Jim Tressel (National Champion, ex-President, Youngstown State University, CFB HOF)

[WaitingforKickoff]

Establishing a run game, gashing the defense for six, seven yards a pop even when they what's coming, and converting on third and shorts. Excuse me, but isn't that exactly what teams like LSU, Florida and SC have beaten us in the past? And it got us to a two touchdown lead before the letdown on special teams. If there's anything to complain about, it's the special teams, not the play-calling or the execution. Almost having two 100 yd rushers is a heck of an accomplish against that Iowa D.

 

[muffler dragon]

There's an awful lot of hate out there for our Bucks and our coach. ESPN, Fox, the Sporting News, and even supposed Buckeye bloggers are hating on my team. I gotta admit, it makes me feel rather vengeful. Not only do I hope that these haters (all) eat a bowl of shit flakes on New Year's Day, but someone also punches right in the mouth (literally). Random (but targeted) acts of violence around.

 

[3074326]

I'm going to take some heat for this I'm sure, but I don't really care.

I see a lot of blind following right now. JT did not make good decisions late in the game last night and did not give the team the best chance to win. He's not above criticism, especially right now.

Everybody always wants to crticize play calling and consevative play..We are not at practice..if we never complete a certain play in practice why call it in the game..I always here run the "fade" or some other route..but if the O can't execute the plays in practice why call it in the game even if the D is giving it to you. Our line and backs have been in and out with injuries suspensions or whatever.its amazing the O has any success at all.

No, we're not at practice, and our offense has shown that it can pass the ball when needed the last couple weeks, yet we decided not to do it when it mattered most. It's a good thing we won - because if we didn't, imagine how bad the criticism would be. Some of these critics are going over the top, but the idea behind the criticism isn't off-base. We almost lost because of Tressel-ball, we didn't win because of it.

Establishing a run game, gashing the defense for six, seven yards a pop even when they what's coming, and converting on third and shorts. Excuse me, but isn't that exactly what teams like LSU, Florida and SC have beaten us in the past? And it got us to a two touchdown lead before the letdown on special teams. If there's anything to complain about, it's the special teams, not the play-calling or the execution. Almost having two 100 yd rushers is a heck of an accomplish against that Iowa D.

I don't think we did any of that after Saine's second TD. With 8 minutes left we were trying to run out the clock and we were only up by one score.

I think it was third and 10, and we tried another run right up the middle even though it just failed to work twice in a row.

 

[Merih]

I'm going to take some heat for this I'm sure, but I don't really care.

I see a lot of blind following right now. JT did not make good decisions late in the game last night and did not give the team the best chance to win. He's not above criticism, especially right now.



No, we're not at practice, and our offense has shown that it can pass the ball when needed the last couple weeks, yet we decided not to do it when it mattered most. It's a good thing we won - because if we didn't, imagine how bad the criticism would be. Some of these critics are going over the top, but the idea behind the criticism isn't off-base. We almost lost because of Tressel-ball, we didn't win because of it.



I don't think we did any of that after Saine's second TD. With 8 minutes left we were trying to run out the clock and we were only up by one score.

I think it was third and 10, and we tried another run right up the middle even though it just failed to work twice in a row.

Watch Florida this season...Meyer has been doing the exact same thing.

 

[3074326]

Watch Florida this season...Meyer has been doing the exact same thing.

Not sure what your point is.

 

[Merih]

Not sure what your point is.

The point is, and not directly sent towards you, but alot of people watch OSU not go for the jugular and assume that we are the only school doing so. Meyer has been doing it, Saban has led a resurgence on it.

It dissapointed me, since I don't think that the game dictated us to have THAT much respect for Iowa's pass defense. We didn't challenge them all game. I could tell from the offset of the game however that that was how Tressel was going to play it.

It's as if Terrelle is still being punished for the Purdue game. In my opinion, the kid has improved so much since that game. I don't understand how JT trusted him to lead us downfield against Wisconsin at the end last year as a freshman, and not against Iowa last night. I think Terrelle and the offense could have won that game in regulation.

 

[3074326]

The point is, and not directly sent towards you, but alot of people watch OSU not go for the jugular and assume that we are the only school doing so. Meyer has been doing it, Saban has led a resurgence on it.

It dissapointed me, since I don't think that the game dictated us to have THAT much respect for Iowa's pass defense. We didn't challenge them all game. I could tell from the offset of the game however that that was how Tressel was going to play it.

