Buckeye Outpost

Well folks, it wasn't pretty by any means. From the get go, we were in trouble and before you knew it we were down 21-0 and reeling from the beating we were taken by UW. Herein lies the problem with Tressel ball, it isn't designed to overcome huge deficits. It's predicated on defense and special teams and we had neither last Saturday.

I was surprised by 2 items: how poorly the defense played and how well the offensive line run blocked. You've heard me harping all year about our lack of a push off the offensive line. It appeared that the Oline finally received the memo and started to make some holes. Of course, we didn't establish this until the second half and we had to abandon it to try and score some points.

The inability to score on our two opportunities in the first half doomed us. If you intercept a pass in the opponents territory and you are down by 3 scores, you have to capitalize on it. that right there probably sealed the game for us.

The defense flat out got whipped by Wisconsin. They were knocking our highly rated Dline on their collective asses. If you think about it, they have neither played or practiced against an Oline that can run block. Day in and day out they face our Oline which can only pass block. This causes complacency. Our Dline just was in no way prepared to handle this onslaught.

Any chance of a National Championship showing are gone. The best we can hope for is a Big 10 title at this point. We have to wait and see how things fall with MSU, Iowa and Wisconsin. Based on what we've seen, we were never a number 1 team to begin.

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Tags: Announcements by swjessen
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Well folks it's do or die time for the 2010 Buckeyes!  We are #1 heading into Camp Randall for a night game against a pretty good Wisconsin team.  This has all the makings for a dissapointment.  I don't mind being #1, but we just aren't playing like a #1 team and that can mean a lot of trouble.

Face it, we are a passing team.  I think the UI game was Pryor's best performance.  Granted he could have read a book with all the time to throw, but he made some nice decisions, didn't have to scramble and was very efficient.  Most importantly, he didn't need to use his legs to win the game.  Look for him to have to do that to beat UW this weekend. 

This is the time of the year when Tress usually starts to adapt his teams to their yearly strengths.  It's obvious that he has become pass oriented.  He's found a way to utilize Saine as a receiver and it just creates nightmares for opposing defenses.  He's also looking to get Boren and the tightend more into the game.   When Stoneburner returns, it should pay dividends.  Our Oline is far better at moving back for pass blocking then for pushing off the line of scrimmage.  I still think you can't win a Natty without a running game (or win the Big10) and it's going to bite us sooner or later. 

Our defense shut down a really good UI offense.  The corner were especially impressive as they UI aerial attack is one of the best in the country (to date).  You just get the feeling that it's going to be hard to score on them.  They are still weak in the middle of the field, so we can't get too confident.

I'm looking at this Saturday as defing the rest of the season for us.  I don't know if we have enough on Offense to win this game, as UW will look to dominate the time of possession with their running game.   I expect this to be a low scoring affair.  Special team play may kill us this weekend, so pray for no let downs.

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Yup, you heard me Pryor should be the league MVP.  If they actually awarded that honor, I think everyone would agree that no one player is as valuable to his team as Pryor.  This was painfully evident last weekend when he left the game.  The entire offense came to a grinding halt.  The already nonexistent running attack was feeble (until the end of the game) and Bauserman left little doubt who the number one QB on the team is.  Even hobbled, Pryor was better then Bauserman.  That said, Pryor is not a Heisman trophy candidate by any stretch.  He is still far too rough to be considered the best player in college football.  I wouldn't even have him in the top 10.

There was a glimmer of hope when midway through the 4th quarter the offensive line and Heron started to take over the game.  He was gashing the Illini defense for 10 yard carries right down to the goal line.  The best part was that everyone in the stadium knew we were going to run it because Pryor could barely walk and they couldn't stop us.  Maybe, just maybe this is the wakeup call the Oline has needed or maybe Illinois was that bad.  We have one game and one game only to get this worked out before we hit Wisconsin, who is going to be pretty pumped since they lost to MSU.  On this note, it is time for me to make my yearly proclamation:  Fire Bollman, please.  This guy has got to be the worse Oline coach ever and he somehow stays on year after year and gets raises to boot.  All he has ever brought to this team is underachievement of what should be a very good Oline. 

We need to start being very concerned about our safeties.  The loss of Moeller is huge.  He already loss Barnett and now add Moeller to the list and we are thin and inexperienced at this position.  Look for teams to start exploiting this in the very near future.  If there is a weakness on this defense, it'll be in the middle of the field.

Not seeing much improvement on kick coverages.  This has almost bitten us in the past and looks like it'll bite us hard in the future.   You can't win championships, if you can't cover kicks and run the ball.

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Technorati Tags: 4th Quarter, Barnett, Best Player, Coach, College Football, Doubt, Glimmer Of Hope, Goal Line, Grinding Halt, Heisman Trophy Candidate, Heron, League Mvp, Moeller, Offensive Line, Oline, Qb, Running Attack, Safeties, Wakeup Call, Yup

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