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

[Kueller]

well that sure sucked...

and we're 3 games in. can we PLEASE throw a deep ball? shit.

Ain't that the truth. No completion longer than 16 yards! How do they expect to open up the running game for the 2nd-4th string RBs without any sort of vertical passing game? Baffles me. And if the plan was to run to open the pass without Beanie, well then the coaching staff deserves every bad thing said about them, including all the deleted stuff.



Penalties, Turnovers, Field Position. These are fundamentals of tresselball that seem to have fallen by the wayside in recent losses. People want to ditch tresselball? I say bring it back!
Play clean football (yeah there were some questionable calls, but there were also some obvious ones).
Take care of the ball on offense (Boeckman, I'm lookin at you).
Get the hidden yardage to swing field position on punts and returns.

 

[Nicknam4]

What a disgrace.

I went to bed after halftime because I knew they weren't going to come back. They never do.

They didn't deserve to win. They obviously didn't want it.

 

[Nicknam4]

LOS ANGELES ? Here was Jim Tressel, sitting in front of a microphone after his program again melted into a big-game puddle of scarlet and grey. Here was Ohio State?s leader after another national humiliation, 35-3, this time at the hands of Southern California.
Here was the sweater vest, who keeps calling for the same old failed game plan even when he?s far from the comforts of the cornfields of the Midwest. He?s an example of coaching insanity ? expecting the same bad plays to produce different results.

Clueless in Columbus - College Football - Rivals.com


We're losing respect alright.

 

[dwimmer38]

Bucks

I went to bed early in the third quarter. Some of you may not agree with this but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't think Tressel can handle the big games. Supposedly we have top 5 recruiting year after year but we can't stop being blown out by USC and Florida? LSU wasn't that horrible but it was a big loss as well. I think the play calling is too predictable and I think last night by half time it should have become apparent that Pryor was our only chance at winning. I am tired of the Bucks being looked down upon because we can't handle the national spotlight. Yep Tressel can beat Michigan and Big 10 Teams but that's about it.

 

[buxfan4life]

OK. They lost. No, they got hammered. Is it just me or does the coaching staff have some work to do in regards to big OOC games?

OSU has talent, lots of it, on both sides of the ball. Why, then, do they not show up for the big games the past couple of years?

Don't get me wrong here, I am not one who wears scarlet colored glasses and knew there was a very, very good possiblity OSU would lose to USC, but not in the fashion of the UF NCG again. Both O and D lines got manhandled again against a top teir opponent.

Honestly, it is time for Tressel to make some decisions regarding the coaching on both sides of the ball. I am not advocating that a staff change is in order, just a "come to Jesus" about how this team is performing as a result of the current coaching right now.

But, win or lose, through thick and thin, these are my Buckeyes. GO BUCKS!!!!

 

[ysubuck]

Slept on it and I haven't really changed my opinion:

1) There needs to be a real sense of urgency now regarding the O and D lines. I haven't seen any evidence for three games now that the D line is capable of plugging/pressuring up the middle and letting the LBs roam and make tackles. The "veteran" O line is not capable of picking up blitzes nor is it capable of getting a sufficient push to create running lanes for the backs.
2) That said, Pryor should be getting at least 50% of the snaps with the ones this week because he has a swagger. When everyone on the sideline is saying "When Pryor takes the field everyone gets up to watch" that tells me that he has the team already. He seems confident no matter what is happening. I love that he was getting up and jawing with Taylor Mays last night. He can also make something happen if/when the blocking up front breaks down.
3) Again, Coach Tressel needs to look at shaking up the staff. The O line has been a constant source of problems and they just haven't been prepared this season. I liked the play calling last night, but the O line kept them from getting anything at all going. They were unprepared. The D is the same way. I'd love to see what Luke Fickell would bring as D coordinator. Someone is going to steal him away from Ohio State unless they do something to keep him. I'd love to see him take the reigns on D.

 

[TJB0041]

FACE THE FACTS......

There are 2 problems here.

1) The polsters have rated OSU, the past 2 to 3 years, higher then what they should be rated. The higher rankings leads us Fans to higher expectations (including myself). Face it, they where over ranked last year, and we are over ranked this year.

2)JT is a good coach, a delightful gentlemen, and a good person. He is not the coming of you know who lable that everyone has placed on him. JT's short falls are playing elite teams that are quick.... The Buckeyes are also predictable. Every Team that beats the buckeyes will tell the reporters that we saw everything on film and they changed nothing.
He mixed up the plays the first series, then it was back to the same old Buckeyes. Tressel needs to be able to adapt and make changes in strategies as the game progresses. He has proven he cannot....

We have good players, mixed in with some great players. USC has great players, with great players waiting to play. If you can't see that, and admit to yourself that we are not as good as where we are ranked, then you will have a long season of distain for JT.

The Buckeyes are the best team in our conference, and I beleive there are 13 conferences. I honestly feel that we should be ranked 15 at best.

FACE IT, we are not that good.

 

[lvbuckeye]

we CAN be that good. i'm trying to resist. we REALLY need some new coordinators. look at every other top team this decade. the head coaches have remained, but they ALL have shaken up their staffs.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Let me understand this....

In 2002 when Tressel was winning the NC with the same vanilla offense week in and week out, that was strong coaching...

But, now, 6 years later, when he sends his guys out to play football with the philosophy "This is what we do, and we have confidence we do it well" its not good enough?

