Ken
Guest
OSU vs PSU: THE J.T. AND ZEKE SHOW
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
(Photo courtesy Columbus Dispatch)
(Today we have another guest article by Brandon. It is his perspective on Saturday’s OSU win over PSU. It’s a good read, I suggest you take a few minutes and give it a look; Ken)
Even though we don’t like to admit it as a fan base, Saturday night was a huge day in the Buckeye Nation. We try so hard to not let Penn State think we care about them but as soon as the team turned the night into a blackout dark night, it let them know just how important the night was. The team rolled out black jerseys for the first time in the history of the very proud university. Urban Meyer and his coaching staff asked for fans to wear black in an attempt to blackout the stadium. The red carpet was laid out for recruits as they came to watch the #1 team in the nation in the hopes someone would commit and one did, four star RB Antonio Williams.
On top of the hoopla surrounding the game, the Buckeyes had a lot of questions they needed to answer. The week prior against Maryland, Meyer and his staff unveiled the new QB rotation, but would that rotation be as successful as it was last week? Nope. Would the defense finally remember how to stop the run? Nope. Would the defensive line be able to make Hackenberg uncomfortable in the pocket? Yes. Which Nittany Lion would Bosa use to sack Hackenberg with this year? Unfortunately, none. More importantly, would the team be able to recover from laughing so hard at Michigan that close to kick-off? Somehow, yes.
In what has become a common theme, the Buckeyes were a little sluggish out of the gate. After a quick three and out where Jones missed an open Miller, the big play once again hurt the Buckeyes defense when Christian Hackenberg was able to hit WR Chris Godwin for a long gain. In addition to the long yardage, the biggest blow came when Joshua Perry hurt his ankle after attempting to make the tackle. He would leave the game and not return. The Buckeye defense would clamp down after the long gain and hold Penn State to a field goal. With the field goal, the Buckeyes allowed their opponent to score first for the third week in a row and fourth time in the past five weeks. The Buckeyes went into the second quarter shut out and trailing 3-0.
At the beginning of the second quarter, you could just feel the atmosphere change when J.T. Barrett entered the game to run the red zone offense. The team ramped up their pace and the offense quickly scored on a Barrett run to the left side of the line. This trend would continue through the second quarter and Barrett, along with Ezekiel Elliott, would combine for three touchdowns to put the Buckeyes up 21-3 at the half.
The second half started much like the first half, Hackenberg hit Godwin for a long completion and Penn State was able to score a touchdown two plays later as DaeSean Hamilton was able to dive into the end zone bringing the score to 21-10. Cardale once again came out to start the second half and continued to struggle against the Penn State pass defense. After going 9-15 for 84 yards through almost three quarters, Meyer made the move to pull Jones and put in Barrett to start the drive. As with the second quarter, the combination of Barrett and Elliott were too much to handle as the Buckeyes moved down field and set up a 39-yard Jack Willoughby field goal which put the Buckeyes up 24-10.
The offense would continue to be in the trusty hands of Barrett for the rest of the game and he would guide the offense to two more touchdowns. The first touchdown came on the old ‘Tim Tebow special’. With a little under seven minutes left in the game, Barrett set up in shotgun, took the snap, immediately tucked the ball and ran toward the right side of the Buckeye offensive line. At the last second, Barrett jumped up and tossed the ball to a wide-open Braxton Miller for the easy touchdown pass to put the Buckeyes up 31-10. Barrett would add another TD pass to Michael Thomas and put the Buckeyes up 38-10 which would be the final score.
More Questions: The Buckeyes came out and dominated the way they needed to against a very good Penn State team but did they do enough to answer the lingering questions? The quarterback situation has become even murkier after a fairly good game against Maryland with the new rotation. Jones struggled mightily as Penn State chose to take away the deep pass. After Barrett was handed the keys to the entire offense, the offense hummed along like the 2014 version. How will Meyer handle the QB situation this week? Who will start on Saturday against Rutgers? Stay tuned this week and the BBC staff will surely talk about this at great length.
Offensive Player of Game: Joe Thomas Barrett, IV. There is no one who energized the team as much as Barrett did this game. He finished with four touchdowns and had a combined 132 yards of offense. Special shout-out goes to Ezekiel Elliott who rumbled to 153 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Defensive Player of Game: Joey Bosa. The stat sheet shows 7 tackles, 1 sack, and 3 tackles for loss but that does not even come close to showing how dominant Bosa was on Saturday night. Bosa, as he has been all year, was a disruptive force along the defensive line.
Special Teams Player of Game: Cameron Johnston. The Aussie was simply amazing last night. Think about this for a second, he had punts downed at the two, four, and two more at the eight last night.
That is the kind of dominance Jim Tressel would have dreamed of when he was the coach.
