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2002 Champions vs. 2005 Buckeyes - statistically

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It's true...the problem on offense is turnovers. Both games we have lost have been ended with us fumbing on a last second drive. Did we fumble on 4th and 1 at Purdue in 2002? Did Krenzel fumble in OT against Illinois or Miami in 2002? Nope. That's the difference. The style of play is very effective...but we aren't protecting the ball. Look at Penn State's offense. They were less effective than we were on offense...but they protected the ball and got the W. I'm not going to blame just one player...it seems like a lot of our players like to fumble this year. I seem to never feel safe when anybody has the ball. Plus I don't see any players stepping up when we need them to like the 2002 offense did. The team needs a leader on offense...and needs to quit the mistakes. We've got a great football team here.
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
...I would say that our first 5 opponents of '05 compare favorably to our first 5 of '02, as does our statistical defensive performance against them. Overall performance is another matter entirely.

Your comparison of the first team defenses is a fantastic point Mili. I would give you a greenie, but the system won't let me (I've given you one too recently).
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DBB: I bolded a part of your statement which I think we entirely agree...overall performance of the 2002 defense was a bit better early in the season. I made a point of using first-string scoring stats for both years because using blanket stats for a whole games/seasons is nearly always misleading. For example, our 2002 defense gave up 55 points total to TT, WSU, and Indy (18.3 ppg), but the first team gave up only 17 of those points.

And I really wanted to bring out just how absolutely dominating our defense was from the Penn State game on. Keep in mind that PSU scored their only points of the game at the end of the first quarter. So, for the next 19 quarters (4 and 3/4 games), the 2002 defense gave up one fuckin' touchdown. Let that set in for a moment--19 quarters, one touchdown. Also, from the PSU 1st qtr TD to Illinois' 3rd qtr TD, the defense keep opponents out of the end zone for 13 quarters (last three quarters of PSU game, the whole Minnesota game, the whole Purdue game, and the first half at Illinois). In that stretch, our offense scored zero TDs against PSU, one TD at Purdue, one TD at Illinois, and two TDs against Michigan, and we won them all. That's four offensive TDs in four games and we still won them all. Our 2005 defense is rock solid, but they have a ways to go to be that dominating.
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
The upshot of all of this is that this year's offense is good enough to have won an NC with this year's defense behind them if they would play REAL Tresselball. On Tuesday, when JT said that the biggest problem this year is turnovers, he was absolutely right. That is the only significant difference between this year's team and the National Champions of '02. Plain and simple.
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I think the difference is a clutch QB. The QB's we have now are plenty good IMO, but they are not clutch like Krenzle was, that is the difference.
 
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sandgk said:
To follow on with what Mili said there was one huge distinguiishing factor on offense that made 2002 special. Their red-zone productivity was simply stellar compared to this year, thus far.
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I think the difference is a clutch QB. The QB's we have now are plenty good IMO, but they are not clutch like Krenzle was, that is the difference
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I believe that Krenzle being "clutch" and red-zone productivity are very close to saying the same thing. Not exactly, but close enough that I'll give them the same response.

I agree that red-zone productivity is a huge difference, but since the lack thereof has been a direct result of turnovers for the most part (not entirely), I did not give the red-zone its own treatment.

Another thing that made the 2002 defense stand-out was their near-perfection in the 2nd half of most games. Until the late heroics by the candy-canes in the Fiesta Bowl, very few teams had put ANY meaningful 2nd half points points on the Bucks after moving CG to CB.

That having been said, considering this teams superior performance yardage-wise, I strongly believe that it is within them to get on a roll like the 2002 bunch did.

I'd really like to see 3 straight shut-outs, like Gradishar and his minions posted in '73; but that may never happen in this era of college football.
 
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I think another stat you have to look at is the lack of rushing TD's by a RB in the 2005 version.

In '02, even Ross and Hall managed to score when we needed them (e.g. ILL, Mich).

In '05, I think we have one rushing TD by a RB - Schnittker against Miami.
 
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I am so freakin' embarassed

I am so sorry I even started this thread. This defense, while it save our bacon late in the game, tackled so poorly today that I am embarassed to have EVER compared them to the 2002 squad.

As they say in latin, revoko.
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
I am so sorry I even started this thread. This defense, while it save our bacon late in the game, tackled so poorly today that I am embarassed to have EVER compared them to the 2002 squad.

As they say in latin, revoko.
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The difference? 2002 DL - Will Smith (All-American, 1st round draft pick); Darrion Scott (All Big Ten, 3rd round); Tim Anderson (All Big Ten, 3rd round); Kenny Peterson (3rd round). It ALL starts up front.
 
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I agree, LJB. But on a day where we get a win and the defense has a school record 12 sacks, I'm not going to criticize our defense too much today.
 
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Yes, the defense saved our bacon today (my exact words).

Yes, this is an awesome defense.

NO, this defense is not up to 2002 standards.

When I update the stats on this thread later, I'm sure they'll come out OK; but as Mili pointed out best, STATISTICAL dominance is not the same as the REAL dominance of the 2002 National Champion Ohio State Buckeye Defense.
 
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We gave up 456 yards today, and allowed them to run 87 plays...that's the bad part. The good part is that we held them to 2.3 ypc rushing (51 carries for 116 yards) and that we held them to 24 points despite all of those plays and four turnovers on our part...12 sacks helps quite a bit. But it sure didn't seem like we had 12 sacks.

Looking at the good and the bad, this defense has yet to reach the level of the 2002 defense.
 
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