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Game Thread Game Two: Texas 25, Ohio State 22 (final)

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I think it was HineyBuck that said it all depends on our O-line. I completely agree. This isn't about TG2, or VY, or even Ashton Youboty.... This is about which team can handle the other team's d-line. I've got news for everyone, Tressel is going to try to play Tressel-ball. He gave up on it for the shot-Ginn last year when the Bucks amassed 4 losses in 5 games. At that point, why not try something new? Now it's a new season and the Bucks are on a 0 game losing streak. Tressel is going to try to run Haw/Pittman/Wells, and if they're successful, it will be a nice evening for me in Section 21C. Otherwise, I hope our 3 field goals is enough to beat them.

I just pray the o-line doesn't wait until the 9th or 10th game to gel like they did last year. I'll give them the first half of the Miami game to figure things out, then it's show time.
 
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For some reason, Greg Davis (our OC), has a hard on for Mike Shanahan's Denver Bronco offense, and there are still a lot of elements of that left over from the Chris Simms era. But there's also the whole hybrid spread thing we run half the time. There are rumors that the our base offense will be 4-wide come spring, but I won't believe it til I see it.

Anyway, the whole "make Vince beat you with his arm" comment mentioned several times in this thread has the most merit. This doesn't necessarily mean blitz every play. Just maintain gap assignments. Vince does the most damage scrambling through running lanes on pass plays. Spies will help, but Michigan did just that and we all know how that turned out. But I am well aware of Hermann's reputation, so I'm sure Tressel will have a better plan.

We won't go deep very often, and no matter how many times Greg Davis says we will, we just don't. So Tressel shouldn't feel too bad about cheating up one or both of the safeties.

With all that said, tOSU will have the most success keeping our TE's out of the game. Good linebackers like the Buckeyes have will do just that.


I can't comment much on gameplanning for the UT defense with the new coordinator and all. But I will say the position we are weakest at is outside linebacker. There just isn't a whole lot of speed there, so sweeps and option plays might have the most success. And if last year is any indication, we overpursue a little too often (aggressiveness, lack of discipline, who knows), so I'd run some counters, reverses, end-arounds, screen passes, etc.

Last year, we really couldn't muster much of a pass rush without blitzing, so at times our zone got picked apart.

I definitely wouldn't run up the middle too much. We have a pretty good DT/ILB tandem.

Hope this helps.

EH
 
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EH, we are confident in the spy conscept because our lb's are very fast, unlike scum's. scum had an extremely slow d. with carpenter/hawk as a spy im fairly confident that we can keep vy's running to a semi acceptable level.

to be honest, if vy were a true pocket passer with a great arm, vision, and great wr's id be more conscerned. thats not a knock on texas in anyway. its just that vy running the ball plays to our d's strength. our guys play very well in space and are excellent tacklers with great speed. our lb trio, imo, is the best in the nation. it will be extremely interesting to see if our lb's can contain him. i think this is going to be a very exciting game.
 
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one thing.... the Shot Ginn is what got us those huge victories against Michigan and Okie State. We didn't even imploy the shot ginn till probably around Purdue so we actually have a winning record with it 2-1. Also good point about Offensive Line perdicting the win. I know Texas has a good line, and our should be coming around this time so it should be a interesting match up.

EngHorn- Do you know how many Texas Fans will be there? Also your points are valid about you guys not going deep much, and that you know Vince needs to make plays in order to come out with victory. You seem to know alot about OSU and thats pretty cool cuz the only thing I know about Texas is that its all you can eat baby back rib night on fridays.......
 
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very nice post EHorn.

VY's accuracy is a bit of a misconception. He did complete close to 60% of his passes last year.

After watching about 3 or 4 texas games last year, i did notice that the TE's were the primary passing target, and will matthews was a highly underrated asset.

if osu can contain VY in the pocket and get pressure from the DE's, they will have success defensively. if osu has to resort to frequent blitzing, VY is inevitably going to break off a few big plays.

offensively, osu is not going to manhandle texas' front 4, but without DJ, i think osu can attack the edges with speed.
 
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I have to admit... I skimmed most of this thread... but... the thing that sticks out in my mind is that I heard a couple different times that okst was the most physical team in the Big XII... going into our bowl game....

Okay... with that in mind...

Our strategy should be to go out and hit them in the face.

That ought to take care of most of the problems....

As for Young... it really all depends if we need to send extra guys to get in the backfield... if we don't.... then there won't be any problems...
 
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I'm not sold...

...on VY's passing ability after watching him last year. Horns fans like to bring up his game against Oklahoma State, to say what a good passer he is, but after the Alamo Bowl, I'm going to have to take that performance with a grain of salt.

