Ken
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2nd Thoughts: MSU vs OSU
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
(photo courtesy of sportsworldnews.com)
That was a pretty ugly display of football Saturday afternoon. The 2 TD favorite Buckeyes lost to the Spartans on a walk-off field goal, 17-14. The loss put Michigan State into the drivers seat to represent the B1G East in the Conference Championship game. However, if Michigan State loses to Penn State this week (possible, but not likely) and Ohio State beats Michigan (possibly, but less likely than before) the Buckeyes go to Indianapolis. Hard to believe, after what we saw on Saturday.
Let’s get this over with…
Special Teams
A bit of rain, a bit of wind; it was a challenge for special teams.
Cam Johnston had an interesting and certainly an exhausting afternoon. He punted 9 times on the day, averaging 38 yards per punt. I highlighted Cam’s number of punts because; a) it was his season high in punts, and b) it equaled the number of pass completions by J.T. Barrett. One number seemingly lead to the other; I don’t have to tell you how it works. Cam ripped one punt 53 yards, and with the wind to his back nailed a punt.. 5 yards. Shanking punts off ankles rarely work out well.
For a brief moment, OSU’s punt coverage team had set up the offense with a short field (a very short field, in fact) of six yards to set up their second touchdown. All in all, this unit did what it could. A good effort and results
Defense
The defensive effort was spotty at times, but considering they didn’t get much help in time of possession from the offense, not too bad.
At times there seemed to be a lack of focus/concentration by the Silver Bullets. On MSU’s 4th play from scrimmage, Joey Bosa was flagged for being offside. On MSU’s next series, same penalty, same player. The defense had 4 offside penalties called, 3 on Bosa and 1 on Tyquan Lewis. His 3 penalties matched the number of solo tackles by Bosa. As good as he is, I think Bosa has been in the process of mentally ‘checking-out’ of this season. If you consider Bosa’s two late game offside flags against Illinois, this indicates someone not mentally engaged.
The defense allowed 203 net yards rushing. Before you get too apoplectic, consider this was on 51 rushing attempts by MSU. That works to 4 YPC. In allowing the 200 yards, the Ohio State rush defense didn’t get ‘gashed’ as much as ‘bludgeoned’.
The pass defense allowed 91 net yards passing on 8-16 effort by MSU’s two back-up quarterbacks. Yep, MSU went with QB#2 and QB #3 and bet Ohio State. Sort of reminds you what Ohio State did last season, doesn’t it? The math works out to nearly 6 yards per attempt and 11 yards per completion. I’ll get back to this, below…
Offense
This was one of the poorest excuses for an offensive game plan I have ever seen. I’m in my mid-60’s and I’ve seen a good number of games. Let’s start with time of possession (ToP); MSU held the ball for 38 minutes compared to OSU’s 22 minutes. How? MSU ran 67 plays while OSU ran 45 plays. The offense gained 132 yards (2.9 ypp). Ohio State had 11 drives; 9 ended in punts and 2 resulted in TDs; a 32 yard “drive” and a 6 yard “drive”. The inability to stay on the field certainly didn’t help OSU’s defense.
The Ohio State passing attack was pretty ‘meh’. And ‘meh’ putting a positive spin on things. J.T. Barrett was half as effective as MSU’s back-up QB’s. His yards-per-attempt and yards-per-completion were half of MSU’s Dynamic Duo. Ohio State attempted two downfield passes against MSU. Neither pass was on the money, they were both incomplete and that was it for OSU trying to stretch the field and work MSU’s secondary.
In 29 (not a typo) rushing attempts, Ohio State netted 86 yards, or approximately 200 yards less than their previous game. Ezekiel Elliott had 12 carries for 33 yards. On a blustery, rainy day, this is an abdication of the team’s best offensive weapon. It shouldn’t have had to been this way.
The Red Zone offense was 2-2. Pretty good on the ‘efficiency’ measure, but pretty poor on the ‘frequency’ metric.
Think back you your worst remembrances of Tresselball; those days would have been much better.
Playcalling
Do you miss me now?
I don’t have much to say without repeating myself. This offensive game plan was timid, unimaginative and pitiful. To think that Ohio taxpayers are paying over a million dollars a year for Beck/Warinner is an injustice to the taxpayers. I, and you too if you’re honest were pretty annoyed by Tressel’s offense that featured “Walrusball”. That consisted of Jim Bollman calling ‘DAVE’ more times than we liked. His idea of being creative was to mix in DAVE left with DAVE right, just to keep a defense guessing. We probably didn’t care much for Bollman’s game plan, but at least he had a plan. Which is significantly more than I can say about the current version of Buckeye offensive coordinators.
