It’s a special First Day of the Work Week edition of Under the Fedora. Just because I can, and because those other guys’ threads today are weak sauce.
If you watched the Buckeyes all season long, you can’t be surprised by Saturday’s result. Deep in your heart of hearts, you knew that this version of the Ohio State Buckeyes was not Cardale’s your father’s last year’s squad. The offensive line struggles, the inconceivable forgetting about the best back in the country for long stretches, the horribly inconsistent passing attack (regardless of who was pulling the trigger), the inability of the defense to get off the field at certain points, it was all there right in our faces the whole season long. We pretended we didn’t see it, and at points we didn’t even pretend, just as long as we were able to assure ourselves that this group would eventually pull itself together when the need arose. Sure, there were flashes of the Buckeyes we recalled seeing during last season’s late run, but they were few and far between. The frustration was real, and it pervaded the pages of this blog, even when we chalked it up to the predictable craziness of spoiled fans who really just didn’t understand how things worked in the real world of college football. We were the hunted. It was supposed to be hard. Repeating is really, really difficult, but this group knew how to grind. They were just waiting for the real season to begin. They would step up when they needed to.
And then they didn’t. Put it on the rain, put it on the play-calling, put it on guys who were thinking about their draft status, put it on Reuben’s book tour, put it on Chet's unsanctioned banger. Regardless of the reason(s), a loss was not so clearly a shock as it was an inevitability. Last season’s post-Hokie enchanted carpet ride hardened us all to the recognition that no squad is perfect, no coach infallible, no playoff participation a birthright. The 2015 Buckeyes just haven’t earned it on the field. That is not a critical evaluation, only an epiphany following a long and often tortuous observation. And if the stars align in such a way as to give these Buckeyes another shot at glory, I will be thrilled, but that anticipation will be abated by the recollection of the last occurrence of Ohio State “backing into” a title tilt, and another contest in which the Buckeye coaching staff forgot that it had the best running back in the country. Oh, Beanie, what could have been…
But kudos to Coach Dantonio and the Spartans. All the self-inflicted Buckeye wounds aside, Sparty won the kind of physical, grind it out, punch you in the face, bite your fingernails down to the nub, and so forth contest that would have given Coach Tressel a great deal of nothing to happily speak of in the subsequent press conference. Urban and his staff got Tressel’d by one of the Vest’s trusted disciples. Unfortunately, it was a little less than nine years too late.
The Browns were off this Sunday, and we don’t have another loss to recount, but let’s pour one out for Josh, the latest casualty in the long, long, long list of Cleveland Browns ex-starting quarterbacks. Viva Johnny Football. The future is definitely looking up for the Browns, because really, what could possibly go wrong with pinning the hopes of your franchise to a guy like Johnny.
I will wrap up by wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving holiday. We Buckeye fans and 11 Warriors have a lot for which to be thankful, not the least of which is the opportunity to read the drivel that pretend contributors put out, and to insult interact with our internet friends.
TL;DR: Bucks lost; Happy Thanksgiving.
