Previewin’: USC
First and foremost, a lot of people are writing the Buckeyes off as dead meat. In fact, this should be only the third time that I can recall where the Buckeyes were an underdog for a home game1. This is fine, so long as the football team has faith in themselves, finds such a sleight to be a cause for war and works like to hell to throw that line in Vegas back in everyone’s face. It’s fine for Buckeye fans to be a bit pessimistic for tomorrow’s tilt against the Buckeyes. Feeling that the odds are stacked against the Buckeyes is a natural and fair assessment of what may happen in this game. I admit I haven’t been so nervous2 about a Buckeye game in quite a long time. But please, for those of you going to the game tomorrow, don’t let that interfere with the atmosphere tomorrow night. I mention this because it’s very easy for the angst of an upcoming game such as this to allow fans to degenerate into passive observers. It’s too easy to sit back idly in disgust, perhaps frozen by the sight of your worst thoughts as they come into fruition. If USC takes that first touchdown early in the game, as is very clearly possible, cheer harder. A friend of mine, who has the good fortune of living in Columbus, Ohio still, told me that Chris Spielman summed up the situation perfectly on his radio show: If, after this game, you leave Ohio Stadium with even a whisper left in your vocal cords, you weren’t trying hard enough. Show your support. Your eleven warriors, brave and bold, whose fame will ever stand need you. See also: the title of my blog.
A lot of things went wrong in… sigh… last year’s encounter with the Trojans. The worst of it was likely the offensive line. A holding penalty negated a would-be touchdown for Brian Robiskie. There were false starts, other holding penalties, and just plain whiffs by Ben Person and Bryant Browning to boot. Beating the Trojan defensive front, which includes the likes of Everson Griffin and Christian Tupou will require a much better effort than what we saw in Los Angeles. The initial reaction for this new unit after the Navy game was not good. I admit, my initial reaction after the game was one of general dismay for the defensive line that awaited the Buckeyes the next week. As I mentioned earlier this week, the reaction from those who have the benefit of DVR was generally favorable upon further review. The offensive line was more or less solid this game. The O-Zone gave their performance a B, but cautioned that an A effort for the Trojans was necessary. The culprits for the Navy game was A) Pryor and Brewster, the QB and center tandem who simply must do a better job diagnosing defenses and adjusting to the oncoming pressure and B) the freshman fullbacks, who often missed their lead blocks. The first is irritating, and you would hope that being called out on it by their offensive coordinator would force them to have worked on it for USC3. The second is easily correctable: you don’t have to use fullbacks. Specifically, against a team for whom mobile QBs out of the shotgun have been Achilles heels, you would think the Buckeyes could find other ways to establish a ground presence. More on this later.
The idea for the Buckeyes this game is that, in order to win and barring a hilarious meltdown by freshman QB Matt Barkley, the Buckeyes will have to be able to move the ball through the air as well. This is true, and I’m anticipating that the running game should lure the Trojans closer to the line of scrimmage. Terrelle’s progression as a passer is still necessary. It’ll be important for Terrelle to find Jake Ballard to move the chains. Looking back to the 2006 Rose Bowl, a career performance by Texas’ tight end, especially in 3rd down scenarios, was vital to the Longhorns’ success against the 2005 installment of the Greatest and Bestest Team of All Times. Keeping the defense honest at the line of scrimmage will help open things downfield for one of the receivers. This would be a golden opportunity for DeVier Posey, apparently no longer feeling the adverse effects of a gimpy ankle from last week, to establish himself as a serious receiving threat from the split end position. Further, it’s important for a 3rd wide receiver in what I’m expecting to typically be 3 WR sets, to make a name for himself this game as well. Taurian Washington has the opportunity to atone for a really unfortunate season opener and Duron Carter can really establish himself as a true freshman with all the right tools.
There are dilemmas facing the Ohio State defense, not the least of which involves a veteran offensive line that manhandled the Buckeyes front 4 in last year’s outing. This veteran offensive line protects a stable of all-world tailbacks, including Stafon Johnson, CJ Gable, Allen Bradford and, the marquee name of the group, Joe McKnight. Under new offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates, expect the Trojan offense to want to break in their freshman QB (and Jay Mariotti mancrush) by establishing themselves on the ground. Winning the battle up front is necessary for the Buckeyes, all the while not selling out in the box. Committing too much to the run opens up the FB wheel route and, our great nemesis, the tight end. Jason revisited some of the painful moments from Ohio State’s defense in last year’s game and found that more than a few of the regrettable moments for Ohio State’s defense came when they had sold out to the run. The Havili touchdown came on a 1st and 10 and the Buckeyes likely expecting run. Anderson Russell bit, hard, on the play fake and score for Blake Ayles. Make no mistake: the Trojans are good, and with reason. Being able to stop the run while not having to commit to stack the box would be wonderful it happened this game.