Let me ask you this - what kind of gimmick program would you like to have in place? One week we run the zone read because they have slow LBs and the next we run Pro?

USC doesn't do anything crazy... they know who they are... and they line up and play that brand of football... well. You think Ohio State should be different? If I could have one difference it would be this:

USC's scheme wasn't better than Ohio State's really.. what was better was USC's relentlessness.
USC's players weren't better than Ohio State's really... what was better was the fact that they truly play each second of each down as if it was their last play on earth. And if it's 50 to nothing, they don't care.. they play each and every play like it matters.

THATS what I'd like to see the staff teach the Buckeyes. If OSU learns nothing else from this trip out west, I hope it's that... What USC showed wasn't better because of some kind of magic. It's better because they play with intensity and urgency and relentlessness. ALL the time.

 

[CapnStubby]

USC doesn't do anything crazy... they know who they are... and they line up and play that brand of football... well. You think Ohio State should be different? If I could have one difference it would be this:

USC's scheme wasn't better than Ohio State's really.. what was better was USC's relentlessness.
USC's players weren't better than Ohio State's really... what was better was the fact that they truly play each second of each down as if it was their last play on earth. And if it's 50 to nothing, they don't care.. they play each and every play like it matters.

I was thinking the same thing last night while watching the game and replaying it this morning. You can see it in the players eyes and also in the coaches eyes for USC. They looked like warriors on a mission and when I saw that I was certainly jealous.... they got it and we need it!

 

[ysubuck]

Let me understand this....

In 2002 when Tressel was winning the NC with the same vanilla offense week in and week out, that was strong coaching...

But, now, 6 years later, when he sends his guys out to play football with the philosophy "This is what we do, and we have confidence we do it well" its not good enough?

Let me ask you this - what kind of gimmick program would you like to have in place? One week we run the zone read because they have slow LBs and the next we run Pro?

USC doesn't do anything crazy... they know who they are... and they line up and play that brand of football... well. You think Ohio State should be different? If I could have one difference it would be this:

USC's scheme wasn't better than Ohio State's really.. what was better was USC's relentlessness.
USC's players weren't better than Ohio State's really... what was better was the fact that they truly play each second of each down as if it was their last play on earth. And if it's 50 to nothing, they don't care.. they play each and every play like it matters.

THATS what I'd like to see the staff teach the Buckeyes. If OSU learns nothing else from this trip out west, I hope it's that... What USC showed wasn't better because of some kind of magic. It's better because they play with intensity and urgency and relentlessness. ALL the time.

Isn't that coaching though? No problem whatsoever with the play calling, but the preparation wasn't there. Same on D IMO.

After USC scores you have Sarkisian going up and down the bench screaming "We're going to score a hundred because they can't stop us!!" That's going to light a fire (or fan a fire that's already there). Any coach can come in and do the X's and O's part. I don't think you scrap what you're doing because it has been successful, but you have to be able to fire up your guys. This staff just doesn't seem to be able to do that.

 

[RhodeIslandBuck]

I really feel bad for JL, he came back his senior year for a NC and he played his ass off last night, but his teammates didn't pull through for him. I'm really gonna miss him after he graduates, you don;t find players like him very often.

 

[lvbuckeye]

no one's asking for a gimmick. what i'm asking for is an O-line coach who can teach the kids to fire off the freaking ball and push someone back a couple yards. i admit i don't know the intricacies of line play, but either our blocking "schemes" are a joke, or we have the most overrated O-line recruits in the history of football. somehow i'm thinking we didn't strike out on ALL of these guys. how bad did our O-line look in '02? i think it was DBB who said that we had the worst O-line of any NC team he'd seen. well, all those guys are in the NFL right now, so i don't think it was a talent issue...

on the other side of the ball, the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. how many times will we rush 3 and drop 8 before Heacock gives that shit up? Sanchez might not have thrown for 300 yards, but FUCK(!!!) he had all friggin' day to throw. when you have 8 seconds, someone's gonna get open. yeah, "Spring's Slip" sucked. but you know what? i feel better about getting beat on a play like that than standing back there and hoping the other guys make a mistake. you have to force the issue. make them beat you. not hope they beat themselves.

the psyche of this team has got to be shattered right now. and that's on the coaching staff.

the talent is there. it is not being utilized.

Fierce Urgency of Now my ass. what a fucking joke.

 

[Onebuckfan]

JT has a way of doing things we like..honor,family, etc. PC,RR,UM,LM run their programs differently. They are like cutthroatts CEO's(read Justin Boren's comments on RR and the tOsu program). i BELIEVE those coaches would have started Tp from day one. Without any consideration for Todd, Posey and Flash would have been on the field too....loyalyty tradition means little to them its all about winning..even if it means looking pass boosters lining Reggie Bush's pockets so be it. TS would not have sat out that many games at those university's. JT has standards that go beyond winning and I like that..that being said 35-3 is hard to swallow.

 

[Moose]

Wow, what a loss. I speculated on what the offense and defense didn't do, but USC was "Lights out"! The good thing, in my mind is, we see what the team as a whole, needs to work on. Coaches included. Just like the 6 million dollar man. "We can rebuild it, make it stronger. Faster". There's nothing like playing a great team to see where your weaknesses are.
The bucks saw them(weaknesses) upclose, and personal. The sun came up on Sunday..... We are still the buckeyes. Let's regroup, learn and kick some tail!!!!
Props to USC.

Go Bucks!

Moose