Ohio State 45, Michigan State 7 (Oct. 18)

[osugrad21]

BN Free--Tressel, Dantonio Ready For Another Reunion

[shetuck]

Originally Posted by JXC

Hoyer just isn't that good. If it's up to him to beat us, it's not good for Sparty. Sparty is all about Ringer. He gets the ball more than any other back in the country, and he moves the chains and puts it in the endzone. If Beanie were as durable as Ringer, he'd be on pace for about 2,500 yards.

I would have said the exact same thing about Evridge's performance against us after having watched him absolutely fall apart against TSUN the week before and State Penn the week after, but, instead, he held it together relatively well against us.

A big part of the answering the question about whether Hoyer will be able to deliver a game-changing performance has to focus on the opposing team's offensive front vs our ability to actually execute our defensive scheme on every down in a series; i.e. bring pressure, punch through the protection, and inflict some real damage against less mobile passers like Evridge and Hoyer. We weren't terribly successful at doing that against Evridge - not consistently, anyway. Maybe that has to do with Beckum being his safety valve, but don't forget that Hoyer has Gantt and Celek to that end. Granted, they're no Beckums, but they haven't done too poorly lately (when they've played).

So... Hoyer's performance against us has everything to do with how well we do against Sparty's offensive front. Given the fact that Ringer appears to be on a tear this year, I can't say that Sparty's offensive front is all that bad in creating mismatches and pushing guys around (in comparison to ours). So I'm not as comfortable saying that Hoyer can't be a threat. I agree that he can't single-handedly beat us (he's no Darryl Clark), but if his line performs and Ringer is able to rip a few off, we're going to quickly find ourselves back on our heels and scratching our heads trying to figure out how to shut them down.

[NightmaresDad]

I'm not worried about our defense, at this point. I think we will hold Sparty to under 20 offensive points.

At this point in the season, I think the only teams we will play that can hurt our defense some and put 24+ points on the board are PSU and IL.

I'm worried about our offense.
Can we score enough points against anybody?

Was last week an abberration, or was the Minny game the abberration?
I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I think we can definitely hurt Sparty with some big plays, if we execute.

[JXC]

Originally Posted by shetuck

I would have said the exact same thing about Evridge's performance against us after having watched him absolutely fall apart against TSUN the week before and State Penn the week after, but, instead, he held it together relatively well against us.

A big part of the answering the question about whether Hoyer will be able to deliver a game-changing performance has to focus on the opposing team's offensive front vs our ability to actually execute our defensive scheme on every down in a series; i.e. bring pressure, punch through the protection, and inflict some real damage against less mobile passers like Evridge and Hoyer. We weren't terribly successful at doing that against Evridge - not consistently, anyway. Maybe that has to do with Beckum being his safety valve, but don't forget that Hoyer has Gantt and Celek to that end. Granted, they're no Beckums, but they haven't done too poorly lately (when they've played).

So... Hoyer's performance against us has everything to do with how well we do against Sparty's offensive front. Given the fact that Ringer appears to be on a tear this year, I can't say that Sparty's offensive front is all that bad in creating mismatches and pushing guys around (in comparison to ours). So I'm not as comfortable saying that Hoyer can't be a threat. I agree that he can't single-handedly beat us (he's no Darryl Clark), but if his line performs and Ringer is able to rip a few off, we're going to quickly find ourselves back on our heels and scratching our heads trying to figure out how to shut them down.

Well...other teams haven't had a problem with Hoyer this year...so I find it hard to believe our defense will. As far as Evridge...he threw the game ending INT and Wisky lost the game. Again...don't overrated MSU...they are Ringer U. and that's it.

[JXC]

Originally Posted by NightmaresDad

I'm not worried about our defense, at this point. I think we will hold Sparty to under 20 offensive points.

At this point in the season, I think the only teams we will play that can hurt our defense some and put 24+ points on the board are PSU and IL.

I'm worried about our offense.
Can we score enough points against anybody?

Was last week an abberration, or was the Minny game the abberration?
I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I think we can definitely hurt Sparty with some big plays, if we execute.

Can we score enough points against anybody? Well 6 out of 7 times so far this year...yes.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Iowa held Michigan State to 16 points and Hoyer to 13-24-1 for 184 yards and 1 TD just two weeks ago at East Lansing. I would hope we can have similar results. Even when they scored 37 points at Northwestern last week, they benefitted from good starting field possession almost all game. Their scoring drives at Northwestern:

START..RESULT..DRIVE PLAYS/YARDS

NW42.....TD....(6 plays, 42 yards)
NW25.....FG....(8 plays, 16 yards)
NW34.....TD....(6 plays, 34 yards)
MSU20....TD....(8 plays, 80 yards)
NW32.....TD....(8 plays, 32 yards)
MSU44....FG....(8 plays, 31 yards)
MSU43....FG....(11 plays, 41 yards)

Four scoring drives started inside NW territory, and two others near mid-field. MSU had one lengthy drive all day, and had 338 yards total offense. You won't see many teams scoring 37 points on offense with only 338 yards of total offense without a lot of help from the opposition.

