Our Honor Defend

I’m not quite sure if it’s another one of the “games of the century” Ohio State has had  this century, but the hype is certainly there.  Gameday will be on hand in Columbus, Ohio for the first time this year to take it all in and the game is being billed, perhaps rightfully so, as the de facto Big Ten championship game.  The winner should have an inroad to an outright title, though this is probably more pronounced for Penn State should they win as the Buckeyes still have to go on the road to Northwestern and Champaign.

Approximately 24 hours from now, the Nittany Lions will kickoff against the Buckeyes in Ohio Stadium, hoping to kill two demons in the same season.  They beat Michigan last week for the first time in 10 years and now they’re looking for their first win in Ohio Stadium as a member of the Big Ten.  Since joining the Big Ten in 1993, the Nittany Lions have never won in Columbus.  Further, even though score lines can be deceiving, I’m not sure if they’ve ever covered.  However, this looks to be the Nittany Lions best chance yet.  Led by offensive guruwizardsupergenius Jay Paterno, the Nittany Lions seem poised to finally get it done in the Horseshoe in the first night game in Ohio Stadium since the 2005 Texas game.  So will it be two straight night game home losses for the Buckeyes?

Before addressing any of the on-field stuff, I’d like to address the issue of the crowd noise at the Horseshoe.  The only thing more embarrassing to watch on television than the offense the last home game (Purdue) was the attitudes of the people sitting in the stands.  Yes, sitting.  Listen, I’m a guy that’s as big a fan of macrame and crochet, and indeed all textile arts, as the next guy, but leave the needlework at home.  To be fair, I have no idea if the people in attendance that day were doing mass-knitting in the stands, but judging from the enthusiasm for game activities and the relative silence of all involved, I have no way of disproving that you weren’t all sitting down and doing needlework.  You don’t have the privilege of attending Ohio Stadium for the home game pageantry to sit down and be quiet, you have the privilege of attending Ohio Stadium to make some fucking noise.  You will have plenty of time to sit down and be quiet when you’re dead.  In the meantime, put down the crochet hooks and balls of twine, grab a flag or some other visible display of group association, and scream your bloody lungs out.  If the old people are you giving nasty leers for your support, don’t be intimidated.  Are you most-certainly-drunk young students/fans in attendance really scared by old people? You have a golden opportunity to represent the program on primetime national television with your support, now make good on it.  What are you… Michigan Stadium patrons?  Are you going to start jiggling your keys too?

Moving on, the “Spread HD” has been a smashing success for Penn State this year.  Though admitting/recognizing Jay Paterno as the architect of the most explosive offense in the Big Ten is a hard pill to swallow… a really hard pill to swallow, for that matter, he should get credit.  After all, he’s introduced the term “Spread HD” into college football vernacular and no one anymore is laughing at the name of the offense as a dumb gimmick to mask for the previous incompetence of the offense.  Penn State’s offense is trying to become a “pick your poison” type of offensive attack.  Play nickel and try to take away the receiving threat of Butler-Norwood-Williams and Evan Royster will run all over you.  Put 8 or 9 in the box to take away Royster, and Daryll Clark will most certainly find one of his home run options for a big gain.  But what’s the key that puts this offense together? The offensive line.  It’s a cliche to say that offensive lines decide everything in a game, but it’s true.  Further, Penn State will field tomorrow night what will probably be the best offensive line the Buckeyes see all season.  They’ll be the ones setting up the running lanes for Royster and keeping Clark safe in passing situations.  The defensive line needs to be a factor to control Penn State’s offense.  Otherwise, the offensive line can pull, meet Laurinaitis in the middle like they did early in the 2007 game in Happy Valley, and run wild.  We’ll probably be in for a long night accordingly.  Will our defensive line neutralize Penn State’s front five? I don’t know.  I think what will end up happening, if we are able to neutralize Penn State’s offense and win, is creating turnovers in the secondary.  It might be a product of collapsing the box and leaving the secondary players on an island to ballhawk on their lonesomes.  It might also be the necessary byproduct of Ohio State (hopefully) jumping out to an early advantage to make the running game an untenable option.  Whatever the case, I think our secondary is up to the task.

You don’t have to go out on a limb to guess what Penn State’s going to do on defense.  With an iffy passer and a run threat that averages 201 yards a game, Penn State will probably commit most everyone to the line of scrimmage to force Pryor (and playcalling in general) to beat them through the air.  Still, I like our prospects on the ground.  First, there is no tackling the Beanie, and all attempts at doing so are futile.  Realistically, though, the advantage of having a back like Beanie is that a TFL for most tailbacks in the country becomes a 3-4 yard gain for Beanie.  A 3-4 yard gain for most tailbacks on what would otherwise be an inefficient play from scrimmage becomes 8-9 yards and a potential first down.  Further, with Beanie as Mr. Inside, Pryor becomes Mr. Outside.  As good as Terrelle Pryor is as a runner, he’s just not a fullback-type runner like Tim Tebow.  Playcalling, and decision-making by Pryor, seems to have figured that out.  As (hopefully) Pryor’s reads on the zone-read progress, he’s going to become more of a threat even when opposing defenses sell out to stop the run.  That said, I should probably be weary of reading too much into the Michigan State game, though there was definitely a lot of improvement there.  The new physicality from Pryor that we saw against Michigan State, I’m guessing, was no fluke.  I’m hoping there’ll be ample justice served and crushed white helmets Saturday night.

Naturally, if USC-level offensive line play shows up against Penn State, we’re screwed.  Penn State is second in the Big Ten and 14th nationally in sacks.  Still, I like our chances to pull a lineman and take out their linebacker corp that, oddly enough, appears to be the weakness of the Penn State defense.  Penn State’s secondary is sharp, but a one-on-one battle between someone like Lydell Sargeant or Anthony Scirrotto and Beanie will be a losing battle for Penn State just about every time.  An early lead and early rhythm for the Buckeye offense should be pivotal, as Penn State might be the best conditioned team in the Big Ten.  They’ll go the full 3.5 hours/60 minutes of game time, and it’ll be up to the Buckeyes to match the intensity of the Nittany Lions.

Elsewhere, LeBron James will be in attendance, his first appearance at an Ohio State game since the 2006 Texas game.  The Buckeyes will also host lots of key recruits, including most of the 2009 class (Homan, Fields, Jackson, Fragel, Mewhort, Linsley, Longo, Fellows, Bellamy, Newsome, Bell, Klein, Boren, Whiting, Wood, Clarke, Barnett, Brown and Green).  It should be a valuable bonding experience for future Buckeyes, who will probably also be greasing the wheels of the two lone non-committed 2009 prospects in attendance (Corey Adams, from Scottsdale, Arizona and Marcus Hall from Glenville).

So who wins? Don’t know.  But I’ll be watching and pulling for the Buckeyes.  So should you, unless you’ll actually be in attendance.  In that case, make some damn noise.