Game Two: Texas 25, Ohio State 22 (final)

[MililaniBuckeye]

Our passing game will set up the running game. We have the best 1-2 WR combo in the country in Holmes and Ginn, and Gonzo would be the #1 WR on about 80% of the teams in the country. Your DL may have been solid against the run last year, but their main concern--at least initially--will be to establish a strong pass rush. If they don't, it'll be a long night for your back seven.

[xrayrandy]

He played both all spring and is still listed at both. I think he will play corner when the coaches think it is in our best interests like when he shut down Mark Clayton last year. I still have no idea why they didn't put him on Edwards. In any case a expect he will be at corner for this game.

Another reason I think this is we have a couple great sophomore safeties ready to move up, Bobby Tatum (Jack's nephew for the Buckeye fans), and Marcus Griffin (Michael's twin).

[MililaniBuckeye]

Texas gave up over 210 ypg passing (58th in the country). Hardly a ringing endorsement coming into a hostile environment against the best WR corps in the country. Texas also gave up almost 110 ypg rushing (16th) which, while impressive, is not dominating.

[High Lonesome]

Well as has been pointed out soo many times, stats can be misleading. Many times our opponents were being forced to pass due to the fact that they were trying to come from behind. We also used a "bend but don't break" style of D. We forced teams to drive the entire field and then allowed them to make their own mistakes. We are returning 3 of our 4 starters in the secondary and it will surely be one of the best that you face all year. It should be very interesting.

[xrayrandy]

Giving up 107.2 yards rushing per game looks more impressive when you know the teams average 168.4 during the season. tOSU gave up 130.4 to teams averaging 155.6. It is pretty easy to pick out which team had the more impressive run defense.

Because of responses to my question about why you are better than Michigan defensively I looked at your last six games and you did improve to 325 total yards and 119 rushing, but your passing defense went up to 206. In my opinion that isn't different enough from our passing defense to be bragging about it, but that is your right. In other news your offense only average 163 yards per game passing the last six games. (Note: We averaged 165 last year with a QB who "can't throw" and receivers who can't catch.)

[jwinslow]

xray, stats are garbage at times. Nobody in their right mind would consider the run defenses of OSU and Michigan to be on par whatsoever. Michigan State, OSU, & Texas QBs all ran wild on UM's horrendous back seven, and MSU tore off a ton of RB yards as well.

I could quote generalized statistics about VY to you, and they would not take into account how Greg Davis utilized VY's playmaking abilities. Apparently GD eased up on the reins and let Vince do his thing, as he probably should do, as the season wore on.

Stats are just taht stats. They make for mediocre discussion in the offseason, but actually watching the games is what matters. OSU's defense played good (not great) against Wisconsin, but since Ross & Zwick were allergic to first downs, the D was on the field the whole game. Not surprisingly, most of the running yardage of their team came in the second half... as the D wore down in the trenches.

[High Lonesome]

"xray, stats are garbage at times...."

Glass Houses, look at Mili's post just a little further up and then my following comment(looks like we are on the same page)

"Stats are just taht stats. They make for mediocre discussion in the offseason, but actually watching the games is what matters."

So true..We are so close to the season I can taste it!!

[xrayrandy]

I general prefer to look at the average past performance to gauge future performance, rather than use outliers. For example, you point out how bad Michigans run D was against MSU, but if you take MSU out of the equation for a moment and look at their average run D in all other Big 10 games, they averaged 111 yards per game. 111 yards is significantly better than tOSU.

I may actually not be in my right mind, but I would not use an extreme statistical outlier the way you have done. As for the Texas game, we were only 30 yards below our rushing average, so I don't consider it an outlier.

[Ginn4Heisman20]

scUM's weakness was against mobile QB's, not the run game in general. That's really what you need to look at. What Vince did to them may have been impressive but it wasn't nearly as spectacular as a lot of Texas fans (*NOTE not necessarily the ones on this bored) make it out to be. Mobile QB's tended to have a field day with that D and I can think of at least one who had a better game against them than VY did.

[MililaniBuckeye]

It's time to put this [censored] to bed.

1. Texas gave up 27 ppg in its last four games. Ohio State gave up less than 18 ppg in its last four games, against teams that averaged a composite 31 ppg in offense.

2. We had two common opponents, Oklahoma State and Michigan, and Ohio State's defense had far better success against both than did Texas' defense.

3. We've never lost a night game in The Shoe, and have dominated all but one of those night games.

4. We flat out own Big 12 teams, going 28-3-1 all-time, including poundings of the last two Big 12 opponents we faced, on neutral sites no less.

Texas will not win. Period.

[bukIpower]

Look VY is talented no doubt about that!! but you cannont bank on unproven talent like your recievers/ your brand new running back. Just like it would be nuts for us buckeyes to think our new running backs will be running wild on your front 4.

Also one thing I disapprove with majorly is the statement about your DB who you said should've covered Braylond Edwards. Just because he has faced Roy Williams in the offseason doesn't mean it'll prepare him to go against "the fastest in Division 1A football" Ted Ginn/Holmes/Gonzo/Dukes/Hall/Lyons. Your weak point on your defense is our strong point on offense "uh'oh". Also your strenght on offense is our strenght on defense so whoever wins that should be damn proud of it because it'll be tough on our defense just like it will be tough on your offense.

