• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Game Thread THE GAME: #1 Ohio State 42, #2 Michigan 39 (11/18/06)

Dispatch

Carr isn?t celebrating Michigan?s success yet
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

ASSOCIATED PRESS



ANN ARBOR, Mich. ? Michigan worked hard in the offseason to improve its standing in college football after enduring its worst season in two decades.
With a stifling defense and a balanced offense, college football?s winningest program is back by any measure. Michigan (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) is ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, its highest ranking since winning the national championship in 1997.
But coach Lloyd Carr isn?t reading too much into his team?s lofty standing just yet.
"As a football team we?re happy, obviously, with the fact that we are where we are as far as a record," he said yesterday. "But it really does not have any significance now. ... If we?re a smart football team, which we have been this year, then we understand that you better be focused on who?s coming to town this week and what we need to do to get better."
The Wolverines play host to Iowa (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday, and if they win, they can likely coast over the following three weeks against Northwestern, Ball State and Indiana before playing No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 18. That should give receiver Mario Manningham, who had knee surgery last week, time to come back. Manningham is not expected to play Saturday, but Carr is happy with his progress.
 
Upvote 0
Hart is the Key

If the Bucks can stop Michael Hart, and leave it up to Henne to beat us, I don't think tsun can hold a candle to us this year. Hold Hart to less than 4 a carry and we're sitting great. I have a TON of confidence in Troy and Tress, and although Henne is more solid this year, once they're down a TD or two in the Shoe, they won't be able to ride Henne to a W. Expect a couple interceptions from Henne, and another notch on Troy's Heisman belt.
 
Upvote 0
Rushing yards by the opponent:

Northern Illinois - 151
Texas - 172
Cincinnati - (-4)
Penn State - 142
Iowa - 87
Bowling Green - 160
Michigan St. - 63

Avg.: 110 yds.


Just looking at what our rush defense has done thus far, I think if we keep Hart to 100 yards rushing (and count on our corners to shut down Manningham and Co.), we'll win this game. Heck, we gave up 172 at Texas and still won on the road. Hart is averaging 129 yards per game, so I think we can easily hold him to under 100. Our D will be ready!
 
Upvote 0
IMHO...

Mike Hart is not the key to this game.

Chad Henne is not the key to this game.

No UofM player is the key to this game.

TROY SMITH is the LOCK of this game, and the Wolveweasels have no key!

Troy is going to will the offense to however many points they need. If we need 17, they'll score 17. If we need 70, they'll score 70.
 
Upvote 0
from DaddyBigBucks....
TROY SMITH is the LOCK of this game, and the Wolveweasels have no key!

Troy is going to will the offense to however many points they need. If we need 17, they'll score 17. If we need 70, they'll score 70.

Just to add to the mancrush all us buckeyes have on him, if Troy happens to beat tsun 3 years in a row, he will be become another buckeye deity, ie; Archie.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
IMO, Mike Hart is absolutely the key to the game.

Troy Smith to me is a given. He will put up yardage both passing and running, just like he has done over the past games. He will lead the offense to a productive day. Whether he will be 2 TD passes productive or 4 TD passess productive remains to be seen.

Chad Henne is a given. He's not going to win or lose the game. That's not what Michigan QBs do. His effectiveness will be determined by how well the u of m rushing game does. If Hart picks up 5, 6 yards a pop, he will give a chance to Michigan WRs to make plays downfield. On the other hand, if Hart is contained, Henne will not be able to beat OSU with his arm or athletic ability, because again, that's not what's asked of the Michigan QBs.

U of M's defense is a given. To me, they are the real deal this season, arguably the most physical defense in the nation. That is why we can not shoulder our hopes in this game solely on our offense. We will put up over the air, but will Smith explode against this defense, will we put up over 30 points against them? The answer is probably not.

That leads us to Mike Hart. Lloyd Carr has a tendency to play OSU as close to the vest as Jim Tressel plays the game wide open. Expect Carr to go to the run early and in heavy doses. This is not going to be Kirk Ferentz passing the ball on six straight downs and going nowhere. This is going to be physical, in the trenches B10 football as Michigan will seek to set up big passing plays off of the running game. And Lloyd knows that if he can run the ball successfully, he will be able to keep Smith off the field. Even in his lone victory against Tressel, he used a determined runner in Perry to control the clock and punish our inability to stop him with deep passes to Edwards. Expect the same same strategies here because u of m has the same types of personnel on paper to pull that one off again.

That said, our players on defense have progressed a lot over the course of the season. I expect that with the intensity of the crowd when u of m has the ball, our young defense will feed off of the energy and surprise Michigan with how physical we are. This game is about attitude more than anything else. If you have the attitude, and you are playing on your own turf, and you are soaking in the energy of the crowd, and you are gang tackling the Michigan runningback, Michigan's offense will not do much, regardless of how many weapons they have. That's what I expect out of our defense on Nov. 18th.
 