The post OSU vs PSU: THE J.T. AND ZEKE SHOW appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
(Photo courtesy Columbus Dispatch)
(Today we have another guest article by Brandon. It is his perspective on Saturday’s OSU win over PSU. It’s a good read, I suggest you take a few minutes and give it a look; Ken)
Even though we don’t like to admit it as a fan base, Saturday night was a huge day in the Buckeye Nation. We try so hard to not let Penn State think we care about them but as soon as the team turned the night into a blackout dark night, it let them know just how important the night was. The team rolled out black jerseys for the first time in the history of the very proud university. Urban Meyer and his coaching staff asked for fans to wear black in an attempt to blackout the stadium. The red carpet was laid out for recruits as they came to watch the #1 team in the nation in the hopes someone would commit and one did, four star RB Antonio Williams.
On top of the hoopla surrounding the game, the Buckeyes had a lot of questions they needed to answer. The week prior against Maryland, Meyer and his staff unveiled the new QB rotation, but would that rotation be as successful as it was last week? Nope. Would the defense finally remember how to stop the run? Nope. Would the defensive line be able to make Hackenberg uncomfortable in the pocket? Yes. Which Nittany Lion would Bosa use to sack Hackenberg with this year? Unfortunately, none. More importantly, would the team be able to recover from laughing so hard at Michigan that close to kick-off? Somehow, yes.
In what has become a common theme, the Buckeyes were a little sluggish out of the gate. After a quick three and out where Jones missed an open Miller, the big play once again hurt the Buckeyes defense when Christian Hackenberg was able to hit WR Chris Godwin for a long gain. In addition to the long yardage, the biggest blow came when Joshua Perry hurt his ankle after attempting to make the tackle. He would leave the game and not return. The Buckeye defense would clamp down after the long gain and hold Penn State to a field goal. With the field goal, the Buckeyes allowed their opponent to score first for the third week in a row and fourth time in the past five weeks. The Buckeyes went into the second quarter shut out and trailing 3-0.
At the beginning of the second quarter, you could just feel the atmosphere change when J.T. Barrett entered the game to run the red zone offense. The team ramped up their pace and the offense quickly scored on a Barrett run to the left side of the line. This trend would continue through the second quarter and Barrett, along with Ezekiel Elliott, would combine for three touchdowns to put the Buckeyes up 21-3 at the half.
The second half started much like the first half, Hackenberg hit Godwin for a long completion and Penn State was able to score a touchdown two plays later as DaeSean Hamilton was able to dive into the end zone bringing the score to 21-10. Cardale once again came out to start the second half and continued to struggle against the Penn State pass defense. After going 9-15 for 84 yards through almost three quarters, Meyer made the move to pull Jones and put in Barrett to start the drive. As with the second quarter, the combination of Barrett and Elliott were too much to handle as the Buckeyes moved down field and set up a 39-yard Jack Willoughby field goal which put the Buckeyes up 24-10.
The offense would continue to be in the trusty hands of Barrett for the rest of the game and he would guide the offense to two more touchdowns. The first touchdown came on the old ‘Tim Tebow special’. With a little under seven minutes left in the game, Barrett set up in shotgun, took the snap, immediately tucked the ball and ran toward the right side of the Buckeye offensive line. At the last second, Barrett jumped up and tossed the ball to a wide-open Braxton Miller for the easy touchdown pass to put the Buckeyes up 31-10. Barrett would add another TD pass to Michael Thomas and put the Buckeyes up 38-10 which would be the final score.
More Questions: The Buckeyes came out and dominated the way they needed to against a very good Penn State team but did they do enough to answer the lingering questions? The quarterback situation has become even murkier after a fairly good game against Maryland with the new rotation. Jones struggled mightily as Penn State chose to take away the deep pass. After Barrett was handed the keys to the entire offense, the offense hummed along like the 2014 version. How will Meyer handle the QB situation this week? Who will start on Saturday against Rutgers? Stay tuned this week and the BBC staff will surely talk about this at great length.
Offensive Player of Game: Joe Thomas Barrett, IV. There is no one who energized the team as much as Barrett did this game. He finished with four touchdowns and had a combined 132 yards of offense. Special shout-out goes to Ezekiel Elliott who rumbled to 153 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Defensive Player of Game: Joey Bosa. The stat sheet shows 7 tackles, 1 sack, and 3 tackles for loss but that does not even come close to showing how dominant Bosa was on Saturday night. Bosa, as he has been all year, was a disruptive force along the defensive line.
Special Teams Player of Game: Cameron Johnston. The Aussie was simply amazing last night. Think about this for a second, he had punts downed at the two, four, and two more at the eight last night.
That is the kind of dominance Jim Tressel would have dreamed of when he was the coach.
The post OSU vs PSU: THE J.T. AND ZEKE SHOW appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...