Briefly, About Last Night
I’m no more inclined to revisit the particulars of this game than you are. It was a late kickoff, and, well… how it ended and all…
First, and foremost, it’s not enough any more that the Buckeyes played exceptional throughout this game and lost on the final drive to the most dominant team of the decade. We still lost. I perish the thought that Ohio State football degenerates into a situation where, under the brightest lights and the biggest stage, we’d be delighted to just not get our asses kicked. In the end, no one is going to remember how hard we played in spite of flops previously to the Gators, Tigers and Trojans. We still lost, six straight to top 5 teams. With it, the Trojans continue their “dominance” over the Big Ten as the Trojans “crushed”1 the Buckeyes. No one is going to remember holding USC to 5 first quarter yards and having them shake in their boots through the third quarter. We still lost. No one is going to remember how our defensive line dominated the “best Trojan offensive line that Dick Tuomey has ever seen”. They’re going to remember that we still couldn’t get pressure when we needed to on that drive. We still lost. In these tight games and with these precarious leads, we simply have to find a way to hold on… at least once. In the end, no one is going to remember that a true freshman QB had his jaw jacked repeatedly through the game. They’re only going to selectively remember that this was his John Elway moment (which amounted to giving the ball to Joe McKnight). We still lost. It’s harsh, but true. It is what it is. Moral victories exist for MAC schools; not for us.
Playcalling will likely be a topic of controversy throughout the week as people reflect on this loss. Up 10-7, under 2 minutes and left and no timeouts for USC, why did Tressel dial in 2 straight passing plays? They fell innocently to the turf. Should the Buckeyes have run clock on that drive, and still punt, they would’ve put USC in that domain where they too would feel compelled to run out the clock and be grateful to go into intermission down just 3. Tressel’s playcalling led to points for the other team for the second straight week; first it was 4th and 2 against Navy and then that. Now it was that.
The I-formation always indicated a handoff to the tailback. USC wasn’t fooled the first time Ohio State tried it, nor the second… nor third, nor fourth et cetera, and we kept going back to it. By the end of the game, the Trojan defensive line was blowing that thing up in the backfield. We kept going back to it. Corollary to that, our offense cannot be content just to have the ball in the red zone. It has to start scoring touchdowns too. It seems that the mentality is to be content to settle for 3, provided they make no huge mistakes. Doing something out of the ordinary in the shadow of the goalline in order to score a touchdown can really help our defense out. If we do something other than the 2 straight HB dives out of the I at the end of the first quarter, we may have had a touchdown. That would’ve been enough regardless of the Trojans final TD and 2pt conversion.
Lastly, Pryor took an enormous leap backwards this game. It was he, and not Barkley, that was the freshman QB this game2. If you can think of the QB no-no, Pryor did it this game. Throwing an INT to a wide open linebacker? Check. He locked into his receiver and gave the Trojans seven points. He panicked at the first sight of pressure, did not follow through with throws, did not follow through with his progressions and threw, repeatedly, off his back foot. This was a really disappointing outing for him, and I can’t help but wonder how he’s being coached in preparation for a game like this. Good coaching can prevent a kid like Pryor from becoming a head case on the field. Good coaching can build someone like Pryor up to where he’s comfortable with the flow of the game. Instead, whatever preparations for this game amounted to those aforementioned mechanical errors, as well as a slew of delay of game penalties and a final drive that featured just about everything you wouldn’t want to see: intentional grounding, not anticipating an all-out blitz that everyone knew was coming (and left Duron Carter open by 15 yards), a formation penalty and failing to run out of bounds. This was really disappointing.
Still, it’s important that the Buckeyes do not experience a let-down against a Toledo team that scored over 30 points against Purdue and put 50 on Colorado in a victory. That’ll be the challenge, I’m sure.
Miscellany
- God love Jack Tatum. His body is being ravaged by diabetes and he was shown standing in that game, albeit with the support of a bench. If you’re an Ohio Stadium regular, you need to be showing that same kind of spirit as well, every game.
- On that note, it was a very good atmosphere that night. I want to see that every game.
- Jim Heacock is often beleaguered to the same degree as Jim Bollman. He put together a (near) masterpiece that game. If the Buckeyes play like that against every opponent from hereon out, no one is going to be able to score a lot of points against them. I want to see that same fire every game.
- John Simon, true freshman, camped out in the backfield for most of the 4th quarter.
- DeVier Posey had a career day. 6 catches for 81 yards.
- Thaddeus Gibson didn’t have his name called a lot. Cam Heyward and Robert Rose did, though.
- The secondary was at a huge mismatch against the Trojan receivers, but were often left on an island with them. They basically held their own and kept them out of the end zone.
