Eleven Warriors

Completely ripped off from MGoBrian.  He explains his terms here http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/hennechart-legend.html

Terrelle Pryor

Throwing

Pryor hit Sanzenbacher with a perfect throw on a post pattern with 10:50 left in the first half.

After writing too many times about Pryor taking sacks, or mishandling the two minute drill at the end of first halves, I had to include the two play sequence at the first half in this one.  First and 10 from the 47 an excellent job by Pryor, sees the 7 man rush and buys enough time with his feet for Sanzenbacher to come out of his break to find the football on him for a nine yard gain ending out of bounds.  The very next play, again large blitz coming (offensive line picks up the blitz perfectly) Pryor hangs one deep for Posey (running an excellent route) who somehow does not draw a flag for offensive pass interference on the play resulting in a 38 yard touchdown.

Four inaccurate and one bad read.  The bad read was first and goal from the 2 after the poor tackling by Minnesota special teams lead to a big return.  Ohio State runs play action with a 2 man route, Stoneburner and Boren going to the end zone towards the short side of the field.  Stoneburner's timing gets off due to a check at the goal line, Boren is open early towards the pylon.  One of the three guys covering Stoneburner decides to get to Boren (the defender makes his break before Pryor decides to throw the ball).  When Pryor begins to run he sees the linebacker originally covering Boren has committed to stopping Pryor from running the football.  Pryor releases the ball believing he has thrown to an uncovered receiver, hence the lack of pace on the throw, only to find out that the lack of spacing in the routes has allowed one player to cover his only two targets.

The first inaccurate pass is the first throw of the game, an overthrow of a well covered Posey 15 yards downfield.  The second inaccurate pass was the backwards pass intended for Sanzenbacher with 12:48 left in the first.  I know this is technically recorded as a fumble, but I’m writing this and can put it wherever I please.  Inaccurate pass number three is on 2^nd and 13 to begin the second half when Pryor horribly overthrows an open Sanzenbacher running a crossing route.  The final inaccurate pass was on 2^nd and 9 at the end of the third quarter when Pryor overthrew a well covered Sanzenbacher running a crossing route 5 yards downfield.

The designed run was a pass/run option in the red zone.

Posey had a monster game, including some great downfield blocks.

Pryor put it in the air 24 times, with 19 being catchable, for nearly 10 yards per attempt.

Everything in this post should be taken in context of the schedule played so far. 

With that in mind here are the offensive yards per carry (YPC) and yards per attempt (YPA) through week 4.

Last week Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin looked to be the most well rounded offenses in the big ten this season.  This week Ohio State looks almost as good as MSU and Wisconsin after taking out a year’s or a week’s worth of frustration on Purdue.  Wisconsin is done with the portion of their schedule where they play competent defenses with just Purdue, Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern left to play.

The Iowa defense has had back to back dates with two of the Big Ten’s best offenses and came out of it looking very much like Michigan State did.  Ohio State’s rush defense answered the bell, holding Purdue to just 1.1 yards per carry last Saturday.  Illinois is very quietly putting up a solid defensive season. 

This analysis likes Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio State.  Iowa has a questionable running game, Wisconsin’s pass defense looks vulnerable.

This is in response to some grumblings of our inevitable trip to the Capital One Bowl or worse.

(All of these are presuming Ohio State can win out and does not make it back to the BCS National Championship Game)

Here's how I look at it:

Scenario #1                                                                                                           

Sparty: Loses one or more games

Wisconsin: Wins out

Ohio State's bowl bid: BCS at-large or Rose Bowl

Scenario #2                                                                                                           

Sparty: Wins out

Wisconsin: Loses one or more games

Ohio State's bowl bid: BCS at-large

Scenario #3                                                                                                           

Sparty: Loses one game

Wisconsin: Loses one or more games

Ohio State's bowl bid: BCS at-large or Rose Bowl (not sure on tie-breaker rules)

Scenario #4                                                                                                           

Sparty: Loses two or more games

Wisconsin: Loses one or more games

Ohio State's bowl bid: Rose Bowl

Scenario #5                                                                                                           

Sparty: Wins out

Wisconsin: Wins out

Ohio State's bowl bid: Capital One Bowl

I like our chances at a BCS bowl. In my opinion, all five of these scenarios are equally likely and possible.

