Game Thread Ohio State 3, Southern Cal 35 (Sept. 13)

[Wingate1217]

Just like Texas in '05, I have to say "That team ain't losing a game this year."

That is why I used the word "may"......:)

 

[Dryden]

Dude, pull yourself together. As an LSU fan, I went through humiliating losing seasons and I still 100% believed my Tigers were the best team on the planet.

So what, you got beat down by a fellow great team. It happens. In recent LSU history, we got beat down 34-14 by Georgia in 2005 (SEC Championship game), 45-16 by Georgia in 2004 (at Georgia during the regular season), 26-8 by Virginia Tech in 2002 (at VT during the regular season), 31-7 by Auburn in 2002 (at Auburn during the regular season), 31-0 by Alabama (at Alabama during the regular season), 35-20 by Texas (in the Cotton Bowl). None of those losses caused me to lose any love for LSU, and it didn't cause any LSU players to lose love for LSU.

Sure, you got beat by a great USC team. So what? So did a lot of teams. USC stomped Arkansas 50-14 in 2006 and 70-17 in 2005, and then Arkansas came to our house and beat us in overtime in 2007. USC also stomped Illinois 49-17 in the Rose Bowl at the end of 2007, Michigan 32-18 in the Rose Bowl at the end of 2006, and Michigan 28-14 in the Rose Bowl at the end of 2003. USC smashed Oklahoma 55-19 in the NC game at the end of 2004. In 2003, USC crushed Auburn 23-0, and also beat Auburn in 2002. Just because you get beat by USC doesn't mean you hang you head and lose respect for your team.

With all due respect to LSU, the Tigers didn't get the annual media blow-job through all those games like Ohio State has gotten since 2005. Nobody outside of the opposing fan bases wanted LSU to lose.

I can handle the losses. Losing when everyone from your co-worker to Mark May is ready and eager to remind you how bad you are is the bitter pill I'm sick of swallowing.

What really makes this one-sided affair so terrible to acknowledge is knowing how well OSU opened the game, only to be undone by stupid personal fouls, botched special teams play, and a generous helping of false starts and holding penalties in the 2nd quarter, which was a carbon copy of the national championship game last year.

 

[shetuck]

My shorthand notes from JT's post-game presser for those of you who didn't catch the little bit they showed on ESPiN...

We played a great football team.

The penalties made it hard.

Our guys fought hard. We didn't do best we could do, but fought hard.

SC is a great team.

What's important for us is to roll up sleeves go back to work and get better.

We can't make those errors and expect to be successful.

Question re turning point in game (Small TD called back). Anytime you have chance to seize momentum and redirect it your way, had we got it at 14-10, we wouldn't have ended up at 35-3 obviously. That was a huge moment. Not getting the ball back into position for an easier FG was bad. You can't have turn-overs, let alone turn-overs for touchdowns against a team like SC. They're too good a team for those things.

Question re format to use TP. We discussed it earlier in the week. Maybe going by series wasn't the best thing. We thought it might be good to be able to talk to them in between times when they were in there. We knew we were facing an outstanding defense. We thought it was gonna be possible and maybe something that would work for us. We have to go back and re-evaluate to see if it did and if it can.

Question re problems with TB and perhaps now there's competition at QB. There's always competition for playing time. We're gonna go back and re-evaluate everything from what we designed, how we executed, and what to do to go forward to next game.

Another question... The thing I've been impressed with SC is that they're not fancy, their protection is good, their run game is good, they're balanced with 50/50 run/pass. Mark has good feet and keeps the play alive, misdirection passes well. He's a fourth-year guy, so he knows when to throw the ball away. They're good across the board. Receivers are good, backs are good, o-line is good, QB is good. They're a good football team.

 

[ysubuck]

With all due respect to LSU, the Tigers didn't get the annual media blow-job through all those games like Ohio State has gotten since 2005. Nobody outside of the opposing fan bases wanted LSU to lose.

I can handle the losses. Losing when everyone from your co-worker to Mark May is ready and eager to remind you how bad you are is the bitter pill I'm sick of swallowing.

What really makes this one-sided affair so terrible to acknowledge is knowing how well OSU opened the game, only to be undone by stupid personal fouls, botched special teams play, and a generous helping of false starts and holding penalties in the 2nd quarter, which was a carbon copy of the national championship game last year.

