Game Thread Cal Bears at tOSU - Sat, Sep 15, Noon ABC

[Coqui]

Play of the game?

Not what the Buckeyes did.

Also not what the Cal Bears did...it's what they didn't do.

4th and 1 with around 4:00 minutes to go...and although they've been moving the ball on us all day....they bring out their crappy FG kicker to try a 40+ yarder...missed of course.

As the underdog and visiting team...they don't go for it?!?!

Don't get me wrong, I was happy they didn't, but if they go for it, and get a 1st down..they can run the clock way down before attempting a much shorter FG.....and we are basically cooked.

The football Gods were smiling on the Buckeyes at the end of the 4th quarter on Saturday.

The game is tied, you're holding the other offense to pretty much 3 and outs on a consistent basis. You're in FG range. Do you go for it and be up by 3 and try to get another 3 and out? Do you go for 4th and short and hope they make it (yes you have been advancing the ball but you've also been stopped for losses as well)

 

[scarletngray]

I, too, am surprised that they didn't go for it. I think that they had a better chance at making 1 yd than they did the FG. Glad they did though. And glad they missed. And glad we won the game.

:osu:

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

The game is tied, you're holding the other offense to pretty much 3 and outs on a consistent basis. You're in FG range. Do you go for it and be up by 3 and try to get another 3 and out? Do you go for 4th and short and hope they make it (yes you have been advancing the ball but you've also been stopped for losses as well)

yes, you're in field goal range... for decent kickers. d'amato is not a decent kicker. not including the last missed kick, he was 3/8 from 40-49 and only 1/3 from 30-39. furthermore, he had already missed 2 from about the same distance. his confidence was likely shot.

so, you had a single yard to go. you're playing away from home. your season is not on the line. you go for it.

 

[Coqui]

yes, you're in field goal range... for decent kickers. d'amato is not a decent kicker. not including the last missed kick, he was 3/8 from 40-49 and only 1/3 from 30-39. furthermore, he had already missed 2 from about the same distance. his confidence was likely shot.

so, you had a single yard to go. you're playing away from home. your season is not on the line. you go for it.

And you've also failed twice on 4th down conversions already.

 

[BUCKDUBBS007]

Someone please explain to me how it is possible that we dropped 4 spots in the AP rankings to #16 after beating Cal by 7 points, not covering the spread of course, but along the same lines last week scUM beats Air Force by only 6 points, did not cover the spread, and also had 1 loss but STILL moved up 2 spots in the poll then?????

 

[darbypitcher22]

ugly looking second half by all accounts but a win is a win is a win. On to UAB week.

 

[Gothmog8]

Someone please explain to me how it is possible that we dropped 4 spots in the AP rankings to #16 after beating Cal by 7 points, not covering the spread of course, but along the same lines last week scUM beats Air Force by only 6 points, did not cover the spread, and also had 1 loss but STILL moved up 2 spots in the poll then?????

They needed to make sure they had enough room for Stanford, USC, ND, and Florida.

 

[JXC]

Someone please explain to me how it is possible that we dropped 4 spots in the AP rankings to #16 after beating Cal by 7 points, not covering the spread of course, but along the same lines last week scUM beats Air Force by only 6 points, did not cover the spread, and also had 1 loss but STILL moved up 2 spots in the poll then?????

Because people actually watched this game.

 

[buxfan4life]

After watching that game, I don't see this team losing less than 3 games on this schedule. The defense has been suspect to the edge game, and tackling technique seems to have taken a step backwards.

Offense is improving, but there were some clearly missed assignments in the blocking schemes on a handful of plays. Also, it seemed to me that on a few of the called passing plays some of the WRs didn't really run the routes hard. It was almost as if they knew they weren't getting the ball so they were only going through the motions.

Overall, I would have to agree with Meyer's statement that this is an average football team right now, and that is OK. This truly is a rebuilding year since there is a new coaching staff and new offensive playbook being implemented. As long as they progress through out the year, I will be a very happy Buckeye.

 

[fanaticbuckeye]

After watching that game, I don't see this team losing less than 3 games on this schedule. The defense has been suspect to the edge game, and tackling technique seems to have taken a step backwards.

Offense is improving, but there were some clearly missed assignments in the blocking schemes on a handful of plays. Also, it seemed to me that on a few of the called passing plays some of the WRs didn't really run the routes hard. It was almost as if they knew they weren't getting the ball so they were only going through the motions.

Overall, I would have to agree with Meyer's statement that this is an average football team right now, and that is OK. This truly is a rebuilding year since there is a new coaching staff and new offensive playbook being implemented. As long as they progress through out the year, I will be a very happy Buckeye.

I don't necessarily disagree with you, that this team is clearly rebuilding and is not functioning at a 'good' level yet. I just don't know that I see three teams with enough to beat us on both sides of the ball. I could see MSU. ttun looks like a wet paper bag on defense; Denard is certainly dynamic and is a problem for any defense not named Bama. Nebraska has the potential if they play a great game, but at this point I don't see that happening. Maybe, Purdue? But I don't see that either.

