Game Thread Game Two: #1 Ohio State 24, #2 Texas 7 (9/9/06)

[UTMNC]

One underlying concern I still have for Texas is the kicking game. UT's Sr. G. Johnson has arguably the strongest leg Texas has had since P. Dawason, but there is a reason Dusty Mangum and David Pino were on the field the last 2 years instead of Johnson and it's called ACCURACY. With UT's fall practices guaranteed to be closed practices, I dare say I consider reading on hornfans. message board from some fool who claims to have some "inside" reports that Jonhson is consistently booming 60 yarders through the middle of the uprights a reliable source.

On the other hand, replacing a kicker like J. Huston has to create some concern, I dont care how much "potential" Pretorius or Pettrey have. I am aware of Jonathon Skeete, and and argument between UT and tOSU concerning current players with criminal convictions will be futile, both teams police blotter's require full time reporters.

 

[scarletngrey11]

One underlying concern I still have for Texas is the kicking game. UT's Sr. G. Johnson has arguably the strongest leg Texas has had since P. Dawason, but there is a reason Dusty Mangum and David Pino were on the field the last 2 years instead of Johnson and it's called ACCURACY. With UT's fall practices guaranteed to be closed practices, I dare say I consider reading on hornfans. message board from some fool who claims to have some "inside" reports that Jonhson is consistently booming 60 yarders through the middle of the uprights a reliable source.

On the other hand, replacing a kicker like J. Huston has to create some concern, I dont care how much "potential" Pretorius or Pettrey have. I am aware of Jonathon Skeete, and and argument between UT and tOSU concerning current players with criminal convictions will be futile, both teams police blotter's require full time reporters.

If Huston makes that kick against Texas, then we win.

Huston was a good kicker, but most of his big kicks he missed.

 

[jwinslow]

skeete wouldn't be in the mix even if he were an altar boy. He does not have the leg that both of them possess. As for replacing huston, that was the same thing people said after Nuge left (we were expecting some, but not a ton of dropoff). Tressel has had Nuge, Huston, Groom, Sander (all studs), Turano, & Trapasso (very solid punters). Tressel spends a lot of time and schollies on special teams... so it is not a stretch to imagine that the new kicker will continue the tressel ST tradition.

I think the best comparision for the 2006 Bucks is 2004. A ton of talent that has significant real game experience over the prior seasons, they just don't happen to be starters. However, the 2006 D-Line will be far superior, particularly at DT, than the 2004 squad first was, and the D Coordinator is in his second year. Of course, this years' D won't be hamstrung by its offense either.

how much experience did our backups get in 02/03? There were very few large leads to put the backups in.

The biggest difference between 04 & 06 is that the DL is not brand new, and the offense is not going to be weak like it was under Zwick/Ross (thx in part to poor OL play).

 

[t_BuckeyeScott]

I don't think this has been mentioned much but its very possible that Kerr and/or D'Andrea will be an upgrade over Schlegal in the near future. At least as much as any Texas defender will be better than last year's starter.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

CFBnews Ratings

OFFENSE

UT: Quarterback Rating: 6
OSU: Quarterback Rating: 9.5

UT: Running Back Rating: 9.5
OSU: Running Back Rating: 8.5

UT: Receiver Rating: 8.5
OSU: Receiver Rating: 8.5

UT: Offensive Line Rating: 9.5
OSU: Offensive Line Rating: 9
​

DEFENSE

UT: Defensive Line Rating: 9
OSU: Defensive Line Rating: 8

UT: Linebacker Rating: 8
OSU: Linebacker Rating: 8

UT: Secondary Rating: 9
OSU: Secondary Rating: 8
​

SPECIAL TEAMS

UT: Special Teams Rating: 9
OSU: Special Teams Rating: 8
​

OSU offense by 2 points
UT defense by 2 points
UT special teams by 1 point

Nice...
What a game this should be.

 

[Dryden]

I said:

the 2006 D-Line will be far superior, particularly at DT, than the 2004 squad first was

and

this years' D won't be hamstrung by its offense either.

and

The truth was that neither the O or D lines were very good when the season started.

To which you responded:

The biggest difference between 04 & 06 is that the DL is not brand new

and

the offense is not going to be weak like it was under Zwick/Ross

and

thx in part to poor OL play

...

WTF?

You could have just said, "I agree."

 

[jwinslow]

I don't think this has been mentioned much but its very possible that Kerr and/or D'Andrea will be an upgrade over Schlegal in the near future. At least as much as any Texas defender will be better than last year's starter.

