A few years ago I was lucky enough to spend a few weeks in Hawaii for a wedding. My family rented a house in a bay near Honolulu, and I spent the end of the summer living like the king of all bums; up at the crack of 11, eating fish tacos on the beach next to an ancient volcanic mountain range, and passing out on a beach chair after watching watching crabs fight each other.
It's intoxicating. I've lived in Ohio for almost my entire life, and here you get geographically predisposed toward grinding your teeth at every seasonal transition, toward narrowing your eyes angrily at the start of every local news weather forecast. I've long believed that geography has an acute impact on culture; Ohioans reflect a fertile, gentle, but meteorologically unpredictable environment by tilling the land and their problems until they submit, and Hawaiians reflect a dramatic, lush, but meteorologically steady environment by learning the value of time and holding on tight to what matters.
Or maybe I'm just pulling all of that out of my butt! I'm no sociologist, I just think the contrast between an Ohio football team that playing at home with everything to lose versus an Hawaii football team playing thousands of miles from home with nothing to lose is pretty interesting.
This week's Twitter roundup reflects this. Nervousness, frustration, disappointment in a 38 point shutout win... that's all pretty Ohioan as hell, and it kind of makes me smile. Same as it ever was. Plus dogs.
1st start in #TheShoe got me waking up 4 1/2 hours before wake up call
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) September 12, 2015
See, this is what I'm talking about. Just stay loose, man! You're Cardale Jones! I'm not sure that I have a whole lot of experience with an uptight/nervous Cardale and I'm not sure that I want to see much more of that in the future.
Ace ready for game day #grrrrrr pic.twitter.com/BsJce7Vlfx
— EzekielElliott#15 (@EzekielElliott) September 12, 2015
Ahhh, much better. Zeke's dog, Ace, is a pretty adorable dog (and a really clever bit of self-promotion). Dogs > abs. BUT BARELY.
Anyway, Ohio State was back at home, and that meant some familiar routines and a nice return to the 'Shoe. I'm sure that it was comforting for Ohio State players, coming off a short week and a very tough road game, to get back to what they know in Columbus.
SLOBSSSS @TDeck68 @elflein65 @Jboren50 @b_price54 @ChaseFarris57 #SALMON pic.twitter.com/4qrJ118PXd
— EzekielElliott#15 (@EzekielElliott) September 12, 2015
It feels so good to be back in #TheShoe #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/tgww5O6lNg
— Brutus Buckeye (@Brutus_Buckeye) September 12, 2015
Former players seemed happy with it, too! Mostly!
Two words: Joey Bosa
— Ryan Shazier (@RyanShazier) September 12, 2015
How we don't score bruh
— Curtis grant (@_CurtisGrant14) September 12, 2015
Again, it's weird to try and process how a player could be disappointed with a 38 point win. That's a really unique thing that comes along with only the absolute highest of expectations. It's also something that Ohio State fans became really familiar with during the Jim Tressel era; the feeling that yeah, you just beat the crap out of a team, but the expectations that you set for the team, knowing its capabilities, weren't even remotely reached.
Ugly but hey, we won, S/O to my teammates, 2-0 #GoBucks #BuckeyeNation
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) September 12, 2015
I hope that looking back on this game, Cardale isn't so hard on himself. Sure, he only passed for 111 yards, but he was 12-18 and took care of the ball. If that's the floor, the ceiling of his ability is still looking pretty good.
Plus, there were still a lot of positives to take from this game. The defense looked fantastic and aggressive while pitching a shutout.
The defense had so much fun on the field tonight. I love my teammates and s/o to my bro @thevonnbell7 Zone 6! #SilverBullets #Brotherhood
— Tyvis Powell (@1Tyvis) September 13, 2015
Goose Egg
— Darron Lee (@DLeeMG8) September 12, 2015
And Braxton Miller threw this block and got a nice shoutout from a legend.
Appreciate it brother. Had to protect him lol .. https://t.co/eZcfFkyYfE
— BRAXTON MILLER (@BraxtonMiller5) September 13, 2015
AND Stephen Collier got to be out on the field for a little bit!
My three snaps were niceeeeeeeee
— Stephen Collier (@S13Collier) September 12, 2015
Not going to lie I was nervous. Forgot to put my mouthpiece in and everything smh
— Stephen Collier (@S13Collier) September 12, 2015
So was it an ideal game? Nah. But Ohio State got to play an interesting opponent with some icy uniforms, the defense looked great, and the nation's longest winning streak struck on during a weekend when a lot of the rest of the Top 25 looked positively garbage-esque. The rest of September is going to be a slow, slow grind, but for my part I'm going to enjoy watching an Ohio State team do the Ohio thing to do and smash their heads into their team kinks until they've all been worked out for Big Ten season.
And any day that ends with a picture like this probably isn't a bad one.
Post game fun with @Nicki_07 @OSUCoachMeyer pic.twitter.com/L8XJw0Y5km
— EzekielElliott#15 (@EzekielElliott) September 13, 2015