There is so much poor analysis of this in the forums that I feel the need to post an (albeit under the influence) analysis of same.

Presuppositions:

1. Sparty loses at some point. "At some point" obviously means late in the season, and this loss drops them below both Wisky and OSU in the BCS.

2. Wisky wins out.

3. OSU wins out.

This creates a 3 way tie for the Big Ten Championship. So we win a share of the title. Now, we address the bowl issue.

For the Rose Bowl: the Big Ten has a cascading series of tie breakers in the event of a 3 way tie. Given the make-up of the head to head (or lack thereof) nature of the games between these 3 teams, none of them apply until we get to BCS standings. Now presumably this knocks Sparty out of the picture due to their late loss. 

The only question then is whether we can overtake Wisky between now and the end of the season. My understanding from projections is that we should be able to do so. Wisky is currently #10 and we are #11.  Wisky's BCS avg. is currently .6584. OSU's is .6356. Both teams have 4 games left. Both teams play scUM,  so you throw that game out. The remaining 3 games

Wisky: Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern.

OSU: Minnesota, Penn State, Iowa.

So the mystery is whether or not the polls will concur with current projections that OSU's slate is tougher than Wisky's slate to a degree large enough to nudge OSU ahead. I think it will be enough.

Therefore we never get to a question of at large opinions and head to head issues. If the chips fall right, we go to the Rose Bowl. Who do we play?

Well, this is a tougher question, but let's assume for a second that Alabama wins the SEC with 1 loss, and that, as in years past, that is enough to get them into the MNC. Let's also assume, more precariously, that Oregon takes care of business, setting up an intriguing blow out win for Alabama in the MNC.  Oregon's inclusion vacates the Pac 10's auto bid to the Rose Bowl, and I believe the Rose Bowl is obligated to take Boise St. sitting at #3, undefeated. Thereafter, hopefully we can end all this smurf turf talk with a 35-7 win against Mr. Moore and his silly-turf loving buddies.

Completely ripped off from MGoBrian.  He explains his terms here http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/hennechart-legend.html

Terrelle Pryor

Throwing

What a difference a week makes.

Two inaccurate and one bad read.  Pryor and Ohio State paid a heavy price on nearly every one of his mistakes.  First inaccurate pass was with 10:20 left in the first half intended for Saine out of the backfield, who was never given a chance to make the catch.  Shortly after this was the lone bad read of the game when Pryor was faced with a charging Kerrigan and forced the ball into double coverage.  Brown didn't put his body between Pryor and the defender and lost the fight for the ball.  On Pryor’s lone attempt of the second half I'm going with inaccurate instead of bad read because the route looks open if Pryor gets the ball ahead of Sanzenbacher.  He definitely stares the slant down and the linebacker underneath getsthe interception.

Pryor threw the ball away twice, the first while running towards the sideline Pryor throws it away instead of stepping out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage.  The second time was on first down with a little over a minute left in the first half.

One catchable ball went uncaught, Pryor’s first throw of the day was slightly underthrown to Posey down the sideline allowing the corner to get back into the play and get a hand on it.  Posey does get two hands on the ball and could have brought it in.

Both designed runs were quarterback draws.

Big day for the wide receivers, maybe the Corey Brown for 3^rd wideout campaign begins.

Pryor put it in the air 22 times, with 17 being catchable, for a season high 12 yards per attempt.

Everything in this post should be taken in context of the schedule played so far. 

With that in mind here are the offensive yards per carry (YPC) and yards per attempt (YPA) through week 3.

Purdue has gashed Northwestern and Minnesota on the ground, but four of their next five are Ohio State, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan State.  Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin look to be the most well rounded offenses in the big ten this season.  Wisconsin plays at Iowa this week and then finishes their season with four of the softest big ten defenses. 