- The offensive line was altogether pretty good. They gave Pryor time in the pocket (whether he wanted it or not), and did enough to create some semblance of running lanes in spite of a monstrous defensive front and predictable playcalling working to their detriment. This time, it was actually the Trojan offensive line getting flagged for holding.
- We had trouble wrapping up this game, and I think it showed on USC’s FG drive of the second quarter.
- Sigh…
Tress needs to check his ego at the door…………and get a creative O-cordinator who will have the stones to punch it in the end zone on 4th and a pubic hair at the goal line.
I am gonna get drilled at work Monday………..all SEC a** holes. But hey, I am use to it.
Actually it was about 4th and goal from the 2 or 2 and a half. The real miserable playcall was the deep handoff on third and goal from the 1, resulting in a 1 or 1 and 1/2-yard loss. As USC did on all of their 4th-and-1s, you run the QB sneak in that situation. Third and goal from the 1, in a game this huge, you run it twice in a row, if necessary. The deep handoff out of the I, in that situation, was mindnumbingly awful.
Can we just tear the stretch play out of the playbook? The Slow developing stretch and delay game doesn’t work and puts our OLine at a disadvanage. Single back with 3 wr and TE (Ace formation for thos eof youthat play NCAA10) seems to work better. I was also disappointed in Boom. He ran hard. He got some yards which excited everyone, but I thought he left alot of yards on the field. Misusing blocks and not accelerating through holes consistently. One the goal line stand, he should’ve scored but danced in the hole. He kept his feet moving, but that just made his play look better.
We should be celebrating today. I am disappointed we aren’t. Back to the drawing board. I do feel better against PSU now.
Vico, there was holding called on USC because those were Big10 refs. I think they eliminated that particular penalty in the Pac10 circa 2003.
Vico,
Good write up, again. Even after my rant last night, I’m still running a little hot today. Good observation about Herron not ‘Booming’ into the holes, and i think that TP was, uh, less than sharp last night. What amounted to an easy ‘almost pick-6′ was not the way to start the game. I guess I rationalized it in that TP is still a soph, and maybe he is more an ‘athlete’ quarterback than a ‘quarterback’ quarterback. I think that he didn’t compare as well against Barkley is that Petey called a better game for a young QB.
I’m still pissed about Tressel’s approach to play calling. If he, to paraphrase Mussberger is ‘rock-solid conservative’, I think it may be time to get a ‘liberal’ in there to call the plays. I wholdheartedly support JT as a head coach, and most certainly as a decent person, but just give up the play-calling to someone else, please.
And, again, I have a lot of praise for the overall defense, and only somewhat less so for the offensive line. Both units acquitted themselves well, I thought.
Finally, God bless Jack Tatum. I didn’t realize that his health had deteriorated some much. Tatum has been and always will be one of my favorite Buckeyes.
One more thing; I can’t figure out for the life of me why we decided to get away from using Brandon Saine; were the wheel routes working too well?
Extremely proud of our defense. I think we have middling talent starting at linebacker right now (that should change next year), but the D-line was so tremendous. The secondary played out of its mind too, given their experience level and talent. I think the change of bringing Luke Fickell to the sideline is doing wonders and I’m beginning to think he will be the next OSU ball-coach. D’Antonio will be too old by the time Tress retires, which may be sooner rather than later if this keeps up.
Pryor does not seem to have the vision or mental sharpness to be a QB. Immensely talented, but he gets tunnel vision on the field. Some guys have it, and some don’t. I’m beginning to think Pryor would be better served NFL-wise by switching to WR, because he certainly isn’t showing the gravitas to play QB in top tier college FB, let alone the NFL.
Lastly, I am so proud of our fans. I was there last night in the stadium. I’ve never seen an environment like that before in the ‘Shoe, and all of us still were holding our breathes. As that last drive developed, we started to realize we were going to lose. But we still kept screaming. For a few minutes there in the early 4th quarter, we had our swagger back. It was just pure joy. We lost that feeling on the final drive, but dear fucking God do I miss that freewheeling feeling of swagger. It’s been since Nov. 2006 since we had that feeling. I want it back, for good.
You know, the play calling was not perfect last night but we had tremendous opportunities to gouge USC with the pass and Pryor hasn’t been DEVELOPED enough to see these. That is where the most prominent changes need to be made…developing this offensive talent quickly and efficiently to put us in position to execute flawlessly. This was the difference last night….Barkley is more polished and developed. We need some offensive guys who can really teach these kids what it means to operate in an offense that actually places a value on crossing the goal line.
I don’t see where you get that the D-Line dominated their O-Line at any point. They did very good keeping “the stable” in check but I saw very little pressure on Barkley. I remember 2 sacks by lineman and 1 by Torrence. I didn’t hear Thads name more than once. I think that the Trojans have the best offensive line in college football though. They are a young team like us but it’s still USC (they reload). Tressel calling the plays just isn’t going to get it done against these types of teams. He needs to hire an offensive coordinator or get out. The players deserve some blame too, especially Pryor. I hate saying anything bad about him but I hope this project pays off because he looked like he regressed once again last night. He’s still young but at some point that excuse isn’t going to fly anymore. Props to the defense for holding as long as they did. The offense has to score more points for this team to get over the hump. That was a great game but we need to start winning again.