Maybe I am being a homer?

edit: I know the rebuttal is, "we lost to teams last year..." But the current coaching staff is better. I feel Cal was one of those games last year that we would have lost.

 

[Buckeye86]

Overall, I would have to agree with Meyer's statement that this is an average football team right now, and that is OK. This truly is a rebuilding year since there is a new coaching staff and new offensive playbook being implemented. As long as they progress through out the year, I will be a very happy Buckeye.

I agree with this but remain optimistic about winning every game.

I have said it many times before, but I never expect Ohio State to lose a game prior to kick off. The only thing that changes for me is my confidence level.

I think Michigan State will be a challenge but their offense looked absolutely horrendous against Notre Dame.

I think Nebraska will be a challenge but their defense looked bad against UCLA.

After that it looks like quite a few games on the schedule (with the possible exception of Purdue with a stout defense and a quick hitting passing offense that could give us trouble) in which the Buckeyes will be able to work out the kinks and continue to get better before the big challenges at the end of the season.

 

[exhawg]

I don't necessarily disagree with you, that this team is clearly rebuilding and is not functioning at a 'good' level yet. I just don't know that I see three teams with enough to beat us on both sides of the ball. I could see MSU. ttun looks like a wet paper bag on defense; Denard is certainly dynamic and is a problem for any defense not named Bama. Nebraska has the potential if they play a great game, but at this point I don't see that happening. Maybe, Purdue? But I don't see that either.

Maybe I am being a homer?

edit: I know the rebuttal is, "we lost to teams last year..." But the current coaching staff is better. I feel Cal was one of those games last year that we would have lost.

Forgive the example, but I think we will see improvement from the offense as Hall knocks the rust off similar to the improvement Trent Richardson showed from game 1 to game 2 for the Browns. Not saying Hall is anywhere close to Richardson, but they both missed a large chunk of time due to injury and pretty much the first live action they saw was in a game. I'd look for improvement from Hall next week and him to be hitting on all cylinders by MSU. Hopefully Hyde will be back by then to give us the power when we need short yardage.

Miller just needs to find the happy medium between running too much in the first two games and avoiding the run too much in the third. When he does tuck it and run I want to see him not hold back with the exception of going out of bounds to avoid contact when he has the opportunity. He just needs to keep improving the passing to keep the defense honest. The better passer he becomes the better the offense will be.

The poor play of the defense is alarming so they need to figure out how to stop a power running game over the next two weeks or that MSU game will have to be a shootout in order to win. I will be shocked to see anywhere near the same number of penalties next week.

 

[HorseshoeFetish]

I agree with this but remain optimistic about winning every game.

I have said it many times before, but I never expect Ohio State to lose a game prior to kick off. The only thing that changes for me is my confidence level.

I think Michigan State will be a challenge but their offense looked absolutely horrendous against Notre Dame.

I think Nebraska will be a challenge but their defense looked bad against UCLA.

After that it looks like quite a few games on the schedule (with the possible exception of Purdue with a stout defense and a quick hitting passing offense that could give us trouble) in which the Buckeyes will be able to work out the kinks and continue to get better before the big challenges at the end of the season.

If our corners are giving 15 yard cushions, and we are only rushing 3, that game might be tough to watch.

This week our team needs to come out against UAB and put them away early. They need to show that urgency in quarter 1, instead of waiting until their backs are up against it.

Unless Braxton is having the game of his life (passing), I really don't want to see him playing any time past the first series in the 3rd quarter of this game. KG needs to get some good quality reps in before the BIG schedule starts.

 

[JXC]

Forgive the example, but I think we will see improvement from the offense as Hall knocks the rust off similar to the improvement Trent Richardson showed from game 1 to game 2 for the Browns. Not saying Hall is anywhere close to Richardson, but they both missed a large chunk of time due to injury and pretty much the first live action they saw was in a game. I'd look for improvement from Hall next week and him to be hitting on all cylinders by MSU. Hopefully Hyde will be back by then to give us the power when we need short yardage.

Miller just needs to find the happy medium between running too much in the first two games and avoiding the run too much in the third. When he does tuck it and run I want to see him not hold back with the exception of going out of bounds to avoid contact when he has the opportunity. He just needs to keep improving the passing to keep the defense honest. The better passer he becomes the better the offense will be.

The poor play of the defense is alarming so they need to figure out how to stop a power running game over the next two weeks or that MSU game will have to be a shootout in order to win. I will be shocked to see anywhere near the same number of penalties next week.

If Hall was able to go up against the Bengals front 7, then he would look much improved too!

 

[MaxBuck]

If our corners are giving 15 yard cushions, and we are only rushing 3, that game might be tough to watch.

I've heard a lot of complaints about our pass defense, but our pass coverage hasn't really been our problem - it's been our tackling.