Indiana is horrible on defense, or maybe we should remember that their two games are against former Heisman trophy candidates.  Iowa has played against the best and worst offenses in the big ten and came out looking good, it will be interesting to see how they hold up against Wisconsin’s running game.  Michigan State’s defense continues its march towards the lower left hand corner of the chart by holding Illinois to 2.7 yards per carry. 

This analysis likes Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio State.  Iowa has a questionable running game and a tough schedule ahead.  Michigan State has to like their position right now.

You might be wondering why Ohio State’s defense looks so good in this picture after what you saw last Saturday night.  Looking at the rushing defense, Wisconsin ran the ball 43 times at 4.3 yards per carry (which is not nearly as ugly as I expected after watching the game).  Those numbers get balanced out by the 36 carries at 3.3 ypc for Illinois and Indiana running 29 times at 2.4 ypc.  Now if these numbers paint too sunny a picture for you, Wisconsin averaged 5.4 ypc against Minnesota, while Purdue average 5 ypc.  Without Homan in the middle it is not outside the realm of possibility that we see a game much like Illinois 2007.

Completely ripped off from MGoBrian.  He explains his terms here http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/hennechart-legend.html

Terrelle Pryor

Five inaccurate passes.  First and 10 with 8:40 left in the first quarter Pryor bounces one 5 yards in front of an open Posey.  Second and nine with 3:46 left in the first half Pryor throws high to Posey short over the middle.  Posey does not knock himself out making an effort for this one.  To begin the third possession of the second half (you know the one where Wisconsin did absolutely nothing to stop Ohio State who went three and out with one horrible overthrow and two drops), Pryor overthrows Boren to begin the series.  With 1:36 remaining in the game Pryor throws it out the back of the endzone in the general direction of Posey.  Finally the last throw of the game Pryor under throws Sanzenbacher for the interception.

Five bad reads including quite possibly the worst throw in the recorded history of football ever.  The first bad read was on third and 21 on the first drive Pryor threw to a bracketed Sanzenbacher.  Second possession on second and six Pryor delivers the ball late to Posey allowing the defender time to break up the pass.  The third bad read is really on Posey as he runs through the hole in the deep middle of the defense with 8:36 remaining in the first half.  Pryor, on second and nine with 12:31 left in the first half, forces one down the sideline to Brown who is well covered.  On the final drive of the game Pryor scrambles to his right then lofts a pass back to his left towards Saine who has two defenders on him.  How this did not turn into six points for Wisconsin I will never know.

 Four catchable balls went uncaught.  The first was the third and ten throw to Stoneburner where the catch was overturned by review, they actually took the line of scrimmage back 5 yards during this review.  Two low throws to Posey dropped, as well as one low throw to Washington that was dropped.  All of these plays were for first down yardage and all were on drives that failed to produce points.

12 designed for 47 yards looks bad, but 3 of those were Pryor with the option to pitch that went for 13 yards worth of losses as well as killing the first red zone trip.  Three sacks, one was Pryor running out of bounds instead of throwing it away, one was Shugarts watching the defensive end instead of attempting to block him, and one was an actual sack.

Rough day for Posey, big day for Sanzenbacher, everybody else was almost invisible.  Shockingly few yards after catch.

Pryor put it in the air 29 times, with 19 being catchable, there was a real opportunity for a big game with some better throws.

Well, let me begin by saying that that was depressing. I am not sure why, but when our offensive drive following Wisky's kickoff return TD did not produce points, I got a horrible feeling in my gut. When we settled for 3 before halftime, I started to see smoke coming from the pile of hopes and dreams I had built during the spring and summer. When we were down ten with under 6 to go and went three and out and punted, that pile was already completely ablaze. So, what do we make of these ashes?

