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- Thread starter BB73
- Start date
I'm part of a generation that takes a loss in The Game rather hard. Still a bit too raw for me to really comment. It is especially disappointing to lose that because the nature of the game will change so much from next year.
Ohio State has some deep thinking to do. Line play has been improving but the O line really got pushed in that last series. Coaching and rotation come to mind. Special teams is a dog's breakfast and needs to get completely cleaned up. That 36yd punt in the first quarter was terrible. How good will Ohio State be at quarterback next year and whom should it be taking the field. The first interception was the difference in the game. The second interception, McCord was hit as he threw. I don't think that this was on the defense and I think Knowles can be proud of what he put on the field this year. As for Day, the Cooper pattern is obvious to see, but take away the losses due to cheating, still not sure. What is certain is that the chair he sits in next year will be hotter than it was.
Ohio State has some deep thinking to do. Line play has been improving but the O line really got pushed in that last series. Coaching and rotation come to mind. Special teams is a dog's breakfast and needs to get completely cleaned up. That 36yd punt in the first quarter was terrible. How good will Ohio State be at quarterback next year and whom should it be taking the field. The first interception was the difference in the game. The second interception, McCord was hit as he threw. I don't think that this was on the defense and I think Knowles can be proud of what he put on the field this year. As for Day, the Cooper pattern is obvious to see, but take away the losses due to cheating, still not sure. What is certain is that the chair he sits in next year will be hotter than it was.
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baremu527
Senior
You need time. There’s literally only two coaches in modern history who have won instantly and big out the gate and we had one of them (Urban). He also wears out his welcome/deserts everywhere he goes but that’s another story.
I’m confident that Day can get us over the hump. We have been knocking on the door every year. Just can’t get in. I see a Kirby Smart comparison before I see a Cooper one.
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We have an entire generation that doesn't know what the Cooper years were like, and have been spoiled by Tressel and Meyer's dominance of The Game. scUM is in Day's head now. It is a fucking fireable offense for a OSU coach to have players who think of scUM as just another game. Period. INEXCUSABLE.
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cincibuck
You kids stay off my lawn!
So, I put The Button away still waiting for its fortieth win - could jump to seeking 43 - before the next season starts. The flag remains outside just to show the neighbors that I'm not a fair weather fan.The reason why it's The Game, and not just some shit show like Okie - Okie State, ND - USC, U Wash - Wazoo, Texass - Aggie, is because the two teams are consistently among the best in the nation and the series is balanced - especially if you take away the 19th century. For that reason the whole nation focuses on The Game, not just the local yahoos.
I'm disappointed, yes. Heartbroken? No, I experienced that during my freshman year, March 1962, and it lasted for more than a year. Disaster? No, I saw that in some tiny plot of ground called Fire Support Base Julie. It just hurts. Like my big toe on my left foot hurt when I stubbed it on the kitchen counter base.
So what's my point. It was one hell of a battle with the outcome in doubt until just 20 seconds were left on the clock. Both teams will still be great again for the same reasons: money, facilities, fanbases, alums, traditions. I'm putting my thoughts into next year, in the 'shoe. My button goes back into storage. The TBDBITL cd comes out of the car player. Thanks to the 2023 Bucks for a great year. I'll be back. The Bucks will be back. O - H!
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Buckeneye
I lead, you follow.
Notes so far.
1st half.
- tOSU had 33 plays for 216 yards at 6.54 yards per play.
- 6 drives total
- In the first 4 drives there were 2 punts (3 and out, 5 and done) and and INT that put scUM at the 7 yard line.
- 10 total points.
scUM had
- 29 plays for 119 yards at 4.1 yards per play. 14 total points. ZERO turnovers.
2nd half.
OSU - 27 plays, 185 yards. 6.86 Yards per play.
4 drives
2 TD's
punt
INT.
While our net YPP increased, and we had scores on 50% of our drives, the defense began struggling. But there's also to consider the hole we had dug ourselves from the first half. Can't stress enough, even in 2023, how Tresselball has relevancy. You can't turn the ball over, you can't lose field position or give up big plays. We did the former in the 1st half, and the latter two in the 2nd half.
scUM - 33 plays, 221 yards. 6.69 Yards per play
Further notes for Offense:
The biggest theme for this team, quite literally most of the entire season, has been how slow and lethargic this offense has been for the 1st half. Not the first couple drives or the 1st qtr, but the whole damn half. 2/6 drives netted points. While, again, one of those drives handed points directly to TTUN. You can't have a trend of digging holes and expect to climb out of every single one. I can't fault the defense for the 1st half at all. Knowles and the Bullets got it done. Offense doesn't hand them a gimmie TD on a bad read and throw, and you're likely sitting up 10-3, possibly even 13-3 at the half. That 7 points is a winning margin, by the way.
