OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
After watching the game and reading all the articles, posts, comments and everything else, I have a few opinions about this football team and where it is headed this year:
First lets talk about the weak areas of the Bucks:
1. Offensive Line- What can be said, that hasnt been said somewhere, I am not buying that "they are young" excuse, even a young line can get a push on the line 7 out of ten times, we consistently have penetration. What is the cause of this? There are probably a few factors, but it is not for a lack of talent, I think they need to go back to fundamentals and build from there, keep it simple and let their talent shine through, most importantly, they need to work in practice and get some pride in the unit. This unit is the weakess part of the team and is the most important.
2. Running Backs- Lydell Ross is a average back at best. We need a running back by committee approach and we need to make a concentrated effort to be a rushing offense, but the backs are affected by the O line and that where the majority of the problem arises, a good to great O line makes Ross look good, a mediocre to bad O line makes him look inadequate and thats where this position is, take for example the NW game stats
Ross 11 carries, 31 yards
Pittman 11 carries, 32 yards
Joe 3 carries, 8 yards
This tells me its the O line, it was interesting that Pittman got most of the carries in the fourth quarter...hmmmmm......I would like to see more of Pittman, I see a real burst from him and a mean streak when he gets hit, he is always going forward.
3. Play Calling- I think Jim Tressel is a great coach, I really do...but with that said...there needs to be a change in our play calling, we need to be more unpredicatable instead of predicatable. I don't have the answers, but I would think that running on first down 80% of the time is not going to get it done. We must move the ball on first down, at least positive yards to stay out of third and long for Zwick.
4. Overall Execution- The execution of the offensive and defensive lines are not very good right now, we get no push on offense and we get little to no pressure on defense, the young pups on D need to grow up. The coaching staff needs to get the Offensive plays in faster so Zwick can survey the D and get us into the right play to avoid mistakes. The D coordinator needs to make adjustments that work! Get aggresive on defense, dont sit back. In every game their has been a break down by one of the units and that must stop in order for Osu to be successful this year.
Now lets talk about the strong/Average areas....
1. Special Teams- Mike Nugent is an All American and Kyle Turano is averaging 40.8 yards a kick and has done a good job of pinning teams back. Our kickoff return teams have improved dramatically and our punt return teams are so so at best.
2. Linebackers- Hawk and Carpenter have been getting it done, where is D'Andrea (13 tackles)...Schlegal (15 tackles).....
3. Secondary- Whitner has been getting it done, but Salley is not and we really need Fox back.
This team needs this win vs Whisky or it will be a long season, we have some playmakers, its time to let them play, the key is the lines, we need to win the battle up front the rest of the year or we will struggle.
First lets talk about the weak areas of the Bucks:
1. Offensive Line- What can be said, that hasnt been said somewhere, I am not buying that "they are young" excuse, even a young line can get a push on the line 7 out of ten times, we consistently have penetration. What is the cause of this? There are probably a few factors, but it is not for a lack of talent, I think they need to go back to fundamentals and build from there, keep it simple and let their talent shine through, most importantly, they need to work in practice and get some pride in the unit. This unit is the weakess part of the team and is the most important.
2. Running Backs- Lydell Ross is a average back at best. We need a running back by committee approach and we need to make a concentrated effort to be a rushing offense, but the backs are affected by the O line and that where the majority of the problem arises, a good to great O line makes Ross look good, a mediocre to bad O line makes him look inadequate and thats where this position is, take for example the NW game stats
Ross 11 carries, 31 yards
Pittman 11 carries, 32 yards
Joe 3 carries, 8 yards
This tells me its the O line, it was interesting that Pittman got most of the carries in the fourth quarter...hmmmmm......I would like to see more of Pittman, I see a real burst from him and a mean streak when he gets hit, he is always going forward.
3. Play Calling- I think Jim Tressel is a great coach, I really do...but with that said...there needs to be a change in our play calling, we need to be more unpredicatable instead of predicatable. I don't have the answers, but I would think that running on first down 80% of the time is not going to get it done. We must move the ball on first down, at least positive yards to stay out of third and long for Zwick.
4. Overall Execution- The execution of the offensive and defensive lines are not very good right now, we get no push on offense and we get little to no pressure on defense, the young pups on D need to grow up. The coaching staff needs to get the Offensive plays in faster so Zwick can survey the D and get us into the right play to avoid mistakes. The D coordinator needs to make adjustments that work! Get aggresive on defense, dont sit back. In every game their has been a break down by one of the units and that must stop in order for Osu to be successful this year.
Now lets talk about the strong/Average areas....
1. Special Teams- Mike Nugent is an All American and Kyle Turano is averaging 40.8 yards a kick and has done a good job of pinning teams back. Our kickoff return teams have improved dramatically and our punt return teams are so so at best.
2. Linebackers- Hawk and Carpenter have been getting it done, where is D'Andrea (13 tackles)...Schlegal (15 tackles).....
3. Secondary- Whitner has been getting it done, but Salley is not and we really need Fox back.
This team needs this win vs Whisky or it will be a long season, we have some playmakers, its time to let them play, the key is the lines, we need to win the battle up front the rest of the year or we will struggle.