The matchup I'm looking forward to is definatly our D-line against your O-line.

[hookemhorns2004]

Originally Posted by jwinslow

Here's an interesting question, what happened when you tried to run those designed QB draws against better defenses... such as OU? We saw what the hapless Michigan D did against your team, but clearly VY didn't do that all year.

Davis probably didn't let VY do his thing enough, but what kept Young from doing that more often early on? Was it blocking mistakes? Defenses cheating on the play expecting a QB draw?

You can't compare what will happen in September to the OU game. Greg Davis intentionally held our offense back. He admitted it! We never threw one long pass, and ran it up the middle every [censored]ing down, minus a few throw-outs to the WR's.

You should compare the play calling to the Michigan game, and thats what you can expect.

[jwinslow]

I agree your playcalling will be different, hence how early games can be dramatically different than later games.

But its not gonna be like Michigan. Those plays were called because everyone and their mother knew Michigan could not stop VY, nor could they stop Smith, nor Stanton, not even MSU's backup QB.

[hookemhorns2004]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeNation27

uh oh.....you've just opened yourself to some sarcastic dick-dom and scorn if you scoff at it.

Man, you really remind me of an aggy.

Originally Posted by NFBuck

Those stats are inflated by early season growing pains on a young, mostly rebuilt defense. By seasons end our D was firing on all cilinders and was playing as well as anyone's in the country.

So your Defense will improve, but our defense won't?

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

It's time to put this [censored] to bed.

1. Texas gave up 27 ppg in its last four games. Ohio State gave up less than 18 ppg in its last four games, against teams that averaged a composite 31 ppg in offense.

2. We had two common opponents, Oklahoma State and Michigan, and Ohio State's defense had far better success against both than did Texas' defense.

3. We've never lost a night game in The Shoe, and have dominated all but one of those night games.

4. We flat out own Big 12 teams, going 28-3-1 all-time, including poundings of the last two Big 12 opponents we faced, on neutral sites no less.

Texas will not win. Period.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Ohio State's last last 4 games: Michigan State threw for 262 passing yards and rushed for 145 yards, but only scored 12 points. Purdue racked up 264 passing yards, 120 rushing yards, and 24 points. Michigan, got 328 passing yards and 71 rushing yards and 21 points. Oklahoma State, a mid-pack Big 12 team, got 137 passing yards and 139 rushing yards and 6 points. I just don't see this snowballing into being able to stuff the longhorn rushing game. And yall are all banking (hoping?) that Texas won't be able to establish the passing game. If VYoung burns you on a couple of passess, tOSU's whole defensive game-plan goes to [censored]. I just don't see how giving up an average of 369 yards per game over their last 4 games forshadows a total shutdown the the UT offense come early this next football season.

If this were november, you could say last years numbers don't matter. But IMHO since this is the second game of the season, I think how a team did last year could be a possile barometer of how they should do this year. Especially how they finished the year. There havn't been any significant coaching changes or anything.

[jwinslow]

You seem really hung up on yardage. It's pretty common knowledge that scoring defense is far more important that yardage.

IIRC MSU had one of the top offenses in the country yardage wise last year.

Mike Hart came into our game with these five standout performances before it:
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="632"> <tbody><tr align="right" bgcolor="#ffffff"><td align="left">10/9 Minnesota</td><td align="left">Win 27-24 </td><td>35</td><td>160</td><td>4.6</td><td>1</td><td>6</td><td>53</td><td>8.8</td><td>0</td></tr><tr align="right" bgcolor="#efefe7"><td align="left">10/16 @Illinois</td><td align="left">Win 30-19 </td><td>40</td><td>234</td><td>5.9</td><td>1</td><td>3</td><td>23</td><td>7.7</td><td>0</td></tr><tr align="right" bgcolor="#ffffff"><td align="left">10/23 @Purdue</td><td align="left">Win 16-14 </td><td>33</td><td>206</td><td>6.2</td><td>0</td><td>3</td><td>22</td><td>7.3</td><td>1</td></tr><tr align="right" bgcolor="#efefe7"><td align="left">10/30 Michigan State</td><td align="left">Win 45-37 (OT)</td><td>33</td><td>224</td><td>6.8</td><td>1</td><td>5</td><td>19</td><td>3.8</td><td>0</td></tr><tr align="right" bgcolor="#ffffff"><td align="left">11/13 Northwestern</td><td align="left">Win 42-20 </td><td>23</td><td>151</td><td>6.6</td><td>3</td><td>1</td><td>20</td><td>20.0</td><td>0</td></tr></tbody> </table> Here's how he did against us:
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="632"> <tbody><tr align="right" bgcolor="#efefe7"><td align="left">11/20 @Ohio State</td><td align="left">Loss 37-21 </td><td>18</td><td>61</td><td>3.4</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td>39</td><td>39.0</td><td>0</td></tr></tbody> </table>
Michigan had three outstanding WRs (one who didn't play against you) that torched you guys... plus Hart... yet our D shut down their team. Does it really matter when a team gains 60+ yards on you and turns the ball over? Nope. It probably does to you and your stat mongering, but in the real world that is the sign of a good defense. Bending but not breaking.

VY, regardless of how improved his mechanics are this spring, still has to prove he's better than a 1:1 on TD/INT. Therefore, he's far behind Michigan's offense. VY did not have Michigan like success all year long.