A few Observations from C Deck - Ohio State vs. Marshall, 2004

[Oh8ch]

1. Repeat after me everyone - "There is NO Quarterback Controversey at OSU this season." (Troy Smith's nickname should be "The Governer" - JT only brings him in to keep our Offense from reaching max RPMs.)

2. It is pretty sad when the fans can't get an O-H-I-O chant going because the commercial on the scoreboard is too loud.

3. It is NOT second-guessing when you are screaming to decline the penalty before the coaches make their decision. Why on God's green earth would you give a team another play on the off chance you could make a FG attempt that would still leave them 4 points behind somewhat more difficult? Lucky for JT that one didn't decide the game.

4. The Marshall fans kicked ass. They were plentiful and loud. At times louder than the other 99k.

5. When you are wearing OSU garb and Marshall has it third and long you have more important things to do than read your program (regardless of how well written it is). How do these people get tickets?

6. In a perfect world a player would not be allowed to participate in the beating of an OSU player and push a policeman one week and strip the ball from another OSU player and return it for a TD the next. (Although he did leave the game on a cart of much of the third quarter.)

7. The best thing about today's game - These "easy" early season games feature lots of wives and girl friends who are not offered tickets for the "big games" later in the season. It was very hot and the Tatas were Bodacious.

8. The best group of Linebackers in the Country - my ass!

9. If you want to dominate a team from the MAC four offensive plays in the first nine and a half minutes is not enough. Six yards net rushing in the first 24 minutes is not enough.

10. Attention Mr. Geiger - I don't want to see a dodge ball tournament involving OSU-themed nesting dolls. Honest.

11. Regardless of your opinion of Dustin Fox our Defense did not improve when he broke his arm. May his recovery be a speedy one.

12. When you send 14 players to the NFL and start a total of 3 Seniors on O and D combined (one of whom just broke his arm) your expectations of your team's performance should be measured. This is even more true when you are minus seven on turnovers in the first two games. Give 'em time. This is a very talented team still looking for its identity.

13. Even from C deck Michigan still sucks. It is a great day to be a Buckeye fan.

[osugrad21]

12. When you send 14 players to the NFL and start a total of 3 Seniors on O and D combined (one of whom just broke his arm) your expectations of your team's performance should be measured. This is even more true when you are minus seven on turnovers in the first two games. Give 'em time. This is a very talented team still looking for its identity.

True true...

[bukIpower]

I can relate to that as I went to the Cincy game. It wasn't pretty but I'll take it, and just pray we improve by the time next week rolls around. Also did anyone notice how bad Lydel was gasping for air before the play when he got stripped? I'm pretty sure he was waving to get taken out. I was hoping to see Pittman but if he's injured I'm glad he didn't come out. I also think we need another running back bad.

[Clarity]

Originally Posted by Oh8ch

12. When you send 14 players to the NFL and start a total of 3 Seniors on O and D combined (one of whom just broke his arm) your expectations of your team's performance should be measured. This is even more true when you are minus seven on turnovers in the first two games. Give 'em time. This is a very talented team still looking for its identity.

Now that makes me want to set something like a "quote of the day/week/month" on the front page. Maybe I'll just make it my signature, lol.

[Hubbard]

Originally Posted by Oh8ch

10. Attention Mr. Geiger - I don't want to see a dodge ball tournament involving OSU-themed nesting dolls. Honest.

Ok this one went over my head.

[osugrad21]

Originally Posted by Hubbard

Ok this one went over my head.

Mine too but I figured being out of state kept me out of that loop Hubs

[slobberknocker]

"amen" preach on oh8ch

[jimotis4heisman]

11-What you saw today was how strong fox is on run support-he may not be the greatest cover corner but he can come up and stick people and he is a sure tackler. (the reason people think hed be a great saftey-not to open up that can or worms)

[Oh8ch]

Ok this one went over my head.

Last year they showed bobble head races on the score board during time outs. (Not badly done to be honest). Today they showed the brackets for a dodge ball playoff among the new nesting dolls they have come out with for Woody, Archie, etc. No matches today - just the brackets. My imagination runs wild - and it isn't pretty.

[Hubbard]

Originally Posted by Oh8ch

Last year they showed bobble head races on the score board during time outs. (Not badly done to be honest). Today they showed the brackets for a dodge ball playoff among the new nesting dolls they have come out with for Woody, Archie, etc. No matches today - just the brackets. My imagination runs wild - and it isn't pretty.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh. The bobble head skits weren't bad, but nesting dolls doing dodgeball.....

[BuckeyeNation27]

10. Attention Mr. Geiger - I don't want to see a dodge ball tournament involving OSU-themed nesting dolls. Honest.

so true. that commercial on the board made me embarassed.

[KillerNut]

3. It is NOT second-guessing when you are screaming to decline the penalty before the coaches make their decision. Why on God's green earth would you give a team another play on the off chance you could make a FG attempt that would still leave them 4 points behind somewhat more difficult? Lucky for JT that one didn't decide the game.

A-men! Now I think that they were probably going to go for it when he made that decesion, but even still all you are doing is giving them more room to run their routes. I was [censored]ed about that. Then Zwick decides to throw the ball into 2Xcoverage. We have a lot of work to do.

4. The Marshall fans kicked ass. They were plentiful and loud. At times louder than the other 99k.

The ones I met were a bunch of asses. Typical WV white trash. Ignorant, stupid people.

7. The best thing about today's game - These "easy" early season games feature lots of wives and girl friends who are not offered tickets for the "big games" later in the season. It was very hot and the Tatas were Bodacious.

Very True, but it is better when you up by a half a hundred so you can enjoy it more.

8. The best group of Linebackers in the Country - my ass!

LBs were not the problem in this game. Marsall had a good game plan running the LBs all over the place to help on bubble screens which forced them to run/cheat outside, then they would hit us up the middle with the draws. In years past the D-line would have cleaned that up on there own. We are showing our inexperience up front. Also their back had Great vision to see where the hole was.

11. Regardless of your opinion of Dustin Fox our Defense did not improve when he broke his arm. May his recovery be a speedy one.

Best of luck in his recovery, we could use the depth, but to be clear, our defense also did not get worse.

12. When you send 14 players to the NFL and start a total of 3 Seniors on O and D combined (one of whom just broke his arm) your expectations of your team's performance should be measured. This is even more true when you are minus seven on turnovers in the first two games. Give 'em time. This is a very talented team still looking for its identity.

I agree, but I think this game will help in games down the road. Santonio Holmes is a complete Bad Ass. He is without a doubt the go to guy/the identity of the offense. Zwick I was nervous was choking the game away, a Chris Rix type QB who could put up stats but was not clutch, however Zwick made the plays to get us in field goal position. That has got to be a character builder. Without Fox, Salley is now the leader of the defense, I could see him moving people around, firing people up, after Fox left, it is now Salley's defense.


Long story short, I still think we are very capable of going undefeated, but I think we need to improve. Too many turnovers, not enough rushing yards. Some plays that worked we never went back to.

[stxbuck]

In the Dispatch today they quoted Tressel as saying something about the accepted penalty being on 2nd down and not 3rd. I think he might have had a brain fart during the game and was not paying attention to the downs. Sometimes it happens.

Also-I was sort of passed out for most of the 3rd qtr, so I missed Zwick's first int. What exactly happened?

[jlb1705]

One thing has become plainly clear about Troy Smith: The coaches do not trust him to put the ball in the air. When he played in mop-up duty last year - no pass attempts. Against UC? Three pass attempts. Against Marshall? He sees the field for one 3-and-out. There is no QB controversey in Columbus - only in cyberspace.