Better Than 2006?

[buckeyebri]

What most impressed me about the defense Saturday was it's ability to be in position to make the play. The team was very aware of where they needed to be and were able to close fast.

Even though we didn't get the take aways we should have, we also didn't give up any points on our turnovers. This is a very impressive and often overlooked stat.

 

[pianobuck46]

The best thing about this team, as simplistic as it may sound, is the huge chip on its collective shoulder. I wouldn't count 'em out.

:gobucks3::osu2::gobucks4:

 

[BB73]

As far as the defense goes lets also be fair and say we haven't played a team yet thats going to challenge our manhood in the middle of the DL and try to pound away at us. We may very well be up to the challenge but being as fair and unbiased as I can be we haven't faced it yet. This is still an area of concern to me untill I see with my own two eyes that we pass the test.

You beat me to posting this. MSU, PSU, Wiscy, Illinois, and TSUN will all try to pound away at our D-line. tOSU will be using a lot less nickel, and I don't think we'll see only 3 DLs unless it's third and very long. Hopefully the run defense remains stout.

 

[martinss01]

hmmm... my take:

qb - 06 by alot. boeckman could fullfill all of his expectations and he still won't be as good as ts. if he develops like we hope could he win a nc for us? absolutely! but that still won't make him better than ts.

wr's - 07. hartline > gonzo, robo > ginn, small < robo 06 (at present). why do people still say robo is slow? or rather, not fast enough to beat db's deep? we really didn't loose anything other than name recognition. in fact, i honestly believe this years wr core is better than last year right now let alone by the end of the year. the only difference between this years wr's and last years is the offensive scheme and the guy throwing the ball.

tb - 06. sorry, dems just the straight up facts people. it absolutely shocks me how under rated pittman was/is by the tOSU fan base. what are people basing their tb comparisons on? beanie = beanie, wells light = wells light, and saine > pittman? yes, beanie is better this year, yes wells light is much better than last year and im really happy with his progression, and yes saine is playing extremely well. but im sorry to say none of their progression and the addition of saine outweigh what pittman brought to the table. he really was a great tb and his contributions can not be overlooked. well, apparently they can...

0l - i honestly don't know. im not an oline guy so its hard for me to grade whether or not our returning starters progression in addition to the new guys surpase what we lost.

dl - 06. we do seem to be getting better pressure from the edges. but pitcock was a monster. don't let the lb's inability last year overshadow how good our interior line play in 06 was. as of week 6, the edge goes to 06. we'll see how they stack up by the end of the year.

lb - 07 by a gabillion trillion gazillion. last week against minny, freeman played his first game as a lb. THAT was the guy we had all been waiting so desperately to see. it took him a year to get past the knee injury. well, sometimes that happens and thats why coaches stick with guys. lil animal is playing considerably better and im really happy to see grant coming along nicely. though i would like to see homan in the lineup more as imo that is the best talent of the group. but these 3 are already better than 06 and possibly better than the 02 group. they likely won't unseat the 98 or 05 groups, but this has all the talent and desire to be one of the top 5 lb'er groups to play at tOSU.

cb - 07 by bunches. why? because washington is that much better than smith. don't get me wrong, i liked smith. a walkon senior with a ton of ability and he really played well for us. but i personally would have had a real hard time not starting washington LAST YEAR. i know i have said it before, but this group has the ability to be better than the 98 group. which imo would make them the best cb duo in the history of tOSU.

safety - both. prior to the iowa game, last year was better. post last years iowa game, this years is better. russell was our best safety last year until he got hurt. coleman has played young, but well. he's going to be a good one me thinks.

 

[BB73]

This year, this back-seven is as good as any in OSU history. Chimdi and Donald have really impressed me, and the light has finally gone on for Freeman.

What's the longest pass play we've given up this year?

Only 1 play of 30 yards - here's the longest passing play for each game.

25 yards - YSU
16 yards - Akron
26 yards - U-Dub
28 yards - NW'ern
30 yards - Minny (Decker)
27 yards - Purdue (Keller)

 

[Carmen Ohio]

"Carmen" stated that he thought Robiskie was better than Ginn. Well maybe better in catching the ball but speed and moves favored Ginn alittle better there. I think Ray Small is a real deal here.