Also can't help but feel there is, what was called in his earlier Cleveland tenure, the "Lebron James" effect with McCord having Marv on the offense. He's such a dominant player, that you often find yourself having your eyes on him longer than you should. I suppose the football comparison would be when Megatron was in Detroit. Calvin was such a freak of a player that, in your mind, the coverage almost doesn't matter. It was incredibly clear from the outside that Marv was getting a bracket thrown his way. That first INT was scUM rolling into cloud that side, and their DB's taking away positive (interior) breaks. Means their corners to get play aggressive short and inside. That really didn't change much of the game. The adjustment off of that was to move Marv around and get him different routes. Coaches did that when they got him on that shallow drag from the #2 spot. Run the #3 up field, let the DB's carry and Marv just drags underneath for an easy walk in. Downside? I feel like they got to those calls too late. The narrative that Day was a bit conservative has some legs to it. If you get any sort of double move to Marv early, he gets 1 on 1 with a boundary safety. Even if he doesn't come down with the ball, that's a better matchup downfield with the potential of drawing some laundry than launching a ball directly at a squat corner. Plus that backs corners off, even in a cloud, just a bit to protect dead spots in rotation. You'll also threaten the eyes of that cloud safety and this sets up plays to attack his leverage later.
McCord hung Double E out to dry. On that hit to Ebuka, we ran four verticals against the scUM split field coverage. Looks like cover 6? Kyle didn't move or hold the field safety who was reading #2 to #3. I will say that a middle field read means Stover could have bent this past the LB carrying him upfield. Gives his QB a better throwing lane. Regardless, the eyes have to protect your receivers. Wasn't bad ball placement to the outside shoulder, just not enough to move the safety.
Another theme with the scUM LB's and DB's was that early they were aggressive downhill and underneath. Snuck Stover upfield on that seam for a big gain Then scUm was more than content in the 2nd half taking away vertical shots. LB's carrying aggressively upfield, DB's stemming top down, etc etc. The counter to that would be to work the running backs underneath, play patient and earn those patient yards. All that clearout would force scUM to honor the backfield again and then you could go back to attacking downfield once their LB's and DB's would get caught sitting flat footed or not getting enough depth. But that early throw where Trey got lit up early made McCord gun shy on taking those throws in the 2nd half. So when you hear "short memory" in football speak, this is where it can be a good thing. Yeah, your boy got housed on a pass early. But he shook it off and now the defense is giving you those throws - take them. Several times we had a RB release and Kyle could have taken the easy throw, the cheap yards, but he held on deep to short for too long. This is where I circle back around to the Marv "Lebron James/Megatron" type effect.
Notes for defense:
2nd half was a different story. I noticed the adjustments by the scUM coaching staff and how the Bucks struggled on defense.
- scUM went to more misdirection. They would use ghost and run their pulls weakside. Several times, each time for an explosive play given up, were the LB's and DB's making mistakes. Tommy and Steele struggled a lot in the 2nd half. Not to be rude, but both of their NFL stocks took a serious hit yesterday. When you line up and run right at them? Fine, no big deal. They can handle that all day. But when we have gap exchanges, and needing people to stay at home or correctly follow pulls and not chase ghosts, LB's chased or over pursed the entire 2nd half. Not just in run fits, but mental mistakes in coverage as well. The big gain to #89 playing that gravedigger TE. He's inline but backfield. So they just ran the HB on a wheel and let him time his release underneath. We had LB's chasing the same player post snap (the wheel), leaving that seam throw wide open. Couldn't have been easier for JJ. Can't lose your head or your eyes.
Styles - big wiff on the misdirection/backside pull. Way out of his gap. Gave up an explosive run which lead to a TD.
Also Sonny late downhill trigger, wiffs on tackle for the Corum TD. He struggled to come from depth today, take a good angle and explode through tackles.
Both he and Proctor got beat on the HB double pass. Likely that's Proctors primary cover. Since a blocker is out in the pattern, that means Sonny has to fly from backfield why Josh carries the TE. Either way, bad eyes from both. Too many times our LB's and DB's got lost on the field, starring at the action in front of them. On that last big run by Corum, the bounce outside with just over 2 minutes left. Burke backed off when he had kill responsibility on that. He's already playing off coverage, you can't continue to gain depth in an obvious clock-killing, running situation. Not sure where his head was at there, but it wasn't in the moment. What's worse, is it makes you look soft on film. Offenses are going to think you're not willing to come down and get involved in the run fit.
Dline wasn't bad. Didn't generate the pressure you'd consistently like to see up front with the 4. At the moment we lack that twitchy edge rush. Gave up the edge on JJ's big scramble which lead to a FG. So more points on the board for them.
