Well, two things are starting to become readily apparent: one, Braxton Miller is some kind of Mad Max-ian viking outlander overlord who is also indestructable and has rubber knees, and two, holy crap close games we actually care about are still insane.
Miller rushed for 136 yards and passed for another 179 and did NOT turn the ball over three times you shut your mouth! Meanwhile, the OSU defense held Le'Veon Bell to 45 yards on 17 carries.
Ohio State won a game that many (including myself) were skeptical that they could win, and overall was a pretty legit defensive performance against an elite running back. Urban Meyer and company still have a lot of work to do, but hey! We're all going to be a lot happier about a 17-16 win against MSU than a two touchdown victory against UAB. College football, it's weird as hell, and today, pretty awesome.
Comments
Reid Fragel is my new hero!
"Hell, Woody didn't recruit me; he recruited my mother!" -Jack Tatum
He looks like he is turning into a solid RT!
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
Agreed, He is a Beast...Great move to Tackle from TE. Future NFLer.
That monster block he had at the end put a tear in my eye.
Power football is alive and well in Columbus!!!!
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
I agree. I knew he'd come around.
And since I'm in such a good mood, and feeling generous, "UP VOTES" on the house for everybody, bartender!!
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
ALL I DO IS WIN WIN WIN NO MATTER WHAT!
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
Gutsy win today. That was supposed to be a loss pre season and they went in there and earned a W. 5-0 let's make it 6!!
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
That was a, dare I say...Tressel- like win? Impressive run defense, even if the secondary was a sponge.
Wayne Woodrow Hayes
I dare say not Tressel like. The Senator insisted the defense tackle. Not just try to strip the ball. That might actually be the case now that Sebino was so obvious on that play that made OSU look like a bunch of women. (to channel Larry Bird). The team goes as Miller passess effectively. I hope he gets better.
So, the next game I'm super worried about is the @Wisky game, since we've been losing at Camp Randall recently, and they'll want revenge for that Halloween Humiliation from last year. I think we'll win against Nebraska next week. This will be fun.
O-H!!!
I'm a bit worried about next week. Going into the season this week's game was the one I had circled for a L, but I think Nebraska might actually be a better team than Sparty.
but I think Nebraska might actually be a better team than Sparty.
^^^^^^^
I agree Mike78, next Sat. night ought to be on hell of a battle.
Nebraska doesn't look so good right now....
Yeah but Sparty looked like crap last week as well and took us to the wire. Teams look different every week.
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
Nebraska has me worried as well. They have a better passing game and can run well too., their defense is pretty good too. Ask Wisconsin, shut them down again in the second half. That second half against Wisconsin looked like ours against Nebraska last year. Nebraska made tremendous second half defensive adjustments.
Boxley
I think Coach Meyer will have the team ready for the game. I do think it will be another nail biter, but I still believe that we will win (though I reserved the right to change my opinion after their game).
I voted for Nebraska for Conference Champ, and I think they match up better against us than anyone else. They have a run game and a pass game, so they can make the defense play disciplined, which they have not shown they can do. Plus, they have a defense, which I'm not sure that Michigan does.
I-O!
I'm not worrying about Nebraska...going to enjoy tonite!
Sparty is just like the Spartans of old.Brave, fearless,fought till the end, but in the end they still lost the war.Not cool to be named after a bunch of brave loosers.GO BUCKS!
I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.
Actually if I recall, the 300 were killed and lost the battle, but won the war. Still, no comparison to these Spartans.
The MSU Spartans were more like the Spartans in "Meet the Spartans."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZfyBK3m1d0
Is that too harsh? (or redundant?)
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
I'm wondering if I should downvote this just for you making me see this picture . . . Ugh.
Sorry Crimson. Was just trying to make a point. That dude has some disgusting man titties, agreed.
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
LOL!
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
Is that Brady Hoke when he was younger?
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
It feels great to be a Buckeye (gangsta) once again. The buckeye nation will be unusually sober during game time this year as they are both forced to, and looking forward to an entire game
Win next week mean 6-0 and we equal last years debacle. Go Bucks!
