CFP Title Game, Alabama vs tOSU, Jan 11, 8:15 ET on ESPN, Miami

[Greyshirt]

Sermon going out was not the issue. The only chance OSU had was to match score for score and get a few stops. The defense losing some DLine players was the biggest issue. But OSU did not have the talent and speed in the back 7 to contend with the Bama passing attack. And if they did bring in more speed to help offset that issue Harris would have had an even better day. OSU needed to be at full strength to even have a chance. This was a historically good offense put on the field by Bama. The fall off between Serman the Teague was not enough to account for much. And the fact that Teague had first 2 TDs kind of proves that.
I was hopeful after the strip sack that maybe the old momentum could push OSU to a lead. But Bama was a machine. From the word go it seemed obvious that Bama was just a step better.

Crazy year and crazy season. OSU contended with it better than most. I was afraid that the focus on Clemson might harm the team because they needed that same focus and chip against Bama. If it was there it got knocked off midway through the second quarter. Last night Bama was the better team. But there is always next season. And the Bucks will reload and come back focused and ready to contend.

 

[JCOSU86]

Not to belabor an old discussion, but last night, this morning, today, are whey people who are “ZOMG Natty or bust!” people are going to spend most of their lives disappointed. You have to be able to revel in this team and what it accomplishes along the way, even being disappointed they don’t take home the trophy. These things are damned hard to win in the era of Darth Sabanus, but OSU is one of two teams who consistently put themselves in position to get a shot. That’s why I am way more pissed they didn’t get to play the Michigan game than I am losing to the Galactic Empire.

Agree. And even though it's set up now to be disappointed if you don't make the CFP, going to the Rose Bowl still gives me goose bumps.

*if the Rose Bowl isn't part of the CFP

 

[bukIpower]

Not to belabor an old discussion, but last night, this morning, today, are whey people who are “ZOMG Natty or bust!” people are going to spend most of their lives disappointed. You have to be able to revel in this team and what it accomplishes along the way, even being disappointed they don’t take home the trophy. These things are damned hard to win in the era of Darth Sabanus, but OSU is one of two teams who consistently put themselves in position to get a shot. That’s why I am way more pissed they didn’t get to play the Michigan game than I am losing to the Galactic Empire.

I think a lot here do appreciate... sure during the game and right after emotions run a little hot but today certainly I think most will understand this was a great year.

Sure we had our issues as a team but I'm so glad we got to see a few games this year. Because if the big ten had their way we would be going into week 3 this week.

 

[Greyshirt]

And yes I have to agree with many on here that the defensive scheme seemed to not appreciate how good Smith was or how fast he was. In the NFL they would have probably put a guy on him that stayed with him at all times. I realize this gets complicated when you have 4 WR sets and you have to run some type of zone. But when a LB was trying to run down the seam with Smith that just screamed "you got out coached". OSU defense seemed to be a play call behind all night. But again the only chance you have with that offense is to have the front 4 control the line of scrimmage or at least stalemate. And that went out the door with the players that could not play. Tough situation.

 

[Poe McKnoe]

And yes I have to agree with many on here that the defensive scheme seemed to not appreciate how good Smith was or how fast he was. In the NFL they would have probably put a guy on him that stayed with him at all times. I realize this gets complicated when you have 4 WR sets and you have to run some type of zone. But when a LB was trying to run down the seam with Smith that just screamed "you got out coached". OSU defense seemed to be a play call behind all night. But again the only chance you have with that offense is to have the front 4 control the line of scrimmage or at least stalemate. And that went out the door with the players that could not play. Tough situation.

Ohio State has a serious numbers problem at DB - they have all year long, and it got worse when Cam Brown went down. As @AuTX Buckeye alluded to, the recruiting and replenishment of talent, and to add to that, bodies in general, coupled with early NFL departures resulted in limited options. You get a secondary designed around a slot corner (nickel back) playing the #1 corner position. It didn’t work all year and it didn’t work last night. They could risk it with some of the young DBs, but they have mostly refused to go down that path all year for whatever reason, or they could put their veterans - including 4 LBs - on the field and hope Alabama would make a couple mistakes.

Alabama chose not to make mistakes, which happens because it’s Alabama, Nick Saban, Steve Sarkisian, and a bunch of NFL players. Sark knew exactly what to call to create mismatches. Hell, motioning Devonta Smith into the backfield and running a flat was enough to lose our best cover corner (Banks).

