haha) but in a non-threatening way. We look forward to going up there and watching the Buckeyes whoop ass again and again in the years to come.
I’m really gonna miss football. You know the cupboard is getting bare when we’re talking about the head at the Big House.(We shoud rename it THE Big Buckeye house since we now own it)
Speaking of which, Has anyone started a ticker to the Spring Game yet??
I’m pumped for New Years day, and It’s gonna be a long winter without my Scarlet and Gray Saturdays. The season went way too fast!!!
GO BUCKEYES!!!!!
Labor day until Thanksgiving goes faster than any other 2 1/2 month stretch of the year. It must be the Buckeyes taking up 12 of those days.
Video I made of the area shots and crowd reactions from The Game. We owned the Big House
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ec9iI7Q4Q