Surprises...

[buckeyefan20]

I was thinking about the NW game, and I realized that several things happened in that game that we, as Buckeye fans, had (probably) started to take for granted as being "sure things." The funny thing about Tresselball is that it seems that Tress is in control of everything and there are things we can count on week after week: awesome D, great special teams (especially Nugent and the punting game, although our punting game has been only sporadically good this year), no mistakes on O, etc. After a while, we tend to think that these things are automatic. However, thinking back, many things happened last week that we hardly ever see, and several of these "surprises" played key roles in NW's upset. Some "surprises" I thought of:

A) Nuge missing a field goal. His nickname could be "mr. automatic" - I didn't know if he'd miss a kick the rest of the year. I still maintain, although we'll never know, that if Nuge had made this kick, we would have played at least 2 OTs against NW (I don't think our D would have come back out and given up a TD if we were up 3 instead of tied)...

B) Santonio's drop in OT. Besides being an explosive receiver, Santonio's also been quite reliable in the past - I can't remember a drop this year before the one in OT and it cost us a sure first down.

C) Our defense giving up such an high 3rd down conversion rate. We expect our defense to shut down other teams on 3rd downs, especially on 3rd and longs...but NW was knocking out first downs on 3rd and longs all night (12-20), whether through our players' execution or our inability to change 3rd down coverage/bring heat on QB (either way, I don't think we challenged Basanez's mind or his heart rate on 3rd downs all night).

D) Our defense giving up touchdowns in the red zone. We've played teams that run a "nontraditional" offense like NW many times in the past - Texas Tech, NC St, Cincy, Purdue, Nw previously, San Diego St, Marshall - and many of these teams have rolled up respectable yardage totals against us (a lot of them have outgained us)....however, the difference in the past was that these teams would run us up and down the field, only to not be able to score TDs deep in our territory. Personally, I was surprised that NW was able to put the ball in the end zone 3 times in regulation - I thought they'd drive the ball, but have to settle for fgs.

E) Other - such as loss in general, Everett's drop of sure INT on NWs drive for first 3 points, etc.....


So I wanna know:

1) Which "surprise" from last week surprised you the most?

and

2) Which "surprise" do we need to correct the most in order to beat the Badgers this week?

[AKAKBUCK]

1 D

2 D

[osugrad21]

No offense...but the biggest surprise is that we are still talking about last week.

Bad karma...let's concentrate on Wisky

[scooter1369]

C and D are the two biggest.

Santonio is a human vacuum. He rarely drops anything. One can be forgiven. And probably a couple more this year if need be.

Nuge is the best kicker in the country. But a 40 yarder from the right hash mark is a tough kick.

The absurd number of converted third and longs was heartbreaking. Against Criami or Oklahomo or USC it can be expected. Theya re top notch teams with top notch offenses. Against Northwestern, you have to believe this is an anomoly.

The pass to Herron was in the red zone. The one to Philmore actually from the 21. But close enough. IT only means he ran even further through our defense with out being touched.

It all comes down to tackling. We couldn't have knocked down a $2.00 whore with a five dollar bill Saturday night. They better figure it out, AD is a step up, not down.

[ScarletArrow]

The defense giving up so many 3rd down conversions.

We miss Fox's leadership and Fraser needs to assert his more.

[exhawg]

Nuge is the best kicker in the country. But a 40 yarder from the right hash mark is a tough kick.

As soon as he lined up for that kick my gut told me it wasn't going in. Nuge is money from the middle or left hash, but the right hash for a right footed kicker is rough.

[iambrutus]

D and D, i agree. we need to shape up our d again, and we'll be ok.

[Silverbullet]

Well, not to [censored] anyone off or anything, and yes I had my surprises about last week, but come on get over it. We lost, its not like we never seen a loss before, they just need to get refocused on the next opponent (WISKY). I beleive that we should too so that we are in the frame of mind to cheer them on and not totally give up after one misread or bad tackle.

Im sincerely tired of hearing about why we didnt do this or that. The truth is we cant change what happened by dwelling on it. the only thing that is certain is that at 3:30 pm tomorrow our beloved Buckeyes will be playing a good team and they are going to need our support. How can we fulfill our obligation to cheer them on against WISKY if we are still thinking of all the bad things that happened to us last week.