Game Thread 2010 Rose Bowl: Ohio State 26 Oregon 17 (Final, 1/01/2010)

[Steve19]

...largely due to Boise State, who, I'll remind you, Oregon lost to.

Still waiting to hear you back up your statement that Oregon has beaten tougher teams that Ohio State has. I must have missed where Oregon beat teams ranked higher than Penn State (#9) and Iowa (#11).

Care to revise your claim?

You have a point about Ohio State beating two better teams but, if we are fair in our assessments and examine Oregon's SOS from top to bottom, Oregon played a more difficult schedule than Ohio State.

 

[Buckeneye]

A good discipline defense that can tackle can easily hold Oregon to under 30 points. I've never seen such poor tackling than in the civil war game, on both sides of the ball.

Just to expand on this. Proper angles and tackling in space. Dont allow much YAC and take away the edge rushing game and you really bottle up this offense.

Massoli might be a physical runner, but if its he and LJ in the game, I doubt either's success of running it straight into the lions den. Dont let those guys get to the perimeter and you remove a larger portion of Oregon's attack.

 

[UpNorthBuckeye]

Yeah, the tackling in space thing worries me a little. I was pretty amped up watching Tater Tot 4CA scamper around with our DEs chasing him, and then although Spitler is a great Buckeye, he is a little rough when tackling in space.

Once again, we are going to depend on our DL to get pressure in the middle. I understand Larimore will be back, but I think Denlinger has been having a great senior season plugging up the middle with Dex out. In fact, I think he'll be playing in the NFL next year. Maybe a late-rounder, maybe an unsigned FA, but I think he's a rock.

If we get pressure, and we see a lot of Hines and dime packages, I see us getting a few picks. Picks are great. They can really demoralize a team. Which is why it's so great that TP has turned into such an anti-turnover guy....

Mmmmm, tOSU 34, Oregon 20. I'll take that.

hurry up christmas!

 

[Buckeye86]

and then although Spitler is a great Buckeye, he is a little rough when tackling in space.

That is why I think you will see a lot of nickel packages with Hines coming in in place of Spitler.

You can see it in the recruiting of guys like Hagan, they are specifically bringing in safety/linebacker tweeners to help stop spread teams.

 

[BuckStruck]

Oh I do expect it to happen. I honestly don't think there is a defense in the country right now that can hold Oregon under 30 points. Chip Kelly has an unbelievable ability to come up with new twists every week in order to stay one step ahead of the defense. I wasn't really sold on him to start the year but he has continued to impress me each week. The biggest factor for me is their play in the third quarter of games this year. When Bellotti was coaching they would come out flat to start the second half of every game and it would drive me nuts. Not anymore, Kelly knows what to say and knows what to do.

Every once in a while during the course of the game he will get a little pass happy and that is when they struggle. As long as Oregon doesn't get down big early they can stick to the game plan.

Oregon vs....

Boise State- 8 - 19 L

UCLA- 24 - 10 W

under 30, it is possible

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

Oregon vs....

Boise State- 8 - 19 L

UCLA- 24 - 10 W

under 30, it is possible

The Buckeyes won't face the same Ducks that played Boise any more than the Ducks will be facing the same Buckeyes that played Purdue.

Having said that; expecting to put up >30 points against a good defense in a bowl game is folly. I'm not saying it won't happen, it happens every year.

But a good defense that actually shows up does not give up 30 points in a bowl game unless their own offense puts them in a bad situation. Some commentators have referred to the Oregon offense as "the offense of the future" as if the principles of football have been suspended or don't apply to this awesome new invention. The Duck offense is well executed; but to consider it unstoppable is just plain silly.

The last time there was so much talk about offenses being unstoppable was the early 80s. The 85 Bears put a stop to that nonsense.

Who knows when the media will catch up to reality on this. Maybe it will be when the next truly great defense comes along, maybe not. But the truth is; the tide has actually already started to turn on the spread offense. Teams are figuring it out; and it is already on its way to "just another possible approach" status. And that goes for all of the flavors of the spread, including the "futuristic" version run by the Ducks.

 

[BuckStruck]

The Buckeyes won't face the same Ducks that played Boise any more than the Ducks will be facing the same Buckeyes that played Purdue.

Having said that; expecting to put up >30 points against a good defense in a bowl game is folly. I'm not saying it won't happen, it happens every year.

But a good defense that actually shows up does not give up 30 points in a bowl game unless their own offense puts them in a bad situation. Some commentators have referred to the Oregon offense as "the offense of the future" as if the principles of football have been suspended or don't apply to this awesome new invention. The Duck offense is well executed; but to consider it unstoppable is just plain silly.

