Game Six: Ohio State 35, Michigan State 24 (final)

[crazybuckfan40]

Originally Posted by exhawg

I think the MSU game is the first OSU game I've watched in a while where I came away thinking that we didn't deserve to win. MSU has to be kicking themselves for all of the mistakes they made. Except for Holmes getting wide open for his first touchdown everything the offense did was luck and poor tackling. Even that first TD was underthrown by 5 yards or so.
Indiana should be an easy win this week, but 3 of our last 5 games are going to be more difficult unless we get more out of the offense. The turnovers on offense have to end.

Very much the same feeling we had against Texas.

[jwinslow]

I think we were lucky to come back as well as we did against MSU, but what I dont' get is why OSU's mistakes are reasons why we shouldn't win and MSU's mistakes are reasons they should have won but squandered.

They should have tackled Holmes on the last td of his, but the Ginn play was just toughness by him running into and over a LBer and sprinting for the TD.

I think we battled very hard and put ourselves in position, and caught a few lucky breaks (which may have turned into scores later anyway had we not fumbled the ball (that was the main way they slowed us down).

MSU was in the game b/c of how we gave the game away. The first Holmes fumble was a miscommunication (he needed the next line of guys to field it b/c it was too far to run up, yet they didn't hear him and he couldn't get there). Ginn has caught a lot of balls bouncing off of the turf, so that was a little uncharacteristic of him too.

The roughing the passer call was nothing they did either.

Our mistakes were huge turnovers that definitely led to some of their scoring. For the most part, their mistakes (other than the FG) were missed tackles against talented players. If they make those tackles, we may very well go onto score still.

[tsteele316]

Originally Posted by jwinslow

Nah yertle, it was well stated. I agree that the power formations are doing very well. Also, we are passing out of them finally! even on 1st down! Dionte is a monster, and it requires less reading for Troy to find WRs in that formation.

is it just me or does smith look more comfortable under center? It seems that when he's in the shotgun he gets antsy in the pocket. Dropping back seems to help his timing.

[jwinslow]

Originally Posted by tsteele316

is it just me or does smith look more comfortable under center? It seems that when he's in the shotgun he gets antsy in the pocket. Dropping back seems to help his timing.

yep, I think so (grad was calling for it after last week too). I want to say he was under center a decent amount vs. UM last year. He can get back into his 5 stop drop very fast if necessary, and seems to have a better delivery than when he is standing aimlessly in the 'gun.

[exhawg]

Originally Posted by jwinslow

I think we were lucky to come back as well as we did against MSU, but what I dont' get is why OSU's mistakes are reasons why we shouldn't win and MSU's mistakes are reasons they should have won but squandered.

They should have tackled Holmes on the last td of his, but the Ginn play was just toughness by him running into and over a LBer and sprinting for the TD.

I think we battled very hard and put ourselves in position, and caught a few lucky breaks (which may have turned into scores later anyway had we not fumbled the ball (that was the main way they slowed us down).

MSU was in the game b/c of how we gave the game away. The first Holmes fumble was a miscommunication (he needed the next line of guys to field it b/c it was too far to run up, yet they didn't hear him and he couldn't get there). Ginn has caught a lot of balls bouncing off of the turf, so that was a little uncharacteristic of him too.

The roughing the passer call was nothing they did either.

Our mistakes were huge turnovers that definitely led to some of their scoring. For the most part, their mistakes (other than the FG) were missed tackles against talented players. If they make those tackles, we may very well go onto score still.

IMO if we play like we did the past 2 weeks the rest of the season we will lose at least one more game. Penn St. didn't make any major mistakes and beat us, MSU did make major mistakes to even out our mistakes so we won.
Smith still seems to be having problems reading defenses and hitting receivers that are just a little open. The 2 TD's were good balls, but won't go for TD's against better teams. Ginn was invisible again except for his TD. It's also a little disturbing that only 4 players touched the ball on offense.
We are going to have to play better if we are going to beat Minn, NU, and scum. Hopefully the game at Indiana will give the offense a chance to get on track.

[jwinslow]

agreed that