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2017 tOSU Defense Discussion

Yet 100% of us would take [the J.T. Barrett who struggled against Virginia Tech] over current JT... kind of scary right?
If that is true, it is only true in hindsight. Immediately after the loss to Virginia Tech., the majority views (or at least the most frequently expressed views) on this website were very negative toward the O-line, Barrett, the receivers, the offense in general, and Tom Herman. Virtually nobody (and I'm adding "virtually" only as a CYA) at the time thought the team was going to make enormous improvements and become a national champion caliber team, that the offense would become consistently strong, or that Barrett would accumulate huge offensive stats that year.
 
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If that is true, it is only true in hindsight. Immediately after the loss to Virginia Tech., the majority views (or at least the most frequently expressed views) on this website were very negative toward the O-line, Barrett, the receivers, the offense in general, and Tom Herman. Virtually nobody (and I'm adding "virtually" only as a CYA) at the time thought the team was going to make enormous improvements and become a national champion caliber team, that the offense would become consistently strong, or that Barrett would accumulate huge offensive stats that year.
From what I recall we were very upset with the Oline and the fact that we went deep so often
 
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From what I recall we were very upset with the Oline and the fact that we went deep so often
You're right that much of the commentary on Barrett was forgiving, based on the pocket pressure he faced. On the other hand, Tom Herman was raked over the coals in that game thread. And I don't think anyone was expecting the offense to become powerful, as it did.

That could happen this year, but it very well may not. But I will say this: put November-January 2014 Devin Smith on this team right now, and I think they become dangerous.
 
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If that is true, it is only true in hindsight. Immediately after the loss to Virginia Tech., the majority views (or at least the most frequently expressed views) on this website were very negative toward the O-line, Barrett, the receivers, the offense in general, and Tom Herman. Virtually nobody (and I'm adding "virtually" only as a CYA) at the time thought the team was going to make enormous improvements and become a national champion caliber team, that the offense would become consistently strong, or that Barrett would accumulate huge offensive stats that year.

I felt really good about JT after that game. But otherwise, yea, dead on. It was a bad day for him, but you could see the potential and how he was going to play going forward. He had poise despite the shitfest and could already see the connection between him and Thomas developing. The OLine and Herman made huge improvements that put JT in position to succeed. Plus the emergence of Eze, Thomas, Wilson until he got injured... added a lot to the "run for your life" offense that took Braxton out the season before despite losing Corey.


Anyway, since this was supposed to be about D ... hopefully today helped a little ?? Don't really know what to say. The 2 weakest units on the team, imo, are pass offense and pass defense. The latter wasnt tested, but at least got some solid live tackling in... they were very active flowing down to the run.
Next game is basically another high-level practice session too. And then Mighty Rutgers... hopefully they use these games to get things ironed out and build some confidence.
 
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I'd have to see it again and get some input from X and O guys but Webb's coverage is bad. I mean real bad.

Iirc, he had the bust that would have been a TD if not underthrown so badly Smith could come over and knock it down. I also think it was his guy that caught the 3rd down conversion (one of their 2 completions) and Meyer just hung his head and starred into the ground.

Overall defensively I don't know where all the positive vibes are coming from. Army ran at it's usual 4.5 YPC, they treat 3rd and 4th down basically the same so the combined "money down" percentage was 37% which is again, right on their average. Look at it this way; OSU's horde of 4 and 5 star recruits just held Army to 1/2 yard per carry less than Buffalo did. Pretty much any other stat you want to look at was slightly better than what Buffalo held them to but not by a lot.

I don't know, the Army offense is what it is so maybe I shouldn't look at it this way but I am still in "whatever" mode with this team until I see what they do against a team of similar athletic ability.
 
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