• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Game Thread Buffalo Bulls at tOSU, Aug 31, 12 ET, ESPN2

Listened to the game as we driving to the Outer Banks in NC for vacation. That made the last leg of our drive more entertaining but frustrating to say the least. Can't wait to see the game (and if my DVR performed its weekend assignment). Will miss seeing the next game too as we are driving home. We'll be able to listen on Sirius XM again - thank God for that.

Observation - Dontre Wilson "sounds" fast. How did he "look"?
 
Upvote 0
Last year as a team we had 30 sacks...I think for us to be undefeated and play in a national championship we have to have at least 30 sacks...the one thing I thought we lacked yesterday was getting consistent pressure on the QB...spence had the one sack and that was it...against a team like Buffalo that cant happen...other then that I think our defense played OK...plenty of things to work on before the CAL game...and of course having barnett and roby back will not hurt
 
Upvote 0
Last year as a team we had 30 sacks...I think for us to be undefeated and play in a national championship we have to have at least 30 sacks...the one thing I thought we lacked yesterday was getting consistent pressure on the QB...spence had the one sack and that was it...against a team like Buffalo that cant happen...other then that I think our defense played OK...plenty of things to work on before the CAL game...and of course having barnett and roby back will not hurt
Roby was missd for sure.
 
Upvote 0
Listened to the game as we driving to the Outer Banks in NC for vacation. That made the last leg of our drive more entertaining but frustrating to say the least. Can't wait to see the game (and if my DVR performed its weekend assignment). Will miss seeing the next game too as we are driving home. We'll be able to listen on Sirius XM again - thank God for that.

Observation - Dontre Wilson "sounds" fast. How did he "look"?
Dontre has another gear that I haven't noticed since TG3. His first touch was a swing pass out of the backfield and if not for an arm that tripped him up, I think he would've taken it to the house. he will be a fun weapon to watch if we can figure out ways to get him into space.
 
Upvote 0
I think the vanilla offense play calling is getting thrown around too much, this definitely wasn't tressel ball. The strength of this team is the read option and they weren't trying to get braxton hurt so they left him out of the run game the entire first half so that hurts its effectiveness. You can't complain about any of the first half play calling, we had 30 points through a quarter and a half. Braxton wasn't at full strength the whole time so I'm sure that caused hesitation in the second half. Not gonna show all our cards in the first game against a MAC team unless our back is against the wall. Dontre Wilson will be used more going forward because he brings something we don't have. The offense doesn't have anything to complain about other than Decker and we ran for 260 yards at almost 6 yards a pop and had a 70% completion percentage.
 
Upvote 0
Not many (maybe 1 or 2) designed runs for Braxton. I really think that once we face CAL that Hermon will use this option more. I was impressed by his patience in the pocket though. But it's the designed runs that really stretch a Defense. JMO.
 
Upvote 0
First time reading through this thread and I do have to say that I am surprised there is so much angst in Buckeye Nation. I thought that it wasn't a bad first game. There was plenty to like but plenty more to work on. Just a few thoughts

Braxton- Mechanics are MUCH better. Progressions are a little better. Both seemed to break down as the game progressed. His issue with cramps most likely effected his mechanics.

Wilson is electric.

Bosa will make the loss of Schutt a bit more manageable

WR's looked open all day. Great job running their routes.

Decker needs to improve or we will be in trouble. That said he looks to have the frame and athletic ability to be a player.

Reeves got abused. It wasn't just the fact that they completed so many passes to his side. It was the fact that the coverage was not that bad, but the Buffalo WR was so much more physical then he was that he was able to make the catches on the slants anyway. Also compared to Roby or D Grant, he did not come up and make the tackle on the WR screen as fast. And on at least one WR Screen he missed a tackle. I am not ready to write him off after 1 game, but this year Roby and Grant need to stay healthy for this team to get to the promised land.

Rush Offense- The blocking allowed Jordan Hall to run through some really big holes. This may be a bright spot because I really don't think you will see a full commitment to the read option play (with Braxton running) until we meet a opponent that the coaching staff feels can challenge us.

Pass Offense- Braxton completed 68% of his passes, including at least one vertical route. Play calling got very conservative as the game went on. That said this was Buffalo and Braxton should have performed better in the 2nd half.