This game was over as soon as OSU kicked the field goal. Maybe it was over long before that, but that to me signaled that Day flinched. It’s the right call on the sheet, but considering how the game was going, it was an early white flag.

 

[JCOSU86]

I'm going against the grain here and say that while Mac Jones is a fine QB, I wasn't overly impressed with him. I saw a guy who had no pressure throwing to wide open receivers. He made some good throws, but I did not see one that made my jaw drop. He found the wide open receivers and hit them, no doubt about it. But the guy is not mobile and had no pressure.

 

[AuTX Buckeye]

I'm going against the grain here and say that while Mac Jones is a fine QB, I wasn't overly impressed with him. I saw a guy who had no pressure throwing to wide open receivers. He made some good throws, but I did not see one that made my jaw drop. He found the wide open receivers and hit them, no doubt about it. But the guy is not mobile and had no pressure.

Elway gonna have a tough time deciding between Trash (Trask) and Trash lite (Jones)

 

[jwinslow]

Ohio State has a serious numbers problem at DB - they have all year long, and it got worse when Cam Brown went down. As @AuTX Buckeye alluded to, the recruiting and replenishment of talent, and to add to that, bodies in general, coupled with early NFL departures resulted in limited options. You get a secondary designed around a slot corner (nickel back) playing the #1 corner position. It didn’t work all year and it didn’t work last night. They could risk it with some of the young DBs, but they have mostly refused to go down that path all year for whatever reason, or they could put their veterans - including 4 LBs - on the field and hope Alabama would make a couple mistakes.

Alabama chose not to make mistakes, which happens because it’s Alabama, Nick Saban, Steve Sarkisian, and a bunch of NFL players. Sark knew exactly what to call to create mismatches. Hell, motioning Devonta Smith into the backfield and running a flat was enough to lose our best cover corner (Banks).

This game was over as soon as OSU kicked the field goal. Maybe it was over long before that, but that to me signaled that Day flinched. It’s the right call on the sheet, but considering how the game was going, it was an early white flag.

The only other options they had were:

Safety Bryson Shaw (sleeper)
Safety Marcus Hooker (sleeper, has played, not sure if healthy)
Safety Ronnie Hickman (sleeper, has rarely played)
True Frosh CB cavazos (sleeper)
True Frosh CB Watts (lower 4 star)
Vet CB tyreke Johnson (former 5 star)

There is one guy on that list who is supposed to be good, and 5-stars are exciting because they only fail to pan out 50% of the time instead of far more than that.

The guys they needed:

2017 DB Amir Riep - 3 year contributor, kicked out for rape allegations
2018 CB Cam Brown - 3 year conributor, lost for the year to injury
2020 S Kourt Williams - rave reviews in practice. lost for the year

2019 CB/S Jordan Battle - flipped to Alabama
2020 CB Clark Phillips - flipped to Utah

That's 5 guys who all should be helping this team rebuild after losing Jordan, Damon and Jeff.

 

[Drubuck]

One thing that hurt the most in last nights game was holding them to a fg out of the half and then scoring fast to bring it within 14. Smith out injured finger and D literally made 0 adjustments and looked lazy when a stop could make a huge swing. Didn't matter the personnel Bama had on the field. Everything they did on offense was right and they didn't really do anything new. D never adjusted. Had they got a stop within 14, the game may not have been won, but it would have been a hell of a lot better than running a stretch play on 4th and 2 to seal the victory for Bama. Mac didn't have to do anything. Played catch and dumped the ball out on swing passes and screens. Hang 100 on scUM next season and figure out this D.

 

[Powair7s]

One thing that hurt the most in last nights game was holding them to a fg out of the half and then scoring fast to bring it within 14. Smith out injured finger and D literally made 0 adjustments and looked lazy when a stop could make a huge swing. Didn't matter the personnel Bama had on the field. Everything they did on offense was right and they didn't really do anything new. D never adjusted. Had they got a stop within 14, the game may not have been won, but it would have been a hell of a lot better than running a stretch play on 4th and 2 to seal the victory for Bama. Mac didn't have to do anything. Played catch and dumped the ball out on swing passes and screens. Hang 100 on scUM next season and figure out this D.

This is exactly right. One series in the second half, Bama had all backups in at the skill positions and move the ball down the field just as easily as with their starters. This never came down to a gap in talent, it was a scheme problem. You can't tell me our first team couldn't contend with their second team.