The alarm that should have gone off was in the time period on or about when Herman left and Beck was hired. It took a few games for Herman to hit his stride in Columbus, but when he left there was a general feeling of; “Thanks for your contributions, you did a good job, best of luck to you, etc”. If I recall correctly, when the Beck hiring was announced, the general sentiment on the Nebraska boards was “meh, good riddance, etc”. We shoulda known…
Frankly, I knew this game was over with less than 6 minutes to play. Ohio State took possession at their 7 yard line. The play in question came with a 3rd & 9 situation when Beck/Warinner called a touch pass to Braxton. Nothing downfield, nothing intermediate, just a (in effect) hand-off to Braxton with a “see what you can do with it Brax”. It was at this point where the Ohio State coaching staff truly quit on this team.
Other
Dead Presidents
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but the waffling on a starting quarterback and ineffectual offense play calling has potentially significant (to you and I, at least) financial ramifications for Urban. If this plays out like I think it will with the Buckeyes not doing the following, the coach could lose approximately $750,000 incentive compensation.
That’s a lot of lose change to leave on the table.
Hand-wringing Pundits
Going through my morning coffee and game obituaries this morning, I noticed a trend in “titling”, especially among national sports writers. I think these guys are click-baiting, so you’ll have to find them on your own. The general theme was “OSU team is turning on itself”. This was based on post game comments by Ezekiel Elliott (Zeke was right, by the way) that among other topics, stated that the MSU game would be his last at The Shoe. The Pundits also rode the fact that Cardale mentioned he would be declaring for NFL. Other than being made a week or so too soon, those comments are not a sign of a team in disarray. Anyone slightly sentient knew that Zeke and CJ were leaving after this season. Yet, Pundits were surprised and pearl-clutching
The Buckeyes sit at 10-1, 6-1 and travel to The Big House to wrap up the regular season against the University of Michigan Fightin’ Harbaughs (9-2, 6-1) for a 12:00 PM ET kickoff. The game can be viewed on ABC (probably, but TBA at time of this article) so check local listings. We’ll be here (tBBC) for LiveChat, no need to check local listings.
The post 2nd Thoughts: MSU vs OSU appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
(photo courtesy of sportsworldnews.com)
That was a pretty ugly display of football Saturday afternoon. The 2 TD favorite Buckeyes lost to the Spartans on a walk-off field goal, 17-14. The loss put Michigan State into the drivers seat to represent the B1G East in the Conference Championship game. However, if Michigan State loses to Penn State this week (possible, but not likely) and Ohio State beats Michigan (possibly, but less likely than before) the Buckeyes go to Indianapolis. Hard to believe, after what we saw on Saturday.
Let’s get this over with…
Special Teams
A bit of rain, a bit of wind; it was a challenge for special teams.
Cam Johnston had an interesting and certainly an exhausting afternoon. He punted 9 times on the day, averaging 38 yards per punt. I highlighted Cam’s number of punts because; a) it was his season high in punts, and b) it equaled the number of pass completions by J.T. Barrett. One number seemingly lead to the other; I don’t have to tell you how it works. Cam ripped one punt 53 yards, and with the wind to his back nailed a punt.. 5 yards. Shanking punts off ankles rarely work out well.
For a brief moment, OSU’s punt coverage team had set up the offense with a short field (a very short field, in fact) of six yards to set up their second touchdown. All in all, this unit did what it could. A good effort and results
Defense
The defensive effort was spotty at times, but considering they didn’t get much help in time of possession from the offense, not too bad.
At times there seemed to be a lack of focus/concentration by the Silver Bullets. On MSU’s 4th play from scrimmage, Joey Bosa was flagged for being offside. On MSU’s next series, same penalty, same player. The defense had 4 offside penalties called, 3 on Bosa and 1 on Tyquan Lewis. His 3 penalties matched the number of solo tackles by Bosa. As good as he is, I think Bosa has been in the process of mentally ‘checking-out’ of this season. If you consider Bosa’s two late game offside flags against Illinois, this indicates someone not mentally engaged.
The defense allowed 203 net yards rushing. Before you get too apoplectic, consider this was on 51 rushing attempts by MSU. That works to 4 YPC. In allowing the 200 yards, the Ohio State rush defense didn’t get ‘gashed’ as much as ‘bludgeoned’.