This is the most frustrating part to me. Again I don't feel that the Buckeyes played their best game on a national stage. Why does this happen? This is a team with 20 starters back and they looked like a bunch of freshmen with stars in their eyes. Hats off to USC. They look like a machine.

 

[Bill Lucas]

Yes, the Buckeyes got taken to the woodshed. No denying that.

What pisses me off is that when Ohio State gets punched in the mouth in recent history they do not respond. They don't get pissed and raise their level of play.

This was an observation of LSU fans from last January. LSU responded to the body punches thrown in the first quarter by Ohio State and raised their level of play. Ohio State was not able to do this in return. Tonight I feel we saw the same situation. When USC realized early that Ohio State had come to play they raised their level of play. Again, there was no appropriate response.

We need fire and intensity. I'm not seeing it right now.

 

[Basebuck]

I can handle the losses. Losing when everyone from your co-worker to Mark May is ready and eager to remind you how bad you are is the bitter pill I'm sick of swallowing.

My thoughts exactly. I'm not complaining about the ride, I just don't like the place we get to at the end of the ride

 

[Mac]

Problem that I've seen in the past 2 nat'l championships and today, (This isn't a bash so don't ban me) but our coaching staff (mainly the D) hasn't adjusted to the teams. If you look at the past defenses, they would adjust to the way the other team is playing.

For christs sake, I can't remember how may times Coleman blitzed (it was at least 3 times). WHY? Sure you want to mix things up, but if you can't get a whole lot of pressure when blitzing a LB, it surely isn't going to work with a safety. I think this team needs a lot of work done. They need to realize hey, we need to prove ourselves here, because we haven't done a whole lot.

 

[Jake]

Exactly, my team gets waxed by SC every year! :(

Your team has been getting waxed by more than SC in recent years.

 

[sparcboxbuck]

Just noticed the Auburn-Miss State score...

3-2 FINAL

WTF?

So a team CAN score only field goals and win?

 

[JohnLSU]

There's nothing to wait for. We suit up again for Troy very shortly, there's a lot of football to be played this year.

I, for one, as upset as I am about this game, refuse to be embarrassed by a good old fashioned ass kicking. I say good for USC, a team that probably should have been in the title game last year, but choked, as did Mizzou and West VA -- leaving us holding the bag when we probably shouldn't have had to.

So we were over-rated this season. And? So we're not as good in critical areas of the game that many thought we were. And? There's little to be happy about with this game, except that it's a long overdue match-up between two storied programs. One that I hope will be revived and revisited beyond next year's game in the Shoe.

Even with this beating, we've shown more under Jim Tressel than every other I-A team outside of a very select handful. USC, LSU, perhaps Florida, maybe you could toss Oklahoma in there -- maybe not.

Down in the dumps? So be it. Losing sucks. Getting blasted sucks worse. But that's the sport. We can (and I'm sure will) 'coulda-woulda-shoulda' until we're blue in the face, but what utility does that serve?

Regarding those who feel the forum ejections are overboard -- I'm sorry you misunderstand what we're trying to do here. Every other OSU forum out there is open for all the whining, bitching, and moaning. Why not have at least one where people can still communicate without the self-feeding self-absorbing disease that is one whine feeding into another. Hey, if we could convince any other site out there that it only prevents conversation and makes people feel worse than they already do, then maybe we could work out a rolling schedule where people can cry here one week, but not the next, then they can the week after. But that's not realistic. I feel badly enough about this game, why should I come to BP and feel worse about it?

I don't feel worse when someone says: "Boeckman can't seem to handle the pressure, just like against LSU -- with the offense showing more energy (seemingly) with Pryor in, it kills me that we're not giving the kid more time." I don't feel worse when someone says: "I don't know how it is we have all of this talent moving through our offensive line over the years (as evidenced by the NFL draft and success at the next level), but we never seem to be getting as much out of them while they're here as we should." I don't feel worse when someone says: "We really don't seem to (insert one: play with enthusiasm or energy/have the same team speed/play to our own strengths)." I feel badly when we use this forum to [censored] on players. To [censored] on coaches. Hell, I feel badly when we rip on Charlie Weis. I hate Notre Dame, can't stand their fans for the most part. But here's a guy who has enjoyed tremendous success in his chosen career. Yeah, he's fat. Oh no, what a terrible human being. Is he the answer for Notre Dame? Don't know, don't care.

