Skull Session: Ohio State Efficiency Keys Big Win, Mike Weber the Grinder, and Carnage Reports from Norman

By D.J. Byrnes on September 19, 2016 at 4:59 am
Noah Brown Mosses a dude for the September 19th 2016 Skull Session.
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Specific shoutout to the local team we all love to know, The Ohio State University Buckeyes, who did the damn thing Saturday night in Norman, Oklahoma. Few things in life compare to the satisfaction of your team redeeming all of your life's choices.

That game encapsulated the gap between Bob Stoops and Urban Meyer more than Vico's look at the two schools' recent recruiting efforts.

Meyer finally has a roster comprised entirely of his recruits. It shows in Jerome Baker, who replaced an injured Dante Booker and may never give the job back. It shows in Malik Hooker, who will be on an NFL roster next year and only played two years of high school football.

It also shows in Noah Brown, who came into the season with one catch and still might have Oklahoma's pulsating heart in his hands:

Noah Brown da Gawd
Noah Brown powers up against Oklahoma. (Photographer: Kevin Jairaj–USA TODAY Sports)

Oh yeah. that new offensive line is coming together as well:

The craziest thing is Ohio State could've played better and won by more. It's a long way to January, but I'm not sure how a team beats them if the Buckeyes play their best.

ICYMI 11W OKLAHOMA COVERAGE:

 EFFICIENCY RUNS THE DAY. Ohio State dominated Oklahoma in both trenches. It allowed the Buckeyes ruthless scoring efficiency the Sooners couldn't match.

From landgrantholyland.com:

Maybe the single most important statistic from the game was how relatively efficient the two offenses were when they created scoring opportunities. The Ohio State offense averaged 6.33 points every time they had a drive that crossed the Sooners' 40, while the defense held the Sooners to just 3.4 points per scoring opportunity. The Buckeyes were almost twice as efficient with their scoring opportunities.

The defense allowed the Sooners to move the ball -- the total yardage difference was just 443 to 404 in favor of the Buckeyes -- but the young Buckeye defense played an incredible bend-don't-break game by limiting the Sooners to just a 33% red zone touchdown rate. A comparison between the two offenses' red zone touchdown percentages tells the same story as looking at the scoring opportunities -- the Buckeyes weren't able to be slowed down in the red zone.

The reason for the Buckeyes' and Sooners' varying degrees of success with scoring opportunities had a lot to do with how the offenses were built. The two offenses had the same number of explosive plays, but the Buckeyes were notably more efficient than the Sooners. That little bit of inconsistency for the Sooners offense often made them less reliable in the red zone, more dependent on big plays, and with significant third downs. The Sooners were just 5/13 on third downs, likely because they averaged 6.9 yards to go.

It did not feel like the defense gave up over 400 yards, especially considering seven of Oklahoma's points shouldn't have counted.

Also, let this be a warning shot to Ohio State's future opponents: If you regularly end up behind schedule on third down, you're going to have a bad time. 

 WEBER STILL GRINDING. Here's how spoiled OSU fans are when it comes to running backs: Mike Weber went for 128 yards on 18 carries, and we're asking, "Where's that long touchdown run, though?"

It didn't happen against Oklahoma, but it's coming.

From cleveland.com:

Weber finished with a game-high 128 rushing yards on 18 carries, his longest gain went for 35 yards. That's a pretty good run. But because people were so accustomed to seeing Ezekiel Elliott break out for a big hit every now and then, they're expecting the same from Weber.

Weber is expecting them too.

And his performance on Saturday suggested that Weber does in fact have the skill set to get some long scoring runs. He showed good vision against a stout Oklahoma run defense that hadn't let anyone go for 100 yards on them coming into Saturday.

I don't have a problem with lack of explosive runs because running through faces for four quarters is an equally effective offensive weapon. Plus, Weber has nice feet when in traffic. He got the memo about pass blocking, too.

He has also come within a few shoe-string tackles of breaking some big runs. Those aren't going to stop him forever.

 CARNAGE REPORTS FROM NORMAN. Props to Oklahoma fans. I only read positive things about them this weekend, which is hard to pull off in the 21st century when a foreign horde of beer-swilling barbarians ransack your city and stadium.


Hopefully, we return the hospitality in Columbus next year.

And as much as your team winning aligns your soul with the universe, your team getting scrubbed calls everything into question.

Will the local team ever win again? Should I have taken my education more seriously? Would homelessness be that bad, actually? Those are some of the questions that creep into my mind when Ohio State loses.

Thankfully, we dodged death for another two weeks. For those touched by the Reaper, we go live to the smoldering ashes of Norman.

From 247sports.com:

The Oklahoma Sooners essentially eliminated themselves from College Football Playoff contention after an absolute beat-down at the hands of the Ohio State Buckeyes Saturday night in front of 87,000+ people. OU was simply outclassed in a performance that surely Sooner fans would soon rather forget. Especially since they paid to watch it live. The downpour before kickoff that delayed the game was seemingly the perfect metaphor for the state of Oklahoma's season. Bob Stoops and company are totally underwater. It's as if Houston was the watchmen yelling "iceberg ahead!" and Ohio State was the iceberg, ultimately dooming Oklahoma's title hopes again.

GRADE: F

Woo! Sooner fans now homeless because they bet the mortgage will stay warm off that #take until the New Year.

Former Sooner DB Zack Sanchez weighed in during the immediate aftermath:

Could you imagine Bradley Roby calling out the current team for lack of leadership? Neither can I. That's the Meyer difference.

 THINGS GOING WELL IN SOUTH BEND. Famed mustachioed Michigan State coach Mike D'antoni whipped a rental car to South Bend, Indiana on Saturday and hit Brian Kelly in the back of a head with a brick. 

Kelly woke up shirtless in a ditch carrying $10,000 of fraudulent credit card debt with his shoes strung around a power line. 

And whoever controls Kelly's Twitter account either made a mistake or is fed up:

The Irish still play Stanford, Miami, Navy, USC and Virginia Tech. Look for Kelly to pull that NFL ripcord this winter after he loses two more games. 

And please put this on my tombstone: Notre Dame will never win another title.

 WHY NOT? It's officially a bye week, which means it's appropriate to revel in a big win.

Here are choice cuts from Saturday night's banger:


Buckeyes to the Super Bowl. You heard it here first.

 THOSE WMDs. The falling man... The speakeasy underworld of the dog bar... 6,000-year-old fabric reveals Peruvians were dyeing textiles with indigo long before Egyptians... Why fidgeting is good medicine... The book of my enemy has been remaindered... God bless the Hess family.

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A Year Without Winter

Mar 7, 2024; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day watches players run during spring football practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

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J.K. Dobbins
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