Rush Defense- Lost in all the hand wringing on the pass rush is that the Defense did a great job limiting Buffalo to under 100 yards rushing. Remember this was a Buffalo team that the concern was that Oliver could get some yards on us. The almost all new front 7 did a pretty good job in this area.

Pass Defense- Much have been said in this thread the lack of sacks.It hard to get sacks on WR Screens and Slants. Buffalo did not try and go vertical on to many occasions and when they did there was pressure. Before I panic lets see what we look like with Roby and Barnett.
 
Upvote 0
First time reading through this thread and I do have to say that I am surprised there is so much angst in Buckeye Nation. I thought that it wasn't a bad first game. There was plenty to like but plenty more to work on. Just a few thoughts

Braxton- Mechanics are MUCH better. Progressions are a little better. Both seemed to break down as the game progressed. His issue with cramps most likely effected his mechanics.

Wilson is electric.

Bosa will make the loss of Schutt a bit more manageable

WR's looked open all day. Great job running their routes.

Decker needs to improve or we will be in trouble. That said he looks to have the frame and athletic ability to be a player.

Reeves got abused. It wasn't just the fact that they completed so many passes to his side. It was the fact that the coverage was not that bad, but the Buffalo WR was so much more physical then he was that he was able to make the catches on the slants anyway. Also compared to Roby or D Grant, he did not come up and make the tackle on the WR screen as fast. And on at least one WR Screen he missed a tackle. I am not ready to write him off after 1 game, but this year Roby and Grant need to stay healthy for this team to get to the promised land.

Rush Offense- The blocking allowed Jordan Hall to run through some really big holes. This may be a bright spot because I really don't think you will see a full commitment to the read option play (with Braxton running) until we meet a opponent that the coaching staff feels can challenge us.

Pass Offense- Braxton completed 68% of his passes, including at least one vertical route. Play calling got very conservative as the game went on. That said this was Buffalo and Braxton should have performed better in the 2nd half.

Rush Defense- Lost in all the hand wringing on the pass rush is that the Defense did a great job limiting Buffalo to under 100 yards rushing. Remember this was a Buffalo team that the concern was that Oliver could get some yards on us. The almost all new front 7 did a pretty good job in this area.

Pass Defense- Much have been said in this thread the lack of sacks.It hard to get sacks on WR Screens and Slants. Buffalo did not try and go vertical on to many occasions and when they did there was pressure. Before I panic lets see what we look like with Roby and Barnett.

I concur!
 
Upvote 0
In case you wondered too (and it hasn't already been posted) I wondered why the US flag was at half mast:

The American flag inside Ohio Stadium flew at half-mast on Saturday in honor of former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan.
Gilligan died on Monday at his home in Cincinnati, surrounded by his wife and family. He was 92.
Gilligan earned a Silver Star in WW II.
He was Ohio's governor from 1971-75 and a member of Congress from 1965-67.

http://www.news-herald.com/sports/20130831/ohio-state-football-sights-stats-and-sounds
 
Upvote 0
It's hard not to be thinking bigger picture after yesterday.

To me, Urb's plan is pretty clear. Recruit like hell, create a competitive atmosphere among players, limited red shirting, and observe as the cream rises to the top from game to game. At almost every post game presser he won't commit too much on specifics until he watches film and breaks it down. That is outstanding coaching if you ask me. The kind that gets 12-0 out of a team that other coaches guide to an 8-4 mark their first year and would only dream of having ranked #2 in the preseason this year.

We talk about preseason bias with the SEC, etc but stop and ask yourself if we don't have that type thing going on in our favor this year. It's based on Urb's track record, recent recruiting success, and a soft schedule. We are ranked that high based on how we are perceived to be at the end of the season. Did we play like a #2 team yesterday? Not hardly. Will we drop in the polls? Possibly. If so will it bother me? Not much.

We are building a team to compete at the highest level each year and that will come at the expense of sloppier games and tough stretches as a fan but we will be better for it. Call me overly optimistic but I think the staff knows exactly what they are doing and many of the mistakes were basically expected. Think Decker isn't better off after yesterdays education? I know some have suggested it was a mistake by the staff leaving him exposed to Mack yesterday and I think it's short sighted. That's what an 8-4 coach does...well actually an 8-4 coach wouldn't have coached Decker yesterday because he would have been playing Temple instead of Buffalo.

We will have growing pains along the road to "competitive excellence" as Urb likes to call it. I'm ok with that.
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top