Well, let me first say that I am an optimist, so if you think the following is sugarcoated, you are reading me wrong. I want to be able to look forward to what precious little remains of this college football season, and, as such, I apply my optimism and take away the following:

• First, I'd rather lose this game to the Badgers than be embarrassed in another MNC game. The bittersweet portion of this observation is that I don't think we would be embarrassed by an Oregon, an Oklahoma, or a Boise State. Not so sure about LSU, Auburn, or Bama.
• Second, you'd have to think that after last night we will be seeing the offseason hiring of a special teams coach. We need this, obviously. We have the personnel to adequately cover kicks and protect field goal kickers. Execution and discipline are the issues then, and these are issues easily solved with coaching. Yes, the offense didn't execute at critical moments (1st offensive series, the 1st and goal from the 3 yard line, the responsive drive down 28-18). And the defensive got pushed around at the line of scrimmage, and had lapses at key times in the secondary. But special teams cost us this game. The box score shows shockingly close stats between the two teams: (First downs 22 OSU/21 Wisky; 3rd down % 46%/50%; 4th down conversions 1/1 to 1/1; Total yds 311/336; passing yards 156/152; completion % 50% / 50%; rushing yards 155/184; turnovers 1/1; Time of possession 30:06/29:57). A missed FG and a kickoff return TD is a 10 point swing, basically the margin of difference.
• Third, I think last weekend's loss adds great foundation and weight to TP's previous statements that he will be coming back for his Senior year. 
• Fourth, at some point the Jim Bollman issue needs to be addressed. I know last year's end of season streak of dominant running performances saved his job, but will it be enough two years in a row? Given the talent we have recruited at the position, and the lack of development (and some would say regression) we see there, how can JT ignore this anymore? I don't think Bollman is generally to blame for individual losses as much as some of the fan base believes, but when you don't see development across entire college careers, I think you have problems.

Okay, now for a few random other thoughts:

• Having almost certainly lost a chance to play for the MNC, please, football gods, place us in a bowl against either i) Boise State (or I guess TCU), or ii) and SEC team that is both a traditional power and perceived to be "good" by the national media (Bama, Auburn: yes; Arkansas, USC, not so much). Either one of these games will provide intrigue and chance for the Bucks to prove something. To play a big role in the BCS-buster discussion by knocking Boise State in the teeth would great; to get the SEC-monkey off our back against a Bama or an Auburn would be even better.
• Devier Posey, get yo head out yo a$$. And stop eating the same food as T Wash. Its infected.
• What happened to getting the ball into Zoom's hands in inventive ways. 1 touch for 15 yards?
• Dane and Boom, you are real Buckeyes. Please continue. You aren't gone yet, but I already miss you. Does anyone know if Boom has said anything about coming back?
• What happens in this game if Moeller and CJ are healthy? Anything different? I say we still lose bc of special teams, but by a lot less.

Sigh. Ok, let's move on, hope for a meaningful bowl game, and do some damage along the way. Dropping 50+ on Purdue next weekend would be a nice start. Also, as much as I hate to root against Dantonio, let's hope Sparty and the Badgers both falter somewhere and we can salvage a shared B10 championship. 

What Does it Mean to be a "Fan"?

This guy is a real Cavs fan.

Now that I have lured you in with a funny picture, I have a deeper question that has been on my mind (the title does kind of give it away). Above my desk at work I have various posters and pennants of my favorite teams, Cleveland Cavaliers included. When someone new walks near my desk and notices said posters, they almost always ask "Are you still a Cavs fan?" I was so surprised by this the first time it was asked that I almost didn't know what to say. Of course I am, why wouldn't I be a Cavs fan? "Well, Lebron is gone and they are going to be pretty bad now" is the response I most often get when I defend my choice of NBA teams (I PROMISE, this is not an article about Lebron, trust me).

By now, I get pretty annoyed when somebody asks me that question. I do not have a bunch of Lebron posters on that wall to indicate that he is my favorite player (there are no Lebron images allowed in that office). In fact, there are exactly zero player-specific pictures, just images and logos of the teams. This has got me to thinking, does the average, casual sports fan follow teams, or follow players?

