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O-Zone (Official Thread)

Water Cooler: It’s Third and 11 Late Vs. Michigan, Who’s Your QB and WR?

Dwayne-Haskins-Michigan-1170x780.jpg


With the shortage in national pastimes happening right now, we thought we’d turn to one of our other national pastimes — standing around the water cooler and arguing about sports.

So Tom Orr and myself have begun a series where we take interesting and somewhat random sports topics and lay out our thoughts on them, just as you have done and will do again once you are permitted back into your office.

Without knowing each other’s stance on every topic, however, we may not actually be arguing. But in times like these, being agreeable ain’t so bad.

So first up is maybe the most serious topic we’ll ever discuss here.

Ohio State at Michigan. It’s the fourth quarter. Just 1:45 left in the game. Ohio State has the ball and is down by four at the 50-yard line. It’s third-and-11. Which Buckeye quarterback throughout history do you want taking the snap and which Buckeye receiver do you want him throwing to?

Feel free to include your answers below, and if you’ve got any other topics you want us to tackle, let us know.

And if Tom is wrong, feel free to tell him as much.

We’ll let him go first before we get to the correct answer.

Tom Orr

This is a little tricky; not because there isn’t a good answer, but because basically every Ohio State quarterback this century qualifies as a possible answer.

Here’s a list of the quarterbacks who have led Ohio State to wins in Ann Arbor since Jim Tressel arrived: Craig Krenzel, Troy Smith, Todd Boeckman, Terrelle Pryor, Braxton Miller, JT Barrett, Dwayne Haskins, Justin Fields.

Justin Zwick and Cardale Jones were starters at other points, but had lost their jobs and had to watch wins over Michigan from the sidelines.

Only Joe Bauserman has started a game during a season when the Buckeyes played at Michigan, but didn’t win in that season, and hadn’t started a previous one.

So I guess we can take Bauserman out of the running.

Everyone else on the list at least has something on their resume that suggests they could pull this off. And that doesn’t include Joe Burrow, who would be a sneaky good pick here.

Troy Smith essentially did this in the 2005 game. His famous pass to Anthony Gonzalez happened with 0:47 on the clock, on a play from the Michigan 30 with OSU down by two points. Not exactly the scenario laid out, but pretty close.

Braxton Miller was only 6-for-15 in the 2013 game, but still threw for 133 yards and a pair of touchdowns on top of 153 rushing yards (9.6 YPC) and three more scores on the ground.

Justin Fields just humiliated Michigan in their stadium in a way that basically no one in history had ever done. He was just 14-for-25, but for 302 yards and four touchdowns in a 56-27 win.

But I have to go with Dwayne Haskins.

Haskins came off the bench as a redshirt freshman to pull off something pretty similar to the scenario laid out above. In his case, it was still the third quarter, but the Buckeyes were down 20-14, and at one point faced a 3rd-and-13 at the OSU 47.

You probably remember what happened next: Haskins zipped a pass into Austin Mack for a crucial first down, then scrambled 22 yards two plays later.

That’s what he did coming in cold off the bench as a redshirt freshman. The following year, he went 20-for-31 for 396 yards and six touchdowns against the Wolverines. Yeah, that was at home, but if the moment wasn’t too big for redshirt freshman Haskins, the redshirt sophomore version would have done just fine.

As for the receiving end, the single most important thing is to catch it. Breaking something long would be wonderful, but you just can’t drop it.

Cris Carter is widely considered one of the most sure-handed receivers in NFL history. He would be a great choice.

HOWEVAH! There is another former Buckeye who just went longer than a full NFL season without dropping a pass.

Michael Thomas owns one of the most iconic catches of any Buckeye this century; a tightly-contested grab in a crucial moment in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Alabama that also required a deft toe-tap on the sideline.

He also just went 198 catches and 403 days between drops as a member of the New Orleans Saints.

