Ken
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2nd Thoughts: OSU Rolls Rutgers 49-7
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Well, that started out pretty well and got better as the evening wore on. The Buckeyes dented the Scarlet Knights‘ armor, then took them to the woodshed, 49-7 in J.T. Barrett’s first start of the season at quarterback. Ohio State had a versatile, efficient offense and an overpowering defense; just what we have expected all season.
So, here we go…
Special Teams
It was a fairly quiet evening for Ohio State.The Buckeyes had a solid return game with Jalin Marshall returning to punts for 28 yards and Curtis Samuel one kickoff fr 20 yards. Jalin had one less punt to return thanks to Gareon Conley deflecting a punt.
On to kicking. Ohio State had no FG attempts. However, Jack Willoughby was busy (and perfect) by going 7-7 in extra point attempts. With as efficient as the offense was, there wasn’t a need to try FG’s , nor punt for that matter. Cam was required to punt only one time, and it was for a paltry 29 yards. Kickoffs? Willoughby kicked off 8 times and had 3 touch-backs. The coverage team limited Maryland’s Janarian Grant to 13 yards per return. This was a big “win” for the Buckeyes in establishing field position.
Defense
The defensive effort was overall pretty spectacular. First, they had a shutout until Rutgers scored a TD with :13 left in the game. Rutgers marched 64 yards in 12 plays on their opening drive, which ended in a “bounce off the upright” miss. Of their 11 drives for the game, their initial drive accounted for 22% of their yardage and plays. Their next 9 drives resulted in 8 punts and an interception. They ran 35 plays for 129 yards. That’s not much of an offensive output.
Continuing with the game stats, and here is not a surprise; Raekwon McMillan (7 tackles) yet again led the team in tackles. Gareon Conley had 5 tackles, the aforementioned deflected punt and one of the prettiest, most athletic interception we may ever see. Joey Bosa was his usual disruptive self with only 3 tackles, 2 TFL’s.
Here’s how disruptive Bosa was. On one play of note, late in the game, Rutgers dropped back to pass and slid their pass protection to the right, in effect triple teaming Bosa. The left side of the Rutgers line was overwhelmed, and QB Chris Laviano was forced into throwing an incompletion. Nothing to see on the stat sheet, but if you watched the game you know how the play unfolded.
I was a bit concerned about the Rutgers passing attack. As it turned out, I shouldn’t have been. The combination of relentless front 7 pressure, well designed/executed coverage by OSU’s secondary and a less-than-100% Leonte Carroo made the Rutgers passing game ordinary, at best. They had 2-3 big (yardage) plays but were kept out of the end zone until the final ticks. That’s an impressive defense.
Offense
The offense did pretty well with their 49 points. Of their last three games, OSU has scored 49 points twice. Against Rutgers, they attained their average of 69 plays (70 to be exact) and averaged 7.5 yards per snap. This was an exercise in consistency and efficiency by the Buckeyes.
In 49 rushing attempts, Ohio State grossed 297 yards. They lost 16 yards on 8 plays from scrimmage. Three of these plays were end-of-half kneel-downs (6 yards) and another was a “confusion in the backfield” for 2 yards late in the game. When Ohio State wanted to run the ball forward, they usually did.
Ohio State quarterbacks were 17-21-0. They averaged 11.8 yards per attempt. That is very good. The national median this season is 7.2 yards per attempt, so if you’ve bettered that by over 50%, you had quite a game. J.T. (13-17) had a couple of interesting passing streaks; he had a stretch (end of 2nd qtr/early 3rd qtr) where he completed 6 consecutive passes. He then missed 3 consecutive passes. He finished with completing 6 consecutive passes. Cardale was 4-4 so it’s easy to figure out his completion streak that night.
The Red Zone offense was up to its, of late, high standards. The Buckeyes were in the RZ 6 times and scored 4 TD’s. Their first “miss” was on OSU’s 1st series where J.T. got rocked and lost the fumble on the 20 yard line. The other miss was captained by Cardale on Ohio State’s last “full” drive of the game. They turned the ball over on downs at the Rutgers 10 yard line with 4:17 to play. The Buckeyes were up 49-zip at that point and Urban probably told Cardale “Just keep handing the ball off to Warren and run out the damn clock.” Actually, this drive was a thing of beauty; it consumed 15 plays, 50 yards and 8:29 of game time. When Urban gets into another ‘clock-burning’ situation, he has his template.
Playcalling
The coaching staff did a great job of involving The play-makers on Saturday. Ezekiel had 19 carries/5 receptions. J.T. Barrett had 13 carries/18 pass attempts. His completions went to 7 different receivers. Six different players had rushing attempts. I think the coaching staff is finally getting comfortable with their mix-n-match play-making combinations. This is one lethal offense.
Other
The Buckeyes sit at 8-0, 4-0 and have a well earned Halloween week off. They host Minnesota on Saturday at 8:00 PM in The Shoe.
The post 2nd Thoughts: OSU Rolls Rutgers 49-7 appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
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Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Well, that started out pretty well and got better as the evening wore on. The Buckeyes dented the Scarlet Knights‘ armor, then took them to the woodshed, 49-7 in J.T. Barrett’s first start of the season at quarterback. Ohio State had a versatile, efficient offense and an overpowering defense; just what we have expected all season.
