Carmen Ohio
All-American
Saturday wasn't pretty, but as I said last week if teams are going to get their shots in they've got this small window of opporunity. Everything looked shaky becuse we once again lost at the point of attack, but in knowing why there is hope. Yes, the offensive problems start with the line, but it's not because of a shortage of talent. As I've said many times on this board the lack of experience on this line was going to bite us in the butt for a while. The guys seemed to get it together in the second half of the Northwestern game but that was a relatively inferior line to what we faced with Wisconsin and Iowa. Remember this guys - Anttaj Hawthorne owned us last year and there was no reason to believe he couldn't do it again. Last year at Wisconsin CK couldn't do anything until the fourth quarter because Mangold and Clarke couldn't stop him... even on double-teams. We couldn't run or pass - we actually had more points against them this year because of special teams. Why did anybody think we would do a better job wiith Mangold, Datish and Kne when the latter had never seen a front like Wisky's. Remember, Erasmus James didn't play in last year's game. Before Santonio's fumble we were in it, but afterward their defense kicked it up a notch and we had no answer because our guys had never been there before and had no answer for the sheer strength and experience of their line. Iowa elected to expose our youth a different way - through a series of slants and line stunts intended to implode the pocket and totally eliminate any running lanes where either guard was the focus of the play. In other words, make it impossible to run up the middle. Having never seen so much stunting, Datish, Kne and Barton sometimes ended up blocking defenders into whoever was in the backfield. The common thread that made both games look worse for the O-line is that Mangold and Sims, God bless them, got out of position trying to help the young guys out. In talking about how Iowa was in our backfield all day, the commentors tried to illustrate how the stunting was killing us... they just didn't go far enough to explain that with Mangold and Sims sometimes out of position, there was no way we could have any offense in this game. By the way, this year's Wisconsin team would have beaten last year's OSU team as well. When James is healthy their defense is that good. They have a chance at winning the NC.
On defense, I think because of a lack of experience we are once again very weak at middle linebacker. Anthony Schlegel is constantly overrunning plays and missing coverages because of his overagressiveness.... I think it's the main reason we're getting burned in the running game. I'll say it again, but my MVP from 2002 was Matt Wilhelm. We have yet to replace his nose for the ball in the middle. With D'Andrea out (a guy who also needed more work) we have to hope that Schlegel can pick up his game by laying back and reading more. When the coaches sit him down with the tapes this week I'm sure you'll see improvement. When the middle linebacker is out of position it kind of puts everybody out of position because they have to abandon their responsibilities to help. That is exactly why Iowa, Wisconsin and Northwestern were able to torch us on defense and that my friends is what's happening on both sides of the ball for OSU and why we have to have patience.
If we can execute this week we could use that momentum to save the season from a win-loss standpoint. But even if it doesn't turn out that way remember that JT struggled with his first team at OSU (those vaunted Cooper recuits) only to go undefeated the next year after he fell under everybody's radar and introduced MoC to the football world. To me the team he's returning has as much potential (noticed JT hasn't unleashed Eric Haw) if we learn our lessons right. Nobody left on the schedule will show us that much more than we've already seen. So before we start throwing out the baby with the bathwater with this team, remember there are reasons behind the broad statements - our offensive line or our defense sucks. Guaranteed these are the same guys you'll be cheering once they know what they're doing... Guaranteed that will happen by the time we play Michigan.
On defense, I think because of a lack of experience we are once again very weak at middle linebacker. Anthony Schlegel is constantly overrunning plays and missing coverages because of his overagressiveness.... I think it's the main reason we're getting burned in the running game. I'll say it again, but my MVP from 2002 was Matt Wilhelm. We have yet to replace his nose for the ball in the middle. With D'Andrea out (a guy who also needed more work) we have to hope that Schlegel can pick up his game by laying back and reading more. When the coaches sit him down with the tapes this week I'm sure you'll see improvement. When the middle linebacker is out of position it kind of puts everybody out of position because they have to abandon their responsibilities to help. That is exactly why Iowa, Wisconsin and Northwestern were able to torch us on defense and that my friends is what's happening on both sides of the ball for OSU and why we have to have patience.
If we can execute this week we could use that momentum to save the season from a win-loss standpoint. But even if it doesn't turn out that way remember that JT struggled with his first team at OSU (those vaunted Cooper recuits) only to go undefeated the next year after he fell under everybody's radar and introduced MoC to the football world. To me the team he's returning has as much potential (noticed JT hasn't unleashed Eric Haw) if we learn our lessons right. Nobody left on the schedule will show us that much more than we've already seen. So before we start throwing out the baby with the bathwater with this team, remember there are reasons behind the broad statements - our offensive line or our defense sucks. Guaranteed these are the same guys you'll be cheering once they know what they're doing... Guaranteed that will happen by the time we play Michigan.
