Eleven Warriors

And?

Can we go back to rushing 3 and getting INTs? (haha) we got a lot of tackles for losss/sacks today... But the linebackers bad pursuit angles and a couple missed tackles killed us.  It's almost like Cal figured out how to use our over aggressiveness and poor LB play against us... Hmmm.  Maybe this teams talent is better suited to zone? However, it really was just Bigelow that killed us on three runs.  

This defense isn't a traditionally OSU dominant defense..might as well get use to it.

y'all make me scratch my head.

Week 1: "Defense seems kinda slow... oh well...week one."
Week 2: "Defense isn't getting to the ball... too many passes."
Week 3: Defense gets to the ball (6 sacks)... "Defense still sucks."

Cut me a break. Fickell dials up the blitzes and comes at the ball non-stop, and y'all still complain. Secondary has issues with pass coverage and wrapping up. BIG hits from the secondary throughout the game, and the Dline was playing like beasts. Getting to the ball, making run stops, and rushing the QB more often than not. 

That's a HUGE improvement from being lazy off the ball last week. Though again, this is tOSU, so major improvement isn't good enough.

Flame away.

Good point. Spoiled fans gone be spoiled fans.

Bad play calling and stupidity, I remember on their first TD drive there was one throw that went to their WR Allen in the slot. When they lined up at first it looked like no one was going to pick him up (which eventually happened...he's the BEST WR and no one guards him???) and then Sabino looked like he was gonna get him. But Sabino ended up blitzing and they just threw a quick pass to Allen and he gained like 20 yards. Later in the game Sabino slid all the way out to the side and took Travis Howard's man from him, and then Howard had no one to guard and was just standing there. Is it that hard to know who you are assigned to cover?!?

I agree @bucks. Bryant always tries to drop the big hit on someone and ends up whiffing most of the time. When he does make a tackle, he runs his mouth.

I'll have to go back but I only saw Bryant miss one tackle. Otherwise, he brought the wood. He will play on Sundays. 

Not so silver bullets.

What hurts Bryant as far as being an nfl prospect is that he's under 5'10" and 185 lbs without having elite speed. He'd have to have a really good 2012 and 2013 campaign to get drafted anywhere past the 5th rd.

I do love Ro-Ro ... I feel he is an All-American

I don't think we have playmakers at linebacker. I think that's the glaring difference between this defense and that of years past. Guys that are instinctually and relentlessly around the ball all the time. Shazier's close to that but still young and not quite there. Grant looked bad a lot today. He looked out of position and lost at times. Sabino was alright I guess but that's all he's really ever turned out to be...alright I guess. It looked like we wanted to play aggressive to get to the ball/quarterback. Cal in turned called screens galore and draws and burned us a couple times. A lot of times our guys up front were just a step too late and then there's no one at linebacker cleaning that up, they're either out of position or getting stuck on blocks or missing tackles or I guess just not getting there to make the play.

I was in C20 today, and as soon as Tedford called timeout and elected to kick, I told my wife he'd blown it.  Defense was really back on its heels.

Cal played a very good game - much better than the film I've seen from their first two games and the four I saw spliced from last year.  Tedford blew that decision. 

Luckeyes.

Some sort of shoulder injury.

No, in the post game they said he'd been dealing with it all week and was still a little dinged up. 

I've always had high hopes for Sabino, but not anymore. He looked lost today and seemed to avoid contact.

^A very fair point for sure.

That said, I don't like the 4-3 Defense with Hankins and Goebel on the field at the same time. What's the point of having two DT on the field the entire game if their not even stopping the run? Severely restricts what you're able to do. I suppose we have no choice though given Spence needing more time to bring along (I would assume--though he looks just as good as any other DL we have on the field imo), and our lack of LB depth.

i dont want to hear a bunch of people giving cal credit or saying osu fans just will never be satisfied..we gave up 160 yds(estimate) on FOUR carries to one of their backs..the "silver bullets" were just bouncing off him when they wernt completely whiffing..give me a break..if your not disgusted with that i dont know what to tell you

Part of me thinks: "what did we expect, much of the personnel on this D are from the same terrible D from last year"...  But then I think "how much more of this is Urban going to put up with!!?"

