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

[jwinslow]

this post is going to be too much fun to dissect.

In any case big punt and kick returns tend to come at somewhat random and unpredictable times, and there is no reason to expect that either team will have a big TD return in this game.

so they are unpredictable, thus we have no reason to wonder if one might happen... hmm...

The tOSU front has always been a stand em up and let the LBs take care of things group, and I don't expect that to change. They are not a threat by scheme even if they were more experienced.

We're already off to a hilarious start. Ever heard of Will Smith, Darrion Scott or Tim Anderson? They sure did stand there and take up blockers If you expect our DL to take up blockers you will be quite surprised.

Texas RBs Vs tOSU LBs - advantage Texas mostly due to speed and quickness, but also power in the form of Melton. As fast as your LBs are, they are not elite sprinters.

and OSU doesn't have power in Chris Wells, as well as speed (unlike Melton, who is not a homerun threat)? When was the last time LBs were recruited for their elite sprinter speed? That never seemed to be an issue when Texas fans defended Derrick Johnson, nor should it be. But we all forgot, Jamaal Charles already has the gold medal in the olympics locked up, so that's probably what you meant.

Overall advantage Texas as a expect 5 or 6 TD receptions and at least 1 TD from them.

1 to Finley, 3 to our LBs, and 1-2 to our DBs. You are absolutely incredible in your predictions... I thought Texas was going to let their QBs manage the game? No, now it appears they are going to hang 60 on us, as I don't think anyone expects your ground game to be shutout of the endzone.

Texas QB Vs tOSU Defense - ? I honestly don't know what to expect, but given the above it is really a matter of the Texas QBs minimizing mistakes, rather than making plays. I feel pretty good about their ability to do that.

Really? Because that is in COMPLETE contradiction to the previous quote.

tOSU OL Vs Texas DL - Advantage Texas, Texas will have one of if not the best DL in the country, tOSUs O-line will not be that good.

Texas loses the two unstoppable DT's (what we heard all of last summer, who were quite stoppable), and yet they will be the best. OSU replaces Kudla, gets a freak back in gholston, upgrades at DT with patterson, and yet I'm sure we have no business talking about having a good DL at all.

tOSU RBs Vs Texas LBs - Advantage tOSU (LBs only), Even with more experience and young talent, I am not yet sold on our LBs. Now if I consider the entire 11 I think it is Advantage Texas. tOSU will not be able to run inside, and will have limited success outside due to the pursuit of our safeties.

Please stop pretending to be cordial, your homerism is hilarious. OSU has a hairline advantage against your LBs, yet we will not be able to run inside or outside. Your LBs will never be out of position? Or are your safeties instantly able to cover all of their mistakes?

tOSU WRs Vs Texas DBs - Advantage Texas, Texas brings back nearly identical experience as last year, and will do at least as good a job shutting down tOSUs receivers as they did last year.

that michael huff sure is easy to replace, along with a number of other studs. It's hilarious how Texas is able to reload their losses, but OSU simply cannot.

tOSU TEs Vs Texas LBs - Advantage Texas primarily because Tressel tends to only bothers to throw to the TE a couple times a game, taking them out of the equation.

except for that wide open TD that could have changed the outcome... Ryan Hamby was not a very good TE, Frost was hanging out in the doghouse, and Nicol was in street clothes... why would he have relied upon his TE?

Again you speak as tho you are a tressel expert when you are nothing of the sort. Ben Hartsock had some clutch catches for us in 02, and had a bigger year in 03. Tressel may never use his TE 50 times a year, but last year was an exception to the rule.

Special Teams - Advantage Texas, Texas' special teams were great last year and will be so again this year, and they will be better than tOSU in nearly every category again.

again? I don't remember your returners nearly breaking return after return. I seem to remember a FG being bounced through the uprights. Both teams will be strong on special teams again, but we're undergoing some serious revisionist history here.

For something completely different, I think it really comes down to turnovers. tOSU could not win at home with a +2 turnover margin last year. tOSU will need to be +3 to be in this game. That will be an interesting challenge, but our freshman QBs could give the game away.

Troy Smith couldn't take it to SDSU either last year, is that a good predictor for how he would perform against them in a rematch this year? Hardly.

I think it will be a whale of a game, and OSU will more than have their hands full with a loaded Texas squad. But your homerism has never been greater than in those quotations.

 

[xrayrandy]

Thank you for all your kind words and constructive feedback.

