The game against Illinois was impressive because of two items:  the shutout on the defensive side and the apparent emergence of a running game with excellent blocking by the offensive line.  Prior to the start of the season, pundits were citing the explosiveness of the Illinois offense and how they could be the sleeper team in the Big 10.  They were a sleeper team, the played like they were asleep.  I think the overall performance was more indicative of the play of an obviously lost team.  They played mistake proned uninspired ball on both sides. 

If the defense continues to play as it has,  we have a chance of going far for the rest of the season and actually making a BCS bowl as Big Ten Champions.  If the offensive line continues to block as it did last weekend, we could make a lot of noise nationally.   There were a lot of good things that happened especially considering everyone in the stadium knew we were going to run the ball in that inclimate weather and Illinois couldn't stop us from doing it.  The execution was there even if it probably had more to do with Illinois not showing up to play.  Pryor did what he had to in those conditions and didn't make too many mistakes.  It was a good building opportunity for his confidence.

In mainstream TV, a colloquialism has been coined, "jump the shark",  when a TV series has some event which occurs where the show loses its novelty or intrigue and takes a turn for the worse never to be the same.  It was originally coined in reference to the Happy Days episode where Fonze jumped a shark while on water skis (www.jumptheshark.com).  Happy Days was never the same again.

I really have begun to wonder  whether OSU football is past it prime and we have "jumped the shark" and taken a turn for the worse?  Prior to the 2OT victory over Miami for the National Championship in 2002,  I never dreamed of going to the Natty.  My main concern was winning the Big 10 and beating Michigan.  I was content with the latter more then the former.  I guess all those years of being really really good under Cooper only to have it viciously taken away from me at the hands of UM jaded me into this.  Even going into the National Championship Game, I was convinced we didn't stand a chance and was content with the victory over hated UM.  When we won the Natty in the fashion that we did, it awoke something more monstrous in me, a will to win it every year.  That became the expectation especially considering Tress' great success over UM.  We need to keep it in perspective on how hard it is to actually make it to the National Championship and how special it is that we are winning as many games/year as we are.   The novelty of getting there and enjoying has rubbed off for most fans (including myself) and we need to realize what we have at this moment since we may not have it any longer.

As far as the point where we "jumped the shark", it has to be immediately after that touchdown run of Ted Ginn's in the National Championship game against Florida in 2007 where he was jumped on by a teammate and twisted his ankle while celebrating his score, we basically "twisted the Ginn".  Up to that point, OSU football was respected, expected and did win.  Tressel was the "best big game" coach in the country.   OSU fans were in seventh heaven and expected this year in and year out.  Six more big game losses to top 5 opponents and we are not the same by any means.  Nationally the Big 10 is the laughing stock of all college football and Tress is under fire because of his ultraconservative ways.   The program appears to be on the decline and is at greater risk of being canceled.  For now, suffice it say we've twisted the Ginn.

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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.

Technorati Tags: Clutch, Crunch Time, D Line, Freshman, Hartline, Hasn, Media Darling, National Championship, Offensive Line, Opponent, Penn State, Poise, Pundits, Real Deal, Runners, Sieve, Speedster, Spite, Wit, Worthy Replacement

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!

Technorati Tags: 3 Years, Abysmal Performance, Bad Decisions, Boeckman, Buckeyes, Critical Times, Ears, Game Plan, Games, Heacock, Losses, National Bias, National Championship, Presence, Qb, Soap Opera, Stupid Mistakes, Td, Time Adjustments

Yes folks you've seen the heading correctly, the Buckeyes are Champions again! Crown them now!   We are the MAC Champions!   There is no other word to describe the performance we saw on Saturday except pathetic.   I would excuse this performance if this was the first game of the year, but we looked real good last week against Youngstown State.   I am reluctantly given into the National Consensus that the Big 10 is nothing but a glorified version of the MAC.   Living in Texas, I am constantly bombarded with our lack of performance in the Big games.   How do we contribute the cause for this collapse?

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.