I'm doubtful about that. More and more reports seem to surface that mDa will probably never be 100%, and Kerr seemed slower than Schlegel during both spring scrimmages (and if he were better than Anthony, he would have been playing last year).

 

[UTMNC]

Field position, field position, since the punting game plays such a huge role, as of today, definite edge tOSU as UT will trot out either unproven G. Johnson, or frosh T. Gerland.

 

[osugrad21]

WTF?

You could have just said, "I agree."

JW doesn't operate in simplicity Dry...took me a long time to accept that one, but it is his way.

Good stuff guys.

 

[Kueller]

I saw all these ppg and scoring statistics being trotted out and I decided to check out my intuitive notion that OSU tends to give up the first drive and then clamp down. So, I checked out the scoring by quarter and found some interesting trends.

<table x:str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 240pt;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="320"><col style="width: 48pt;" span="5" width="64"> <tbody><tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;" height="17" width="64">
</td> <td class="xl24" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">1st qtr</td> <td class="xl24" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">2nd qtr</td> <td class="xl24" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">3rd qtr</td> <td class="xl24" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">4th qtr</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt;" x:num="" height="17">2002</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">59</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">53</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">31</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">33</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt;" x:num="" height="17">2003</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">41</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">51</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">30</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">93</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt;" x:num="" height="17">2004</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">41</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">71</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">37</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">64</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt;" x:num="" height="17">2005</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">50</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">41</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">49</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="">43</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Total</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="" x:fmla="=SUM(B2:B5)">191</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="" x:fmla="=SUM(C2:C5)">216</td> <td x:num="" x:fmla="=SUM(D2<img src=" http://www.buckeyeplanet.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif="" border="0" alt="" title="Big Grin" smilieid="4" class="xl24">147
</td> <td class="xl24" x:num="" x:fmla="=SUM(E2:E5)">233</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Seems there was some trouble holding down the fort in the 4th during Dantonio's last year (2003).

Snyder (2004) looks like he was a good game-planner when he had time (1st and 3rd quarters) but didn't react well to new wrinkles an offense threw at him during a game (2nd and 4th quarters).

Heacock (2005) obviously benefitted from a veteran defense, but seems to do a particularly good job of adjusting to the offense in the 2nd and 4th quarters. I'd like to see better numbers coming out of half-time though.

 

[buckeyeboy]

Huston was a good kicker, but most of his big kicks he missed.

I agree. Huston was a fabulous kicker when it came to kicking the ball through the back of the end zone and making the opponent line up at the 20. However, it seemed like the only kicks he missed were ones that were in critical games (UT, scUM, ND).

 

[t_BuckeyeScott]

In Huston's defense the UT missed field goal was after he had already made 5 and this was a 50 yarder right? Not exactly a gimme.

 

[SparkyOSU]

I agree. Huston was a fabulous kicker when it came to kicking the ball through the back of the end zone and making the opponent line up at the 20. However, it seemed like the only kicks he missed were ones that were in critical games (UT, scUM, ND).

Dont get to mad, as I recall they were blocks at scUM and ND. I am not very quick at blaming kickers for blocked FGs, unless they were rediculously low like 50 yarders

 

[BB73]

Dont get to mad, as I recall they were blocks at scUM and ND. I am not very quick at blaming kickers for blocked FGs, unless they were rediculously low like 50 yarders

The miss against scUM was a 46-yarder wide right early in the fourth quarter. I don't think it was blocked.

There were two blocked in the Fiesta Bowl.

 

[OregonBuckeye]

OFFENSE

UT: Quarterback Rating: 6
OSU: Quarterback Rating: 9.5

UT: Running Back Rating: 9.5
OSU: Running Back Rating: 8.5

UT: Receiver Rating: 8.5
OSU: Receiver Rating: 8.5

UT: Offensive Line Rating: 9.5
OSU: Offensive Line Rating: 9

​

DEFENSE

UT: Defensive Line Rating: 9
OSU: Defensive Line Rating: 8

UT: Linebacker Rating: 8
OSU: Linebacker Rating: 8

UT: Secondary Rating: 9
OSU: Secondary Rating: 8

​

SPECIAL TEAMS

UT: Special Teams Rating: 9
OSU: Special Teams Rating: 8

​

OSU offense by 2 points
UT defense by 2 points
UT special teams by 1 point

Nice...
What a game this should be.

I think our runningback rating is too low. Why is everyone discounting what Antonio Pittman did last year? Every preview basically breezes over his stats and talks about Chris Wells. It's getting on my nerves that people think guys like Darius Walker and Lorenzo Booker are better than him.