There’s something that smells at the Rose Bowl and it ain’t Rosy
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!
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