2012 Beat Michigan Tail gate: UFM: "Let’s beat the sh*t out of Michigan, have a good night."
Minus those critical turnovers, this game's margin should have been much bigger. I am, however, heartened by how well our O moved the ball against a supposedly Top 5 defensive unit. We ran with moxie, recovered from big injuries, and played lights-out run D. Overall, very satisfied with the Bucks. All aboard the Braxton Train!!
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
Wish we'd do more power running with Hyde. He was pretty successful pounding it up the middle against their D.
Agreed. Please give me us more!
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
At times he looks a little slow, but when the room is there he is solid. Keep thinking Dunn needs to get his act together because this offense needs him.
Yeah, unfortunately the kid isn't particularly fast. He showed great toughness today though and fought through quite a few tackles. If he keeps improving on his vision and bouncing runs to the outside, it could make him a complete power back.
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
I've read and heard that El Guapo runs a 4.4 40, at 230+ thats incredible and far from slow. IMHO he is more of a power runner with a top end gear but not the type of back with bursty stop and go speed.
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
El Guapo doesn't have the quick acceleration that Hall has, but he is plenty fast. I hope he breaks a big one soon, and then we can see how "slow" he is.
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
Very Tressel like victory.
Tressel is sitting back in his football skinned LazyBoy saying I told you so!
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
sipping on a tall cold glass... of skim. I miss the Senator :(
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
Lets hear if for the defense who shut down the hype train that is leveon Bell and the Sparty rushing game. They looked like the old Buckeye defenses that stifled the run.
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
That is the definition of a nailbiter!
I thought we were doomed when we gave them the ball back with 5 minutes left, but we found a way to win. Pass defense was still atrocious but I don't really feel like complaining about anything today!
***This! No complaining from me...I'll take it and say Braxton is playing grown man football.
2012 Beat Michigan Tail gate: UFM: "Let’s beat the sh*t out of Michigan, have a good night."
Grown Viking Football!
I must say that I'm conflicted. Braxton did some things that made my jaw hit the floor, but he also did some dumb things that made my jaw hit the floor. I'll take it since we got the W.
I cannot say I was not worried, but the way the game was going from the beginning made me feel like we always had a chance to win during the game.
That first drive was perfection. The interception stopped another very solid drive and a score there may have opened things up. Needs to have more confidence in pitchiing it when the inside is bottled up and let the backs run in space.
it seemed like we played the "don't get burned deep" defense.
~Because we couldn't go for three~
and against Michigan State it was probably okay to do that. Against Nebraska... probably not.
EL GUAPO is a grown as man running the ball, he had 1000 yards after contact today! Is any one else tired of seeing the WR Screen pass and Read Option? Or is it just me?
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
Viva El Guapo!
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
The rubber knee comment is so true. I really thought it was an ACL injury. Phew!
GO BUCKS!
Devin Big Play Smith baby.
Class of 2008
All He does is catch game winning TD's.
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
Now all he needs to do now is catch the short and easy passes he'd have a complete game.
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
I don't know how we keep winning with a defense that plays like that. Guess I'm going to have to dust off my Tressel-issued defibrilator for the rest of the season.
Our defense played great! I'm not sure what you are complaining about. We had one awful, awful play that brought back Cal memories, but besides that we held a September Heisman to a handful of yards and only gave up 1 TD!
What game were you watching?! They gave up 269 yards through the air to a team that simply doesn't have a passing game. And it would have been a lot more if MSU's receivers didn't drop all those balls that hit them right in the hands. Plus, they are exceptionally undisciplined in the schemes and got a lot of dumb penalties, particularly Roby.
They didn't play great against the pass...again. It's a recurring theme for this season.
Not great pass defense, but I think the Sparty receivers didn't drop as many as usual. That's probably why people say they don't have a passing game. It's the catching that's been their problem, not the throwing.
Dude, that was the PLAN. Myself and others kept saying before this game that if we let Maxwell throw over 40 times like what Cal/UAB/Miami's QBs did he wouldn't be able to make us pay; we just had to shut down LeVeon bell. And you know what? WE F*CKING DID> One of the hottest RBs in the land gets held to like 30something yards the entire game and people still aren't happy. The only way we were gonna win was to take away their LONE offensive strength, Bell, and we did Exactly that. 269 is just a number, and not even that high. Did maxwell look threatening at all most of the game or was he running for his life and dumping off passes for little to no gain?