The pass defense allowed 91 net yards passing on 8-16 effort by MSU’s two back-up quarterbacks. Yep, MSU went with QB#2 and QB #3 and bet Ohio State. Sort of reminds you what Ohio State did last season, doesn’t it? The math works out to nearly 6 yards per attempt and 11 yards per completion. I’ll get back to this, below…
Offense
This was one of the poorest excuses for an offensive game plan I have ever seen. I’m in my mid-60’s and I’ve seen a good number of games. Let’s start with time of possession (ToP); MSU held the ball for 38 minutes compared to OSU’s 22 minutes. How? MSU ran 67 plays while OSU ran 45 plays. The offense gained 132 yards (2.9 ypp). Ohio State had 11 drives; 9 ended in punts and 2 resulted in TDs; a 32 yard “drive” and a 6 yard “drive”. The inability to stay on the field certainly didn’t help OSU’s defense.
The Ohio State passing attack was pretty ‘meh’. And ‘meh’ putting a positive spin on things. J.T. Barrett was half as effective as MSU’s back-up QB’s. His yards-per-attempt and yards-per-completion were half of MSU’s Dynamic Duo. Ohio State attempted two downfield passes against MSU. Neither pass was on the money, they were both incomplete and that was it for OSU trying to stretch the field and work MSU’s secondary.
In 29 (not a typo) rushing attempts, Ohio State netted 86 yards, or approximately 200 yards less than their previous game. Ezekiel Elliott had 12 carries for 33 yards. On a blustery, rainy day, this is an abdication of the team’s best offensive weapon. It shouldn’t have had to been this way.
The Red Zone offense was 2-2. Pretty good on the ‘efficiency’ measure, but pretty poor on the ‘frequency’ metric.
Think back you your worst remembrances of Tresselball; those days would have been much better.
Playcalling
Do you miss me now?
I don’t have much to say without repeating myself. This offensive game plan was timid, unimaginative and pitiful. To think that Ohio taxpayers are paying over a million dollars a year for Beck/Warinner is an injustice to the taxpayers. I, and you too if you’re honest were pretty annoyed by Tressel’s offense that featured “Walrusball”. That consisted of Jim Bollman calling ‘DAVE’ more times than we liked. His idea of being creative was to mix in DAVE left with DAVE right, just to keep a defense guessing. We probably didn’t care much for Bollman’s game plan, but at least he had a plan. Which is significantly more than I can say about the current version of Buckeye offensive coordinators.
The alarm that should have gone off was in the time period on or about when Herman left and Beck was hired. It took a few games for Herman to hit his stride in Columbus, but when he left there was a general feeling of; “Thanks for your contributions, you did a good job, best of luck to you, etc”. If I recall correctly, when the Beck hiring was announced, the general sentiment on the Nebraska boards was “meh, good riddance, etc”. We shoulda known…
Frankly, I knew this game was over with less than 6 minutes to play. Ohio State took possession at their 7 yard line. The play in question came with a 3rd & 9 situation when Beck/Warinner called a touch pass to Braxton. Nothing downfield, nothing intermediate, just a (in effect) hand-off to Braxton with a “see what you can do with it Brax”. It was at this point where the Ohio State coaching staff truly quit on this team.
Other
Dead Presidents
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but the waffling on a starting quarterback and ineffectual offense play calling has potentially significant (to you and I, at least) financial ramifications for Urban. If this plays out like I think it will with the Buckeyes not doing the following, the coach could lose approximately $750,000 incentive compensation.
- Win Big Ten Division: $50,000
- Win Big Ten Championship: $100,000
- Qualify for NC Playoff: $250,000
- Qualifying NC game: $350,000
That’s a lot of lose change to leave on the table.
Hand-wringing Pundits
Going through my morning coffee and game obituaries this morning, I noticed a trend in “titling”, especially among national sports writers. I think these guys are click-baiting, so you’ll have to find them on your own. The general theme was “OSU team is turning on itself”. This was based on post game comments by Ezekiel Elliott (Zeke was right, by the way) that among other topics, stated that the MSU game would be his last at The Shoe. The Pundits also rode the fact that Cardale mentioned he would be declaring for NFL. Other than being made a week or so too soon, those comments are not a sign of a team in disarray. Anyone slightly sentient knew that Zeke and CJ were leaving after this season. Yet, Pundits were surprised and pearl-clutching
The Buckeyes sit at 10-1, 6-1 and travel to The Big House to wrap up the regular season against the University of Michigan Fightin’ Harbaughs (9-2, 6-1) for a 12:00 PM ET kickoff. The game can be viewed on ABC (probably, but TBA at time of this article) so check local listings. We’ll be here (tBBC) for LiveChat, no need to check local listings.
The post 2nd Thoughts: MSU vs OSU appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...