L.A. Blues ... or some post-game thoughts

[Buckeye1]

My view

First of all, if any one of you is so sick of watching our beloved Buckeyes, I will gladly take your home tickets...okay, I said my praise first, now I can vent :)


1. O-line was average at best and did well when TP was in there because USC's LBs had to respect his running ability by dropping back a few feet, thus less pressure on the O-line. When Boeckman was in the game, you can pretty much expect 7 or 8 defenders in the box ready to kill. A throw to the TE...well see below

2. A handful of throws to the TE will also help in the above cause, but our TEs were not in the gameplan because our coaches want to develop them into future O-lineman. How a three million dollar coach don't see that is very disappoiting to me. I do not think the MN TE is coming here...why would he unless he wants to gain 50 lbs and become another slow OSU O-lineman. There were so many plays during the game that a simple delay and release by the TE will net us 10-15 yards.

3. TP will be great once he is more developed, show more patient in the pocket and willing to take a hit and deliver the throw. I guess that is easy for me to say while sitting on my couch eating pizza:) As of now, he is ready to run if the first receiver is covered. There were several plays that our receivers were wide open (a great sign)...even Boeckman can make those throws! But TP is young, and he is doing better than expected with his poise and maturity. There is hope in the future.

4. Boeckman looked scared and intimidated as the game progress. He looked great this past year because we had great running by Beanie, which the defense had to focus on. A great QB do not always have the need for a RB like Beanie. Of course if the O-line..see #1

5. D-Line was pathetic! They didn't even get close enough to know what number Sanchez was wearing. When they did hit him, they were rightly penalized due to frustration and lack of self discipline. Our O-line talks much about how great our DEs Wilson & Gibson were...may be because our O-line is not very good at protecting our QBs. Hey O-lineman, Boeckman is not a horse, he does not like to eat grass!

6. Play calling was even more pathetic than our D-Line. Where is the mis-direction plays to offset the great USC speed? Big Ten smash mouth football that can not even move the West Coast D-line for a yard on your own bread and butter powerplay? The only thing that our ISO play was good for is isolating our RB in the backfield!

7. We had so much talent and so many veterans that this kind of outcome is not acceptible! I am very disappointed for our Seniors.

8. Many USC players' post game comments very much proofed Small's point even though he might not meant what he said..."NO CLASS". Their Offensive Cord.'s comments indeed was offensive..."They can not stop us; we can roll a 100 pts on these guys!"

 

[osugrad21]

not many teams win it all during THE year...

Agree 100% I'll take a group of hungry sophs and juniors over a group of Seniors all day every day.

 

[Gatorubet]

"Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the mouth." - Lawrence Phillips on relationships

FI

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

I do not pretend to know everything about football or anything else for that matter but it is painfully obvious that changes need to be made on both sides of the ball and possibly philosophical changes by the coaching staff.

The biggest difference between the two programs in my opinion on Saturday night was the lack of passion by the Buckeyes......that is alarming.

 

[AKAK]

The biggest difference between the two programs in my opinion on Saturday night was the lack of passion by the Buckeyes......that is alarming.

Well.. yes.

I've kind of been troubled by this since the LSU game, at the very least.

Lots of threads here that are outlining various concerns and worries... and... what needs to be done and where do we go from here, etc.

I'll be the first to say that I really don't know what's wrong.

But, what better not be wrong is that the season better not "be over."

And while agree that we won't be winning any BCS championships, What should finally be over is the last 2 seasons... they may have now finally ended poorly, but, they are over, I hope.

This encompasses a lot of interrelated issues, but, I think one of our biggest problems is that we still haven't gotten over the Florida game, and in the long run I think we might have gotten in a big fat rut over some things that have occurred as both a result of that loss.... (and some big wins in the las few years against temas that might not be quite as good as we thought at the time)

It occurs to me that the best thing Ohio State can do is to forget about the National Championship.

We probably did ourselves somewhat of a disservice by doing so well last year....

Point is, that this is the first time since 2005 that we haven't been well in the hunt for a national championship... and I think its been a burden on the players and coaches and the whole program. I think the "Passion" issue is very important, indeed, and what I had hoped to see was an us against the world mentality being on the road in LA against the #1 team in the country. I didn't see that.

When I see finger pointing and not sharing blame and not rallying, what I see is a lot of guys who just believed they were that good... that they'd win anyway, and if they aren't it must be someone else's fault.

They've been around winning here at Ohio State and have probably made excuses for the mistakes they made instead of really addressing problems...

I guess what I'm getting at is that its become a bit too business-like, or something... and... I think guys are a little too comfortable about what they have acheived and not what they need to do.

Blame whoever you want, and its the players, coaches, media, fans expectations, and the constant glare of being at the top of the football world.

I think what I'd like to see is for things to loosen up a little now that the pressure is off... I'd like to see the coaches getting back to teaching football rather than "implementing schemes" (anyone remember the '02 championship game, the play that drew the now infamous PI call on Gamble... they just went and drew that up on the sideline, Krenzel and Jenkins and crew around Tressel, and they just talked for a quick 10 seconds and said, "OK, we'll run that....)