It's as if Terrelle is still being punished for the Purdue game. In my opinion, the kid has improved so much since that game. I don't understand how JT trusted him to lead us downfield against Wisconsin at the end last year as a freshman, and not against Iowa last night. I think Terrelle and the offense could have won that game in regulation.

I don't really care if OSU chooses to go for the jugular or not, I just want to see them call plays that look like they're attempting to move the ball and get first downs. Running up the middle is good when it's working, but when it's not, do something else. Pryor looked more than capable last night, and really has looked good every since the Purdue game. He looked poised and made good decisions all night. If you're going to run it three straight times, at least tell TP to make it look like a pass for a second or two. Keep the defense guessing.

I'm not a great football mind and I wasn't even guessing at what we were going to do.

I agree with what you're saying. I haven't watched Florida or Alabama enough this year to really say much about that.

 

[Merih]

I don't really care if OSU chooses to go for the jugular or not, I just want to see them call plays that look like they're attempting to move the ball and get first downs. Running up the middle is good when it's working, but when it's not, do something else. Pryor looked more than capable last night, and really has looked good every since the Purdue game. He looked poised and made good decisions all night. If you're going to run it three straight times, at least tell TP to make it look like a pass for a second or two. Keep the defense guessing.

I'm not a great football mind and I wasn't even guessing at what we were going to do.

I agree with what you're saying. I haven't watched Florida or Alabama enough this year to really say much about that.

I think it really boils down to a trust of the QB issue. 2006, late 2005, 2007, we didn't have these issues because JT trusted the quarterback. The other years were always a grindfest because Tressel didn't trust the QB.

My main criticism of Tressel I guess now is just to trust Terrelle more. He's 20 games into his career. This is what he is here for. He went 14-17, you didn't have to worry about him throwing an incompletion killing the clock. If he didn't have it he was running last night. He made GREAT decisions. Better decisions than I saw out of Jacory Harris, Tebow, Barkley, and plenty other of seasoned quaterbacks yesterday.

One replay in particular gave me the confidence in Terrelle. It showed his eyes going throught progressions circa the 2nd quarter. Went through all of his options in the pockets, and calmly checked down.

Coach, he's ready. He is ready to be that player that we all think he can be. Maybe not ready to win a title by himself. But definately ready to go 50 yards for a GW FG in regulation.

 

[xcrunner]

I'm going to take some heat for this I'm sure, but I don't really care.

I see a lot of blind following right now. JT did not make good decisions late in the game last night and did not give the team the best chance to win. He's not above criticism, especially right now.



No, we're not at practice, and our offense has shown that it can pass the ball when needed the last couple weeks, yet we decided not to do it when it mattered most. It's a good thing we won - because if we didn't, imagine how bad the criticism would be. Some of these critics are going over the top, but the idea behind the criticism isn't off-base. We almost lost because of Tressel-ball, we didn't win because of it.



I don't think we did any of that after Saine's second TD. With 8 minutes left we were trying to run out the clock and we were only up by one score.

I think it was third and 10, and we tried another run right up the middle even though it just failed to work twice in a row.

My opinion for both teams pre-game was this:
Playing as conservatively as possible will give (both) teams the best chance of winning.
Why? Both offenses are not that good. No offense to our offense. It's OK. It's improving. But it is not that good.
Iowa's offense is similar.

Both defenses are fantastic, and particularly, good at forcing turnovers. Most of us said the team that controls the ball wins.
Why rush anything at the end of the game? Get the game into OT, and it's practically a guaranteed victory. Our team is MUCH better than theirs in an OT situation. Our team in the 2-minute offense? Not so good.

Pryor is improving. No doubt. But he is still improving on a curve. He has been very good as a game manager. How do we know how he's going to play when the game is on the line and he's being asked to win it for us? We only know that Pryor manages the game well at this point. He is good at playing off of a solid running game, using his legs/arm to make solid plays to keep drives alive when need be. That's a big improvement from last year. Is it enough to run a 2-minute offense? We have no idea, and apparently Tressel thought "no".

Likewise, he knew our defense is a monster near the goalline, our kicker is solid, and our offense will play a lot better when we can ride the running game.

 

[3074326]

My opinion for both teams pre-game was this:
Playing as conservatively as possible will give (both) teams the best chance of winning.
Why? Both offenses are not that good. No offense to our offense. It's OK. It's improving. But it is not that good.
Iowa's offense is similar.

