BrutusMaximus;1259684; said:
Earlier this week when I heard Beanie was out.........I immediatley told a couple friends, "Ok, I give USC 28 points". They looked at me like I was crazy. There are buckeye fans who are just sick with buckeye everything, and there are buckeye fans who are realists. I knew we would take a thumping tonight. Because I knew that, I am not feeling near as bad as half the people on this board, or any board. SC should be playing in the NFL, where they are actually allowed to pay players
Agreed bro. I didn't want to say it, but I had USC by 24 points. I knew in reality we were probably going to get nailed, but I honestly thought we had a chance if we played our best...and if they played sub-par or near their worst.
In retrospect and after talking to some friends, we could have certainly played better than we did. I don't think it would have mattered in terms of the score, but at least there could have been more positives. Terrelle Pryor, as someone else said, seemed to be our one positive to take away. Penn State and Wisconsin are going to be real tests for us in the Big 10. As for Beanie...sit him next week. If there is any worry about lingering injuries this week, in the biggest game of the year, no need to risk it against Troy State. Even if Beanie breaks 2,000 off he likely won't win the Heisman and he will have had been out too long anyways. Let him get healthy...we'll need him later in the year, and especially next year.
The most negative thing I really have to say about this game was the mental mistakes. I just hate seeing them from the seniors, especially at critical points. When a team is better than you, like USC obviously was, you can't make stupid mistakes. Even though we would probably have been beaten regardless, you still want to know your leadership executed to the best of their abilities and played like upper classmen (since a lot of our starters are). Honestly, we looked worse than in the last 2 NC games just because it was like a broken record...it was "Oh no, not again." Unfortunately, even with the talent we have, it seems there is something just holding us back from taking that next step. Granted USC had more talent, there is just a seemingly built-in tendancy to self implode. Hopefully we can shake that by the end of the year and the seniors can build a new identity because they are oustanding people regardless of their play, and really came back with a mission. Though we won't win a NC game, there is still a lot at stake.
Edit: Tresselbeliever...we are on the same page. I forgot to mention the coaching disappointed me too. It seems JT was predictable and when he went to something unexpected, it was an option with Boeckman? I won't say a word about Boeckman but I will say that Pryor was doing a terrific job out there. He seemed calm and the offense honestly seemed more in sync with him in there. The play calling seemed to me another self imploding tendancy that made me say "Oh no, here we go again." Another was having Pryor run an empty set draw on the 5 yard line. Everyone and their mother knew that was coming...throw a screen, roll him out, something else. Ok, I'm done.
Having a weakness itself doesn't kill you, but refusing to see it and adopt to it when it is clear as the sky sure does. It truly worries me to know that with or without Beanie, we were committed to this plan that tried to achieve an unnatural and artificial balance of run and pass and one that abandoned the run as soon as we fell behind. We will still be able to win the big ten, but right now, we are not a top five program.