Of course, if we play against the Geno Smiths of the world then yea obviously this defensive strategy isn't gonna cut it. But short of expecting PERFECTION I think our flawed D played as well as we could've asked for it today.
6.4 yards per attempt. The defense had only 1 poor play the entire game (the TD). If they throw it 42 times they are going to get 250+ yards. If he only threw for less than 200 while taking that many attempts we would've won by double digits. Beautiful defense overall. Still some slightly poor angles but lots of improvement in the tackling imo. We gave a ton of looks that we hadn't shown yet. We played super vanilla both sides of the ball in pre-season.
Yeah, the defense played the run great. They sucked against any type of pass play. They kept sneaking behind linebackers, and no one noticed. Also, the DBs dropped a bunch of plays (including penalties). They didn't play any worse than previous weeks, but they got to face Sparty's pathetic offense. I can see Maxwell growing into a good passer in the future though.
We were 33rd in the country against the run going into this game, and that's only going to improve even farther holding MSU to a measly 34 yards. Very impressive in containing Bell.
Maxwell threw the ball forty two times. 269yds on that many attempts isn't terrible. And Sparty finshed 4/15 on 3rd down attempts. Definitely room for improvement, but by no means as bad as many people on here are saying.
Plus, when you stuff the box with 9 guys over and over, you're selling out on the run, and there's inevitably going to be less guys for pass coverage. It's bound to happen that guys are going to get open a bit more. Our DB's played pretty tight coverage. I was impressed. There were more than a couple big hits that resulted in dropped passes. D played good.
You have to give credit to the coaching. Despite our big flaws in teh first 4 games, when they've addressed a specific problem, it's gotten fixed. Although it took two weeks, the tackling is much better. When we weren't getting pressure on QB's, it took about two weeks, but look what we did to Cal - got pressure on the QB. They are addressing specific goals, and they are getting positive results. They set out to stop the run against MSU, and that was one of the best rushing defensive efforts I've seen from the Buckeyes.
Great Effort Grown Men of the Scarlet and Gray. Time for a little payback to the CornHolers. 0 first downs rushing for Sparty....I friggen Love it. Great Coahing, Great "D", Solid Offense that always seems to answer the call when needed, be it a score or a first down. That last 1rst down by Mr. Hyde (Great Blocking Mr. Fragel) I will remember for a long time.
Couldn't believe it when he flattened Gholston. He's had a huge two weeks!
If Fragel plays like that all year he will be playing in the pros. Has to be consistent though .
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
Hyde was so clutch down the stretch. Lets hope our team next week plays better on offense.
"if irony were made of strawberries, we' d all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now."
Carlos Hyde's runs at the end were extremely impressive. Maybe Braxton will finally have confidence in him running the ball and hand it off to him in the option. Hyde was open twice that I saw and Miller kept it both times for little gain.
I'm not sure if we're talking about the same plays, but their end played well by waiting on the option pitch, and then taking on Braxton. Braxton did miss a few reads as well though.
Hydes last series was great! Ran like an angry man! But let's not forget the rest of the game his carries weren't so impressive.
Run_Fido's favorite word is strawman.
Great win.
My only complaints were the third quarter defense and the silly miscues.
Yes, the pass D needs a lot of work, but it's because the Buckeyes were so solid running the ball and stopping the run that they were able to overcome -3 TO margin on the road against a soild hard-nosed opponent, which is a rare feat.
I was especially impressed that, by the end of the game, they took MSU's manhood from them. Obviously, the final offensive drive to run out the clock, led by Fragel and Hyde, was gangsta. Before that, though, the long embattled Sabino came up strong a few times, which was really good to see.
Putting it nicely, MSU is a physical team; putting it another way, they're a bunch of cheap ol' dirty bastards. Well, the Sparty OL and DL got punked in the 4th quarter.
This Buckeyes team has a long way to go, but they have heart.
