Game Thread #1 Texas at #2 tOSU, Sat. Aug. 30th, 12pm ET, FOX

[Jagdaddy]

I'll leave it to the real X and O gurus but to my simple mind, Klare is the weapon that makes the defense easier to read, let alone what a good TE can do running through the middle of a 2 high safety defense.

Smith is such a difference maker he' forces the defense to be very predictable, now you add the specific weapon of a pass catching TE (or two) and theoretically the reads get very simple: 1) Smith is he bracketed? If so 2) look over the middle to where a LB is trying to run up the seam with a TE.

The safety shouldn't be able to help out both the corner and the LB. That's overly simplistic, I know. The defense is going to do somethings to fight back and disguise it but Smith is such a weapon, it's going to be very hard to do do.

If they develop a hitch in their step, it might very well be the red zone. That TE abusing the LB's down the middle gets mitigated as the field shrinks.

I'm no guru either, but that makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[ScriptOhio]

 

[Wells4Heisman]

Poetic that they return to the Shoe almost 20 years later. If it comes down to it I'd trust Klare's hands more than Hamby's.

 

[Buckeneye]

Poetic that they return to the Shoe almost 20 years later. If it comes down to it I'd trust Klare's hands more than Hamby's.

Still stings.

 

[buckeyemania11]

For the record, I agree with those who are expecting a tight game at best vs Texas. The Buckeyes are notoriously slow-starting under Day, and anyone who remembers Stroud's first half at Minnesota can tell you that even a future NFL ROY is likely to struggle out of the gate (and that was against the Gophers).

But as a Buckeye fan it is difficult to know when optimism goes too far. There have been times in the not-too-distant past when I was bearish on the Buckeyes' chances and I was wrong.

In 2014, when Barrett went down, I thought it was ridiculous to believe that any team could win a National Championship with their 3rd string quarterback. Even when Urban said that they could, I simply did not believe him. I was wrong.

Last year, I thought the OL coach had not been given enough of a chance to prove himself by many. I thought we should wait until the end of 2024 to judge. And if I was not his biggest supporter on this board, I was close. The vast majority who expressed an opinion at all expressed a negative one. So when our top 2 OL went down mid-season at the 2 most important positions (and on a line that no one called "deep" at this point last year), I remember posting something to the effect of "OK fine, OSU was able to win a NC with a 3rd string QB, but it's delusional to think that anyone could win a NC with a M*A*S*H unit for an OL and an OL coach that none of the fans believe in." I was wrong.

That's twice in the last 11 years that Ohio State has done something that, in my opinion, we as fans had absolutely no right and no reason to expect.

So now when someone expresses a belief in something that I think we have no reason to expect, I have to remember... This is Ohio State. Maybe they can.

So I acknowledge the possibility, but I'm a guy and an engineer besides. I have to live my life based on that which is probable, not what is possible. I don't think Sayin will carve up a very talented and well-coached defense right out of the gate. I don't think it's likely. But I've been wrong before.

Fair point. On the other end I don't see how anyone is expecting Arch to carve up our secondary either though. This game likely will come down to which young QB doesn't make the back breaking mistake.

 

[buckeyemania11]

I like our defense overall better than Texas. I guess maybe you could call the offenses a wash with 2 new QBs. Smith gives us a slight edge though IMO. But this is about as close as a even matchup as it gets on paper.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Fair point. On the other end I don't see how anyone is expecting Arch to carve up our secondary either though. This game likely will come down to which young QB doesn't make the back breaking mistake.

Yep.

And whoever said bet the under, be careful. Mistake prone young QB’s can fuck an under quicker than a jack rabbit on a date.