 

[bukIpower]

One thing that hurt the most in last nights game was holding them to a fg out of the half and then scoring fast to bring it within 14. Smith out injured finger and D literally made 0 adjustments and looked lazy when a stop could make a huge swing. Didn't matter the personnel Bama had on the field. Everything they did on offense was right and they didn't really do anything new. D never adjusted. Had they got a stop within 14, the game may not have been won, but it would have been a hell of a lot better than running a stretch play on 4th and 2 to seal the victory for Bama. Mac didn't have to do anything. Played catch and dumped the ball out on swing passes and screens. Hang 100 on scUM next season and figure out this D.

Yeah I couldn't understand this... down 14 and they now have no go to guys at WR and down the field they went. They burned like 8 minutes of clock between the two drives too.

The only other options they had were:

Safety Bryson Shaw (sleeper)
Safety Marcus Hooker (sleeper, has played, not sure if healthy)
Safety Ronnie Hickman (sleeper, has rarely played)
True Frosh CB cavazos (sleeper)
True Frosh CB Watts (lower 4 star)
Vet CB tyreke Johnson (former 5 star)

There is one guy on that list who is supposed to be good, and 5-stars are exciting because they only fail to pan out 50% of the time instead of far more than that.

The guys they needed:

2017 DB Amir Riep - 3 year contributor, kicked out for rape allegations
2018 CB Cam Brown - 3 year conributor, lost for the year to injury
2020 S Kourt Williams - rave reviews in practice. lost for the year

2019 CB/S Jordan Battle - flipped to Alabama
2020 CB Clark Phillips - flipped to Utah

That's 5 guys who all should be helping this team rebuild after losing Jordan, Damon and Jeff.

I'll never forgive what Grinch did to that position group. I'll also wager to say that Hooker and Shaw more than likely are not planning out too. The big one though I personally feel was Clarke Phillips.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Not to belabor an old discussion, but last night, this morning, today, are whey people who are “ZOMG Natty or bust!” people are going to spend most of their lives disappointed. You have to be able to revel in this team and what it accomplishes along the way, even being disappointed they don’t take home the trophy. These things are damned hard to win in the era of Darth Sabanus, but OSU is one of two teams who consistently put themselves in position to get a shot. That’s why I am way more pissed they didn’t get to play the Michigan game than I am losing to the Galactic Empire.

This. A thousand times this.

I was going to ask before the game last night would you rather be guaranteed a win over Bama last night and a loss to tsun in '21 or the other way around and see what the results were but didn't want to get a bunch of shit started before the NC game.

I would take the guaranteed win in The Game 1 million times out of a million thank you very much.

 

[Jaxbuck]

This is exactly right. One series in the second half, Bama had all backups in at the skill positions and move the ball down the field just as easily as with their starters. This never came down to a gap in talent, it was a scheme problem. You can't tell me our first team couldn't contend with their second team.

Agreed. Seemed like every time Sark needed a play he knew how to isolate Borland or Proctor and when he did, well...

 

[BB73]

Technically @BB73 goes into his cryogenic freezing chamber.

I’m chillin’.

 

[1926Buckeyes]

The only thing at this point I'm saddened by is we didnt keep it close. Who knows what kind of harm this does to us in the future. I know what 2006 and 2007 did to the program and I hope this doesn't set us back.

I don't think it's anything close to those years. OSU was playing really good teams in 06-08 and immediately getting outclassed. It was obvious that nearly every position group needed an upgrade as well as scheme. Last night OSU played Saban's best team and couldn't hang. Yes, they obviously have issues at several positions, but OSU is also addressing that with a number of excellent recruiting classes that are miles better than anything from the Tress era. No comparison.

I'm going against the grain here and say that while Mac Jones is a fine QB, I wasn't overly impressed with him. I saw a guy who had no pressure throwing to wide open receivers. He made some good throws, but I did not see one that made my jaw drop. He found the wide open receivers and hit them, no doubt about it. But the guy is not mobile and had no pressure.

I've been really hard on him, and while it's probably unfair, it's because of exactly what you said. I'm very confident that if OSU had gotten any consistent pressure he would've been throwing off his back foot every play.

It can't be overstated how big of an advantage it is to have 2 skill players who would've been starting in the NFL this year come back and play as your RB1 and WR1. Beyond talent, they have an understanding and verstility that is not seen at a college level. I can only hope that at some point OSU will inexplicably have a Dobbins and a David Boston come back for one last year together.