The last time there was so much talk about offenses being unstoppable was the early 80s. The 85 Bears put a stop to that nonsense.

Who knows when the media will catch up to reality on this. Maybe it will be when the next truly great defense comes along, maybe not. But the truth is; the tide has actually already started to turn on the spread offense. Teams are figuring it out; and it is already on its way to "just another possible approach" status. And that goes for all of the flavors of the spread, including the "futuristic" version run by the Ducks.

I'd surely hope neither tOSU or Oregon would show up that way, could make for a disappointing game. My only point was that it is possible to hold back the Oregon offense, as long as, like you said, the defense shows up to play:osu:

 

[scarletandgray1]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOhcNjyiPiI"]YouTube- 1958 Rose Bowl: Ohio State v. Oregon (Drive-Thru... kinda)[/ame]

 

[muffler dragon]

Rose Bowl: Aliotti takes a few moments to reflect | The Ducks Beat - OregonLive.com

EUGENE ? With two off-days before re-convening in Los Angeles, the Oregon Ducks scattered from Monday?s practice at a very good tempo.

Then defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti came out of the locker room, with the contented look of a coach who came within six yards of allowing the fewest yards per rush and per pass in the Pacific-10 Conference, against the toughest schedule. By no coincidence, he is going to the Rose Bowl.

Asked about his singing talents, Nick Aliotti, a k a the man in the mirror, said he sounds like Joe Cocker.?Every day when I wake up ? I honestly mean this ? every day when I wake up, I look in the mirror,?? Aliotti said. ?And the guy that sometimes I love and sometimes I hate, the guy that sometimes makes mistakes and the guy that sometimes does things real well, I say to that guy as I?m brushing my teeth, ?We?re going to the Rose Bowl.? And that?s special.

?Now I hope we finish the deal.??

One of Aliotti?s chief concerns ? as strange as it may sound ? is that his team remembers how to tackle. With a month between heat-of-battle hitting, some rust can settle in. Add in an offense?s ability to expand the playbook, and it can be a nervous time for defensive coordinators.

cont.

 

[Abraham Moses]

...largely due to Boise State, who, I'll remind you, Oregon lost to.

Still waiting to hear you back up your statement that Oregon has beaten tougher teams that Ohio State has. I must have missed where Oregon beat teams ranked higher than Penn State (#9) and Iowa (#11).

Care to revise your claim?

You're right they haven't beaten anyone ranked 9 or 11. However, if you look at the entire schedule Oregon has played much higher ranked teams. The only easy games Oregon had were to Washington State, Arizona State isn't great but they do have a pretty good defense and then Purdue and we know what Purdue did to Ohio State.

 

[Abraham Moses]

Oregon vs....

Boise State- 8 - 19 L

UCLA- 24 - 10 W

under 30, it is possible

Oregon was using their backup quarterback in the UCLA game.

 

[Buckeneye]

Y and we know what Purdue did to Ohio State.

Purdue didn't do anything to OSU - our offense quite literally did it to themselves.

However I did see what Purdue did to the Ducks, and a 2 point conversion was just a breathe away from you possibly losing in overtime.

Compare your 2 turnovers to our 5 and in all honesty bringing up the Purdue game as a negative for the Buckeyes only looks just as bad for Oregon on the flipside.

 

[muffler dragon]

Rose Bowl: T.J. Ward is happy but still as some frustrations to take out | The Ducks Beat - OregonLive.com

EUGENE - Oregon senior T.J. Ward is happy but not satistfied. He's proud of his team but peeved at the system. He respects Terrelle Pryor but would really like to hit him. Hard.

These are some emotions going through the Ducks' physical safety as he prepares for his final college football game, the Rose Bowl against Pryor and Ohio State.

Mention "Ward'' and "bowl'' together, and the image of a contorted Zac Robinson comes to mind. He's that other OSU (Oklahoma State) quarterback who was bent in half as he took the full force of a Ward hit in the Holiday Bowl a year ago.

But Robinson was an average-sized quarterback (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) with no great running skills. Pryor is 6-6 and 235 pounds with big-play escapability that can strike fear into opposing defenses.

"I don't know if fear is the word,'' Ward said Thursday night after the seventh-ranked Ducks reconvened on the practice field following two days off. "It's concern. The things he can do, making something happen on a broken play, just the things that a great athlete can do when it seems everything is shut down.

