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Game Thread (2004) Game Four: @ Northwestern - 10/2/04 (L, 3-1/0-1)

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Sdgobucks said:
I hope I am wrong as well, but I have ZERO confidence in Ross and Hall. If we don't get someone who can run the ball in the Big 10 things are going to be close even against NW.

Im not saying that Marshal is bad, I am saying that we dont know NW is bad either ... the teams they lost to could just be good.
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After 3 games (4 by the time we play them) you can get a much better picture than after 1 game.

300+ yds passing pg and 32ppg vs TCU,ASU and Kansas isn't a good defense. If you have watched any of their games #21 and Backus are just absolutely lost out there. #21 makes Nickey look like Ronnie Lott.

They do however have a very respectable front 7. Not in the small fast NCSU/MU mold but in the traditional big hog B10 mold. The Minny game will tell a lot, but right now I would say they can make us throw more than we probably want to.

Bad news for them is after they make you throw a few times you never want to stop, its just too easy. :wink2:

We could go on and on speculating about NU, but bottom line to me is that much like UC and MU they can't beat us without a lot of OSU help.
 
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Jaxbuck said:
If you have watched any of their games #21 and Backus are just absolutely lost out there. #21 makes Nickey look like Ronnie Lott.
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What was wrong with Donnie Nickey... I liked him.

Jaxbuck said:
We could go on and on speculating about NU, but bottom line to me is that much like UC and MU they can't beat us without a lot of OSU help.
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Great point ... If it wasn't for our help we would have beaten MU by at least 14 points. If the turnovers battle continues to stay in our favor we will win.
 
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Get your rest ... 1460 The Fan is reporting a 9:00 PM kickoff:


http://www.1460thefan.com/tf.php?story=radiohio/1460thefan/2004newfan/top-stories.php


College football, Buckeyes are enjoying their bye week after their first road win at NC State.* Start times have arrived for some future contests.* The Bucks next game against Northwestern on October 2nd will kick-off at 9pm.* The following week against Wisconsin will be a 3:30 start.* You can of course catch all the games on 1460 The Fan.
 
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This is a good road experience. Sure, it's complete cheese the way NW always seems to schedule us at night in Evanston, but could you really ask for a better team to get your "night road game" merit badge against?

Zwick should have a fairly comfortable evening, and we should give our other in conference friends some more Santonio Holmes highlight films for their collection.

It would be nice to see Ginn get his timing down and get some big touches. If he makes our WRs a legit double threat, then almost everyone we play is going to have to keep their safties deep. Then all we need is BJoe taking out the MLB and Ross won't have to make cuts OR look for the hole. :p

Two weeks to prepare for NW. Who the hell makes out the B10 schedule? Lloyd Carr?
 
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I still like the set up we have/had for a young team ...... two lower division teams .... then NC State ... now our bye week to go back to fundamentals

and we get a chance to heal ....
then we get to start the Big Ten with one of the weaker teams, get an away game outa the road... and return home for our first home game in 4 weeks
to play a decent team in front of a home crowd ready for action .....

I think we matured against NC St. ....

I think you see lots of Pitman, I think JZ hit Ginn in stride, and we cruise....

Bucks 34
NW 3

IMHO
TI
 
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Well after 4 games for NU we know that the defense is among the very worst in the nation.

I'm sitting here in the soup of my 3rd hurricane in the last 6 weeks, so I'll forgo a lot of stats but if you look it up I think you'll find:

They haven't kept anyone but Kansas below 30 points

Run D is still good on paper but again, is it because its soo easy to throw on them??

Their pass D is an absolute joke.

Offensively they look "ok" but a lot of their stats were built on that shootout with TCU who can stop no one.

They run similar schemes to MU and NCSU(sideline to sideline offense) but lack the game breaking athletes to hurt us deep. #9 is the only thing they have close to a deep threat.

All they have going for them are the intangibles of a home night game to save their season and the mathmatical certainty that the streak has to end eventually.

I don't see it happening this year.

OSU 30+
NU lucky to score
 
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The Wildcats always run that wide open spread and this should mean a real good test for our young dbs. With Fox out, we will find out how good our dime set looks. Maybe more importantly, lets get a running game going. If Ross doesnt get it going after 10-15 carries, please, i beg, please give Pittman a try. He is avg 8 yds a carry. I also look for JZ to have a better game in his second road game. We should handle them but they will get their yards as well. Go Bucks.
 
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I tell you what.... the way Carpenter and Hawk have been making tackles in the open field makes me less fearful of the spread as in years past. IMO against the spread you have to have players in the olb's spots that can play on air and help the dbs. I think its obvious that they'll be able to help shut it down!

go-bucks!!!
 
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It might not be Lydell's fault...

Hello,

New poster here...but not shy to speak out on Buckeye football.

I totally think that the problem with us running the ball is multi-factorial...it isn't just Lydell's fault. Sure, he is no Eddie, or Keith, or Archie, or Robert...he may not even be a Tim or Jonathan...but he ain't that bad either.

When teams put 9 players in the box...there just aren't gonna be that many holes to run through, I don't care who you are. I really believe you have to force teams not to do that. You have to go out expecting that teams are going to do that, and come up with plays that exploit that fact, and keep using them, until they stop putting 9 in the box!

I believe it is more the predictable play calling than lack of talent on the line and in the backfield.

Thanks

GAM
 
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Whats up GAM welocome aboard!!!


I think you are gonna see a different OSU team. IMO the coaches wanted to get through the non-conference schedule unbeaten. They have seen the weaknesses of the team and the last couple weeks have worked on them. Tony Pittman and BJOE will improve the running game dramatically.

Ted Ginn is gonna see more time @ WR and KO returns. On the Tressel call in show Tress said that Teddy is 3rd on the roatation at each of these positions and he expected Ted to do more returns.

He also said that Adam Tyree is making a charge for PT as a guard. This tells me that the competition is tough and people are fighting for PT.

I expect the Buckeyes to come out and dominate in this game. The spread offense doesn't work against our defense. We have too much speed and are too good of tacklers.

OSU 42
NW 14
 
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Jaxbuck said:
B10 opener on the road
overall:15-5 (.750)
record in W seasons: 120-39-5 (.732)
record in L seasons: 38-18-1 (.667)

The wining seasons aren't as good but the losing isn't as bad. If this pattern holds we would finish either 8-3 or 7-4 this year.

Take it all fwiw, but the numbers kinda jumped out at me when I started looking at B10 openers. I dont need any stats to tell me that losing a B10 opener to Northwestern would be a very bad thing.

The stat freak in me keeps thinking just one thing-they are due but please God don't let it be in my lifetime. :bonk:
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Jaxbuck,

I think the data is biased by the way you split it, speaking as one stat freak to another.

The 120-39-5 includes 15 "guaranteed wins"--because if we hadn't won those B10 road opener games, you would have put them in the "loss" set of data.

Similarly, the 38-18-1 includes 5 "guaranteed losses".

To construct an extreme example of something similar, one could easily "prove" that when we start the season 6-0, we almost always (if not always) finish the season at or over .500. Why? Because in most seasons, 6 wins guarantees a .500 finish.

The better way of looking at it is this:

In the 15 seasons that we won our Big 10 opener when it was on the road, we went 105-39-5 in the other games that season (.705).

In the 5 seasons that we lost our Big 10 opener when it was on the road, we went 38-13-1 in our other games that season (.731).

Looking at it that way, statistically, winning or losing the B10 opener on the road doesn't really say anything about the *other* games that year.

That having been said...it would still suck to lose to Northwestern.
 
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