The second half was just embarrassing!  I would think between Fick, Vrabel and Withers we would have been able to figure out the Cal offense!  There's a lot of $ being paid to the defensive coaches...

But we had 6 sacks !? <- sarcasm...

The defense can't tackle and the worst LB group in the last 10 years, at least.

Coaching. 100 percent on Fick. He calls the packages and blitzes. Lining Sabino (or no one) up against Allen in the slot is idiotic which happened repeatedly on third down. Yes, there were two plays that the Cal back shed a tackle and broke long which are on the players, but the other break downs seem to be call based to me. For example, yanking Grant in and out doesn't seem to be helping at all. Let the kid develop some rhythm in the D for god sakes. I honestly didn't think he had a bad game when in, barely anything up the middle was successful for Cal. Howard was no where to be seen in this game, the penalties were killers (I blame D coaching for this), and Fick never adjusted to the screen or bootleg pass to the FB which were run a combined dozen times. Also, would like to see Sabino out on passing downs as he is getting targeted for first down yardage a lot. Grant can't be any worse on 3rd down so let him try.

As well as the secondary, but they're solid at times except have had a lot of blown coverages.  C'mon Combs! Get the men prepared.

I hope that those db's we are recruiting (Vonn Bell) see the same things we see and realize that they can step right in and get some playing time...I like how the offense is uptempo but really miss the way the defense was ran prior to the new staff..sure hope something clicks and they just unleash on people..

I still think 9-3 is easily attainable. 

9-3 is definitely still attainable. Hell, 12-0 is still attainable with our POS schedule and some Braxton heroics. MSU didn't do much to scare me last night. You stack the line against them and they're boned. Maxwell and the receivers couldn't beat two freshman corners for ND. I have supreme confidence both of our corners are far better than anything ND can put on the field. Their defense is absolutely good, but like I said with some Brax heroics we can still put some points on the board. I'm not guaranteeing any kind of victory but I'm just saying we are very beatable and so is every single other team on our schedule that I've seen.

If the big plays were limited, then we wouldn't be having this conversation about the defense struggling.  However, they did and it needs to be cleaned up by practicing tackling...all week long (not to mention flow towards line of scrimmage and pursuit angles).  That's why #5 had so many yards including those little bubble passes (if I remember right those types of screens used to hurt our Defenses in the past).  I agree with many here that we've been spoiled and our expectations may be a bit too high.  Although these problems on Defense that are now persisting for at least two weeks, needs to be fixed.  UCF's RB gashed OSU's Defense and so did that scat back #5. Overall for the game I'd rate the Defense out at a C- only because of the QB pressures and sacks.  Pass defense was suspect as well as stopping the run (26/37 passing with one td and one int for 280 yards and rushing for 224 yards on S & G defense is just not good).  That's just not OSU style of defense...against a marginal team (Cal will finish 4th or 5th in their division).  

As far as this 9-3 business above...who's going to beat OSU in B1G??? Wisky, MSU, Purdue, Illinois or TTUN?  I can't see anyone beating OSU...it's will OSU beat themselves???  It's not all coaching...it's performance based as well.   

Hugh Hefner? 

Brady Hoke has yet to beat a good coach. IMO no way he comes to the Shoe and beats the Buckeyes

Don't we play in Ann Arbor again this year?

a lot of the defensive problems look like poor pursuit angles to the ballcarrier/undisciplined angles

I thought that but I could've sworn  abc showed our schedule during the game and it said @ Michigan. Must've been a typo or something.

I agree with you, 96.  Poor angles and tackling led to some huge plays for Cal.

With runs of 81, 59 and 26 yards and passes of 36, 30 and 28 yards, the Bears gained 260 yards, or 51 percent of their offense, on just six plays. 

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2012/09/urban_meyer_working_to_get_a_g.html

Also, anybody remember that INT that Roby dropped?  Appeared to be an easy pick six to me.

Not sure why this defense was expected to be much better than they have been thus far. They were not very good last year, and almost everyone is back from that defense.  Personally, I would like to see some of the freshman linebackers get some playing time to see what they can do.