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10-26-2008, 09:27 AM
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Penn State Aftermath
1) If last night had been my first experience with American football, then I'd never watch another game again. That was quite simply the lamest, ugliest excuse for a football game that I've ever seen, and both teams were equally at fault. The one and only big play in the entire game resulted from a boneheaded move on the simpliest play in football - the quarterback sneak (but more on that later). It wasn't a defensive slugfest ... it was offensive ineptitude at the highest level.
2) Terrelle Pryor is a true freshman, and we certainly expect him to make freshman mistakes. But his fumble on the aforementioned quarterback sneak was not a freshman mistake ... it was a stupid play. Pryor has played enough football to know that his job is to take the snap, follow his center, fall forward, gain eighteen inches, and go back to the huddle to call the next play. You can't become a hero on a quarterback sneak, Terrelle ... but you certainly can become a goat. 3) Before the year started, I thought that Pryor would win a game all by himself, and he did that at Wisconsin. And now he has the distinction of losing a game all by himself. It's generally pretty difficult to identify a single play throughout the course of a game that was the definitive turning point, but his fumble was that play. At that time, Ohio State was up 6-3, with 11:03 left in the game, with third down and inches to go. The Buckeyes had just run five straight times for a combined 22 yards, and had crossed into Penn State territory. The Nittanty Lions' defense looked like it was finally wearing down, and a successful quarterback sneak would have given the Buckeyes further momentum and a fresh set of downs ... and capping the drive with a touchdown would have essentially ended the game. But after the fumble, Penn State got the ball in great field position and eventually scored the game-winning touchdown against a rather dis-spiritied Ohio State defense. Although they had a final chance (see below), the Buckeyes never really recovered from that unfortunate play. 4) The fumble was definitely Terrelle Pryor's "Joe Pisarcik Moment", but he did have a chance to redeem himself at the end of the game. Down 13 to 6 with 1:07 left, the Buckeyes began their final drive of the game at their own 20-yard line after a touchback. Pryor completed a couple of passes to Ray Small to move the ball into Penn State territory, and then he tried to play the hero once again. After a fierce pass rush from Aaron Maybin (more on that later), Pryor rolled out to the right, set himself, somehow found Brian Hartline engulfed in a sea of white jerseys, and with plenty of time to throw launched a bomb into triple coverage that was promptly picked off. On that play, the four Penn State pass rushers were all caught inside, three pass defenders were following Hartline to the endzone, and the short zone on that side of the field had been vacated. Pryor was already near the right sideline, so all he had to do was take off running, gain ten or fifteen yards for the first down, go out of bounds to stop the clock, and then run the next play. But instead, Terrelle thought with his ego and not with his reason, and he went for the highlight reel play instead of the sure thing. Now of course, we can write that off as a "freshman mistake", but we also have to wonder if Pryor is one of those players who will always try to win the game all by himself ... and if that is the case, does he have the talent to do so? If the answer to the latter question is "yes", then we may have the next Vince Young in Columbus ... but if the answer is "no", then we might just have a problem on our hands.... 5) Two big games, nine total points. That ain't gettin' it done, folks. It all starts up front, and after a few solid (but certainly not spectacular) games in a row, the Buckeyes' offensive line reverted to their true form ... getting blown up on running plays and blown by on passing plays. Blame the coaching all you want, but the talent ... and the depth ... just isn't there. 6) And another thing about the offensive line ... have the Buckeyes had a truly athletic offensive lineman since Orlando Pace? Maybe LeCharles Bentley and Nick Mangold, but that's about it. Brewster, Shugarts, and Adams seem to be a huge step up in terms of athleticism ... and Justin Boren is a proven commodity ... so let's hope that the offensive line gets a huge upgrade next season. 7) While the offense was anemic last night, the defense wasn't anything special. Yeah, they held the allegedly high-powered Nittany Lion offense to 13 points and 281 total yards (both season lows), but we all watched the game last night, and none of us was impressed with that Penn State team. The defense made no big plays (no turnovers, one sack), did nothing to change the momentum of the game, couldn't hold Penn State to a field goal after the Pryor fumble, and couldn't force the Lions to punt on their final drive. In general, the Buckeyes' defense got "out-hit" by the Lion's offense ... the Penn State offensive line won most of the battles in the trenches, and the Penn State ball carriers were consistently able to fight through tackles for extra yardage. Oh, it wasn't a bad game by the Buckeye defense by any means, but when they were called on to win the game in spite of the Buckeye offense, they just couldn't do it ... and that is what separates a truly great defense (2002) from a merely good defense (2008). 8) Penn State was called for exactly one penalty last night (it was declined by Ohio State). If those had been two SEC teams, then we'd all be saying that the officials (with orders from the league office) were trying to help the undefeated team stay undefeated so that they could get to the big money national championship game. But those were Big Ten officials last night, so we can just blame it on plain old incompetence. 9) I don't care what anyone says, games like last night's hurt worse than the blow-out losses. Yeah, we can try to rationalize those games away with a bunch of "what ifs", but in reality we know that our team got beat from start to finish by the likes of Florida, LSU, and USC. Last night, however, we really should have won the game, and but for perhaps the single most ill-advised, momentum-killing play in the history of Buckeye football, we probably would have won the game. And that just plain sucks.... 10) Was it just me, or did the whole team seem flat for most of the game? For a homecoming night game against the #3 team in the country, it sure seemed like the visitors were way more pumped up than the home squad. 11) I am convinced that several players on this team "mailed in" the season from day one. Fortunately, they'll all be gone next year. No names, please, but I am not referring to Jenkins, Laurinaitis, or Boeckman.... 12) This is Ohio State. There are no moral victories, no good losses, no learning experiences. The Buckeyes are supposed to win 80-90% of their games, and last night's contest was one that should have gone in the "win" column. No excuses. 13) After the USC game, I said that the Buckeyes' season was officially "over", and that Tressel should start Terrelle Pryor for the remainder of the year so that he could gain valuable experience for the 2009 season. It worked. Now I'm saying that the Big Ten season is officially "over", and that Tressel should open up the offensive play book so that Pryor can gain valuable experience for the 2009 season. Please listen.... Last edited by LordJeffBuck; 10-26-2008 at 09:36 AM.          