Sorry I missed the tOSU QBs Vs the Texas Defense, I had some business to attend to.

I think Smith can be reasonably productive. Texas of course has a lot of practice defending a dual threat QB, so I don't expect a huge game, maybe 50% completions for 160 yards and 25 or 30 yards rushing, mostly on one run. He'll have a decent game, but not good enough.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Thank you for all your kind words and constructive feedback.

Sorry I missed the tOSU QBs Vs the Texas Defense, I had some business to attend to.

I think Smith can be reasonably productive. Texas of course has a lot of practice defending a dual threat QB, so I don't expect a huge game, maybe 50% completions for 160 yards and 25 or 30 yards rushing, mostly on one run. He'll have a decent game, but not good enough.

I will put down real money, right now, that Smith accounts for more than 190 yards of offense and completes over 50% of his passes in Austin...

 

[buckeyeboy]

I think Smith can be reasonably productive.

This is getting ridiculous. TS is one of the best players in the country coming back this year and all you have to say is that he can be "reasonably productive?" Give me a break. xray, I've gotta say that I haven't seen such ridiculous homer statements since watching Sportscenter's coverage pre-Rose Bowl in which they anointed USC the best team of all time.

 

[scarletngrey11]

So Smith will only complete 50% of his passes and not get more than 30 yards rushing. We arent strong enough to run inside, or fast enough to run outside.

Well I guess we are screwed then...

 

[High Lonesome]

So Smith will only complete 50% of his passes and not get more than 30 yards rushing. We arent strong enough to run inside, or fast enough to run outside.

Well I guess we are screwed then...

Now your understanding.....Don't forget the Texas heat....Trust me, it is much more satisfing once you accept all of these truths to be self evident, or at least it was for me after I realized that Texas had no chance in the shoe, at night, against the greatest linebacking corp ever assembled

actually, that last part may not have been so far off

 

[timBUCK2]

I've gotta chime in here. xray, I usually enjoy your posts as they represent a different perspective on this game. These last two pages have completely absurd though - especially on an OSU fan board.

I honestly can't see this being anything but a close game.

2005 season: 2 losses combined for 10 points
2004 season: 4 losses combined for 48 points (39 in a nasty 3 game skid that featured the worse loss (24 points) Tressel has suffered at tOSU)
2003 season: 2 losses combined for 21 points
2002 season: :tongue2:

Tressel has an undeniable record for keeping tOSU in close games. To think that your defense will render our offense helpless, that your offense will prove unstoppable against our defense, and your special teams (the hallmark of JTs teams) will be undeniably better than ours is completely f-in rediculous. Take a nap or something dude.

 

[EngineerHorn]

I was beginning to think that at the current pace, we wouldn't reach the 7000 posts that we did last year. But if Xray keeps throwing rocks at the hornet's nest, I think we have a pretty good shot now. If nothing else, at least his posts initiate some interesing discussions.

I remember seeing a couple tOSU fans saying that the Buckeyes have traditionally struggled in night road games under Tressel. That might have something to do with the fact that night games (prime time television) are usually played against good teams (PSU last year for instance). Any thoughts on that?

 

[BuckeyeRob]

Thank you for all your kind words and constructive feedback.

Sorry I missed the tOSU QBs Vs the Texas Defense, I had some business to attend to.

I think Smith can be reasonably productive. Texas of course has a lot of practice defending a dual threat QB, so I don't expect a huge game, maybe 50% completions for 160 yards and 25 or 30 yards rushing, mostly on one run. He'll have a decent game, but not good enough.

Well Im not going to give you kind words or construtive feedback. You're a dingbat. Smith was 4th in the nation in completion percentage last season. No way in hades does a completely different secondar devoid of the stars that left hold Smith to such absurdly low production. Smith completed just shy of 63% of his passes last season and only a nitwit would make the assumption that Smith will have a worse senior season considering he improved GREATLY from his Sophmore season.

I think you are confusing what the Texas quarterback may do less the rushing yards.

 

[MyMamaTastesFunny]

A few thoughts we haven't considered yet

Being that we have analyzed virtually every aspect of the game, I would like to add a few angles that I don't believe have been addressed:

Texas defense plus the Mongol horde vs OSU offense backed by the Army of Northern Virgina.

Texas running backs running behind the 3rd Armored division vs OSU defense employing uranium depleted high-explosive rounds.