Two points (as a fake former QB)
1) Terrell Pryor’s progressions are ok. That is not his problem. His presnap reads are horrendous to non-esistant. However, that is usually one of the last things a QB learns and can only be learned by experience. That isn’t something that is gained much in practice. Lots of film work followed up by real life experience.
2) It is WAAAAAAAY too early to write him off as a QB. He’s not championship quality yet. But just like with Troy Smith, the light bulb will go off at some point and he will be devistating.
Also, He throws well on the move to the right, but not so much rolling left. When he has time and the defense is ID’d by him, his mechanics are actually pretty good. When he is scrambling for reads in panic mode is when his mechanics break down. Some of that will only improve with time on the battlefield. Learning to square his body quickly and then throwing will also come at some point.
Patience Buckeye Fans. And don’t feed the trolls.
As a former fake QB, I have a couple comments on TnB (ffQB) points.
1. Do you think the presnap reads, or lack thereof, have to do with the timing of gettting plays signaled in to him?
2. Yeah, I think that TP is more athlete than quarterback, so the analogy with Troy Smith makes sense to me. I think the kid is still learning big-time football, and he will do just fine. Meanwhile, they (coaches) ought to give him more plays to make use of his athleticism.
3. JohnBoy, I agree that Barkley seems more polished, but let’s be realistic. The USC game plan was to put Barkley in positions where he could succeed. I mean shit, dumping off to a RB, handoffs to said RB and QB sneaks aren’t exactly a dynamic offensive performance.
The more I’m thinking about it, the more aggravated I am with the offensive coaching. The philosophy of playing it ‘close to the sweater-vest’ doesn’t cut it when playing top notch competition. We need an offensive coordinator; let JT gave more time to manage the game (we could improve that as well) and generally do what HC’s are supposed to do.
Getting beat in Big Games like this is really frustrating; if you’re content to maintain this style of play and continue to be a Conference power, or possibly a Regional power, fine. I think our expectations are a little higher than that.
Yes, I think his prereads are part of the problem. I think the coaches are waiting to see what defensive personnel are on the field before choosing a play. There were a few times I noticed that an actual audible was called from the bench.
barkley made plenty of mistakes. And they almost cost USC the game. He was clearly a frosh QB. However, pregame, he wasn’t asked to put the game on his shoulders. How many “experts” said that for tOSU to win, Terrel had to have a monster “breakout game”. The game plan was way different to the point of apples to oranges.
The more years I attend tOSU game (32 season as a season ticket holder) the more I am astounded at how unintelligent, supposed experts are. The Sports talk station here in Cleveland, has a really great afternoon host who DOES play by play of small college. I am astounded at some of the misinformed and downright wrong things he says. Its like he’s reading JJ Huddle for his information, but using the wrong posters for sources.
The morning host (he wasn’t alone, but clearly drinking the national koolaid) said tOSU would lose 45-3. I said all along that we would cover and did.
The other thing that makes me laugh is the “The only thing tOSU has to do to win the game, blah blah blah.” Saturday, it was stop the running game. Or the OLine. Or Terrell Pryor needs to break out. Different holes, same crap. Guess what. They were all right and all wrong. None were the only thing they needed to do. tOSU needed to do ALL of them and could only get 2 out of 3 and it wasn’t enough. I’ve had it with the national media.
And another thing. If the B10 is so bad, what the f^^&&&^$ is the B12 and ACC? Do they even have defensive coordinators on teams in the b12? As for the ACC, forget whether they are a BCS quality conference. Aren’t they actually a FCS conference in disguise.
And finally, if I hear one more UCinn fan say they are the best team in Ohio I may walk down the street about 4 doors and go all Oregon Running Back on my neighbor who just graduated from there. Thats why I don’t want to play them. Why legitimize their fantasies that they are big time. They are more our little brother than sparty is of the wolverweasels. Actually, from now on, I think I will refer to them as our little sister.
Rant over…time to go to work.
Ohio State football makes me want to punch myself in the face for watching it. I have the game on DVR and I can’t for the life of me turn it on and make any comments. It’s just too hard.
If Tresselball would have worked, we would have all been LOL!!!!ing right now at USC and Pete Carroll. We’re not. In fact, it shouldn’t have been close. Try a TE screen or try a read option or try a wildcat. Something. Anything. 0 second half points.
Terrelle Pryor said OSU should have won by 2 or 3 TDs easily, and USC probably agrees. The offensive ineptitude has made Buckeye football hard to watch.