As you know from my writing, everything starts and ends with TP.  Our paradox of savior and nemesis appeared to be the former in this game.  I remain skeptical that he has improved enough to take us to the Natty.  As always, there were some nice throws where only the receiver could get it and there were some "what the hell is he thinking"  throws to keep you worried.  This night the nice plays outweighed the bad by far.  Unfortunately, Pryor had all night to throw the ball (with the exception of one play where he was forced to throw off balance into coverage) and wasn't really tested.  It's that one play which keeps one worried.  He will have pressure next week and will need to make quick decisons and that is his one major weakness.  The Miami dbacks are one of their weaknesses, so maybe he'll have a repeat of the Rose Bowl.   I still don't see the progression from last year where he's shown he is Heisman caliber.  Hopefully, we'll see this moving forward.

Saine does look like he earned the title of starter and showed his speed as being difficult to handle in the open field.  He definitely doesn't have the size to bruise or show he can "make holes", but his speed makes up for it when he has an open hole.  I was also impressed with Berry, he showed both speed and "hole making" ability and it will be interesting to see how he much playing time he gets moving forward. 

The Oline looks much better this year compared to last year's opener.  It's hard to tell if this is related to the quality of the opponent or is true improvement.  This should be one of our better lines in years with many new faces added.

The only two issues I have with the defense are lack of pressure on the QB and apparent holes deep in the middle of the field.  I know Marshall had a quick strike offense, so that probably offset the apparent lack of pressure by our D line.  Getting Nathan Williams back should improve our pressure and depth on the line.  Our starting safeties allowed a lot of crossing patterns to work for large gains and that has to be a concern for the defense moving forward.  Tyler Moeller is a linebacker playing safety and looks like a beast. 

Everything still hinges on TP's performance.  Saine still doesn't look like a back who can take over a game and the only way to get the ball to our very talented receiving corp is through Pryor.  Maybe down the road Berry will develop into something special, but it wouldn't be till much later this year or next.  I am still more than a little worried about the safetys and hope they'll be able to produce some INTs next week against UM.  For the 4th year in a row,  our Natty chances rest on our performance in the 2nd game of the year.  I was very pleasantly surprised by our defensive play last year against SC and UM isn't SC.  Everything really rests on whether Pryor lays an egg again in a big game.

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Both the offensive and defensive lines didn't show up to play.   In the last 2 National Championship games you can contribute our loses to poor perfomances by the OLine in particular.   They looked slow and unprepared for each of these games.   I somehow convinced myself that this year would be different.   We would work in the offseason to improve speed and strength.   It was like I awoke form a long sleep last Saturday and found myself thinking the same thing I thought for the last 2 January's...   Our OLine didn't start to block it seemed until late in the 3rd quarter.   With this kind of perfomance, I'd be inclined to let Shugarts, Brewster and Adams start getting their reps.   These guys were highly recruited and our the future of our OLine.   Anything has to be better then the uninspired play of these guys.  In addition, we have lost how many defensive coordinators since Tressel took over?   I've lost count, but we have had the same Offensive coordinator/ OLine coach since day 1, Jim Bollman.   I have been uninspired by any of the OLine we've had in the Tressel era.  Guys we are supposed to be playing cupcakes this time of year, not eating them.

The DLine didn't help any either.   We weren't getting any penetration into the pocket and we didn't collapse the pocket.  Instead there were many plays were Boo was able to get outside of the pocket and outrun our ends.   Let's remember this guy was the backup QB for Ohio, not the starter.  We have so many problems with a spread offense, it is scary.  By the way, the team up North just went to a spread offense.   We better get ready to see this the rest of the year because it seems to be a blueprint for victory against our Defense.   There were also many mis-tackles across the board on the Defensive side of things.  The play just looked unispired at times.

What us wrong with the running game (besides the obvious lack of effort from the OLine)?   I thought prior to the beginning of the season that we were finally 4 deep at running back.   We look like we are woefully one deep and he's got a sprained toe.   These other RBs were all highly recruited and would allegedly be starters on any other team in the country.   I realize Saine is still coming back from a hamstring pull (and he was moving tacklers), but the other backs were unimpressive.   Maurice Wells still falls down whenever someone is close to touching him.   The problem is he doesn't have any finesse to make up for it.   Herron looks like he can move some piles, but I haven't seen too much more out of him in the moves department.  

