Great to be back here among friends on Eleven Warriors! In this off season I landed my first gig as a sports writer. It's at an upstart site and app called MySportsVote.com. I encourage you to check it out, it's like the poll portion of this great site but on sports nationwide. I'll give them a quick shout with every article I post here for my fellow Buckeyes. You can find more about them and me in my profile links here on Eleven Warriors. I love this site, and everyone who has helped me enjoy and write about Ohio State! O-H!
Favorite Stat of the Game: FAU had -14 total yards at halftime; -22 yards rushing and 8 yards passing. FAU didn’t get into positive yards on the ground until the 4th quarter and finished the game with only 22 yards rushing. A staple of great defenses in across the nation is stopping the run and the Buckeyes did that emphatically against Florida Atlantic, which is a change in the right direction from a season ago. On 33 attempts, the Owls got 22 yards, getting only 0.7 yards per carry!
The Brooklyn Dagger Award: Chris Olave’s 29-yard touchdown reception from Justin Fields that had the Buckeyes up 28-0 with 6:50 to go in the 1st Quarter. That was all the points the Buckeyes would need for the win (unfortunately they started playing that way the rest of the game) and that was the moment the game was done and out of reach.
Dwayne Haskins Award: The player of the game was easily Justin Fields. Like Dwayne Haskins last year, Fields accounted for five touchdowns in his first start at Ohio State. Fields went 18 for 25 passing, with 234 yards and four touchdowns. He added 61 yards on the ground and a touchdown despite beings sacked twice, bringing back the quarterback running game that was so important to Urban Meyer and is more essential every year for big time quarterbacks. In his first game, Fields lived up to the hype.
Ryan Shazier-Devin Smith Award: Jeremy Ruckert. The sophomore had four catches for 38 yards and two touchdowns. Ruckert showed on the field why he broke into the rotation even with returning tight ends Luke Farrell and Rashod Berry in front of him. Ruckert proved his worth in the intermediate game, catching a 25-yard touchdown pass and in the goal line in catching a 3-yard touchdown pass. #88 will be a fun one to watch this season. Another new face to watch out for is young Marcus Crowley. Four carries for 27 yards isn’t a career day, but it’s solid and Crowley ran hard and like he wanted to make the most of his chances which is exactly what you want to see out of a freshman who’s third or fourth on the depth chart.
Dane Sanzenbacher Award: Robert Landers. It may not show up in his stat line with two tackles and half of a sack, but when you hold a team to only 22 rushing yards, you can be certain that the best interior defensive lineman is more than doing his job and that was Robert Landers against FAU, quietly yet impressively doing his job.
Taylor Decker Award: The defense. Despite some all-American efforts and performances in 2018, Ohio State’s defense was easily the place the Buckeyes struggled the most, and they knew it. When that knowledge is couple with the talent and determination that is on the Ohio State defense and you have a group poised to be as aggressive and effective all season long as the Silver Bullets were on the last day of August against FAU. Holding the Owls to only 228 total yards, even when the second unit played most of the 4th quarter, when Florida Atlantic scored their only two touchdowns of the game. The Buckeyes will have their hands full next week but as the season has started the Buckeye defense is looking to be back.
Fedora Award: Chase Young. For the first time since 2012 Ohio State doesn’t have an all-American named Bosa on the defensive line. Even knowing that Young would be back to his Predator self and hunting quarterbacks, it’s no easy task to follow guys who went in the top three of their respective drafts. So far, Chase Young is making it look easy, even in the face of double teams. He had four tackles, 1.5 sacks, and broke up a pass, all while being the main focus of the opposing offensive line, putting the rush in Rushmen.
Sweater Vest Award: Everyone’s favorite field (and bottle) flipper; Drue Chrisman. Just another day at the office for maybe the best punter in America. Four punts for 175 yards, an average of 43.8 yards per punt, with two inside the 20 yard-line. Every team hates to punt, but when you have to, it’s nice to have one of the best in the nation doing it.
Archie Award: J.K. Dobbins. 105 total yards and a touchdown are all in a day’s work for J.K. Dobbins, but what draws comparisons to Archie Griffin isn’t just the size, style, and class but the humility and being a team first player. Dobbins is in his third year as Ohio State’s starting running back but is on his third different starting quarterback who the Buckeyes are molding their offense around. Dobbins though doesn’t complain, or make waves, he just goes out there and gives a hard-nosed game of running with 100 yards plus and a touchdown. Because that’s how J.K. Dobbins rolls.
Horned Rimmed Glasses Award: Woody would have been happy to see Ohio State get under center with two tight ends in the red zone. As far as my memory goes, it was the first time Ohio State had done that since 2011, and while Woody Hayes would scratch his head at that notion, tell him the 7-0 stat at accompanied it and he wouldn’t argue with the shotgun inside the ten yard line. None the less, the power formation would have made the old man proud.
Bad Coaching Moment of the Game: Taking their foot off the gas. This isn’t to harp on Ryan Day, but he said himself, he wasn’t happy with how after such a hot start the Buckeyes quickly got cold. He did however look to it as something to get after his guys about this week, along with every criticism you can think of the season opener, included getting used to different looks from defenses and bettering their offensive blocking schemes.
Urban Meyer (Good Coaching) Moment of the Game: The pass play of Justin Fields to Binjimen Victor was a staple of the offenses of Urban Meyer and Ryan Day. Fields to Victor looked as good as Barrett to Thomas, Jones to Smith, Braxton to Brown, and Haskins to Dixon. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and don’t stop yourself, make them stop you. The play action froze the defense just long enough for the bomb to go boom.
Glass Half Empty: It was only FAU and after the first half of the 1st quarter Ohio State should have mirrored division foes Maryland and Penn State and scored 70 plus. Even though they aren’t far removed from an 11-win season and have a reasonably high-profile coach and live in the talent rich Sunshine State, they’re still a Conference USA team that Ohio State should have had no trouble with.
Glass Half Full: Other than getting in their own way, they didn’t have trouble with Florida Atlantic. It’s a good game for a first-year head coach and first-year starting quarterback when they win by 24 and the quarterback is responsible for five touchdowns, your running back got 100 total yards and a touchdown, your defense flew to the ball like crazy, and your stellar receivers and special teams just kept on being themselves. Right now, the Buckeyes are exactly who they want to be, and on the track, they want to be on.
2014 Moment: Fields touchdown run was a very good J.T. Barrett impression. Fields didn’t do as many deliberate runs as Barrett, but the scramble is much harder to defend. The explosive play is an important weapon in the arsenal of any good offense and Justin Fields ability to run as well as he throws makes that arsenal all the more deadly.
2002 Moment: Josh Proctor’s interception was easily the best looking defensive play of the game (Though Chase Young beating the double-team for the sack might just be tied with it) and if it didn’t exactly harken back to Doss and Gamble it did remind me of Malik Hooker. Proctor’s closing speed when the ball was in the air and making a good play and catch on it looked like the 2016 all-American.
1968 Moment: Going up 28-0 in the first 8:10 of a football game is something championship caliber teams do. Champions sustain it. The 2019 Buckeyes are a championship caliber team but will have to prove like everyone else that they’re champions. However, they’re off to a good start.
