Game Two: Ohio State 20, Akron 2 (Final)

[Dryden]

Originally Posted by Zurp

Hmm. Good point. But on the OTHER hand (how many hands do we have, here, anyway?) college football, in general (and ESPN, SI, CBSSportsline, etc, by association) get better ratings when the traditional power-houses are doing better (i.e. ranked higher). They will sell more whatever to more fans when the traditional powers are ranked higher.

On the other hand, I want to watch Michigan football now more than ever!

Originally Posted by Zurp

I'd rather hear what some of the small-time reporters for local newspapers have to say than the big-time national news reporters.

So, you've never actually read anything Bruce Hooley, Doug Lesmerises, or Bill Livingston has written, have you?

[Zurp]

Originally Posted by Dryden

On the other hand, I want to watch Michigan football now more than ever!

True true. But I think that's a special case. You and I (and many others) enjoy seeing how far the mighty will fall. But I still think that its best for the sport, in general (regardless of which sport you may be talking about) if the traditional teams do well.

Originally Posted by Dryden

So, you've never actually read anything Bruce Hooley, Doug Lesmerises, or Bill Livingston has written, have you?

Crap. Are you trying to make me accountable for what I say?

[zincfinger]

Originally Posted by Zurp

I think that in the eyes of the "analysts", a #10 team (or whatever Ohio State was ranked) should beat Akron by more than 18 points...

I know all that is true, but it goes to my point of the inability of many of these characters to even properly analyze a box score. For example, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that percent margin of victory should be weighed at least as heavily as absolute margin of victory. A 20-2 win is generally far more decisive than, say, a 78-60 win, despite the fact that they're both by 18 points.

And that really just goes to a fascination with offense as compared to only a passing interest in defense. In this game, OSU's defense dominated throughout, while the offense stumbled for a half and played reasonably well for a half. Suppose the opposite had happened, and OSU's offense had dominated for 60 minutes, while the defense had stumbled for a half and played reasonably well for a half (while including liberal substitution). And the final score was something like 52-24. A similar level of dominance in my opinion, but nobody would be calling it a struggle, because it was the offense, rather than the defense, that fueled the domination.

Originally Posted by Dryden

Bottom line, we should have beat them 40-0. Everything was there to do it, and we shot ourselves in the foot time and time again, and that's even with no running game for three quarters.

Exactly.

[craigblitz]

Finally had an opportunity to watch the game thanks to pee wee football schedules and buying selling a house, not to mention the debacle known as the BTN!

Some Quick observations

Defense:

Awesome overall effort
- K.Coleman tackles too high on most if not all tackles
- Larry Grant has speed to burn but misses a lot of tackles but gets to the area really well
- Freeman has a hard time shedding blocks
- Homan played a really good game
- Lil Animal is playing better then I thought he would... Eating some crow here
- Brian Rolle is going to be a beast
- T.Gibson... ditto
- Washington misses a lot of open tackles
- Have to take advantage of TO opportunities, Gibson and Russell missed picks right in their hands
- Worthington played an awesome game
- D Line as a whole is making the D look good, good pressure, good containment.. I was really pleased

Offense

- Todd made some terrible throws. His two picks I thought were atrocious. Throws a nice deep ball... Is he going to be mobile enough?
- Beanie is going to be fine. He is missing some cut backs that are there and dances too much in 1:1 situations where he should blow forward and take yards that are there
- B Saine is going to be BIG TIME
- Torrence in his one mishap opportunity looks to be pretty explosive
- Great Dane is doing a nice job, missed a couple blocks that could have the back make longer gains but he will get better and better


Overall I can not believe all the young talent we have on this team. I am totally looking fwd to us playing USC the next 2 years as a measuring stick.

I think this team is going to be fun to watch later in the year.... hopefully we can avoid a mis-step along the way, but we are awfully young!

[craigblitz]

Double Post