Technorati Tags: 3rd Quarter, Big Games, Buckeye Football, Championship Games, Defensive Coordinators, Dline, First Game, Football Championship, Game Of The Year, Last Saturday, Long Sleep, Mac Champions, National Championship, National Consensus, Offensive Coordinator, Offseason, Oline, Shugarts, Thinking The Same Thing, Youngstown State

This first game had all the makings of a tune up to get ready for the Big Game on Sept 13th.   And overall it was a success, if not for the injury to Beanie Wells.   The Beanie watch is still ongoing, but I think we have a much clearer picture.   Let's recap our 5 keys to a successful National Championship Run and how they panned out in the first game.

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.

Technorati Tags: Backup Role, Beanie Mom, Big Game, Big Toe, Crutches, Decoy, First Degree, First Game, First Glance, Grapevine, Herron, Interaction, Maurice Wells, National Championship, Own Pace, Receivers, Scary Situation, Torn Ligaments, Turf Toe, X Rays

After what many will call two disappointing losses in consecutive National Championship games, we are set to begin another season. Fortunately, we loss few people to the NFL draft. I am anxiously waiting to see the team get out and play and even more anxious about the upcoming USC game. Here are my top things to watch (in no particularly order): 1.) Beanie Wells at 100%. Coaches have been saying that at times last year he was playing only at 70% health. I shutter to think what he'll be like running completely healthy. It'll also be great to have InSaine thrown into the mix as a nice change up. Hopefully Mo Wells will stop falling down as soon as someone touches him. 2) Don't Bend It Like Boeckman. It seemed late in the season that Boeckman forced the ball into the middle of the field into double coverage. That burned us quite a bit. I remember hearing him say that it's the receiver's job to come down with the ball in those situations. Not only does that throw another player under the bus, there's no ownership on Boeckman's part. What about checking down to someone else? How does this make Boeckman a leader to follow? I really hope that he's been working on his technique for these situations. From what I hear about the Spring game, he was making the same mistakes... If he hasn't improved, there'll be way too much pressure to throw Joe Bauserman or Terrelle Pryor into the mix. 3. Who'll emerge as the next deep pass threat? I love Robo and Hartline. They are both quality possession receivers. I do seem to remember though that they weren't exactly burning the LSU DB's. We really needed Small to step up last year. Hopefully this year, Small, Sanzenbacher and/or Devier Posey will step up as legit deep ball receivers. This will only make Robo and Hartline so much better. 4. Will the D line step it up? Yes, we had the best defense in the country last year, but the interior of the D Line seemed to not be penetrating and/or forcing turnovers. We have the same group returning this year and hopefully, with experience, we'll have improved play by this bunch. The rest of the defense is scary good (provided the DB's stay out of trouble). I really believe one of the keys to beating the likes of USC this year is to pressure their inexperienced backfield. If we can disrupt the USC backfield enough, that'll keep it out of the hands of their WRs. 5. The P factor. Terrelle Pryor is the 3rd McDonalds All American we've recruited in the last 5 years. The other 2 have helped the team immediately upon joining: Ted Ginn and Beanie Wells. Will Terrelle have immediate success? Or will he follow the path of say Ron Curry at UNC? We had some explosiveness when InSaine joined the team, imagine what havoc Terrelle would wreak in the red zone if he can add immediate help. I just saw posted that the initial assessment on Pryor is that he looks similar to the pre-Heisman Troy Smith, eager to run first. He has however done some unbelievable stuff within practice... we won't know until we see him in one of these earlier games.

Technorati Tags: Backup Role, Big Game, Big Toe, Championship Games, Consecutive National Championship, Crutches, D Line, Decoy, Devier Posey, Double Coverage, First Degree, First Game, First Glance, Game 1, Grapevine, Hasn, Health, Herron, Interaction, Job, Joe Bauserman, Losses, Lsu, Maurice Wells, National Championship, Nfl Draft, Own Pace, Possession, Receivers, Scary Situation, Shutter, Spring Game, Terrelle Pryor, Torn Ligaments, Turf Toe, Usc Game, X Rays