So having read all of the reactions to this game before watching it this evening (some of them on twitter, which is my failure), I'm confused by how I saw a number of takes like:
1) "How can they not generate pressure on the QB?" They did this almost non stop from the 2nd quarter on, sometimes to a fault. To Tulsa's credit, they stood in there and took some shots. And this was without Harrison. JT & Sawyer flashed, but so did others. This is far from the lines they'll see later, but it's a welcome change.
2) "These guys are not being put in a position to succeed" I'd argue they went almost the entire 2nd and 3rd quarter in a great position to succeed. Tulsa outflanked them once, and that came after the offense sputtered repeatedly on multiple disjointed drives.
3) "Day has to [blank] CJ". #7 was not consistent, but there was a lot of sloppy play at most positions on offense in this game. Drops, false starts, fumbles, just a lack of consistency. Now if you want to get deep with it and say that Stroud is limited with the injury and the knowledge of that is leading to weak attitudes, I guess you could make that stretch, but there are a lot of veterans punching further below their grade than CJ, who has been doing this for 3 games.
I saw a young, somewhat inexperienced but more aggressive defense than earlier in the year. Martinez forced two picks (one of which he caught). He also made a few mistakes, but he has the makings of a third quality CB to go with Burke and Brown (assuming Banks is still limited and Watts is a floating hybrid).
They picked on Ransom a bit, though the Johnson TD was the fault of the corner, not Ransom.
After that, 10 min left in 4th, 3rd down, under duress, CJ hits Wilson on a crossing route. He's 3 yds from the first down marker, has absolutely no one between him and the pylon, and has Olave peeling back to help block (later). He instead pauses (to cut back?), and stops to wait for 3 defenders to swallow him up.
On the next drive, the OSU LBs make a mistake and give up a big run. The next down, the D destroys the QB and somehow the ball floats like a wounded duck over the middle without being picked. The next play Williams on a huge sack.
OSU rips off two huge runs, and then they milk the clock with Teague to take the lead, followed by a TD to Wilson.
The pick six is forced by #44's pressure. He was tackled but makes the QB panic rolling the wrong way
Tulsa makes a nice throw down the seam. The next play OSU eats Tulsa alive upfront and draws a penalty.
Moving Watts around may not work all year, but it's bringing a new element and athleticism to the back end, instead of having an overmatched Shaw as the only option. Really like using his range, length and athleticism in a new way. He was an intriguing corner but they have more than a few of those.
OSU plays it safe and yields a run rather than a longer pass. Sawyer eats on the next down and draws another penalty.
..
If you want to pass generic criticism about why are they struggling with such a mid major team, fine. But there was a ton of progress there, and I swear Twitter has taught our country to just repeat what they read in earlier tweets.
My favorite was when rabinowitz blamed the turf for tripping up Henderson when he bounced towards the top of the screen (early ob and was actually tripped by a human. And 90% of the responses piled on with how bad the turf is. There are scores of examples over the years of why the turf is bad. There's entire game of it. But while there were a few people pointing out the obvious rebuttal, most people didn't even watch the embedded video to notice.
