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Game Thread FIESTA BOWL: tOSU 21, Texas 24 (01-05-09)

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bukIpower;1351612; said:
I think the biggest point though isn't our offense its our DEFENSE. Lets face it tosu under Jim Tressel has been known for what? Defense and special teams. In the past blow outs our defense tackled poorly, got destroyed upfront, and were sadly often times out of position. If the defensive line can keep gap control as well as get pressure, and our defense as a whole tackles well I like our chances.
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don't forget that we usually play a pretty disciplined style of football, and the past few blow outs have been absolutely riddled with ill timed false starts, holds and personal fouls. i realize that the holds are a lot of times a product of being out manned, but i would really like to see us play a relatively penalty free game this time around.
 
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I have to say I can't think of a matchup I would have rather had if we didn't get into the national championship. Our series against you guys earlier this decade was some of the most fun I have ever had and I can't wait to see how this tiebreaker turns out. I have seen about 5 Ohio State games this year and here is what I think about this game.

I think a lot of people are seriously underestimating Ohio State. You guys have had your offensive problems this year but the talent is all there and if it comes together to it's full potential you guys are very hard to stop.

For Ohio State's offense I think this game will come down to Pryor's passing. If Pryor throws good short and intermediate passing routes that will open up the offense for Beanie to break some long runs our defense will have serious problems. I can tell you right now that Texas is gonna have about 8 guys crowding the line of scrimmage neutralizing Beaning and daring Pryor to beat them with his arm. If Pryor is not able to handle this then Texas could pull away early and force Tressel to abandon the running game (which is their strong point). If Pryor is able to handle this satisfactorily then I see you guys giving us a lot of problems and I see Beanie breaking atleast two long touchdown runs on us.

As far as our defense goes I would like to debunk some misconceptions about Big 12 and espescially Texas' defense. We play on a conference with a ton of high powered spread offenses and against these kind of offenses the total yardage stat is always going to make the defense look bad. A much better way to measure the worth of a defense in the big 12 is to look at scoring defense. We have held most of our opponents underneath their season average this year and the combined average for our opponents is 18.6 points per game. I would also like to point out that our defense leads the nation in sacks with 44. This is quite an accomplishment when you're playing against quick release spread offenses every week. The best way to describe our defense is what defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said. We aren't as good against the run as our stats indicate and we aren't as bad agains the pass as our stats indicate. This is a very solid defensive unit with an excellent pass rush and a raw but talented secondary.

As far as our offense goes you already know about Colt McCoy so I am not going to talk about him or our passing game very much but I do want to talk about our running game. I know a lot of people believe we don't have a very good running game because we don't have one star carrying our load and our quarterback is our leading rusher with under 100 yards but I would like to show you a closer look at our stats. We employ a tailback by committe approach that has our top five backs all averaging over 4 yards per carry and giving us a combined 2123 yards for the season.

Chris Ogbonnaya is our solid senior. He is an excellent pass blocker and our third leading receiver. From a pure physical and athletic standpoint he is not as gifted as our other backs however, he is a smart player who knows where to be and when to be there.

Vondrell McGee is probably our most balanced back out of all of them. He started out the season slow but towards the end we have seen some promise with him. He has a good combination of power and speed but he has seemed to be lacking in vision until just recently. I'm still not sure what part he plays in our offense but I know the potential is there.

Cody Johnson is somebody who I am suprised has not got the ball more often. He is a power runner who has turned out to be everything we thought Henry Melton was going to be. I would describe him as Beanie without the top end speed or agility but just as much power. It seems like the first person to hit him NEVER gets him down. He has been very useful in goaline situations and during the Texas A&M game he even broke some long runs. It will be interesting to see how he performs in the Fiesta Bowl and in the years to come.

Finally Fozzy Whittaker. He is our speed and agility back who will serve as our home run threat. Think of him as Jamaal Charles with better vision and not fumble prone. He was hampered with injuries during the first half of the season but he has finally started to come along and he may break a long touchdown run or two in the Fiesta bowl.

Well I hope I have clarified our running game a little better for you! I'm in a rush so I am not able to go as in depth as I would like to but we have a whole month for that! Let me just leave you with this. The matchup that will decide this game will be our Defense vs Ohio State's offense. If Ohio State is able to keep the chains moving and keep our offense of the field they have a great chance. But if Colt gets the ball and engineers long methodical drives like the Oklahoma game it could be a long day for the Ohio State defense. So i'll leave you with that for now and look forward to talking about this more soon!
 
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Yup - The bulk of the Texas fans who have posted here have proven to be knowledgeable and aren't easily swayed by whatever is the 'popular perception' and deal with facts. In short, they know football and don't need the bullshit.

Ever fanbase has it's douchebags, but Texas seems to have fewer than most.
 
