PSU was just demolished by USC in the Rose Bowl a few moments ago.   The alleged second best Bowl Game was a joke.   SC showed itself to be the best team in the country.   I don't think anyone out ther could have beat them today.  Shocking that Oregon State was able to pull it off.   In general, the PAC 10 is looking stronger than expected.

Big12 has been struggling so far and it just appears that nobody in the Big12 can play any defense.   With each Big10 team playing tough in the other Bowl games, I still see Ohio State as an excellent matchup with Texas.   I have a feeling that if we can punch them hard with our "D", the game will work itself out for us.   The Defense has been playing well of late.  

Rumor has it that both Boeckman and Pryor will be in the backfield at the same time.  That should be enough to throw any Defense off tilt.  Considering Boeckman plays well with Robo and Hartline and Pryor has eyes for Sanzenbacher, somebody should be open.   A nearly healthy Wells will add to the confusion.

I envision another close low scoring contest here.   I've been watching the Big12 all year and they just don't play defense.

I just don't see Chohklahoma doing well against Florida, meaning we are stuck with that arrogant son of a gun Urban Meyer winning it again.  This will also leave us with the UT/OSU Bowl game as the best one of the season.  Hopefully we break this 2 year drought of not showing up for the bowl game.

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This was a  quality victory over a good Wisconsin opponent and goes some way to regaining some respect nationally.  Most pundits had Wisconsin as being the team to beat in the Big 10.   Of course, Penn State is now the national media darling (more on that later).   In spite of this victory, there still remains a few glaring issues which will keep us from reaching and/or winning the National Championship.

Pryor is the real deal.   He has so much upside, its scary.   The poise he showed in crunch time showed should send fear to the rest of the Big 10.   He is a freshman after all.   Granted he made some mistakes, but the fact he drove us down the field with the game on the line and won it on the road in Wisconsin  is quite impressive. 

Seeing Beanie run as he did is quite encouraging as well.   One does have to worry about his overall health.  He does seem to get beat up and have to play through a lot of pain.

The offensive line played better than I have seen them play all year.   Still not as dominate as they should be, but better.   That in itself is encouraging and hopefully the trend will continue.

Our main problem is the lack of a D line.   They haven't shown any improvement and seem to be dominated by whomever we are playing.   The line was a sieve through most of the game, allowing Wisconsin to move the ball at will.   We won't stand a chance against a better team (such as Penn State) or any of the top 5 teams in the country.   It appears that Gholstein was much more of an impact then we gave him credit.   Wilson was supposed to be a worthy replacement, but hasn't seem to fill the role yet.

In addition, our receiving corp is average at best without a true burner.   We have our great route runners (Robo and Hartline) and our clutch guy (Hartline), but no speedster to clear the DB's.   In every game, the opposing DB's seem to have no problem staying step for step with our guys.  

I just don't see us being able to keep pace with a top team.   It appears more and more that the media has been correct in their assessment of the Big 10 being down the last few years and that OSU have been the recipients of this down time.   Some people have said this is the best team Tressel has ever had, but it appears more and more that the 2002 team may be his best team.   We just seem to be missing the hunger that that team had back then.

With any luck, Penn State will stay undefeated and we can secure a victory over them.   The national media absolutely loves this team and beating them would definitely restore us to some prominence.   It probably won't be enough for this year, but at least get us going in the rght direction.

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