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....

Technorati Tags: Bigg, Buckeyes, Deeps, Defensive Linemen, Discipline, Freshman, Greener Pastures, Gues, Hype, Impressions, Offseason, Purdue Game, Purdue Games, Rose Bowl, Running Game, Safeties, Terrelle Pryor, Thursday Night, Troy Smith, Usc

Tags: Announcements by swjessen
No Comments »

Don't get me wrong, this victory was definitely redemption for the Buckeye nation. The game was what everyone expected it to be, Oregon's speedy offense versus our dominating defense. The outcome was unexpected (at least by the national media) with both our offense and defense dominating the scene. For most of the game, it appeared that Oregon had the speed everyone talked about. Their return game was impressive, I don't ever remember a Tressel lead team which couldn't cover punt and kick returns as poorly as we did last Friday.   The misdirection plays and end arounds also gave our D some fits, but in the end the complete dominance of our D line shut down the Oregon attack.

Our offense managed to score points thanks to some key plays by Pryor both with his legs and his arms.  I didn't really see Pryor do anything different then he has all year round.  As always, he had one or two nice throws and a lot of not so nice ones.  He went to the run and sometimes managed to get a way and sometimes didn't.  Tress called a nice game and deserves a lot of the credit as well.  The big difference here really wasn't Pryor or Tressel, it was the Oregon D.  They really were undersized and their secondary was sub par.  We really need to keep this in context before we coronate Pryor as a savior.

  The national media did everything in their power to throw their kudos at Pryor and coronate him.  As they were praising him to his face in the post game conference, I was screaming NNNNNOOOOOO!!!! at the TV.  Pryor is animal best not fed.  He now has a whole off season to bask in his glory.  I'm afraid that this will be the end of any hope for a championship in the next two years.  It took Tress 2 years to get Pryor's attention and start to listen and that was all thrown to the wayside last week.  I'm afraid the beast is loose and we may be in some trouble.  It's just my feeling based upon his past performances. 

   I also think there shouldn't be any real comparisons to Vince Young.  Athletically they are similar, and I think Pryor is faster.  The big difference is that Young played loosed, had fun and got his teammates involved.  Pryor plays tight, is very serious and pouty on the sidelines,  and is a complete island.  I don't see him as the typical leader (ala Troy Smith) that everyone will rally for when the chips are down.  This will be the biggest reason why we don't get our ultimate redemption next year (unless of course something changes).

   Finally, don't think for a minute that guys like Heyward, Gibson and Chekwa will stay to win it next year.  Lauranitis and Jenkins showed them that by staying an extra year doesn't mean squat and their draft stock went down quite a bit.  We can all dream that they'll stay, but chances are slim.  Next year's weakness will be Oline, DT and secondary.  There will be a particular problem in the secondary as 3/4 of them will be gone.  If Hines stays (and that is a big if as well), we will fill the void of losing the starters. 

   Enjoy the day!  We have redeemed ourselves somewhat and can look forward to another long offseason.  Talk to you in the Spring!

Technorati Tags: Beast, Complete Dominance, D Line, Face, Game Conference, Kick Returns, Kudos, Last Friday, Lead Team, Legs, Nice Game, Plays, Punt, Redemption, Return Game, Rose Bowl, Rosey, Savior, Speedy, Tress, Victory, Wayside

Tags: Announcements by swjessen
No Comments »

Yet again, the Buckeyes are Big Ten champs.  I really didn't think we would pull it off this year, but we managed to do it!  Now we have the bitter sweet task of dealing with Michigan this week.  While we wait all year for this game, we don't want it to be here because it signals the end of the regular season for us.  As always, this game will be tough (regardless of the records) and shouldn't be taking lightly.  In fact, this whole hub bub about the throw back uniforms is too much a distraction for my likes.  This is the Michigan game after all!

A few comments about last week's victory are needed.  Iowa's strength all year has been their Line play, so a close game was completely expected.  Every team rises to play us and, yes the Iowa freshman QB played lights out for most of the game.  In the end, he is a freshman and they paid for it.  I am not sure why so many people are disgruntled about going to the Rose Bowl and winning the Big 10.  Yes Tressel played conservatively and he had some good reasons.  The running game was strong again which is very surprising.  Pryor didn't have to make any big decisions and that is the key point.  Did you really want to see Pryor chucking the ball all over the field against the Iowas defense?  Did you really want to have Pryor run the 2 minute drill at the end of the game (have you forgotten the USC and Purdue debacles at the end of the games or the practice 2 minute drill against Indiana where he threw a pick in the endzone)?  I think Tress knew what he was doing when he opted to go into OT and then opted to kick the field goal.  The game shouldn't have made it to OT and probably wouldn't have if not for the Iowa kick off return and tipped ball which Iowa caught. 

We really need to celebrate what we have which is a winning coach and, yes, we will start winning these big games again.  It really comes down to player execution.  Tress does play the odds and he does win 0.800 of his games.

UM has a lot to prove this weekend and still has the best offense in the league.  If our offense doesn't show up to play then we could be in for a lot of trouble thiw weekend.  We shoudl never sleep on UM.

Go Bucks!

Technorati Tags: Big Games, Buckeyes, Champs, Distraction, Endzone, Execution, Field Goal, Freshman Qb, Hub Bub, Key Point, Michigan Game, Odds, Ot, Purdue, Rose Bowl, Running Game, Some Good Reasons, Throw Back, Uniforms, Usc

Tags: Announcements by swjessen
No Comments »

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.

Technorati Tags: Backfield, Big12, Boeckman, Bowl Game, Bowl Games, Confusion, Few Moments, Final Game, Hartline, Joke, Matchup With Texas, Ohio State, Oregon State, Pac 10, Psu, Rose Bowl, Son Of A Gun, Tilt, Urban Meyer, Year Drought

Tags: Announcements by swjessen
1 Comment »