For the record I said Robiskie is a better RECEIVER, Ginn is FASTER and Small will eventually replace Ginn's contributions. That's the same thing you're saying.

 

[Big Papa]

Yeah, agree with most of you here. The Defense is one of the best I have ever seen in Columbus. The speed out there, the knack for getting in passing lanes and making picks or knocking the ball down is incredible. What I love the most is that you rarely see a missed tackle, and if someone does make a catch or get through the front line, you are going to get hit and hit hard. You can count on it. I have really been impressed with the play of Anderson Russell. He is quickly becoming and absolute stud on defense. He is everywhere on that field.

The offense still seems to be a work in progress, as most of us suspected it would be. Beanie has run well, Robo has been awesome, Todd has been steady most of the time with glimpses of greatness as well as shots of still being a newbie as the new field general. This is an offense that is certainly capable of playing with anyone, but there is also a lot of room for improvement. I don't have anywhere near the same level of confidence with this Offense as I did last year with Troy, Teddy, Gonzo, Pittman and the boys. As Mili said, we should see some better tests for the Offense in the tougher match-ups coming up.

 

[Dryden]

tb - 06. sorry, dems just the straight up facts people. it absolutely shocks me how under rated pittman was/is by the tOSU fan base. what are people basing their tb comparisons on? beanie = beanie, wells light = wells light, and saine > pittman? yes, beanie is better this year, yes wells light is much better than last year and im really happy with his progression, and yes saine is playing extremely well. but im sorry to say none of their progression and the addition of saine outweigh what pittman brought to the table. he really was a great tb and his contributions can not be overlooked. well, apparently they can...

Pittman was an excellent running back, but I think he never garnered the pub he deserved because he didn't break the "Oh my God! Did you see that?!!" type runs. Yeah, Pittman scored those long TDs against Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Michigan, it's just that he never had that 'it' factor. Beanie's speed is underrated because you don't look at a player his size and assume he's quick, plus his stiff arm is simply brutal. Pittman could bounce a run outside and pick up 10-15 yards, whereas Beanie has a knack for bouncing a run outside, shoving the first DB he sees into the turf, and picking up 25+ yards. Beanie already has A LOT of 20-25 yard runs this season.

Every game, Beanie does something that makes you say, "Wow!" Like lowering his shoulder on the run at Washington that sent the DB flying out of bounds, or the stiff arm he demonstrated against Akron and Minnesota.

Pittman was a very, very good back. Beanie has the chance to be a great one, and he's doing it on one bum wheel having missed almost all of the spring/fall practices.

 

[martinss01]

Pittman was an excellent running back, but I think he never garnered the pub he deserved because he didn't break the "Oh my God! Did you see that?!!" type runs. Yeah, Pittman scored those long TDs against Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Michigan, it's just that he never had that 'it' factor. Beanie's speed is underrated because you don't look at a player his size and assume he's quick, plus his stiff arm is simply brutal. Pittman could bounce a run outside and pick up 10-15 yards, whereas Beanie has a knack for bouncing a run outside, shoving the first DB he sees into the turf, and picking up 25+ yards. Beanie already has A LOT of 20-25 yard runs this season.

im not argueing that pittman is better than beanie. personally , i don't believe that to be true. i believe beanie has more raw talent and ability than pittman. but i also believe the following (as of week 6) is true:

pittman + beanie + wells light 06
is better than
beanie + wells light + saine 07


don't forget pittman busting through the hole in 05 against iowa lowering his shoulder and crushing the saftey at the 12 launching said safties mouth piece to the 2. or the countless times ts found pitt for a 2 yrd pass in the flat on 3rd and 10+, pitt made a move then ran through 2 db's for the 1st down. or how well he picked up blocks in the backfield. which he did better than any of the current rb's do now.

but your absolutely right though. when beanie runs over a guy its impressive. when pittman does the exact same thing, its workman like. and i would imagine pretty much everyone would agree on that. but at the end of the day a 10 yrd run for a first down is a 10 yrd run for a first down. i just don't see this as a beanie vrs. pittman debate. but rather a unit vrs. unit debate.

 

[Carmen Ohio]

pittman + beanie + wells light 06
is better than
beanie + wells light + saine 07

Coach Tressel has already said the best people available will play and even took Boom Herron on the Minnesota trip - maybe even Purdue. With Beanie's ankle problems I predict that in that sometime in the heat of battle in our last 5 games we're going to unleash Herron.