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10-26-2008, 10:00 AM
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Personally, I was very impressed with the defense last night.
I dont think the PSU offense stunk, I think the D just played that well. As for the offense, the game was lost on the offensive line. I have never seen such ineptitude. Get out of your stance and BLOCK SOMEBODY That was just flat out the worst o-line play I have ever seen.
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10-26-2008, 10:20 AM
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10-26-2008, 10:25 AM
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I believe it is hard to change up the play calling if we can't get the O-line play to be what we need it to be....
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10-26-2008, 10:28 AM
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10-26-2008, 10:35 AM
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10-26-2008, 10:36 AM
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Point 1 - I disagree thought it was a great game... I like those types of games. Two extremely fundamental sound teams playing great football.
Point 2 - Agree 100%. He is getting too many freshman mistake passes. BS, protect the ball get the first. It was that simple. Point 3 - Agree. They get the first.. game over! Beanie had it the play before... Surprised there was no measurement. Point 4 - Maybe being a little harsh, but interesting take and point of view Point 5 - Agree on the talent but I thought they played well enough to win Point 6 - We are getting better talent there for sure. Point 7 - We had to be watching a different game in regards to the D. Thought they played really well. We got a ton of pressure for a change. I honestly would give them an A- as a whole. Point 8 - No way a team only makes on penalty a game.. NO WAY Point 9 - Don't care what people think... Every loss sucks.. big game or not.. they all blow Point 10 - Fully disagree.... They were ready to play for sure.. More energy from that game then I saw all year Point 11 - There is no doubt about that.. Point 12 - Two good teams played bro, OSU made the mistakes.. PSU wins. Point 13 - I personally think part of the reason why we lost is because we tried to have TP do too much. It is ok to feed Beanie for 2-3 yards a lot because he will break one, we can play action, and that is what we do best IMO. GREAT POST LJB
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10-26-2008, 10:36 AM
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Jury is still out on the PSU offense I guess as Ohio State is the first quality opponent they have played. I thought the Buckeye D looked great, but I guess I'll need to see how PSU does when they run up against their bowl opponent (Texas, USC, Alabama, whoever) to get a true sense of their offense. I expect PSU to roll through the remainder of their schedule.
This is a rebuilding season whether we want to say it or not. Fans obviously weren't expecting that after last season getting 20 starters back, but that's where we are. Last year should have been, but for whatever reason those players that should have gotten better b/w last year and this year didn't. They are the same and in some cases worse. No rebuilding or re loading or whatever took place between last year and this year. Penn State reloaded after last year and came back a much better team. Why didn't that happen here? The O line play has been horrid and that seems to be a recurring theme over the last few years. Why?
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10-26-2008, 10:37 AM
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I am not sure about your comment that Pryor could have made 10 to 15 yards on the interception. You may be correct that he would have made that much yardage. However, I thought the replay showed two PSU players on that side of the field in the short zone.
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10-26-2008, 10:46 AM
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10-26-2008, 10:51 AM
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What I noticed from Sec AA row 8:
They killed us in the field position game all night. Our play calling was very predicatable. Why won't we throw to the tight ends anymore. Jake Ballard was wide open in the middle of the field on one play without a defender in site. TP never even looked his way. Finally, our defense had better get back to the basics and learn to wrap up and tackle. I could not count how may times the right defense was called and the hole was plugged, only to watch the back roll off our tackles and gain another 5-10 yards.
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10-26-2008, 10:56 AM
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Also, see Buckin' A's post on the tackling.... Quote:
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10-26-2008, 11:05 AM
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