If our defense plays like they should, and we don't shoot ourselves in the foot on offense, our chances are very good.

[LitlBuck]

Originally Posted by JXC

Well...other teams haven't had a problem with Hoyer this year...so I find it hard to believe our defense will. As far as Evridge...he threw the game ending INT and Wisky lost the game. Again...don't overrated MSU...they are Ringer U. and that's it.

The problem is that the game is played on different Saturdays and you never know when a QB is going to have a breakout game and Hoyer is very capable of doing that no matter what defense is going up against. They have some pretty nice wide receivers and as was mentioned above their OL will provide protection and also open up holes for Ringer unless our defense really brings there A game.

The other thing that concerns me about this game is that Dantonio is very familiar with our coaches and and therefore it's probably pretty familiar with our tendencies and schemes on both sides of the ball. This game worries me quite a bit.

[st8ofmind]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

Iowa held Michigan State to 16 points and Hoyer to 13-24-1 for 184 yards and 1 TD just two weeks ago at East Lansing. I would hope we can have similar results. Even when they scored 37 points at Northwestern last week, they benefitted from good starting field possession almost all game. Their scoring drives at Northwestern:

START..RESULT..DRIVE PLAYS/YARDS

NW42.....TD....(6 plays, 42 yards)
NW25.....FG....(8 plays, 16 yards)
NW34.....TD....(6 plays, 34 yards)
MSU20....TD....(8 plays, 80 yards)
NW32.....TD....(8 plays, 32 yards)
MSU44....FG....(8 plays, 31 yards)
MSU43....FG....(11 plays, 41 yards)

Four scoring drives started inside NW territory, and two others near mid-field. MSU had one lengthy drive all day, and had 338 yards total offense. You won't see many teams scoring 37 points on offense with only 338 yards of total offense without a lot of help from the opposition.

If our defense plays like they should, and we don't shoot ourselves in the foot on offense, our chances are very good.

while I agree with you

A) they were all forced turnovers, none of the picks were 'gifts'

B) It's hard to rack up a lot of yards on a short field...

C) OSU should win this game, since MSU doesn't do much except run right at you on offense, and OSU has superior talent.

D) MSU (Winston, and Wiley) had great kick returns to set up that field position.

E) The Iowa comparison is pretty strong, but Hoyer really laid a terd that day, and looked much better vs NU despite getting his bell rung HARD early.

[shetuck]

Originally Posted by LitlBuck

The problem is that the game is played on different Saturdays and you never know when a QB is going to have a breakout game and Hoyer is very capable of doing that no matter what defense is going up against.

Exactly. He really showed that he can be a game-changer against State Penn and Purdue last year fwiw. He also held up relatively well in their loss to TSUN, imo, though his numbers from that game don't tell the whole story.

Originally Posted by LitlBuck

They have some pretty nice wide receivers and as was mentioned above their OL will provide protection and also open up holes for Ringer unless our defense really brings there A game...

And I guess that's a key premise for me... which D will show up? Seems like some folks are assuming that we're bound to get the same amped-up one from the Purdue game. We may get back the sluggish one that struggled to shut down OU because I'm not sure if last week's D had a break-out performance or just a random good day. One data point in our favor isn't enough...

[jmorbitz]

A motivational MS paint photo for this weeks game.


http://www.buckeyeplanet.com/forum/h...ml#post1290954

[Joe56]

I worry about Coach Dantonio's "attack the qb" mentality and our absolute inability to get consistency on the o line.We've got more horses, but the execution on the o line will be absolutely critical this game.

Having said that, I think the leash will get longer on TP and we'll do some great things!

Bucks 28
MSU-21.

[buckeyesin07]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

Iowa held Michigan State to 16 points and Hoyer to 13-24-1 for 184 yards and 1 TD just two weeks ago at East Lansing. I would hope we can have similar results.

Isn't Iowa's defense tops in the Big Ten, though? You make it sound like they're total slouches on D.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Originally Posted by st8ofmind

A) they were all forced turnovers, none of the picks were 'gifts'

B) It's hard to rack up a lot of yards on a short field...

A) Never claimed they were "gifts". The point is the offense got great starting position from them. The offense also had three other drives starting at mid-field or in NW territory after long KO and punt returns.

B) The yardage was an indicator of two things:

1. The short field from which they got to operate many times

2. MSU had only one really one sustained drive (the 80-yard TD drive) the whole game (non-scroing drives: 3 plays for 8 yards, 6 plays for 14 yards, 3 plays for 1 yard, 3 plays for 3 yards)

So, unless they had excellent field position to start with, they did little on offense.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Originally Posted by buckeyesin07

Isn't Iowa's defense tops in the Big Ten, though? You make it sound like they're total slouches on D.

National total defense rankings:

12. Ohio State, 269 ypg
22. Iowa, 281 ypg

[JXC]

Iowa's defense isn't bad. I still think MSU's is though.