I guess my point is that I think in the rush to win every game, I think some fundamentals have been lacking. A glossing over of what's really important to win games and a certain complaceny about who's playing and when. (There's a fine line there, you know, people talk about loyalty to the upperclassmen... and on one hand Tressel knows that to get over the hump, you need to have your seniors have the best years of their careers... on the other, how much do they take for granted that they are going to get to play... and... even further, how do the younger kids prepare knowing the probably won't play much)

Anyway, I think its time for Tressel to take the whole program out of its comfort zone and start learning again. Coaches, Players, himself, everyone and take a good look at all the things we do and see where the break downs are...

Part of that is going to be to give the younger kids a chance to make an impact.... its time to make the statement that if you don't perform, someone else is going to get a chance, and that's not just blocking, tackling, throwing and catching... its leading and inspiring and sacrificing yourself for the team. And the coaches have to rethink the way they are communicating their messages to the team and see what it is that they might not be understanding.

We've got a lot of good kids, and a lot of good coaches... I think there's just a collective rut. I think it might be time to challenge everyone's comfort zone and do some new things both on and off the field to get everyone thinking a bit more about what and how they do things.

Adversity can be good. And if we spend the rest of this year getting our whole team better, it will serve us well for the future. But first, I think we just need a fresh start and let '06 and '07 go... and worry about doing the best we can this year and beyond.

 

[DontHateOState]

I agree with much of what Akakbuck is saying.

The biggest issue, IMO, is entirely psychological. That "here it goes again" attitude needs to be stomped out in some way.

 

[craigblitz]

The biggest difference between the two programs in my opinion on Saturday night was the lack of passion by the Buckeyes......that is alarming.

Indeed, I think Grad posted this, but I would rather play with Fresh, Soph, Jr'S, that play with a fire then a bunch or Sr's who just show up and go through the motions!

 

[MaxBuck]

I have to say that opining that Buckeyes "lack fire" is pretty much uninformative, as well as being uninformed. There is no way IMO to ascertain, when watching a game, how much emotion the players have. It's a bit of a cop-out.

When you miss a block against a blitzing Rey Malalalalaluga, all the emotion in the world won't reverse time so you can hit him right. If he's past you, he's past you, regardless of how much emotion you may have felt when you lined up across from him.

 

[Bucklion]

I have to say that opining that Buckeyes "lack fire" is pretty much uninformative, as well as being uninformed. There is no way IMO to ascertain, when watching a game, how much emotion the players have. It's a bit of a cop-out.

When you miss a block against a blitzing Rey Malalalalaluga, all the emotion in the world won't reverse time so you can hit him right. If he's past you, he's past you, regardless of how much emotion you may have felt when you lined up across from him.

Yeah, but procedure penalties, holds away from the play, blown assignments, incorrect routes, throwing the ball up for grabs...can be, but aren't necessarily, indicitive of a team lacking focus.

 

[Taosman]

Replay of the hold that brought back the TD looked chippy. Thoughts? Was called on Person, but I thought he was fine. :(

 

[MaxBuck]

Yeah, but procedure penalties, holds away from the play, blown assignments, incorrect routes, throwing the ball up for grabs...can be, but aren't necessarily, indicitive of a team lacking focus.

Lacking fire = lacking focus? I thought they were two different critters.

 

[Flocka]

Replay of the hold that brought back the TD looked chippy. Thoughts? Was called on Person, but I thought he was fine. :(

chip?py or chip?pie (ch

p

)
n. pl. chip?pies 1. A chipping sparrow.
2. Slang A woman prostitute

 

[Buckeye513]

I have to say that opining that Buckeyes "lack fire" is pretty much uninformative, as well as being uninformed. There is no way IMO to ascertain, when watching a game, how much emotion the players have. It's a bit of a cop-out.

After USC went up 21-3, Erin Andrews said that the offensive players on the sideline (other than Pryor) were all sitting quietly with their heads down. Alex Boone talked about how dead the locker room was at halftime.

I'd say that both of those things, along with all the penalties and blown assignments, are pretty indicative that the focus and emotion wasn't there.

 

[Bucklion]

Lacking fire = lacking focus? I thought they were two different critters.

It certainly depends, which is why I qualified it as much as I could, because I don't know what they were thinking or feeling. But "going through the motions", were someone doing that, or complacency, should one have that, could certainly translate into a loss of focus.

 

[OSUsushichic]

After USC went up 21-3, Erin Andrews said that the offensive players on the sideline (other than Pryor) were all sitting quietly with their heads down. Alex Boone talked about how dead the locker room was at halftime.

I'd say that both of those things, along with all the penalties and blown assignments, are pretty indicative that the focus and emotion wasn't there.

That's what I noticed about Boeckman. Every time they showed him on the sidelines he looked like he was about to cry... standing there not talking to anyone. On the other hand, Pryor was trying to fire up guys and constantly jumping up and down on the sidelines. Maybe those who were actually at the game saw something different.