Upvote 0
I don't know where all this unwarranted Mike Hart-o-phobia is coming from. He is a tough, elusive RB....that we have shut down the past two years.

Granted, the teams are different and it isn't a stretch to say Hart has improved since his freshman year. I personally hate using that argument of "Oh we beat you last year so we're going to beat you this year!" because its beyond ignorant within the confines of how college football operates. One thing is sure, if Hart is shut down, their options seem pretty limited. Will Carr break tendencies and air it out all over us? Texas tore us a new ass with their options, draws, screens, etc. (still wasn't enough to win!) and I have yet to see an inkling of that out of Michigan. Since Tressel started coaching at Ohio State, I've been waiting for the Michigan game like Christmas, eager to see what new tricks he has for us in store.
 
Upvote 0
JonathanXC;636150; said:
Like we did in 2004?



Yeah, but you have to think that we had the ultimate defense in the league and we were able to hold him. But this year we still have that ultimate defense but not it that same way. I mean like yea we lead in interceptions and all but I mean we have to stop Hart in the run and the switch plays.



In all I think we will be able to stop Hart and leave it up to Heney to throw the ball, and that our defense can handle. But we have to stop Hart on the run.
 
Upvote 0
R0CK3TM4NN;636267; said:
I don't know where all this unwarranted Mike Hart-o-phobia is coming from. He is a tough, elusive RB....that we have shut down the past two years.

Granted, the teams are different and it isn't a stretch to say Hart has improved since his freshman year. I personally hate using that argument of "Oh we beat you last year so we're going to beat you this year!" because its beyond ignorant within the confines of how college football operates. One thing is sure, if Hart is shut down, their options seem pretty limited. Will Carr break tendencies and air it out all over us? Texas tore us a new ass with their options, draws, screens, etc. (still wasn't enough to win!) and I have yet to see an inkling of that out of Michigan. Since Tressel started coaching at Ohio State, I've been waiting for the Michigan game like Christmas, eager to see what new tricks he has for us in store.

R0CK3TM4NN, I don't think fans are freaking out over Hart. Like you said, he's a tough, elusive RB, and like you implied, containing him one year is not a guarantee that he will be contained the next year, AKA Chris Perry. No way do I expect that to happen because I have confidence in our coaches and players. But make no mistake about it, every little ounce of doubt about the outcome of the game hinges on the performance of Mike Hart and Mike Hart alone. No one else on Michigan's offense has the ability to beat Ohio State with the exception of Mike Hart.

If there's one way Michigan can steal this game from us, it would be because Mike Hart had a huge day.
 
Upvote 0
Troy must run by design

DaddyBigBucks;636197; said:
IMHO...

Mike Hart is not the key to this game.

Chad Henne is not the key to this game.

No UofM player is the key to this game.

TROY SMITH is the LOCK of this game, and the Wolveweasels have no key!

Troy is going to will the offense to however many points they need. If we need 17, they'll score 17. If we need 70, they'll score 70.

I may know little about football strategy, but I believe that OSU needs to establish a run game and sustain long drives to win. I do not believe that Pittman/Wells can rush on Michigan. i believe that Michigan will drop back at least 2 of their linebackers to help with the pass defense, and rely on their line and perhaps 1 linebacker to stop the buckeye run. Therefore, it becomes important for Troy to run by design, perhaps quick quarterback sneaks to (a) establish a running game and, (b) pass effectively as an additional linebacker will have to move up and play the run. At that point, Troy can pass more effectively due to having 2 linebackers up playing the Buckeye run.

Don't know if I'm close. Just my thoughts.
 
Upvote 0
I am worried about the actual safety of Troy in this game. Michigan's D-Ends are nasty. Decently talented, but they're pissed.

They really f-ed up Morelli last week. I mean, I don't think it was a *dirty* hit, but he was smacked in the chin real bad and players were still landing on him after he was down. Legal, but seriously nasty.
 
Upvote 0
smartone;636294; said:
I may know little about football strategy, but I believe that OSU needs to establish a run game and sustain long drives to win. I do not believe that Pittman/Wells can rush on Michigan. i believe that Michigan will drop back at least 2 of their linebackers to help with the pass defense, and rely on their line and perhaps 1 linebacker to stop the buckeye run. Therefore, it becomes important for Troy to run by design, perhaps quick quarterback sneaks to (a) establish a running game and, (b) pass effectively as an additional linebacker will have to move up and play the run. At that point, Troy can pass more effectively due to having 2 linebackers up playing the Buckeye run.

Don't know if I'm close. Just my thoughts.


Or what they could do is pull one of the defensive players and put him on offense to give Troy Smith more options: like a QB sneak, or a short pass, or lateral, etc... That's just my opinion, prolly not right or not that close but yeah.


Or what Smith could do is play in shotgun for most of the game and see how well and how far they get doing that.
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top