Buckeye Outpost » Dominating Performance

Is All Right in Buckeye World?

swjessen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:26:08 +0000

If you had asked me to predict the outcome of last weeks game, I would have not said it would be a dominating performance. I would have believed a tight game with either team squeaking out a win. The fact that we dominated PSU on both sides of the ball was shocking (and most welcome) to say the least!

One has got to ask, who is this offensive line which showed and dominated a PSU Dline with 5-6 NFL caliber players? More importantly, where has this line been all year and will the come back to play again this year? Pryor also showed restraint in his decision making and didn't put us in danger to lose the game.

Heyward treated the PSU Oline like ragdolls for the entire game. They couldn't get any rhythm established. The secondary (especially Chekwa) held everyone in place.

Really there are no complaints about this outstanding effort. The only issues come after the game. Pryor was a little too smug in the post game interview. Sure a little cockiness is good in a QB, but a) he hasn't earned it and b) he is way too full of himself. We won the game partly because he played within himself and partly because there wasn't tremendous pressure on him the whole game. Before we get carried away with ourselves, let us remember we have been way too inconsistent on offense to allow ourselves to think we have arrived. Just like in the Purdue game, we can have ups and downs through the course of the season. Last time I checked, Iowa still has their defense intact and 4 turnovers from one cocky QB could end another day for us. In addition, UM isn't a cake walk, as it is a rivalry game and will be desperation for RichRod who will be trying to save his job.

Sure, we may have gotten back on the track to our winning ways, but the verdict is still out whether we have twisted the Ginn...

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Where has this been all Year?

swjessen — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:20:23 +0000

Wow, what a nice game played by the Buckeyes! All I can think is where the heck has this been all year?

Granted it was against Northwestern, but they were a top 25 team. Northwestern tried initially to do the same thing that Penn State did to us which was make Pryor beat you with the pass. However, this time he delivered some incredible passes showing how much of a dual threat he is. Could it be that Pryor is just now getting acclamated to the college game or just that Tressel decided that we had nothing to lose and just let it all hang out. Either way the results were impressive.

The O Line played pretty well, but again there weren't huge holes for Wells to run through. This week, though, Wells created something out of nothing. Where was that against Penn State as well? There were enough incredible plays between Wells and Pryor that I left the game scratching my head.... what could we have been if these two played like this the earlier part of the year?

The Defense had some issues with the mobile QB, but it still was a dominating performance.

Way too many personal fouls by seniors who should have known better. I guess they needed to vent their frustration?!?

All in all, we still have a shot at the Big Ten title thanks to Iowa and a shot at a BCS bid.

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Buckeyes are Showing Signs of Life

swjessen — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:50:28 +0000

By far this was the best game the team played all year.   We had rhythm on offense and were dominant on defense. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by our performance.   This by all appearances was the team we were supposed to have this year.
Pryor and Wells were impressive on offense.   They seemed to be in a better rhythm then when we saw them against Purdue.   The same play which burned us last year against Illinois seems to be our new bread and butter for Pryor/Wells combo.   Pryor has the option to hand the ball off to a cutting Wells or he can fake the opposite direction from Wells.   Pryor can then choose to run it himself or dump it to a short receiver.   It juked the MSU defense for most of the game. I expect we'll see this against PSU. Another encouraging sign happened early in the game when Wells reversed field and was running for a first down.   Pryor saw what he was doing and opted to block for him completing knocking the DB he was blocking on his back.   This kind of effort from a quarterback will go a long way with both sides of the ball and shows what type of player Pryor is.   I also have to mention the array of stiff arms that both Pryor and Wells displayed on Saturday.   I still don't think there's a defense that can stop these two (except of course what goes on in Terrelle's head).
The offense line seemed to finally be playing well together.   I had thought that Brewster was out for the game, but saw he had the start at center.   My rule of thumb is that I have to see something occur three times in a row for it to be legitimate, so we still have 2 more games to see if this is a trend or just a fluke.
The defense had another dominating performance.   Lauranitis was everywhere and played like the dominant player we expect him to be.   This was mainly due to the penetration the D line was able to get in the backfield.   Again, the jury is still out on the D line.   One more solid performance and we can say things are finally clicking for this group.   Jenkins and Chekwa had excellent games as well. I just hope that Chekwa is back for next week's matchup.
PSU's strength is both of their lines and their receiving corp.   They just wear teams down by the second half and dominat in the final 2 quarters.   We always match up well with PSU and this year will be no exception.   I feel that the last 2 years the main difference was quarterback play.   We could always count on Morelli to do something incredibly stupid to help us win the game.   This year we don't have that luxury.   Daryll Clark is a smart QB and rarely makes mistakes.   At the same time, I don't think PSU has seen a strong defense all year, so pressuring Clark is key to victory here.   Their receiving corp is very fast, so we'll have our hands full guarding them.   Again, this game comes down to the trenches.   Whichever team controls the trenches, will win this game.
I am really hoping that a trend is established in this game on both defense and offense which will propel us for the rest of the year.

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