Buckeye Recap

nos venit , nos vigilo , nos erant evinco

26-18.
The Buckeyes appear to be vastly over rated. It looks like the rest of the country is correct. The Bucks get dominated, on the road, by a one win team. The vaunted defense is shredded for 465 yards and the offense is pathetic. The OSU rushing game managed a total of 66 yards today. 66. Sixty-Six. This coming against a team that gives up an average of 185. Turnovers were huge, as always and Ohio State just gave the ball away too much. The defense did hold Purdue to field goals on several short drives but they were on the field way too much. The "D" better figure out the short passing game because they are going to see it the rest of the season. Our offensive line was dominated, blown-up and destroyed, play after play after play. This has been a problem all season and must be corrected. Adams and Browning looked terrible.

Tressel really needs to seriously think about a couple of things. The first is letting someone else call the plays. And if the plays are too complicated for a player, replace him.

This is, at least to me, the worst loss of The Vest's OSU Career. Losing to an SEC team in a Bowl, or a high ranked USC / Texas type during the regular season is one thing but losing to a one win team in week seven is another. I don't ever remember that happening before to Ohio State.

Go Bucks!

Buckeye Recap - part two or I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore

One of these two coaches is a true visionary


I can really not remember being this mad at my Buckeyes before. They, they being Tressel, played that game not to lose, rather than playing to win.

Beginning in 2005 Ohio State made the commitment to step up the schedule adding national powers to the early season. Texas in 2005 and 2006, Washington in 2007, USC in 2008 and 2009, Miami in 2010 and 2011. It is time for the play calling and decision making people to step it up as well.

This should have happened a lot more:


So should have this. Their defense was soft down the middle:

Buckeye Recap

Here goes my rant. My prediction was 35-10 USC. I am glad it wasn't a rout but I almost wish now it was.

One word sums up Ohio State's 18-15 loss to the Trojans. Embarrassing. This was a game that the Buckeyes truly dominated save a drive at the end of each half. This was a game that the Buckeyes defense more than held their own with the vaunted USC offensive unit. And at the end it came down to coaching. And the Bucks came up, once again, woefully short.

The game came down, once again, to Tressel's never failing conservatism. And it is starting to get really annoying. When the game-winning drive started OSU had USC pinned deep, 2nd and 19 at their own 5. Ohio State made a decision to quit playing the aggressive style that had been working and go to a soft defense, dropping the linebackers and playing off of the receivers. This was the same mistake they made at the end of the first half which allowed the Trojans to drive 80 yards for a tying field goal. That first half drive was set up by a ridiculous 3 play 7 yard drive that consumed a whopping 54 seconds off the clock. After USC scored to go up 18-15 Ohio State saw a defense that blitzed and confused Pryor. What a concept.

The offensive line at times looked good but other times looked very inept. Boom Herron is not the answer at running back. He was slow to hit the open hole and never really put any fear in the defense. Saine was a non factor. I really would have liked to see Pryor run more. A quarterback sneak would be a great play but I sometimes think OSU believes their line can't get them a yard. They really need to work overtime on Pryor's throwing mechanics. He threw off balance and off the wrong foot several times.


Grade Card:
Offense D
Defense B
Special Teams A
Pre-Game Preparation B
In Game Coaching D-

As the game came down to crunch time my feeling could be described by one word. A word that millions of Buckeye fans know all too well. BOHICA; Bend over here it comes again. We all knew what was going to happen and it did. Later this week I'll post my top-ten list of BOHICA moments as a Buckeye Football fan.

I listened to his post game news conference and was disappointed. Disappointed that no reporter asked about the inexcusable three and out on OSU's last possession of the first half. USC had no time outs and he let them off the hook. I was dissapointed that Tressel didn't step up and say he blew it.

So after that I have decided that Saint Tressel is officially now being down graded to the same status as St. Nicholas, St. Christopher, and St. George. He has to start winning the big games right now. He must beat Penn State in Happy Valley this year. He must beat Michigan in Ann Arbor this year. He must win the Bowl Game after this season. There might be a BCS game after this season and if there is he must win it. The Miami Hurricanes are a home and home series starting next season. And in 2012 there are back-to-back home games against Cincinnati and Cal. I'm really not looking forward to any of those games.

Buckeye-Trojan Minutia
• USC leads the all-time series, 13-9-1 and has won the last seven. Ohio State's last win in the series was in the Rose Bowl following the 1973 season.

• Seven games in the all-time series have been decided by a touchdown or less.

• The home team has won 9 of 16 regular-season matchups.

• Ohio State is 44-18-2 against the Pac-10 Conference.

