Buckeye Outpost

It really seems like last Fall when expectations were so high for the Buckeyes and everyone was convinced that Terrelle Pryor had progressed over the offseason to become that special player everyone thinks he is.  We thought that Tressel could work his magic like he did with Troy Smith and we'd all be toasting another Natty.  We quickly learned that Pryor had regressed and appeared robotic and clouded with too much thought in both the USC and Purdue games.  The national media all cites the "special" performance Pryor had in the Rose Bowl and how that can only bring him to greener pastures this year.  Unfortunately, it may have all gone to his head (as it did last year).  Read my last posting, if you want my impressions on the Rose Bowl.  It looks like there's too much hype again this year behind Pryor.

That said, this year's team my actually be slightly worse then last year's.  We've lost defensive linemen as well as our safeties.  Our receiving corp is depleted with the surprising losses of Carter and Thomas and our running game has depth, but no special backs.  The strength of the team will remain the defense and all of our hopes on offense lie with Pryor.

The problem and solution is that all of our hopes lie in the mind and ability of Pryor.   I'm guessing that we lose one game this year because of lack of discipline on offense.  He'll have another Purdue game and, since our backs are average, we'll have no one to bail him out on offense.  Therein lies the problem when all of our offense really keys on Pryor.  

There does appear to be some encouraging (or discouraging) news in the announced two deeps for Thursday night's game.  Many freshman are showing up.  This bodes well for our future, but doesn't say much for some of our middle classmen. 

In any event, my gues is we go 11-1 (with a silly loss to someone like Purdue) and are on the outside looking in again on the Natty.  I also think Pryor will have another disappointing season making him one of the biggest busts in OSU history.  Here's hoping I'll be eating some crow in 4 months....

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Tags: Announcements by swjessen
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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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Technorati Tags: Cake Walk, Caliber Players, Cockiness, Desperation, Dline, Dominating Performance, Ginn, Offensive Line, Oline, Post Game Interview, Purdue Game, Qb, Ragdolls, Rivalry Game, Tight Game, Turnovers, Ups, Ups And Downs, Weeks Game, Winning Ways

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