Game Thread Ohio State 33, Washington 14 (Final)

[sandgk]

I'm pretty sure this will get tagged onto the already in existence UW game thread.

But, as you ask the questions - here are some reasonable answers.

UW - yes, worried (not afraid) about the ground game not getting in gear early.

Rest of season - not so much. These are things that can be corrected - blocking, punching the ball quick into the whole.

The team does NOT remind me of the 2002 champs. That team made few errors, particularly from the QB spot. Yesterday 3 critical QB errors, 2 INT, one fumble. Not Krenzel-like, therefore NOT 2002 like.
Yesterday difficulty running the ball. 2002 dependable ground game - very much unlike the early going against Akron.

Good looking D yesterday, yes, and 2002 was stifling - but markedly tougher overall as the season progressed - so, jury still out on that comparative.

 

[OCBucksFan]

A little afraid for our upcoming game out in Washington let alone the rest of the season? I mean our offense if we can't start to move the ball, we will be in big trouble. Yeah sure the team reminds me of the '02 Nat'l Champ. team but at least that offense actually put up some numbers, this years O I think is a little different. If our Offensive line doesn't start blocking and making holes more often than two or three times a game for Beanie, Mo, or Saine, we are going to struggle this year and especially the ladder part of the schedule. I know they haven't started to really get deep into the play book, but so far I'm a little afraid for our offense. We have the talent and I know we are very young, but I'm surprised our line can't/isn't doing more. Still love them Buckeyes!!!​

:osu:​

Err... Afraid? No, not at all, concerned, yes. There's some issues that need to be resolved, mainly the turnover situation. If you take away the 5 TO's you suddenly have a much larger margin of victory during saturdays game. Simply put, the team needs to control the rock. Saturday, Boise State made some adjustments at the half and after that Washington didn't score again.

Remember, they have to be able to move the ball as well and I don't see that happening against this team. We may have 5 field goals in the game but at the end of the day all that matters is the scoreboard. Not to discount the huskies victory, they did end the nations longest winning streak but Boise State is a completely different type of program that tOSU. We'll be content to run the ball and play the field position game, eating up clock and keeping our defense fresh as opposed to trying to toss the ball around and run up and down the field.

This is the first real test, I expect special teams will be a major factor in this game. Like I said, field position and field goals.

 

[fourteenandoh]

I have my trepidations about the rest of the season, but they aren't unexpected. Everything we are seeing so far is pretty predictable. The thing that worried me yesterday was that the "d" was in all right places but they weren't finishing the play. Especially in the first half. By the second half, though, that seemed to be fixed. It's gonna take awhile to get the kinks out of the offense. I have a feeling for us to win next week the 'd' is going to have to play a fantastic game. We aren't going to win in a shootout.

 

[RoscoeParrish]

What he said.

Come on guys, haven't you seen any pre-game show, the key to the game is that OSU needs to score more points than the other team. It's like, "oh, shit, I never thought of that, I knew I forgot something in my game prep., stop the run."

 

[Mac]

afraid, worried...same thing haha that's what I meant. On the positive side, if we can get our offense to move the ball consistently we will be a GREAT team.

 

[sandgk]

On the QB musical chair issue.

Seemed pretty obvious to me that JT simply looked at Akron's ability (zero) to make meaningful yards against the smothering Ohio State D in the 2nd half and took the opportunity to play Robbie as a back-up as much as he could. Smart move in my book, calculated risk of displeasing the voters while ensuring some more seasoning for 2nd string signal calling.

If TB were to go down in Seattle would you want a fairly green QB under center?

Of course not.

Neither does the coaching staff. Boeckmann will almost certainly play the vast majority of snaps in Seattle.

 

[rocketman]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the ground game has to get off to a good start for us to be successful in Seattle. Boeckman had a solid second half on the final scoring drive, but I think a lot of that had to do with the ground attack cranking out yardage and first downs. Obviously, limiting mistakes is #1.

While our defense has shown to be solid, even with a LOT of players being rotated in and out, the DB's have got to improve on tackling. I don't know how many times I see our guys flying to the ball to stop a screen or whatever, only to not wrap up or miss the tackle entirely. That just drives me nuts more than anything (too many painful reminders of the Bengals' defense, I suppose). In the second half we started to see guys like JL, Grant, and Homan throw some bodies around. But as far as I can tell the only guy consistently making tackles in the defensive backfield is Coleman. Also, catching that INT thrown right at your numbers would be awesome, too.

No negative turnover margin, pressure their QB, stop their run, make good decisions on offense - thats our best chance of getting the win this Saturday.

 

[Jaxbuck]

On the QB musical chair issue.

Seemed pretty obvious to me that JT simply looked at Akron's ability (zero) to make meaningful yards against the smothering Ohio State D in the 2nd half and took the opportunity to play Robbie as a back-up as much as he could. Smart move in my book, calculated risk of displeasing the voters while ensuring some more seasoning for 2nd string signal calling.