My main point is that his completion percentage is not a great bench mark b/c Texas rarely passed last year and almost never webt deep (b/c they didn't have a deep threat last year and VY is much more accurate on the short stuff). UT fans are already forgetting that Texas ranked 106th in passing last year and were the closest thing to a one-dimensional running team that you can get, granted VY and Cedric are very talented runners. If Texas does not present a down field threat to OSU, they will be in for a long day on account of our zone scheme.
 
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BukIpower-

The UT fan contingent there should be as big as our ticket allotment. There are lots of people already making plans. I'm going with a group of 8. How many tickets does tOSU allot visiting teams? I've read anywhere from 3000 to 6000.

Those last few posts were right on. Good observations.
 
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osugrad21 said:
--There are two general approaches...
Stunt like crazy on the DL and effectively cut the field in half for VY then trust our closing speed on the second level to handle him in the open field
or
Play the trenches as basically as possible to keep VY in a designed pocket knowing that we are strong in the middle and quick on the pursuit.
Click to expand...
Looking at our performances against Michigan and Okie State I'd guess that we're going to come flying at their QB from all points, especially corners and safeties. Youbouty's performances at the end of the season and the speed of our l-backers gives me a good deal of confidence that we can blitz and still cover the pass. Something to worry about might be Young's ability to run draw plays if we sned a corner and the inside backers go to coverage. When that horse gets rolling it takes a lot to stop him. I don't think Michigan's linebackers compare with ours, but he ran through them on more than one occassion, especially in the fourth quarter.
 
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EngHorn- Thanks and atleast we have someone from texas that is striking up convo and not an arguement! Also about the tickets I'm not too positive, but I do know you guys sit in the lower left corner of the stadium near where your players run out, and you might get some in the open part of the endzone.

So honestly what about OSU enghorn has you most worried? I know as a OSU fan I most worried about your offensive line, and someone surprising us that maybe we don't know about. Because I know VY is going to be a player all year long I'm just wondering about the under the radar type of guys...

Oh yeah I've been practicing my upside down hook em' sign.......
 
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Oh yeah I've been practicing my upside down hook em' sign.......
Click to expand...

You'd fit right in with the rest of the Big XII and a few SEC schools. :wink2:

Honestly, I'm most worried about the venue. Very hostile atmosphere, night game, ridiculous home winning percentage, etc. I think that's worth 10 points right there.

I'm also worried about Ginn (what a shocker). I think our D will be good enough to limit his touches and effectiveness, but I can still see him breaking a few returns or making a highlight reel catch and run in the open field to change the game. It's impossible to keep a talent like Ginn in check for a whole game.

Third, UT struggles on offense every time they go up against a well-coached defense full athletes. That's stating the obvious, but based on past games, we get affected more than most teams.

Keep an eye on Quan Cosby, our 21 year old freshman. He'll probably be our PR/KR. Very Ginn-esque in terms of athleticism.
 
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Keep your eye on Gonzalez, and Haw. They will be the two that will surprise you the most in this game, IMO. All of the gameplanning will be for Ginn, Holmes, and Smith's scrambling ability (regardless of whether or not he starts, you have to practice as tho he'll come in as a relief if Zwick is not effective).

But Gonzalez is pretty much just as fast as ginn and will be lined up against your 3rd db or LB. And Haw is also a sub 4.3 runner except he's a RB.

I really don't see how the Texas secondary can stay with our speedsters. They will have to gear their D towards stopping the pass and that will open up the run.

Heck, we might turn into USC during a few games and open up the run with the pass :) Or at least a guy can dream that JT will play to his strengths like I think he does. I feel he might be a little overly conservative once he has a lead, but I don't think Tresselball has lost us too many games:
2001 - lets disregard this as a rebuilding year
2002 - none
2003 - got outplayed by wisky, got flat out beat by michigan
2004 - I did not see NW game, but Wisky & Iowa we weren't good enough. And I think our gameplan on O was good at purdue we just had too many turnovers.
 
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Enghorn-Crosby I'll have to remember that..... Yeah I figured I've seen most teams do it for the Texas teams when they come in so I figured I'd start it up with the big ten teams too!

As for our offense I'd say look out for Gonzo, and someone like Wells/Haw hitting the edges. I don't know how a defense could prepare for such speed, but this is college football we're talk'n bout so I'm sure they'll figure something out. For sure I hope they don't.... I wouldn't mind see'n a blow out against a very good team but its probably doubtful we blow them out. I'm still go'n to stick with something like the Washington score from two years back. Just because Texas doesn't have a good Road history against good teams. Also as stated they don't do well against fast defenses.
 
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Sounds like this Gonzo kid is going to create some matchup problems. As I mentioned earlier, we lack speed at OLB. And I'd hate to see us run too much nickel or commit a safety to him.

Also sounds like y'all are wondering as much about your offense's identity as we are. It's so hard to speculate on stuff like this until summer practice starts.
 
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