By V. R. Bryant
Last week we began with 4Sight, a weekly look ahead to the coming game featuring four themes–things to keep your eye on as you take in the 2013 season. As a follow-up, here is 20/20, a reflective piece about twenty positives and twenty negatives (or just humorous observations) to take away from the week that was in college football at large. Going forward, this piece will likely hit on Tuesdays. Without further ado…
1. Braxton Miller’s passing accuracy has improved immeasurably. He was hitting guys in the numbers all day. / Even if one of those guys was Buffalo’s Khalil Mack.
2. Jordan Hall looked like a star. / Dontre Wilson looked like a freshman.
3. Hall tallied 159 yards on 21 carries. / The rest of the Buckeyes’ ballyhooed backfield combined for just 25 yards on seven carries.
4. Kenny Guiton’s lone pass attempt went for a pretty 21-yard touchdown, which was an important score. / But he was only in the game because Miller was cramping hard on a pretty mild day.
5. Buffalo may wind up winning the MAC. Could look better on OSU’s resume than people thought. / Too bad nobody really respects the MAC. Anybody else notice how badly Ohio got dismantled?
6. Speaking of the resume, the Bucks get San Diego State next week–another big win, likely. / However good Buffalo may end up looking, the Aztecs lost their first game by 21 points…to FCS club Eastern Illinois? Yikes.
7. Back to the Buffalo game: Ohio State scored 23 points in about 11 minutes. / Then posted just 17 in the final 49.
8. Miller rushed for 77 yards. He ran responsibly. / 61 of them came in mop-up time. He didn’t look quite as lethal on his feet.
9. The kick return game looked solid, particularly Wilson’s 51-yard sprint. / Philly Brown was playing Ringling Bros. with his punt returns, bobbling and juggling the ball on seemingly every catch.
10. The B1G’s top teams showed well, with the five ranked squads all winning their games. / Nebraska just squeaked past Wyoming. At home.
11. Ohio State still has a share of the first-place votes in both polls. / Yet still slipped a spot behind Oregon in the AP.
12. Bradley Roby and Rod Smith return this week after one-game suspensions. / Roby and Smith missed a game due to suspensions.
13. Elsewhere in the conference, new Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg led the Lions to a home win versus Syracuse. / He also threw two picks and they won by just six points.
14. Middling squads Minnesota and Indiana all won big. / And then Purdue got dumped by Cincinnati 42-7.
15. Saturday’s forecast for Columbus is 84 degrees and partly cloudy. / Which probably means a bunch of guys will cramp up again.
16. The game is once again on ESPN2. / Which probably means fans will have to listen to Beth Mowins all day again.
17. It’s a 3:30 p.m. start time this week. / Which probably means the fans will be well on their way to early-evening hangovers.
18. The Buckeyes will probably be five touchdown favorites again. / Which probably means they won’t cover again.
19. Another easy home game. / Last one before the trip to Cal.
20. A win is a win. / Except in the BCS. RIP. Win by 40.