If TB were to go down in Seattle would you want a fairly green QB under center?

Of course not.

Neither does the coaching staff. Boeckmann will almost certainly play the vast majority of snaps in Seattle.

I applaud JT for getting the backups more meaningful reps instead of using the starters to make it look better in the second half. My only concern is that maybe the wrong backup QB is getting the reps but obviously I defer to the coaches.

All I know is at this point I would be very uncomfortable if something happened to TB.

 

[Jaxbuck]

What do you guys see as the keys to winning this game??

Mine are

1. The defense containing locker and keeping him in the pocket. Force him to throw the ball and we'll be fine. Sure, they did some damage against BSU through the air but we have the best corner in the nation and two of the most active safties. Shut down Locker from running and we'll be in good shape.

2. The offensive line has got to put up 150-200 yards rushing again. We've got to give the QB time to throw because that secondary gave up something like 280 yards passing to BSU!!! BSU if memory serves me is a run first team.

3. The biggest factor for me is we have got to play Boeckman the whole game. No more music chairs at QB, get our starting QB some sort of a rythme. You can't expect a kid who hasn't played an awful lot in the past to just turn it on after you take the kid out and leave him cold for a couple series. Its very unfair to boeckman.

4. Field position game might play the biggest role in this game IMO. We have got to give Washington a long field to play with. Wether that be with punts, or no turnovers. We need to make Washington earn everything they get against us because our defense is so good that going 70-90 yards against them is tough to ask any team to do.

I'd say #2 is going to have to be done in reverse. We must pass to loosen up the run right now. never a better team to do it to than UW.

If JT and staff come out running between the tackles UW will have success and gain confidence. If we come out with the short passing game, quick slants etc..then we will have success and gain confidence.

Lets hope the NC game was the last we see of a terrible gameplan by JT and the staff for a while.

I think our D and ST's give us a big advantage in those matchups.

Pass to run, eliminate the TO's and play great ST's we should be fine.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

I'd say #2 is going to have to be done in reverse. We must pass to loosen up the run right now. never a better team to do it to than UW.

...

...and the stats bear that out. If you look at Washington's games, and who they played etc... It is clear that the Huskies have a much better rushing defense than passing defense. In fact, the difference may be larger in that respect than any other team we play this year.

Once the passing game lights them up, and I'm confident it can after looking into it, then we can turn Beanie loose.

Call it a hunch; I have a strong feeling that the "Behind the Numbers" section of the Buckeye Planet Preview of the Washington Game will have more on this subject.

 

[buckeyeinfla]

spread out the washington D and let boekman find the spots where the receivers are open....i would also love to see some uptempo no huddle play...saine needs to be a big part of the offense on saturday and for god's sake let T washington take the young washington DB's down town with a deep ball

 

[bukIpower]

Well I'm sayin we need to be able to run the ball because we all know that passing the ball is going to be there. We need to have some sort of balance and we need to keep their only hope (locker) off the field.

Another thing is we're all talkin bout how we didn't run the ball very well yesterday and while we did struggle most the game we did gain 193 yards. Yesterday, I'd say the biggest problem was us not having a consistent passing game. Week 1 we were going 3,4, and even 5 wide and dinking and dunking the ball to go along with our running game. This week we saw an even more conservative play calling approach. Add a more aggressive play book and Todd Boeckman starting the whole game and I think we'll be fine next week. Don't forget about #4 FINALLY getting to the field on offense.

Also someone said this defense doesn't finish plays?? I don't know what you're watching but what I see is 11 buckeyes swarming to the ball. If people aren't making the tackle you see them jumping over the pile you see them putting an extra pop on the kid while he's going down all things we never saw last year. This defense reminds me of the 2005 defense in many way. They're swarming, they're fast, they have a great linebacking crew, a good d-line, and a great secondary. I think the defense isn't troubling at all and if we play well this weekend we'll be one of the best defenses in the nation IMO.

 

[Taosman]

The starting CB for the Huskies hurt his hammy yesterday. That could have a positive impact on our passing and running game.
I look for an ugly, defensive struggle and would be surprised if it weren't.
(get your antacids ready) :tongue2:

Bucks by a field goal.

 

[bukIpower]

We finally put a game together in this one I think.. I think Small will impact this game in the beginning because Washington won't know about him and Wells will wear on them for 130 yards rushing... Bucks 23-10 something like that anyways..

I think UW will struggle against our pass and our d will play near lights out again.. holding UW to around 200-250 yards offense.

 

[BeanieWells28]

before the season started i thought this would be a cake game. now that i have seen what they can do. this will be a great test for our team, especially since we have to go all the way out to washington. i believe this game will show what kind of team we have because i think washington is a great team. hopefully ray small will be able to play in this game, so we can have a speed type receiver in the game. we will win this game with a good running game (Beanie), stifling defense and great special teams. Final score: OSU 24 WASH 6