How good is beanie + wells light + saine + herron

 

[lvbuckeye]

Our offense is well behind last year's...after the Northwestern game I thought we may have turned the corner, but after the Minny and Purdue games I think we have a decent-to-good offense but not the juggernaut we had last year.

last year we averaged 34.62 PPG. this year we're averaging 33.67. hardly what i would call "well behind." through six games in '06, we averaged 32.67 PPG.

chew on that.

 

[BrutusBobcat]

last year we averaged 34.62 PPG. this year we're averaging 33.67. hardly what i would call "well behind." through six games in '06, we averaged 32.67 PPG.

chew on that.

During the first six games, the 2006 team played Texas in Austin, Iowa at Iowa, plus Cincy and Penn State at home. It's just a slightly tougher schedule than the 2007 slate, which includes a 51-point hammering of NW in Columbus.

While normally I like stats, we have to look at what's on the field qualitatively so that we don't wind up xrayrandying the whole thing.

Our running game is right there, our receivers are solid, and QB play is progressing. It's a good offense, but it's behind where 2006's was. I mean, we had a Heisman trophy QB that started for 2.5 years -- there's gonna be a substantial dropoff.

 

[PogueMahone]

As it stands we have not been tested in ANY game so far this season.

I think we need to start giving this team some credit for what it has done. It's done a lot of things that Cooper, Bruce and maybe even Hayes-coached teams may have faltered in doing. It can be argued that a lesser team may have folded in Seattle when Washington had the momentum, had been driving all day and finally put up some points right before the half. A lesser defense could have taken a psychological hit when Minnesota scored early on with all our defensive starters on the field, but this one cranked up their play and shut them down and out for the remainder of the game. They've gone into two reasonably tough environments, one at night and one across the country, and won by five touchdowns combined in those two games. They've played one of the Big Ten's best rushing teams one week and shut them down, then its best passing offense the next and kept them off the board for 59 minutes and 50 seconds. They have been tested, but it hasn't been like 2002 where so many games against lesser teams went down to the wire. I think that sets a gold standard for tests in a season. Do you really want a weekly heart attack? :)

Last week, the "big test" the Buckeyes had yet to face was senior quarterback with a live arm and weapons to spread the ball too. Now they have, and graded out about a B+ at worst. Give them some credit for stopping Painter and Purdue, they're probably a bowl-bound team. Washington may be too. This defense seems real, and even some voices on ESPiN are saying it might be better than LSU's. It isn't bend-but-don't-break like last years team was up until the final two games; it's stopping good offenses cold in their tracks.

I'll give you that this team has yet to play a fast, athletic defense that comes up with consistent stops, and what worries me is that I don't think we'll face one like that all year until whatever bowl game we go to. Illinois' defense is very good, but it simply is not on par with LSUs and Oklahomas of the world. Before the season, I would have told you Penn State was the team we needed to watch to see how we perform well under pressure. Now that they've been gashed by an average Illini offense with no quarterback to speak of, I'm starting to doubt their legitimacy as a great defense. So, we'll probably have to wait till the bowl game to see how TB and the guys react when the game is on the line against a good D.

 

[brutus2002]

The secondary and linebackers are flat out scary. Now that Marcus Freeman has started to play at a high level we have the best linebacker corps in the country. We have 3 legit shutdown corners. The best passing offense in the B10 was shut down!!!! Dorien who? Chekwa played his butt off. There are teams like Michigan that Chekwa would be their lockdown corner.

I have a feeling that if Wilson would not have gotten hurt we would be even better on the Dline. The Dline has 6 games to improve. I see improvement every week. Its hard to get alot of pressure playing spread offense yet we still do. When we start facing pocket QB's we are gonna hurt somebody.

As far as the WR's are concerned. I think Robo is the best WR in the country outside of Deshaun Jackson. The Kelley kid from Okie is good but Robo is a prototypical pro WR.

I think Saine, Wells, and Wells is better than the 06 runningbacks. Brandon Saine is a bolt of lightning just waiting to strike.

I think this team will not only be better by the end of the season but they will be considerably better.

 

[Wells4Heisman]

Well said. I'd rather take a killer defense over a killer offense any day.