Hyde needs more carries, and the defense looked so much better. Another great day to be a BUCKEYE. Of course they all are.
Our defense - 50 times better today. They shut down Bell completely - he was a non-factor after having some catches on their first drive that led to a FG. There was the one TD play where our defensive issues momentarily resurfaced, but hopefully that crap is behind us. Just tackling is good enough. Still some defensive coverage issues to figure out, but that overall was better than it has been.
Offense was up and down, but that was a very good defense that we had to face. Braxton made his mistakes, but I think we saw this team grow up some throughout this game. Great win, I'll take it, and there's still work to do to get better, so no resting on laurels. Big one next week under the lights at the 'Shoe. Can't wait (in my best Bart Scott voice).
Class of 2010.
Anyone who thinks this win was tressel like is crazy and does not know what tressel ball truly was. I was surprised how prepared that D line was today. To hold bell to 45 yards rushing is something else. Meyer had those boys ready for that. That gives me confidence in knowing that if he can do that he can def. get the secondary ready for Braska who is in a struggle at home with a terrible Whisky team right now.
The secondary did a good job of swarming to the ball after the WR's made the catch but they werent doing a very good job of breaking up passes against a MSU team who doesnt have a great QB or very good WR's. Braska will be alot different because those boys can catch the ball.
Msu defense is freakin tough though they def. brought it which is why I say that this was not a "tressel like victory". The offense should look alot better next week but we will not see Braxton finish the season running as many times as he does.
All in all great win but offense and secondary on D needs to clean up big time. Loving the D line and special teams right now.
Very happy to be 5-0 but a few things I would like to see improvement on.
1. Getting pressure with just the front 4. Seems like the only time we get constant pressure is when we blitz.
2. Getting our RBs more carries. Hyde esp.
3. Getting Stoney involved more. Guy's a mismatch that we are not taking advantage of.
4. Throwing the ball downfield more as opposed to throwing sideways. Even if they are 5 yd hooks. I'd also like to see more designed play action roll outs.
5. Making sure Braxton improves every day with that read option. When he masters that he will be unstoppable.
Seriously though. If we beat Neb at home, we can very easily be 10-0 heading into the bye week before Wisky.
1. This is just wrong, front 4 was beyond beastly in this game.
2. and 5. Some reads where Braxton pulls then cuts back against the grain into the backside pursuit that could be cleaned up for sure. Hall injury affected # of RB runs I'm sure.
3. Not sure he's getting open.
4. Absolutely not. The WR screens were a fantastic addition to the gameplan and opened a lot up. Several of them could've been HUGE plays if not for good open field tackles by MSU DB/LBs and a slightly missed block or two. These need to be in there to punish teams putting 8+ in the box.
Margin could've been bigger if not for the fluke interception (imo) with the defender sprinting to recover into his zone with randomly perfect timing to get hit in the helmet with the ball in addition to the Braxton knee injury/fumble. Those were both scoring drives. I like what I see, especially the toughness by several guys.
I can somewhat agree with the fluke part, but Braxton didn't see him either. The ball actually hit him in the hands, but he couldn't hold onto it, so it went to one hand and his facemask.
Maxwell, however, threw a pass to someone that it almost stuck in their facemask, and it didn't hit their hands first! (Maybe they need to switch all of their DBs to WRs :))
the receiver on that maxwell pass was the converted db
Ugh. Here I was trying to sound smart.
Just an FYI: According to local sports radio hacks up here, the MSU coaches complained of a less than satisfactory game tape sent by Meyer & Co.. They are claiming Meyer is going to feel some heat.
I am claiming this is why Sparty never wins championships. Little brother indeed.
''This was a war. This was two sledgehammers going at each other,'' Urban Meyer said. ''I know the Big Ten has taken some heat. That was a great game. Great atmosphere, a bunch of great players on the field that are going to be playing at the next level, and that was good for college football and good for the Big Ten.''