In a do-or-die moment, give me Dwayne Haskins and Michael Thomas to do it.
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Entire article: https://theozone.net/2020/03/water-cooler-third-11-late-vs-michigan-whos-qb-wr/

It wasn't against scUM but 3rd and 11 with 1:40 to play you can't go wrong with Joe Germaine and David Boston (Dimitrious Stanley was very good too):

* Third-and-10, OSU 35 – Germaine threw to a button hooking Stanley in the right flat for 11 yards and a first down with 1:16 left.

* Third-and-10, OSU 46 – Germaine stepped up and threw to Stanley over the middle for 13 yards and a first down at the ASU 41 with 54 seconds left.

* Third-and-10, ASU 19 – Germaine threw left incomplete to the ASU 5 for Boston, who was essentially mugged by ASU’s Marcus Soward. This second pass interference penalty moved the ball to the 5 with 24 seconds left.

* First-and-10, ASU 5 – Germaine looked left at a slanting Stanley, but he couldn’t miss a wide open Boston. On the play, Boston faked his man, Jackson, inside and drifted back out. Germaine tossed it to Boston at the 2 and Boston turned and stolled into the end zone for the 5-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left. The play was called “Two-Left Twins, 240 Smash.”

 
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For anyone else who enjoyed the work of The O-Zone photographer Jim Davidson over the years, I wanted to share the notice of his passing.

Link

The-Ozone mourns the passing of Jim Davidson
The Ozone mourns the passing of Jim Davidson. He passed last night of complications following surgery.

Jim began as the-Ozone’s full-time photographer in 2002. He served continuously in that capacity until 2019 when he had to give up sports photography for health reason.

Jim was an exceptional talent. There are many photographers who are proficient with today’s photo technology, but very often those technically skilled individuals lack the artist’s eye and ability to frame and and compose a photo image. Others have that eye, but lack in technical acumen. Jim was the unusual individual who excelled in both of those areas. The result was stunning photo work that was technically as perfect as possible.

Jim will be remembered for his passion for Ohio State football, and his desire to create a photo record of that program. His passion for OSU sports did not, however, end with football. He was just as passionate about creating the same kind of quality photo record for men’s and women’s basketball, hockey, baseball, wrestling, and any other sport that he could find time to photograph.

Within the-Ozone staff, Jim will be remembered as a friend. He had his moments of frustration, but that was usually because the work at hand was not measuring up to the high standards he held himself to. If the work wasn’t perfect, he would work at it until it was. That could sometimes led to uncomfortable situations, but where photos were concerned Jim would never, ever compromise. The work had to be excellent, and it was that attitude that made his work, all of it, extraordinary.

He will be missed, but not forgotten.

Jim is survived by two sisters. A fund has been established to pay Jim’s final expenses and medical bills. Contributions can be made at http://givesendgo.com/jimd
 
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He did take some great Ohio State football photos, etc.

Jim-Tressel-2002-National-Championship.jpg


The-Ozone’s Jim Davidson started shooting Ohio State football games from the sidelines in the fall of 2002. If you’re a Buckeye fan, that’s a fairly significant time for another reason: the national championship the Bucks won a few months later.

You can see some of his galleries here: https://theozone.net/category/photos/

R.I.P.
 
Upvote 0
For anyone else who enjoyed the work of The O-Zone photographer Jim Davidson over the years, I wanted to share the notice of his passing.

Link

The-Ozone mourns the passing of Jim Davidson
Oh shit, I heard he was ill. This is the first I’m hearing of his passing. That sucks. He did great work. I usually check TOZ daily but I hadn’t gotten around to it today.

RIP, Bucknik. That’s a huge loss.
 
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I knew nothing about Mr Davidson apart from his photos, but as someone who has posted a great deal in the countdown threads, I know he provided the original material for a fair few of my posts… literally hundreds over the years.

The original BP post on this was HERE. As people straggle back following the off-season, there might be some posts in either place from those who may have met him. Probably should have just done a merge instead of typing all this, but it’s the off-season, so…
 
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