All in all, this felt like the inverse of the Tressel years. Right when we would need a play back then, just a little magic, we got it both on offense and defense. If the offense went cold, the defense did their thing. But we rarely turned the ball over putting the defense in bad spots. Vice versa, if the defense was trying to find their legs, the offense would come out and put together a drive or two. Yesterday it was scUM who had the plays at the right time, while winning the mental and emotional game.
1a - turnovers
1b - execution
1c - some late adjustments and questionable early calls on offense.
I don't see anyone with that Troy Smith gleam in their eyes anymore. I see talent, especially at the receiver spots. But I'm not seeing that dynamic where players rise in the moment between the ears on either side of the ball.
1st half.
- tOSU had 33 plays for 216 yards at 6.54 yards per play.
- 6 drives total
- In the first 4 drives there were 2 punts (3 and out, 5 and done) and and INT that put scUM at the 7 yard line.
- 10 total points.
scUM had
- 29 plays for 119 yards at 4.1 yards per play. 14 total points. ZERO turnovers.
2nd half.
OSU - 27 plays, 185 yards. 6.86 Yards per play.
4 drives
2 TD's
punt
INT.
While our net YPP increased, and we had scores on 50% of our drives, the defense began struggling. But there's also to consider the hole we had dug ourselves from the first half. Can't stress enough, even in 2023, how Tresselball has relevancy. You can't turn the ball over, you can't lose field position or give up big plays. We did the former in the 1st half, and the latter two in the 2nd half.
scUM - 33 plays, 221 yards. 6.69 Yards per play
Further notes for Offense:
The biggest theme for this team, quite literally most of the entire season, has been how slow and lethargic this offense has been for the 1st half. Not the first couple drives or the 1st qtr, but the whole damn half. 2/6 drives netted points. While, again, one of those drives handed points directly to TTUN. You can't have a trend of digging holes and expect to climb out of every single one. I can't fault the defense for the 1st half at all. Knowles and the Bullets got it done. Offense doesn't hand them a gimmie TD on a bad read and throw, and you're likely sitting up 10-3, possibly even 13-3 at the half. That 7 points is a winning margin, by the way.
Also can't help but feel there is, what was called in his earlier Cleveland tenure, the "Lebron James" effect with McCord having Marv on the offense. He's such a dominant player, that you often find yourself having your eyes on him longer than you should. I suppose the football comparison would be when Megatron was in Detroit. Calvin was such a freak of a player that, in your mind, the coverage almost doesn't matter. It was incredibly clear from the outside that Marv was getting a bracket thrown his way. That first INT was scUM rolling into cloud that side, and their DB's taking away positive (interior) breaks. Means their corners to get play aggressive short and inside. That really didn't change much of the game. The adjustment off of that was to move Marv around and get him different routes. Coaches did that when they got him on that shallow drag from the #2 spot. Run the #3 up field, let the DB's carry and Marv just drags underneath for an easy walk in. Downside? I feel like they got to those calls too late. The narrative that Day was a bit conservative has some legs to it. If you get any sort of double move to Marv early, he gets 1 on 1 with a boundary safety. Even if he doesn't come down with the ball, that's a better matchup downfield with the potential of drawing some laundry than launching a ball directly at a squat corner. Plus that backs corners off, even in a cloud, just a bit to protect dead spots in rotation. You'll also threaten the eyes of that cloud safety and this sets up plays to attack his leverage later.
McCord hung Double E out to dry. On that hit to Ebuka, we ran four verticals against the scUM split field coverage. Looks like cover 6? Kyle didn't move or hold the field safety who was reading #2 to #3. I will say that a middle field read means Stover could have bent this past the LB carrying him upfield. Gives his QB a better throwing lane. Regardless, the eyes have to protect your receivers. Wasn't bad ball placement to the outside shoulder, just not enough to move the safety.
Another theme with the scUM LB's and DB's was that early they were aggressive downhill and underneath. Snuck Stover upfield on that seam for a big gain Then scUm was more than content in the 2nd half taking away vertical shots. LB's carrying aggressively upfield, DB's stemming top down, etc etc. The counter to that would be to work the running backs underneath, play patient and earn those patient yards. All that clearout would force scUM to honor the backfield again and then you could go back to attacking downfield once their LB's and DB's would get caught sitting flat footed or not getting enough depth. But that early throw where Trey got lit up early made McCord gun shy on taking those throws in the 2nd half. So when you hear "short memory" in football speak, this is where it can be a good thing. Yeah, your boy got housed on a pass early. But he shook it off and now the defense is giving you those throws - take them. Several times we had a RB release and Kyle could have taken the easy throw, the cheap yards, but he held on deep to short for too long. This is where I circle back around to the Marv "Lebron James/Megatron" type effect.