Texas and OSU combined vs the Prussian army armed with the Needle breech-loading rifle.

Mack Brown having the game moved to primetime on the planet Mercury to "take advantage of the heat."

Vince Young sneaking into the game at halftime wearing Selvin Young's uniform.

The Texas lacrosse team paying strippers to "wear out Troy Smith" the night before the game.

Any other angles I've missed?

 

[CleveBucks]

Could we refrain from quoting xray in any future posts in this thread? I've decided to try the ignore feature out and want to get the full effect. His baiting is getting old and is dragging down the quality of the more thoughtful posts in this thread.

 

[barlow1802]

Thank you for all your kind words and constructive feedback.

Sorry I missed the tOSU QBs Vs the Texas Defense, I had some business to attend to.

I think Smith can be reasonably productive. Texas of course has a lot of practice defending a dual threat QB, so I don't expect a huge game, maybe 50% completions for 160 yards and 25 or 30 yards rushing, mostly on one run. He'll have a decent game, but not good enough.

your an idiot.

EDIT: Sorry clevebucks

 

[BuckeyeRob]

Now your understanding.....Don't forget the Texas heat....Trust me, it is much more satisfing once you accept all of these truths to be self evident, or at least it was for me after I realized that Texas had no chance in the shoe, at night, against the greatest linebacking corp ever assembled

actually, that last part may not have been so far off

According to weather.com on average its 90 degrees in Austin in September, 96 in August so since the game is in early September we guess that during the average day in early september its 93. In the same time of year in Columbus its 85 and traditionally very high humidity. Yeah, its a little hotter but we arent talking the differnce of say Phoenix (averages 103) and Columbus. Its not at all unusual for it to get to the 90's in Columbus in early september. Sorry to disappoint you if you thought that was going to be some big advantage

 

[buckeye247]

Could we refrain from quoting xray in any future posts in this thread? I've decided to try the ignore feature out and want to get the full effect. His baiting is getting old and is dragging down the quality of the more thoughtful posts in this thread.

Maybe now people can actually see what I was saying about how xrayrandy was annoying. Esp. because we are on a buckeye fanboard.

 

[texasfight06]

WOW. I don't even know where to begin, but I will try:

First off, before we consider Aaron Ross a better punt returner, please remember the Rose Bowl, yes its over, in the past, and all, but if we are looking at the past year for a correlation to performance, do not forget about the Ross fumble. I think he is a damn good punt returner, much improved last year, but man, he's got to hold onto the ball in that situation, in a game like that, it can make or break the team. Luckily we had Vince to bring us all the way back (see there is that previous thinking that we no longer have, Vince can save us...)

As for all the speculation on which units are better against which, I think xray (and other Texas posters) probably have a better idea of the inexperienced players at UT, and most everyone else on this board has a better idea of the inexperienced players at tOSU, so its a natural bias for us to think that the kids that Texas recruited so highly, and that we have followed for longer will be better on the field than the tOSU recruits. And vice versa.

And fwiw, xray does seem to have some guarded optimism, but yet after the flame is stoked, he attempts to put it out with stats, which then have the effect of alcohol. However, I think that the loss of MiHuff was greatly undervalued by xray, 4th or 5th? The dropoff from having Cedric Griffin, MiGriffin, MiHuff and Ross/Brown to Mi and Ma Griffin, Brown and Ross, is pretty drastic in my eyes, Huff can close.

tOSU's LBs: I have every inclination to think that the LBs at tOSU are going to be tremendous for years to come. Who wouldn't want to play LB at tOSU? As for the OLine: I have no idea what to expect out of tOSU's line w/o Mangold running the show, but I do think that our D-Line should be even better this year, losing Wright and Dibbles will not be that big of a loss, with Lokey, Miller and Okam among others, plus a hopefully 100% healthy Robison. I can really only speak to the ability of the Longhorns that played last year, and speculate, albeit optimistically, about the ones who didn't. As for tOSU, I can only speak about the players who played last year. Any speculation I make about the other members of your team, is mostly based on what I have learned from the Buckeyes on this board. (At this time, I am sure that I will be blinded by some CFB preview magazine in the near future.)

All I do know, is that this game is going to be close if our Defense and your offense plays up to their respective potentials, but those are big ifs. And until the game is played out, we will be posting back and forth trying to convince each other that our team has the edge. That being said, my prediction: 75-2 Texas wins.