I know I ask too much though. It's fun to rip on other fans. It's fun to rip on other programs. Unfortunately, that's a beast that's always more than happy to turn around and feed on us as well. Drawing from above, I don't feel badly when a USC or LSU fan is on here posting, I do when they're just here to gain some sort of sad personal satisfaction from kicking people while they're down.

You don't have to agree with how the mods handle things, but you do have to respect the fact that they're on here during another very difficult loss making sure that this place doesn't look like the same pathetic petulant cluster[censored] that so many others do right now.

35-3? [censored]ing shameful. I don't care that the stats are closer than the score. Doesn't make it feel any better. Then again, I'm looking forward to the next game. I'll look forward to entering the Big Ten schedule. I'll look forward to seeing where we end up in the post season. I'll be interested to visit BP to read certain people's perspectives regarding what went wrong here, how we might (or might not) adapt to tonight's trainwreck. I won't be interested in reading the posts that just state the obvious. "We stunk." Okay, and?

Great post.

 

[Bucklion]

My thoughts exactly. I'm not complaining about the ride, I just don't like the place we get to at the end of the ride

Honestly I think the media will back off after a week. They'll spend this week talking about how we got "exposed" and how we didn't deserve to play in the title games, blah blah blah. But I think their hatred stemmed from us being rated higher than they thought we should be. Since that won't be a problem after tonight, they'll move on to something else equally logical...like how Auburn's 3-2 win over Mississippi State tonight proves that Vanderbilt could beat the '72 Dolphins.

 

[daytonbuck81]

Someone please tell me why we even bothered with this game? We will never have the right recruits to play against ANY team that has much better weather than the ENTIRE midwest. What recruit would want to play in the cold? There is NO loyalty anymore. This has been going on for years. It has now reached the highest point. If I was a recruit coming out of high school - why would I play in the freezing ass cold with fat ugly women? Ban me please - I waste too much time on this board every day. And if you ban me, think about this. At least I WENT to OSU. Over half the people on this board are just fans. This is the MOST embarrassed I have ever been. And guess what - this is NOT whining. THIS IS FACT!!

P.S. I am going to the TROY game beacuse many of my friends are going and I put on an awesome tailgate. Reminds me of SDSU after Texas 2005.

 

[MD Buckeye]

Ban me please

I'm sure you'll get your wish.

 

[Dryden]

Honestly I think the media will back off after a week. They'll spend this week talking about how we got "exposed" and how we didn't deserve to play in the title games, blah blah blah. But I think their hatred stemmed from us being rated higher than they thought we should be. Since that won't be a problem after tonight, they'll move on to something else equally logical...like how Auburn's 3-2 win over Mississippi State tonight proves that Vanderbilt could beat the '72 Dolphins.

If there was one good thing to be had from the John Cooper-era, it's that I didn't know what the Internet was through about half of it.

 

[OState29]

Okay few serious questions....seriously...

3. Do we have a #1 WR?

My OPINION:
NO. Right now I think we have a future #1 in Posey who is too green. The Brian's are both #2's (not trying to be funny). Not a bad thing...but neither have that elite speed/route running/size of a #1. I think both have excellent hands and this game did'nt allow them to show off their skills b/c of the pressure on the QBs.

4. Will this effect recruiting?
My OPINION:
Honestly no clue...some (Herbie) thought Florida debacle would effect our recruiting and we know that never happened...but I do wonder if combined effects of UF, LSU, USC, past media bashing, and the impending media onslaught will change the tune of out of state kids.

5. Biggest need?
My OPINION:
Quicker more athletic D-lineman. They have to be able to use speed to get to QB and back DOWN past LOS. We have some big bodies in the front four, and we've seen them flex (and it's scary) but I'm not sure what that gets anyone anymore.

Hey let's get some good discussion going...let's keep it rationale...the sky's not falling...sucks...big time...but hey we'll be fine!

Great points.
1. I don't remember hearing Posey's name all night. I don't understand why we have such a play maker and just keep him on the sideline.

2. I'm pretty sure next years class is almost entirely filled already. Also if the recruits were watching this game they would have seen Pryor and what he is capable of (who wouldn't want to play with the next BIG thing?). Also recruits are usually looking to play early and with so many seniors that will be gone after this season they would have the opportunity to compete for the jobs.

3. I don't think we had a sack on Sanchez all night and their line was consistantly getting to our seccond level on running plays.