Game Thread Ohio State 34, Minnesota 21 (Sep. 27)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ToledoBlade

Article published Sunday, September 28, 2008
BUCKEYES BACK IN BUSINESS
OSU cranks it up with Pryor, Wells

COLUMBUS - In Ohio State's drive to win a fourth straight Big Ten championship, Minnesota provided a warm-up lap.

The Buckeyes had one final opportunity yesterday to test and tune, to try this and tweak that, before they make a critical road trip to Wisconsin next weekend.

In beating the Golden Gophers 34-21, Ohio State showed it likely has the gears, the acceleration and the overdrive it will need. The Buckeyes rushed for 279 yards in their conference opener - their highest total this season -and averaged 7.5 yards per carry.

Freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor had 97 yards rushing and a couple of touchdowns, and junior running back Chris "Beanie" Wells indicated that his restoration following a foot injury was successful as he added 106 yards while the 14th-ranked Buckeyes (4-1) built a 21-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Ohio State had runs of 38, 33, 28, 26, 21 and 17 yards in the game.

Continued.........

 

[morbitzerker]

+1 for jwinslow. Because i've given out too much reputation in the past 24 hours. Great photography.

 

[martinss01]

im assuming this is the cause of nicol being on crutches later in the game :(. im hoping sprain but that looks all kinds of not fun.

 

[nwbuckeye]

Realistically. it will take a LOT of losses for Ohio State to get back to the top. Just win out and we get a BCS bowl game. Quite frankly, I'd love a rematch with USC.

I would really like to see us play a SEC team in a BCS bowl; we really need to get over that hump THIS year so we have a clear head going into the championship games the NEXT two years under TP. A win against any SEC team will do wonders for our credibility, but most importantly it will erase any doubts in the player's heads before they play for it all the next few years.

 

[BUCKYLE]

It seems strange to me that that "jumpiness" problem only occurs for me on BTN though. I don't get it on any other games I watch on other Time Warner channels. If dish viewers aren't having that problem though I guess it'd have to be TWs fault.

This has happened during every game I've watched on BTN this year (Buckeye game or not) It's as if the entire feed just randomly hiccups and goes backwards by about a half second. It happens four or five times a game. And it may be TWs fault, but the BTN also has a responsibility for making sure that their product is being represented well by the carriers and I'm not sure that's happening.

Right, I agree about the BTN needing to check TW. My dad has DirectTV, and it doesn't happen to him, yet two miles away, at my buddies house, TW, and it does that all the damn time.

 

[HorticullyBuck]

Yea i would love to get in a BCS game vs an SEC and finally redeem something for the past 2 years. Theres a good chance we play USC again but i think that would be kinda boring again. since we'll play them again after another 9 months or so

 

[buxfan4life]

Eh, maybe I've been spoiled with MoC and Beanie these past few years, but I just don't see "it" with Herron. It looks like he's running hard and making pretty good reads (unlike Saine), but Herron just can't seem to turn the 3-yard runs into 7-yard runs, which is what separates the good backs from the great backs ... and keeps offenses in 2nd-and short instead of 2nd-and-long. Beanie has great power and is surprisingly nimble and very fast for a man his size ... and MoC had unreal vision and timing to go along with great leg drive and body lean ... and he had moves that could make DB's look positively silly in the open field. But what quality does Herron have that takes him to the next level?

Herron is a poor man's Pittman ... and Pittman wasn't all that great ... he was the beneficiary of a very potent offense that had two great individual playmakers (Smith, Ginn) that kept defenses very honest ... not to mention a really solid offensive line.

Was Ohio State a great tailabck away from a national championship in 1996 (Pepe Pearson) and 1998 (Michael Wiley)? I'd sure hate to see the Buckeyes in that position again in 2009 and 2010 with Herron and/or Saine....

OK. Slow down here. Herron will turn out to be a very good, if not a great, running back. He has the potential to put on another 10 -15 lbs of muscle and get to be a big bruising back with speed, ala Beanie.

Remember, Beanie did not come in and unseat Pittman for the starting job his freshman year because he had a case of the dropsies, as well as poor field vision.

Herron is getting better every time he plays. His field vision is improving which is apparant since there were a couple of his runs where he saw a seam AFTER hesitating just enough and exploded through it. This did not happen a couple of weeks ago when he seemed to take the hand off and run right into the back of the OL and got stoned at the LOS.