 

I used to think that people had favorite teams, that they were somehow connected to, and that you cheered for the players on that team because, well, they were on that team. It never really occurred to me that it was the exact opposite for some people, that they had favorite players and they cheered for the team those athletes just happened to be playing for at any given time. I grew up watching the Indians win division title after division title, and playoff series after playoff series, only to come up short on the biggest stage (twice). There were players on those teams that I loved to watch play, that I idolized as a young boy. As it goes in sports, the team had to rebuild eventually, and all of those players eventually left. But I didn't become a Phillies fan because Jim Thome went there, or an Atlanta Braves fan because Kenny Lofton got traded. It was always about (cliché warning) the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.

 

The same goes for the Cavs. When the team moved Dajuan Wagner Ricky Davis Luke Jackson ....

 

For the rest of this article, click here

Alright, it must be that time of year where the weather turns sour, daylight starts to wane, and I turn into a major grouch, because I'm about to get into some of the headache-inducing, blackboard-scratching, O'Donnel-style assanine phrases that continually spring up during sports analysis in the WWL.  Okay, I'll admit, ESPN has generally p*ssed me off lately with their constant questioning of Ohio State's legitimacy atop the rankings, their Boston/LA/Dallas-only website lauches, Mark May/Reece Davis, sweeping the Favre genetalia photo situation under the rug, how they handled The Decision, and how they were 100% spot on with predicting the NLDS outcome (sigh for my Reds).

But there are a few things that come up in pretty much every sporting discussion that have me teetering on whether or not I should renew my cable package to include any sports networks at all or just jump off a bridge and end it.  Cliches and worthlessness abound...Here they are, and call me crazy if you wish:

1) Something to the effect of: "If you look at [insert athlete name, team, side of the ball, etc.]..."

What does this mean?  You know you've heard it.  John Gruden says it pretty much every other sentence during MNF.  "When you look at LaDanian Tomlinson/'this guy,' there's a true running back, ain't going down, running hard, just a great football player."  Or, "If you look at Ohio State's defense, they are close to tops in the nation in takeaways...."  What does this stupid phrase mean?  Of course we're looking at them, or, well, we're discussing them.  Technically, or literally, we're not looking at them if Todd McShay is just describing what they do with his words.  I hate it.  It's nonsensical and unnecessary.  "If you look at so-and-so, you'll see that..." is alright, but still awful.  And now, it is going to annoy you.

2) The word "command" when describing anything.

This is most commonly used when we're talking about what a pitcher does on the mound, or more recently what Brad Childress used in describing what Brett Favre doesn't have.  "Roy Halladay had great command."  I understand what these former jocks/nerdy analysts are trying to do - they're trying to sound like they're smart.  I guess it sounds stronger than "control," but not really.  But is it necessary? No one ever says, "he had great command of his tackling."  No one says, "he had great command of his jump shot."  I think it actually has started to creep into golf (command of his wedges, for example) and it must be stopped at all costs.

3) "It will be interesting to see..."

Oh my God, the mother of all redundant and unnecessary phrases in the world of sports.  "It's going to be really interesting to see how this defense matches up with this offense."  "I'm interested to see how Terrelle Pryor throws the ball."  "It will be very interesting to watch Roy Halladay pitch against Tim Lincecum."  No!  You're EXCITED to see what happens, not "interested."  "Interest" is already implied in the very fact that we're talking about it.  If you didn't have an interest in the sport, athlete, or team you are discussing, then you wouldn't have a job discussing sports.  And if I didn't have an interest, I wouldn't have turned the channel long ago.  I absolutly abhor this phrase.

Alright...that's my rant for today.  I hope it finds all of you in good spirits, because you'll probably hear each of these phrases every 3.333-repeating, of course, seconds when you turn on SportsCenter or College Gameday in the morning.

GO BUCKEYES!!! IF YOU LOOK AT TERRELLE PRYOR, I'M INTERESTED TO WATCH HIS COMMAND BEAT WISCONSIN!!!!  WOO-HOO!!! O-H!