Iowa's offense looked pretty good last night. It looked good enough for them to possibly get in field goal range with 52 seconds left, and for some reason, they didn't care to try. Our offense looked good when we decided to sprinkle in something other than a run straight up the middle.

Both defenses are fantastic, and particularly, good at forcing turnovers. Most of us said the team that controls the ball wins.
Why rush anything at the end of the game? Get the game into OT, and it's practically a guaranteed victory. Our team is MUCH better than theirs in an OT situation. Our team in the 2-minute offense? Not so good.

Why does passing mean rushing anything? Passing can be used as a tool to run out the clock, too. Call some high-percentage pass plays, if nothing is open, tell Pryor to take off. Give him one read. Just do something to keep the defense wondering.

Pryor is improving. No doubt. But he is still improving on a curve. He has been very good as a game manager. How do we know how he's going to play when the game is on the line and he's being asked to win it for us? We only know that Pryor manages the game well at this point. He is good at playing off of a solid running game, using his legs/arm to make solid plays to keep drives alive when need be. That's a big improvement from last year. Is it enough to run a 2-minute offense? We have no idea, and apparently Tressel thought "no".

Didn't have to ask Pryor to win it for us. But, he's a player on this team, and the best athlete, and it seemed like we tried to keep the ball out of his hands as much as we could when the game mattered most. We took the x-factor out of the game. I'm not talking about a 2-minute offense, either. I'm talking about an 10-minute offense. There were 10 minutes left in the game when we tried to run the clock out.

Likewise, he knew our defense is a monster near the goalline, our kicker is solid, and our offense will play a lot better when we can ride the running game.

How do we know the kicker is solid? I wasn't the most confident when we lined up for a FG in overtime, to be honest.

 

[buckgeis]

I don't really care if OSU chooses to go for the jugular or not, I just want to see them call plays that look like they're attempting to move the ball and get first downs. Running up the middle is good when it's working, but when it's not, do something else. Pryor looked more than capable last night, and really has looked good every since the Purdue game. He looked poised and made good decisions all night. If you're going to run it three straight times, at least tell TP to make it look like a pass for a second or two. Keep the defense guessing.

The thing is that JT is playing a game of odds. It is a fact that throwing the ball is very much more dangerous, more likely to result in a turnover, than is running the ball, and in evaluating the option of throwing or running, you have to consider the yards per attempt you are likely to get in each case. With Iowa in its 2 deep zone with 5 guys in a kind of umbrella surrounding the line, throwing the ball against Iowa with 2:42 to go would offer much too much risk for the likely reward.

There have been four games I can think of where you could say JT sat on the offense in the end game with an adverse or potentially adverse result -- the Miami game where we allowed them to tie us, a W, the Texas game, an L, the USC game, an L, and the Iowa game, a W. The Iowa game isn't even a great example since we had a 14 point lead when the KO return occurred so big time sitting on the lead really didn't get a chance to happen. In these four games, JT got a 50-50 outcome, not unreasonable considering the opponents. Add to the W's, all those close games he has won, sometimes coming from behind as in the Holy Buckeye game during the NC season, JT comes out with a good grade in his risk/reward analysis in the end game.

 

[BUCKYLE]

Iowa's offense looked pretty good last night.

How many points did this "pretty good looking offense score? I keep thinking ten points less than tOSU's shittier one. That can't be right.

 

[xcrunner]

How do we know the kicker is solid? I wasn't the most confident when we lined up for a FG in overtime, to be honest.

Tressel's seen him in practice a heck of a lot more than we have.. He knows his capabilities more than we do.

Anyway... maybe we could have done more earlier. Personally I was hoping we were going to do a bootleg or something, getting Pryor outside while still playing off of the run. But I'm not a coach. If it is truly a low-risk play, then why wouldn't Tressel do it? If it's just as conservative as what he was doing, there must be some reason why he didn't, other than he's too conservative. He must have seen something that we didn't.

 

[BUCKYLE]

He must have seen something that we didn't.

Impossible. We have DVR.

 

[Buck Nasty]

I would love to sit in on some of the offensive meetings today. I am curious how Tressel talks the offense after the fact knowing that they did win the game, but that he clearly has little confidence or trust in them to get it done. You could see the body language of nearly the entire offense when they would come off the field that they were frustrated that he took the ball out of their hands over and over again.