So, here we go…
Special Teams
It was a fairly quiet evening for Ohio State.The Buckeyes had a solid return game with Jalin Marshall returning to punts for 28 yards and Curtis Samuel one kickoff fr 20 yards. Jalin had one less punt to return thanks to Gareon Conley deflecting a punt.
On to kicking. Ohio State had no FG attempts. However, Jack Willoughby was busy (and perfect) by going 7-7 in extra point attempts. With as efficient as the offense was, there wasn’t a need to try FG’s , nor punt for that matter. Cam was required to punt only one time, and it was for a paltry 29 yards. Kickoffs? Willoughby kicked off 8 times and had 3 touch-backs. The coverage team limited Maryland’s Janarian Grant to 13 yards per return. This was a big “win” for the Buckeyes in establishing field position.
Defense
The defensive effort was overall pretty spectacular. First, they had a shutout until Rutgers scored a TD with :13 left in the game. Rutgers marched 64 yards in 12 plays on their opening drive, which ended in a “bounce off the upright” miss. Of their 11 drives for the game, their initial drive accounted for 22% of their yardage and plays. Their next 9 drives resulted in 8 punts and an interception. They ran 35 plays for 129 yards. That’s not much of an offensive output.
Continuing with the game stats, and here is not a surprise; Raekwon McMillan (7 tackles) yet again led the team in tackles. Gareon Conley had 5 tackles, the aforementioned deflected punt and one of the prettiest, most athletic interception we may ever see. Joey Bosa was his usual disruptive self with only 3 tackles, 2 TFL’s.
Here’s how disruptive Bosa was. On one play of note, late in the game, Rutgers dropped back to pass and slid their pass protection to the right, in effect triple teaming Bosa. The left side of the Rutgers line was overwhelmed, and QB Chris Laviano was forced into throwing an incompletion. Nothing to see on the stat sheet, but if you watched the game you know how the play unfolded.
I was a bit concerned about the Rutgers passing attack. As it turned out, I shouldn’t have been. The combination of relentless front 7 pressure, well designed/executed coverage by OSU’s secondary and a less-than-100% Leonte Carroo made the Rutgers passing game ordinary, at best. They had 2-3 big (yardage) plays but were kept out of the end zone until the final ticks. That’s an impressive defense.
Offense
The offense did pretty well with their 49 points. Of their last three games, OSU has scored 49 points twice. Against Rutgers, they attained their average of 69 plays (70 to be exact) and averaged 7.5 yards per snap. This was an exercise in consistency and efficiency by the Buckeyes.
In 49 rushing attempts, Ohio State grossed 297 yards. They lost 16 yards on 8 plays from scrimmage. Three of these plays were end-of-half kneel-downs (6 yards) and another was a “confusion in the backfield” for 2 yards late in the game. When Ohio State wanted to run the ball forward, they usually did.
Ohio State quarterbacks were 17-21-0. They averaged 11.8 yards per attempt. That is very good. The national median this season is 7.2 yards per attempt, so if you’ve bettered that by over 50%, you had quite a game. J.T. (13-17) had a couple of interesting passing streaks; he had a stretch (end of 2nd qtr/early 3rd qtr) where he completed 6 consecutive passes. He then missed 3 consecutive passes. He finished with completing 6 consecutive passes. Cardale was 4-4 so it’s easy to figure out his completion streak that night.
The Red Zone offense was up to its, of late, high standards. The Buckeyes were in the RZ 6 times and scored 4 TD’s. Their first “miss” was on OSU’s 1st series where J.T. got rocked and lost the fumble on the 20 yard line. The other miss was captained by Cardale on Ohio State’s last “full” drive of the game. They turned the ball over on downs at the Rutgers 10 yard line with 4:17 to play. The Buckeyes were up 49-zip at that point and Urban probably told Cardale “Just keep handing the ball off to Warren and run out the damn clock.” Actually, this drive was a thing of beauty; it consumed 15 plays, 50 yards and 8:29 of game time. When Urban gets into another ‘clock-burning’ situation, he has his template.
Playcalling
The coaching staff did a great job of involving The play-makers on Saturday. Ezekiel had 19 carries/5 receptions. J.T. Barrett had 13 carries/18 pass attempts. His completions went to 7 different receivers. Six different players had rushing attempts. I think the coaching staff is finally getting comfortable with their mix-n-match play-making combinations. This is one lethal offense.
Other
- J.T. Barrett’s lost fumble was OSU’s first turnover in their last three games. That pretty much defines a “ball control” offense.
- Ohio State had NO penalties whistled against them against Rutgers. That pretty much defines “not hurting yourself” play
- I was almost as excited as Kato Mitchell was Saturday night. In the 4th quarter, the walk-on WR absolutely leveled a Rutgers linebacker with a “crisp” block. After the play, Kato was jumping up and down as if he’d caught the game winning touchdown! That, folks, is the essence of college football.
The Buckeyes sit at 8-0, 4-0 and have a well earned Halloween week off. They host Minnesota on Saturday at 8:00 PM in The Shoe.
The post 2nd Thoughts: OSU Rolls Rutgers 49-7 appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
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