I guess what I am saying here is that we fans need to step back from making these rash generalizations of young players whom we have seen play only a handful of times. If you were talking about Mo Wells, then I would agree in what you are saying as he is a senior and we have seen him play over the course of 4 years. But, with a kid who really has only played 4 1/2 games (YSU he only carried 5 times, that is the 1/2) you really should hold judgement on his ability until he gets a little more coaching and experience.

 

[buxfan4life]

Lantern: Ohio State football vs. Minnesota slideshow

Anyone find a better pic of Beanie hurdling the DB? I would love to have that tomorrow when my UGA grad co-worker will tell me again how much better Moreno is than Wells.

 

[Mike80]

It seems strange to me that that "jumpiness" problem only occurs for me on BTN though. I don't get it on any other games I watch on other Time Warner channels. If dish viewers aren't having that problem though I guess it'd have to be TWs fault.

This has happened during every game I've watched on BTN this year (Buckeye game or not) It's as if the entire feed just randomly hiccups and goes backwards by about a half second. It happens four or five times a game. And it may be TWs fault, but the BTN also has a responsibility for making sure that their product is being represented well by the carriers and I'm not sure that's happening.

I've been getting that rather consistently on the ESPN channels with DirecTV....

 

[BUCKYLE]

Anyone find a better pic of Beanie hurdling the DB? I would love to have that tomorrow when my UGA grad co-worker will tell me again how much better Moreno is than Wells.

 

[buxfan4life]

It seems strange to me that that "jumpiness" problem only occurs for me on BTN though. I don't get it on any other games I watch on other Time Warner channels. If dish viewers aren't having that problem though I guess it'd have to be TWs fault.

This has happened during every game I've watched on BTN this year (Buckeye game or not) It's as if the entire feed just randomly hiccups and goes backwards by about a half second. It happens four or five times a game. And it may be TWs fault, but the BTN also has a responsibility for making sure that their product is being represented well by the carriers and I'm not sure that's happening.

I get the same here in SFL on Comcast. Must be a cable thing since it seems those who have dishes are not having any trouble.

 

[AKAK]

Eh, maybe I've been spoiled with MoC and Beanie these past few years, but I just don't see "it" with Herron. It looks like he's running hard and making pretty good reads (unlike Saine), but Herron just can't seem to turn the 3-yard runs into 7-yard runs, which is what separates the good backs from the great backs ... and keeps offenses in 2nd-and short instead of 2nd-and-long. Beanie has great power and is surprisingly nimble and very fast for a man his size ... and MoC had unreal vision and timing to go along with great leg drive and body lean ... and he had moves that could make DB's look positively silly in the open field. But what quality does Herron have that takes him to the next level?

Herron is a poor man's Pittman ... and Pittman wasn't all that great ... he was the beneficiary of a very potent offense that had two great individual playmakers (Smith, Ginn) that kept defenses very honest ... not to mention a really solid offensive line.

Was Ohio State a great tailabck away from a national championship in 1996 (Pepe Pearson) and 1998 (Michael Wiley)? I'd sure hate to see the Buckeyes in that position again in 2009 and 2010 with Herron and/or Saine....

I see your points, and I think Herron kind of remains to be seen as far as what he can do... but, I'd say the flip side of that is that we were a running back as good as Mike Wiley from an NC in 2003... not to bash the Strip Club Bucks countrfeiter... Anyway, as much as I'd agree with you that we could use a bit more at RB than we've got once Beanie moves on, whenever that is, I'd say he's better than the guy who was behind MoC.

 

[buxfan4life]

Thank you!!

 

[LordJeffBuck]

OK. Slow down here. Herron will turn out to be a very good, if not a great, running back. He has the potential to put on another 10 -15 lbs of muscle and get to be a big bruising back with speed, ala Beanie.

I guess what I am saying here is that we fans need to step back from making these rash generalizations of young players whom we have seen play only a handful of times.

Isn't quote #1 one of those "rash generalizations" that you were complaining about in quote #2? Just curious....

 

[cincibuck]

Ok, you guys that know more about football than an ol' track coach, tell me, is it just me or do both lines, O and D, look bad? It seemed to me that the only thing that allowed Terrelle to pass was his ability to run out of trouble. Is that a realistic observation? And let's also note that we ain't gettin' no push from the front 4 on D.