So...the game thread, in article form.The Grumpy Old Buckeye: OSU vs. Oregon State
Welcome to the first edition of the Grumpy Old Buckeye. In this column, my aim is to be the voice of negativity, even when things are generally pretty great. I’ll point out the things from each game that make me want to walk out onto my lawn in my bathrobe and yell at people about it. First up: Ohio State vs. Oregon State.
The Suspension
It all started before the game even kicked off. ABC’s broadcast started with a four-minute intro before the opening kickoff and none of it was related to the football game. Instead, the focus was on the Urban Meyer suspension, including a Bleacher Report-esque slide show of the timeline of events. Yes, it’s a big story and sure, there might be those four guys who just returned from the Amazon rainforest who may not have heard about it, but it feels like we’ve heard plenty about the story over the past several weeks and it’s a disservice to the players of both schools not to spend any time on key matchups or players to watch.
Kickoff Fair Catch Rule
If I wasn’t already salty about the broadcast intro, the opening kickoff reminded me of how dumb rule changes can be. A fair catch on a kickoff should not come out to the 25. That’s a tremendous reward for the receiving team and a penalty on a team with competent kickoff coverage. Special teams are part of the game. If you want to protect the players, that’s fine, but a fair catch should come out no further than five or 10 yards further up the field from where it was caught. If you want to fair catch it at the 5-yard line, you can have it at the 15. At worst, it should come out to the old touchback spot, the 20.
Big Plays Allowed
A common theme early in the game, which returned on Oregon State’s final drive of the first half, was allowing big plays. Most of these were short passes into the flats that turned into big gains. This was an issue a few years ago and it’s no surprise that having a suspect linebacker group and new players at safety that it came back. There was a busted coverage and terrible angles taken on the first Oregon State touchdown.
My biggest gripe was with the final drive of the first half when the Beavers achieved three of their five third-down conversions in the half. All of them were third-and-long situations. The first came on a play we’ve seen too often. Chase Young did well to pressure the quarterback and Kendall Sheffield was well positioned to intercept or knock away the pass. Instead, he did neither and allowed the completion on a deflection off his shoulder. Hopefully this won’t be a trend again for Sheffield. The last of the three conversions was the most maddening, as the Beavers picked up a third-and-19 on a simple draw play.
The Buckeyes weren’t done, with Antwuan Jackson completely botching a tackle to start the second half, and everyone else assumed he’d make the play, while Artavis Pierce bounced outside and ran 80 yards for a score. Pierce had another big run a drive later with Jahsen Wint taking a bad angle and the linebackers being too aggressive. Yuck.
Penalty Two-Fers
Chase Young and Jeffrey Okudah ramped up my blood pressure with a pair of identical mistakes just a couple plays apart. Young, who should be looking down the line at the ball, jumped offside twice. Those two penalties were bad, but Okudah doubled down on them by committing pass interference on both plays. Instead of 10 total yards allowed, the Buckeyes allowed 30.
Muffed Punt
Although it only resulted in a missed field goal, C.J. Saunders’ muffed punt was awful. But I don’t put it all on him. Not only did Damon Arnette not handle his business in blocking the Oregon State gunner, but he also crowded his own return man and ultimately created the turnover.
Entire article: https://theozone.net/2018/09/grumpy-old-buckeye-oregon-state/
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