Jason’s aforementioned post also highlighted just how badly some key blunders in the secondary cost us. One of the sources of those blunders, Anderson Russell, will be seeing reduced time against USC as a result of a string of blunders. The addition of Jermale Hines to strong safety, meanwhile moving Kurt Coleman to free safety, will give more pass coverage responsibility to the veteran Coleman. It’s a switch and, thus, a transition. It’ll be interesting to see what develops. However, it was probably necessary since you can only imagine that Anderson Russell would be a target all game long for the Trojan offense. Elsewhere, the Buckeyes will be entering this game without the services of Malcolm Jenkins. Instead, Chimdi Chekwa, who had an INT against the Trojans last year, and Amos/Torrence/whoever lead the charge. They’re one of the greenest units on the entire team, but should not be terribly overmatched against the Trojans. USC receiver Ronald Johnson will not play this game (thank God). Still, the USC-OSU WR-CB matchup favors the Trojans. One can only hope the Buckeye front 4 are able to get pressure and that the secondary recognizes the pick play this time around.
There’s a lot of things I’d love to see this game, not the least of which includes Ohio Stadium patrons storming the field in jubilee at the conclusion of the game. I understand that Pryor came to Ohio State, in part, because he hoped to develop into a pocket quarterback and become a viable NFL quarterback down the road. It’s good that he’s making progress towards that goal (and he is). However, I feel the Buckeyes would be at a disadvantage this game if they didn’t exploit the run-pass dynamic of Terrelle Pryor. Trojan struggles with mobile QBs are well-documented. They’ll still beat them here and there, but the likes of Dennis Dixon and Vince Young are most unpleasant sights for Trojan defenses. This is well-known, but you may also did not know that the zone-read was the only real bread-and-butter for the Buckeyes last year against the Trojans. The play got 6.8 ypc. Though the speed option did not work as well against the Trojans last year, it was the preferred option play for the Buckeyes last week against the Middies. Smart Football, which guest posted this at Doc Saturday, highlights what I think the coaching staff should do this game: turn Pryor loose and trust him in hopes that he in turn will trust his natural abilities. Turning Terrelle Pryor into 2006 Troy Smith will come another day, giving Pryor the confidence to run wild and free is a key to this game, methinks. I’ll be disappointed if 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 back shotgun sets aren’t the norm for the Buckeye offense this game. I obviously trust that the coaching staff, to a man, knows more about the game than I do, but there’s a lot the Buckeyes can do out of this formation. Turn Terrelle Pryor loose and let him seize the moment. God willing, he just may be embraced by 100,000+ of his friends afterwards.
- Michigan 2004, Penn State 2008 [↩]
- I’m nervous about every game, though… [↩]
- Bollman only “called out” Brewster, but Pryor has to have some kind of responsiblity here too. [↩]
- For anyone curious why I’m so fascinated with Earle Bruce, I hope you now know why. Not the best coach in our program’s history, but no one could accuse him of not having the passion for Ohio State football. [↩]
I don’t care if we’re down by three scores. I want to hear that stadium rocking all 60 minutes.
I think that this game will hinge upon whether or not we can contain (and possibly even stop) USC’s running game. While that’s not very insightful commentary, I think that Surfer Pete as well as the OSU coaching staff realize that this is the biggest match-up in this game. I hope our front 7 has a monster game, because I really like our chances if they do…
* Pressure BarKley from the first snap to the last………………….
* No turnovers………1 I can handle in the 1st or second quarter ( you can make up from an early mis-hap ), absolutely cannot have any in the second half against the Trojans.
* We MUST SCORE when we get inside the redzone ……………
* O-line………..wake up , play pissed off…………no penalties.
Lastly, Spread this Trojan defense out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spread m out and let Pryor do his thing. Run no-huddle , 3 and 4 wide. Keep them guessing no-huddle.
…….and yes, the crowd needs to be relentless. I mean they need to be brutal from start to finish.
Go Bucks!!
I said Ohio State 17, USC 10 in the 11W prediction thread, and I’m sticking with it. Here’s why:
There’s really no question that even a rebuilt/reloaded USC defense is at least a touchdown better than Texas’ Fiesta Bowl defense was, but, by the same token, there’s really no question that this version of the OSU offense – even given last week’s performance – is at least two touchdowns better against ANYBODY than the shell-shocked, Beanie-less and Boeckmann-led one we took into the Coliseum last year. Still, I cannot really believe that we are going to run wild on Surfer Pete. So 17 sounds about right to me.
As far as holding the Trojans to 10, well, I just don’t see McKnight and company running their way to a bunch of touchdowns, and I don’t see a freshman QB – ANY freshman QB – picking us apart in a night game at the Shoe. In fact, I think that despite the unquestionable ability of USC’s OL, there can really be no question that Gibson, Williams, Heyward et. al. will get SOME pressure on passing downs, and that will create TO opportunities for our secondary – which, let’s not forget, has a pretty good track record of making good plays as well as bad ones. Regardless, they will have plenty of success moving the ball, but the intensity of the defense, and of the crowd as the night wears on, will mitigate into that ball movement translating into many points.
I see it as a ball-control/kicking game/field position battle, and when it comes to that kind of contest, I’ll take The Senator every time.
My prediction: They call the game at half because USC has no chance to come back.
Go Bucks.
I’d love to see that, Poe.
Unfortunately, I was there the last time USC came to Ohio Stadium and they DID call the game. John Cooper sent his team into the locker room, trailing by 9 points with 2:30 to play.
The lightning storm, he said, was dangerous. Of course, the 95,000 people in the stands were still in danger (and a little bit pissed off for the basic forfeiture of the game)