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Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye
You are so right it's flat out ridiculous. When we went 6-6 and 8-4 in Cooper's last year and then 7-5 in Tressel's first, we would've killed to have a 1- or 2-loss season. Well, we've had a perfect season witrh a NC and a 11-2 season with a consensus #4 ranking. Our "bad" year was the same 8-4 record that was the best of the three I listed above. Now if we don't run the table, we're a disappointment, and even when we win it sucks if it's not a blowout.
There have been plenty of times this season where I've been a bit frustrated with the offense, but Saturday night I didn't yell at the TV as often as I have other games, because I knew a lot of the offensive woes were caused by the Barton injury and the subsequent adjustment to that by the PSU defense. Watching on TV, I don't get the chance to see the whole field as the plays develop, and I've been told by a few folks that there were quite a few instances where we had a reciver or two open and Smith simply didn't see them or couldn't get the ball to them. Also, I noticed that even when Smith had the time and the WRs weren't open enough, he hesitated to run. I think once he gets to that happy medium where he'll run through his progression but will run if everyone is covered and not "overwait" like he's doing now, we'll be fine on offense.
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Agree about Smith. Or at least that we haven't seen enough of him, or any of the QB's, to accurately judge them. Smith did not practice with the 1's all off- or pre-season, so he has some excuse.
As for the rest, I'm not so sure. While I'm not the prototypical "cliffjumper" Buckeye fan that we are all so familiar with, the reason two losses is such a big deal now is because of the expectations and the talent. Under Cooper, we KNEW every year that he would drop one or two (or more). After 2002, many probably had unrealistic expectations because of what JT had done with a so-called under-talented team. I was not surprised, however, in 2003 when we dropped a couple games, because we had lost so much. But from last year to this year, we didn't lose hardly anyone. And we were playing SO [censored]in' well at the end of last season. And I KNOW that we are a better team than both Texas and Penn State. We outplayed Texas, and should have gotten the W. What is so bitter about all of this is that it is lack of execution (in one form or another) that has caused the L's. I honestly feel this is the best team in the country, and we now have TWO losses. It's a bitter pill, and I'm having a hard time swallowing it. Knock me all you want, but I honestly think that this year's squad is better than the 2002 squad.