"You can't prepare for it. You'll know your game plan front and back, you'll know everything they do before they do it, and you have that locked - and then the quarterback takes off for a 60-yard touchdown. How do you game plan for that? You can't. It's just something you hope doesn't happen.''

Ward said he hasn't put his finger on Pryor's tendencies just yet, but that he will. Adding to the concern is Ohio State coach Jim Tressel's vow to try to open things up a bit for Pryor.

cont.

 

[muffler dragon]

Rose Bowl: Jeremiah Masoli against the big Buckeye front | The Ducks Beat - OregonLive.com

EUGENE - Someone asked Jeremiah Masoli on Friday how he was able to pick up the whole spread-option thing so quickly.

"I've been running the option for a while, since high school - it's nothing new,'' Masoli said. "Guys are just smarter and bigger.''

They don't come a whole lot smarter and bigger than Ohio State's defensive front, which will pose a unique challenge to the Ducks' option game in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, an option game that Masoli has guided to near perfection in recent weeks.

The Buckeyes are giving up a mere 2.7 yards per rush this season, thanks to a fairly fearsome defensive front, the strongest in Columbus since Will Smith & Co. in 2003. It's the biggest hope of OSU fans, having a dominant defensive line, to end the team's three-game bowl losing streak - a loss to Oregon would tie the school record of four in a row.

"They're a big, physical D-line,'' Masoli said. "Their D-ends are really tall, really big - they look to get after you, real physical. So we'll have our work cut out for us.''

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel has talked about the difficulty of replicating Oregon's speed during the Buckeyes' Rose Bowl practices, but the Ducks have a similar problem: They don't have any dead ringers for Ohio State defensive players.

"That's one thing you can't really simulate,'' Helfrich said. "We can't simulate their front. We don't have those guys. Anywhere. We can't simulate their linebackers and their safeties. We don't have those guys.

"We just have to rely on what we've done so far and our level of execution to overcome those things.''

cont.

 

[muffler dragon]

Rose Bowl: Jeremiah Masoli is winning the numbers game now | The Ducks Beat - OregonLive.com

When Jeremiah Masoli came to Oregon, he was quarterback No. 7. That wasn't his jersey number - he became the seventh quarterback on the Ducks roster. So if Terrelle Pryor had chosen Oregon instead of Ohio State, would Masoli be here today?

"I don't deal in hypotheticals, but it may have had an impact,'' Oregon coach Chip Kelly said. "We may not have taken Jeremiah at that point in time if we had gotten Terrelle.''

What would Oregon's offense look like had Masoli not come? And what if the Ducks had landed that other uber recruit, running back Bryce Brown, last year? What would have become of LaMichael James? Some interesting hypotheticals indeed, but the Ducks are hardly thinking about the what-ifs.

Kelly and the Ducks took Masoli, hurried him along as the quarterbacks above him either got hurt or transferred, and have been riding the durable, maturing quarterback ever since. The Buckeyes took Pryor, installed him in the offense and are still trying to find the right balance between using his abilities and preventing his mistakes.

Masoli may have been the Ducks' second choice in the Pryor sweepstakes year, but he's their first option now - as Pryor would have been here but isn't yet at Ohio State.

cont.

Ohio State keeps reins on gifted quarterback Terrelle Pryor | The Ducks Beat - OregonLive.com

This we know about Ohio State sophomore quarterback Terrelle Pryor: He's a disappointment ... to himself.

That's according to his coach, Jim Tressel.

"He's an extreme perfectionist," Tressel said. "The only way he would've been happy at the end of the regular season is if we were 12-0, he completed every pass and he scored 94 touchdowns and threw for another 100. That's just him."

Pryor's Ohio State career has been one of adapting. He has taken his enormous physical gifts into a system in which the quarterback's most important duties seem to be handing the ball off and not turning it over.

"I think his ability to learn and adapt with what we need done has grown," Tressel said.

Pryor hasn't lived up to his own standards, and he hasn't achieved the accolades expected of him after being voted Big Ten Conference preseason offensive player of the year by the media. He was honorable mention after the season.

Expectations aside, Pryor has had a respectable season, helping the eighth-ranked Buckeyes (10-2) win their fifth Big Ten title in a row and earn a berth in the Rose Bowl against No. 7 Oregon on Jan. 1.

"TP is more confident back there, he's making better reads and being more comfortable, and that's always good," said senior defensive tackle Doug Worthington, who has faced Pryor in practice for two seasons. "That's what you need at this time of season."

cont.