This brings us to Boeckman.   He was supposed to be improved in the "let's not throw it deep every time department."  I really saw a regression to the old "look and throw deep"  attitude he had.   If all of our receivers were covered on all those pass plays then we are in loads of trouble.  The USC DBs are even better than our DBs.   I really wish Boeckman would check down and get some throws to our TEs.  

There was really one bright spot in this pathetic performance.   Ray Small had a great game.   He appears to finally getting out of Tressel's doghouse.   Ted Ginn Sr said that coming out of high school he thought Ray Small was just as fast as his son.   We haven't seen this yeat, but hopefully we will soon.   We desperately need a deep ball threat.  Robo and Hartline demonstrated again that they aren't barn burners.

I do have to question why none of the supposed team leaders have stepped up and taken responsibility for this loss.   Tressel has said that this year he is leaving the motivation up to the seniors on the team.   The only player to really step up and discuss his reaction is Hartline.  He also described the perfomance as pathetic.

I am expecting another embarrassment for us on Saturday night.   I am getting ready to assume the fetal position once again.  The USC Defense will be the best defense we see all year.  Based upon our performance last week you would have thought Ohio was the best D in the country.   The USC offense will also be the best we see all year.   I feel the only way for us to stand a chance is for the best 2 players on the field to play.   We need both Beanie Wells and Terrelle Pryor to play.  We need their explosiveness to beat SC.   I just don't see it happening.  I'll be watching and hoping for the best.

As an aside, I was watching the UF/UM game last Saturday night.   UF had the game in the bag with 3 minutes to go.   They were up by > 2 scores and Urban Meyer chose to try and score a touchdown and run up the score.   He ended up kicking a field goal, bu the point is it was unnecessary to score again.   I truly hope that what goes around comes around for Urban Meyer.

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Here are my top things to watch (in no particularly order):

1.) Beanie Wells at 100%. After much stalling from Tressel, the word on the grapevine (from Beanie's mom), is that he had turf toe.   At first glance, one would conclude that this would be a season ending injury for Beanie.   But after googling turf toe, I learned that there are 3 degrees of this particular injury.  In the case of a first degree turf toe, X-rays are negative and one needs to immobilize the toe with a boot.  The injury is minor and one can recover from it at their own pace.   This most certainly seems to be what happened to Beanie based upon everything we've been hearing.   In the 2nd and 3rd degree cases, one has partially or fully torn ligaments on the big toe.  They wouldn't be able to walk without crutches and something would show up on X-rays.   Given that Beanie has been reported as walking without his cast as early as today.   I think everything will be OK.

That in mind, it may be a good idea to sit him for this next game.  That was a scary situation for all Buckeye Faithful!   Herron looked good in his backup role and InSaine was still nursing a sore hamstring.   Maurice Wells had some nifty runs mainly as a decoy for Pryor, which I thought went really well.  I expected more of a Pryor/InSaine interaction, but this will do.

2) Don't Bend It Like Boeckman. Early on in the game, I felt Boeckman was checking down and hitting his underneath receivers.  I got the sense that later in the game he started to force the old deep ball down the middle of the field.  While this technique will work most of the time against lesser opponents, if he tries this against USC, he will get burned.  They will have the best D we face all year and have an even better secondary then we do.

To make matters worse, the P factor looked great for a freshman debut and I know for sure that there is a large OSU contingency already calling for Boeckman to step down.   I still think mixing Pryor in for few series/game is the best option we have right now.

3. Who'll emerge as the next deep pass threat? Hartline looked even better then last year.   He is definitely our clutch receiver.   Everything sticks to him.   Robo was brilliant down the line as well.  From what Small and Posey showed, I think we have answered our deep ball threat question.   Posey had some nice catches and moves which distinguish him from the other receivers.  He'll be an excellent target for Pryor moving forward.

4. Will the D line step it up? Can't say anything bad about the Defenses performance.   They seemed more focus then last year.   Wilson was a menace coming around from the outside and YSU was stymied all day.   Pretty nice considering we were short on DB's.

5. The P factor. My first impression of Pryor was "Wow he is special".   He audibled out of his first snap and just showed tremendous poise.   If he was nervous or doubting what to do, he never showed it.   He made moving with the ball look effortless and dragged defenders trying to tackle him.   We didn't really get to see him throw the deep ball and he doesn't seem to have much of a touch with the ball.  This may change, but I feel he needs s few more snaps before denoting him to first string.   Bottom line is that he has to be in a few series per game.  We will need both him and Beanie on the field for the SC game.  They will be the best 2 athletes from either team on the field by far.

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