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FWBuckeye;1351608; said:
Another groundbreaking analysis. Never ceases to amaze me. :biggrin:
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i do what i can. its been stone cold lock every single time. i bring only the most accurate analysis on the web, whether you pay $77 or get the $49.99 special, my anaylsis is always spot on...

Buckeyeskickbuttocks;1351610; said:
Unlikely, but is this true if Ohio State scores, say 9 points (all on FGs) and Texas scores one TD?
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ill have to defer to an expert on that one...

ohiostate=life;1351613; said:
Is that you John Madden??
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madden couldnt hold a candle to don cherry...
 
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There's a few reasons for the disparity between ppg allowed (20th) and ypg allowed (50th) for the defense. I hate the term "bend but don't break" but that's kind of what it is. Muschamp has been very conservative with the young secondary, rarely bringing a safety near the LOS and almost never leaving the cornerbacks by themselves. As a result, there haven't been many long plays given up this year. They also won't get a whole lot of 3 and outs or turnovers. Short passes with YAC have done the most damage this year.

Texas is also 4th in the country in net punting, so that helps too.
 
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EngineerHorn;1351647; said:
There's a few reasons for the disparity between ppg allowed (20th) and ypg allowed (50th) for the defense. I hate the term "bend but don't break" but that's kind of what it is. Muschamp has been very conservative with the young secondary, rarely bringing a safety near the LOS and almost never leaving the cornerbacks by themselves. As a result, there haven't been many long plays given up this year. They also won't get a whole lot of 3 and outs or turnovers. Short passes with YAC have done the most damage this year.

Texas is also 4th in the country in net punting, so that helps too.
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Getting dinked and dunked all game long.... where have I seen that before?

... Oh.. now it's coming back to me:

ChrisLeak_inside.jpg


(among others)
 
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Buckeyeskickbuttocks;1351628; said:
Yup - The bulk of the Texas fans who have posted here have proven to be knowledgeable and aren't easily swayed by whatever is the 'popular perception' and deal with facts. In short, they know football and don't need the bullshit.

Ever fanbase has it's douchebags, but Texas seems to have fewer than most.
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I have it on good authority from some Longhorns that the state of Texas does in fact have just as many douchebags per capita as any other state. They just call them 'Aggies.'
 
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UTSINCE96;1351621; said:
For Ohio State's offense I think this game will come down to Pryor's passing. If Pryor throws good short and intermediate passing routes that will open up the offense for Beanie to break some long runs our defense will have serious problems. I can tell you right now that Texas is gonna have about 8 guys crowding the line of scrimmage neutralizing Beaning and daring Pryor to beat them with his arm. If Pryor is not able to handle this then Texas could pull away early and force Tressel to abandon the running game (which is their strong point). If Pryor is able to handle this satisfactorily then I see you guys giving us a lot of problems and I see Beanie breaking atleast two long touchdown runs on us.
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nice post, thanks for stopping by.

i wanted to address this paragraph specifically. TP has been pretty accurate and his decision making is getting better as of the last 2 or 3 weeks of the season. i think it will come do whether or not our coaches give him a winning game plan. it seems to me that everyone expects the line to be stacked so we will have to earn the respect by passing before the rushing will be there. if the coaches don't let pryor go and insist on running the ball on 1st and sometimes even 2nd down it will be a long night for the buckeyes. hopefully they will let pryor do his thing. if they do i think we will give you guys a great game.
 
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You know after more thought I wonder why we dont' more open sets to take pressure off our offensive line.

What I mean is why not go with 3 or 4 wideouts to either A) Bring more defensive backs on the field or B) To force a defense to spread out. Often times when we go under center with 2 tight ends etc the defenses can then yes put 8-9 guys around the line of scrimage. What I'd really like to see if Robo, Hartline, and Sanzo out wide forcing Texas to either man up one of those safties or to make a linebacker go cover our slot man. Not only does this create mismatches but I think 240 pound Beanie and 230 Pryor can make things happen if they're running into 6-7 man fronts.
 
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bukIpower;1351711; said:
You know after more thought I wonder why we dont' more open sets to take pressure off our offensive line.

What I mean is why not go with 3 or 4 wideouts to either A) Bring more defensive backs on the field or B) To force a defense to spread out. Often times when we go under center with 2 tight ends etc the defenses can then yes put 8-9 guys around the line of scrimage. What I'd really like to see if Robo, Hartline, and Sanzo out wide forcing Texas to either man up one of those safties or to make a linebacker go cover our slot man. Not only does this create mismatches but I think 240 pound Beanie and 230 Pryor can make things happen if they're running into 6-7 man fronts.
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right on. it would also allow TP to throw on a quick drop which also neutralizes a good pass rush.
 
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