Well we survived a potential let down after last week's heart breaking loss.  This game provided just about everything we needed to help us feel better about the Buckeyes for this year.  Terrelle Pryor had some shaky decision making but in the end had the type of game we were hoping to see every week.  The Defense was spectacular and actually made some stops when it mattered.  Unfortunately, the running game isn't there again this year.

I'll start with the Defense, since that is the easiest to cover.   They were flying all over the place and really dominated a very good Toledo offense.  The Toledo QB couldn't get any rhythm and their running game was nonexistent.   Overall, I've been really impressed with the play of our corners over the last few games.  They performed much better then I expected.  The D line is ferocious this year and I retract any earlier comments about them being a weakness.

It's broken record time.  Our offensive line is yet again offensive.  We have let inferior teams D line push us around.  We have no game up the middle and we lack a decent running back to compensate for this atrocity.  This seems to be a staple for any Tressel team I can think of in years past.  The only logical solution is to lose Bollman.   This guy is worthless and Tress has to get rid of him.  We have recruited some of the best O linemen in the country the last few years and have nothing to show for it.    There is no reason why we shoiuld be performing so poorly on offense other then we do not have a good ground attack and it starts at the the point of attack.  Even supposedly revamped this year and leaner and meaner we seem to be same old same old.

Pryor seemed shaky in his decision making until he finally tucked it and ran it for 44 yards in the 3rd quarter.  I think that really enabled him to take control of the offense and make better decisions.  This game had to be a confidence builder for him and hopefully he can blossom from it.   I still think he is thinking too much and needs to just relax.

Bottom line is we will not win any championships until we have a balanced offense.  Pryor has shown he can not shoulder the responsibility for winning games for us.  We are basically a one dimensional team with some "X" dimension sprinkled in.  We can pass the ball and have that Pryor "X" dimension for when things breakdown.  Until we can establish a running attack which starts with the O line, we will be beatable by teams with disciplined defenses because they just need to shut Pryor down and get in his head.    Unfortunately, I will probably be cutting and pasting this last paragraph for each of my posts for the rest of the year.  In fact I've probably already been doing this as this is a broken record.

Illinois always gives us fits and as long as Ben  and Juice are healthy we could be in for a long day on Saturday.  Illinois had a bye week, so they'll be ready to give us something special.  Hopefully the Troy Smith version of Pryor shows up and not the Steve Bellisari version.

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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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I've been reluctant to blog anything after last week's abysmal performance.   Many questions have now been answered for us concerning this years team.   This game was like the other 2 National Championship losses.   We don't have our explosive player, we make stupid mistakes, both our Lines don't show up to play and our QB performs poorly.

Beanie Wells was all we had going for us coming into this game.   While I believe he wouldn't have made a difference, just his presence would have helped to keep them honest on the defensive side.  The whole soap opera before the game really helped to pin USC's ears back and drill us.

While it appeared that at least the officials were making bad calls equally between the 2 teams, out penalties always appeared at critical times.   Just scoring an initial TD would have lifted the team.

Face it our lines on both sides of the ball have let us down the last 3 years.   We've looked slow and overpowered in each of these 3 games.   I strongly think we need to make some changes in the line.  

Boeckman looked out of place the entire game.   He is definitely a pocket passer and looked awkward and confused when moving out of the pocket.   Sure he made some bad decisions, but it wasn't like he had anytime to throw.   Pryor was the better option here because of his elusiveness.   I am amazed at how poised he looks in the pocket and he literally glides when he runs the ball. 

The coaching let us down once again.   I remember when we first got Tressel, i was so relieved to see half time adjustments on both sides of the ball.  This is something Cooper couldn't do to save his life.  Now it just seems that Tressel is duped by these other coaches and refuses to change his game plan.   This also goes for Heacock on the Defensive side.   The Oline play disturbs me so much that we really need to make a change on the top.

Now we face a national bias against both the Buckeyes and the Big Ten.   Nearly everyone outside of Big 10 country doesn't even think we belong in a BCS game.   This, of course, is ludicrous.  However, this might as well have been 2 losses for us.   We face an upward battle.

How do we get back into the good graces of the National media?   We have to change something up and be a power house on offense.   We have to be making sick plays which get shown on sports center every week.   We can do this by inserting Pryor, getting Beanie back and shaking up the starters at other positions.   If Pryor looks as good as advertised, there isn't a Defense in the country which could stop a Wells/Pryor backfield.  

I think Tressel has lost this team and needs to re-establish their respect.   Without some swagger, we'll continue to lose the big game.   There is so much talent on this team, we ave to find a way to get back into it.   It's still September, so an awful lot can happen.  

GO Bucks!

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