• Ohio State and USC played in front of 106,000-plus for the third time in the series history - the other two were Jan. 1, 1972 and Jan. 1, 1974, both in the Rose Bowl. It is the seventh time they have played in front of 100,000-plus.

Next week sees Ohio State going on the road to Cleveland where they will play a decent Toledo team. If they don't regroup and/or overlook this team they will get beat. I hope they pull it together. Go Bucks!!

Number 59 Watch

Had a pretty good night. Had a real good look at him running on the field as the Bucks took the field. During the pregame show he got about 15 seconds of air time during a blocking drill. He had a quick shot on camera during the game and then a real nice shot at the end when they were singing Carmen Ohio as a team.

The Game

Nothing to say here, nothing to add. It is Ohio State - Michigan so throw the records out the window. This is their bowl game and their shot at redemption for a really lousy season. The Bucks, behind Beanie (career high?), Robiske and Terrelle roll 41-10. Go Bucks!!

Game Day

This will be a cold, good, hard fought game. It is the last game before Michigan Week and the Bucks need to come out with an impressive effort to climb up a place or two in the BCS standings. Terrelle Pryor needs to keep improving and can not, I say again CAN NOT, suffer a set back today against the Illini. I have no fear of Juice Williams and I really think last year was a fluke. I think Beanie gets a large number and the Bucks roll 28-10. Go Bucks!!

Buckeye Recap

Well the Buckeyes did roll. Behind Beanie Wells' 140 yards and Terrelle Pryor's maturation they win easily 45-10. Pryor looked good on some passes and rolled out effectively. The Buckeyes also converted a lot of 3rd and longs to take control of the game.

With the 140 yards Wells moved into 6th on the all time OSU list and next week against Illinois will become the sixth Buckeye to surpass the 3,000 yard rushing mark. Speaking of Illinois they got caught looking ahead to OSU and lost to Western Michigan 23-17.



01. 5,589 Archie Griffin
02. 3,768 Eddie George
03. 3,553 Tim Spencer
04. 3,200 Keith Byars
05. 3,121 Pepe Pearson
06. 2,999 Chris Wells
07. 2,974 Carlos Snow
08. 2,951 Michael Wiley
09. 2,945 Antonio Pittman
10. 2,649 Raymont Harris


Jim Tressel tied former coach Earle Bruce for third place on Ohio State's all-time wins list with 81. He also picked up his 50th Big Ten win with the victory Saturday. Bruce won his 50th game in 61 games and Tressel did so in 62.

With Penn State losing, to Iowa 24-23,the Bucks are now tied with Penn State and Michigan State for the lead in the Big Ten race. If Michigan State beats Penn State the tie breaker goes to the Bucks. If there is some weird alignment of cosmic forces of nature and all three end up tied Michigan State wins the tie breaker because they did not play a 1-AA team. So Tressel, quit scheduling your buddies from Youngstown State.

Game Day

I fully expect Ohio State to come out and just punch Northwestern squarely in the chops. Look for the "O" line to emulate Texas Tech and be aggressive, and flat out mean. Bucks roll, flexing their collective muscles and running up the highest offensive numbers yet this season, blowing out the Mildcats 55-7. Go Bucks!

The Bucks must go undefeated in November to have a chance at a BCS Bowl game.

Buckeye Recap - mid season grade card

This season was looked at in three equal parts; USC, Penn State, and Michigan/Bowl game. Now I am not looking past Illinois because they are a very real threat to Ohio State but the Bucks should beat them.

Part 1 F++

USC kicked our ass in every imaginable facet of the game. But if Beanie had been healthy it would have at least been a game. I think.

part 2 F+

A slight improvement but they still lost a game the should have won. No where to go but up.

part 3 ??

they should pound Northwestern, struggle at Illinois but win and then who knows against what will be a very desperate Michigan team.

breakdown:

Defense B+

they have been mostly good enough. But not nearly enough big plays and take aways.

Offense D

3 games without a touchdown pretty much tells you all you need to know

Special Teams B

They have been pretty good with some big returns, Trapasso kicking well and not allowing too many long returns against them.

Coaching D

In the past the Vest has been better with less. I'm not sure what the problem is. Maybe losing a lot of assistants over the years is taking a toll of Tressel. What ever it is the offense has been more than vanilla. They need to use the talents and skill sets they have on the team. Let Pryor roll out, work on his throwing and get the ball up field occasionally to back the defense off the line and give Beanie some room to work with.

Overall Grade C

They could go 10-2 and we will all be left wondering "What If?" Of course, we are OSU fans so we always wonder what if.