Yahoo commenter: "Persona at the helm is all-powerful...Ara Parseghian. Woody Hayes. Bear Bryant. All of these people became NCAA legends in their time. Now we get a modern legend, Urban Meyer, peer only perhaps to Nick Saban, who has just to show up and his team starts playing out of their gourds. I mean, OSU has a decent team, no doubt about it, but there are at least five other conference contenders with equal talent, including Michigan State. I think at the season's conclusion OSU will not be playing for a champsionship: They'll already have it. Michigan, on the other hand, will be lucky to be 8-3 by that time and will more likely be 7-4, and we'll see how the persona of Brady Hoke stands up against that of The Urban Legend."
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/no-14-ohio-st-holds-225625951--ncaaf.html
Great win, now I see ,MSU filed a complaint with the BIGTEN over game tape they claim the Buckeyes sent them too late to have been of any use (thursday) . Their D Coordinator also said motions & shifts were cut out.
Cry me a river. Ask Dantonio how he feels about running Javon Ringer into a likely early retirement. Then, maybe we can investigate whether Gholston kept playing today with any possible concussion-related impacts?
Of course, the MSU staff loved Tressel. JT had a "gentleman's agreement" with them whereby MSU coaches could aggressively recruit Ohio, but JT would never go anywhere near any MSU leans. JT obliged this one-way restraining order because he wanted Dantonio to succeed at MSU and, besides, JT knew he'd dominate the Big Ten in spite of indulging some other coaches in the league.
Now there's a new sherriff in town and Dantonio is mighty butthurt.
The funny thing is, the Buckeyes do not play MSU for the next two years. Sparty can stew in his own juices until then, because MSU won't be at the 2013 or 2014 Big Ten championship games, either.
As far as I'm concered, Dantonio has spent all of his previously banked Buckeye "capital" from being the DC 2001 - 2003. Now, he's just Bielema East.
Is it me, or does MSU always seem like a whiny team that plays dirty on the field? I think woody has them pegged. Looks like Dantonio got sucked into that culture...
Congrats to the Buckeyes for pulling out a hard fought win against Sparty! Defense really showed up today.
A little food for thought for you stat fans courtesy of ESPN.com:
Le'Veon Bell was hit within two yards of the line of scrimmage on 15 of his 17 rushes against Ohio State. Entering Saturday, Bell made it more than two yards past the line before being hit on 48 of his 117 rushes (41 percent).
First 4 Games Today
Rush PG 29.3* 17
YPG 152.5* 45
YAC PG 60.5 25
1st downs PG 7.0* 0
Today
5+ yd rush PG 11.3* 3rush for a first down for the first time since his freshman season. The longest run that Bell could muster against Ohio State's defense was an eight yard rush in the second quarter as Ohio State held Bell to three rushes that gained five or more yards.
Nice breakdown.
seemed to me that Hyde's 46 yds were more vital than Miller's 136. When we needed tough yards at critical times Hyde delivered.
It was close and ugly BUT my prediction came true: we made Maxwell throw over 40 times, and won.
#HumbleBrag
Me too (tooting my own horn); however, my prediction was off in other respects:
Wow! I guess we go from tat scandal to tape scandal? That infraction would earn us another year of sanctions if these panzie pantie waists had their way!
Anyone watching this Nebraska-Wisky game? Wisky's helmets look horrible.
Edit: I'm not all that afraid of Wisky as of right now.
FYI: MSU fans are claiming this game was stolen from them by the refs. Apparently, Braxton's rubber-knee fumble being ruled dead robbed them of an automatic game-winning touchdown.
I'm starting to lose all respect for State fans.
#fistpumpgobuckeyes
did it occur to sparty fans that the player who recovered the fumble was literally the only one going full speed, if the whistle had never been blown he would have had a wall of buckeyes on one side and the sideline on the other
Seeing our offense run the WR Screen to Brown over and over today to failure confirms my assumption that this play runs to perfection during practice against our defense, because our D is terrible at defending it on game days. My hope is that this gets shored up soon.
“The minute we stop expecting greatness from our football program, we become Wisconsin.” Craig Krenzel
^^^The dave screen play lol. It will be a more explosive play next year with Jacobs, Marshall, and possibly some other deadly wideouts
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
speaking of marshall is he technically a meyer recruit or tressel recruit I feel like he was committed before the urban hire, long before actually