Notes for defense:
2nd half was a different story. I noticed the adjustments by the scUM coaching staff and how the Bucks struggled on defense.
- scUM went to more misdirection. They would use ghost and run their pulls weakside. Several times, each time for an explosive play given up, were the LB's and DB's making mistakes. Tommy and Steele struggled a lot in the 2nd half. Not to be rude, but both of their NFL stocks took a serious hit yesterday. When you line up and run right at them? Fine, no big deal. They can handle that all day. But when we have gap exchanges, and needing people to stay at home or correctly follow pulls and not chase ghosts, LB's chased or over pursed the entire 2nd half. Not just in run fits, but mental mistakes in coverage as well. The big gain to #89 playing that gravedigger TE. He's inline but backfield. So they just ran the HB on a wheel and let him time his release underneath. We had LB's chasing the same player post snap (the wheel), leaving that seam throw wide open. Couldn't have been easier for JJ. Can't lose your head or your eyes.
Styles - big wiff on the misdirection/backside pull. Way out of his gap. Gave up an explosive run which lead to a TD.
Also Sonny late downhill trigger, wiffs on tackle for the Corum TD. He struggled to come from depth today, take a good angle and explode through tackles.
Both he and Proctor got beat on the HB double pass. Likely that's Proctors primary cover. Since a blocker is out in the pattern, that means Sonny has to fly from backfield why Josh carries the TE. Either way, bad eyes from both. Too many times our LB's and DB's got lost on the field, starring at the action in front of them. On that last big run by Corum, the bounce outside with just over 2 minutes left. Burke backed off when he had kill responsibility on that. He's already playing off coverage, you can't continue to gain depth in an obvious clock-killing, running situation. Not sure where his head was at there, but it wasn't in the moment. What's worse, is it makes you look soft on film. Offenses are going to think you're not willing to come down and get involved in the run fit.
Dline wasn't bad. Didn't generate the pressure you'd consistently like to see up front with the 4. At the moment we lack that twitchy edge rush. Gave up the edge on JJ's big scramble which lead to a FG. So more points on the board for them.
All in all, this felt like the inverse of the Tressel years. Right when we would need a play back then, just a little magic, we got it both on offense and defense. If the offense went cold, the defense did their thing. But we rarely turned the ball over putting the defense in bad spots. Vice versa, if the defense was trying to find their legs, the offense would come out and put together a drive or two. Yesterday it was scUM who had the plays at the right time, while winning the mental and emotional game.
1a - turnovers
1b - execution
1c - some late adjustments and questionable early calls on offense.
I don't see anyone with that Troy Smith gleam in their eyes anymore. I see talent, especially at the receiver spots. But I'm not seeing that dynamic where players rise in the moment between the ears on either side of the ball.
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baremu527
Senior
Again, I’m calling for Day’s job if he starts doing Cooper-esuqe things and we lose to Maryland, Mich st, and or Rutgers and have an 8-3, 9-2 record heading into Michigan. If we are consistently over 10 wins/undefeated by Michigan weekend, I’m willing to stick with him unless he is getting blown out in the game or by OOC match ups (like Tressel did and Meyer did at the end).
Hey, I’m just trying to help put things in perspective. This is the last year of the game as we know it and moving forward the game is not going to stop us from reaching our ultimate goals no matter the outcome. Now, considering we might have to play them three times to win a championship, we obviously have to beat them eventually. Thanksgiving weekend just won’t be our only most meaningful shot at doing it. That’s all I’m saying.
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Onebuckfan
classof76
He had arguably the MvP and rookie of the year and couldn’t win. It wasn’t CJ we know that now it was Day.
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baremu527
Senior
Serious question: Would the “beat Michigan or else/gold pants mean more than championships ” crowd really be upset and think the program is in turmoil if in the next three years we won a natty in the playoffs, but only beat Michigan once for “the game”. Like would you still be calling for Day’s head then? On the flip side, if he beat Michigan every year from on out, but we had 2-3 loses in conference routinely and never made any playoff noise, yall would be happy?
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Onebuckfan
classof76
Optimism I like it. If scUM falls off the map that’s our hope. That the NCAA treats the Harvard of the Midwest like SMU. Cheating scUM will be relegated to OSU message boards only by Jan. 10.
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Buckeneye
I lead, you follow.
This is a blue-blood program that recruits at the highest levels. You have top tier facilities, money and structure. If scUM is a good team, then we just failed the greatest benchmark of how we measure success - by beating other good teams. But not only that, your arch nemesis.
The problem is believing it has to be one or the other. Consistently win against who is in front of you, while putting a special emphasis on The Game. Pretty straight forward stuff.
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