1926Buckeyes;1306205; said:
Fine, I agree with the dissapointment, but to say this is nearly the same PSU team is bullshit straight and simple.
THis is a very very good PSU team and I'm not sure why some don't realize that. I don't know why you think there is no excuse for losing to such a good team at home. Just because OSU had a good streak going doesn't mean shit.
Go check out the game preview on this very site. PSU had 15 returning starters on offense and defense. That's a lot of returners, but I'll agree there was some turnover. Check out
this Athalon article on PSU's 2008 squad. There was a lot of carry over for PSU from last season to this season.
But lets actually get down to the comparison between this year's PSU team and last year's. There's obviously the swap at QB, and one cannot overstate what an improvement Clark has been to Anthony "Head Case" Morelli. And Royster has probably outperformed Hunt from last season (though I was always impressed by Hunt's athleticism). The WRs are the same. The OL is the same. The DEs are the same (though Maybin has gotten playing time and played very well this season). And now here's something you're overlooking if you think this is a totally different PSU team than last season: yea, they look completely different at DT, but only because their starters were dismissed (Taylor and Baker) and their next most seasoned/talented player (Still) blew out his knee before the season started. In other words, while PSU looks different at DT this season, it's only because their best players at the position became unavailable and they reluctantly had to replace them with others they didn't consider as talented or capable. We see this at LB, too, where a great LB graduated to the draft (Connor) and their stud was lost for the season (Lee). So yea, they are different at LB, but do you honestly believe they're better there than they were last season? The PSU secondary is the same except Justin King is gone, and we could argue all day about whether that is good or bad for PSU, but the fact is he was drafted, incredibly fast, started every year he was at PSU, and would have been a starter had he elected to return this season.
So, in sum, this was largely the same PSU team that we manhandled last season, at night, under the lights, in their own stadium, during a "white out." In fact, they're starting players at LB and DT that they never dreamed they'd have to go to and didn't consider nearly as capable as the guys they'd planned on relying on. The big change is at RB (where they were fairly strong last year anyway) and QB, where the improvement has been drastic. All things considered, I can't understand how you can't see that this is, on paper, largely the same team that we crushed last season. In my mind, given what we returned, there's no way we shouldn't have been able to handle these guys, and, ten weeks ago, every one of us fully expected to do just that. The disparity in performance between the PSU game last season and the PSU game this season highlights what I see as regression at just about every spot on the field, especially when one considers this game was played at our place, under the lights, in front of a sea of scarlet.
utgrad73;1306277; said:
The season is not lost. This team has had a few up and downs but they will endure. I disagree with this post completely.
I hope you aren't somehow twisting my post to imply I said this season was "lost." I would never say a season is "lost" until we've played scUM and lost. But come on, man. What is it you disagree with? You don't think we've regressed along the DL? Along the OL? At WR? Our backfield hasn't been a disappointment, albeit in large part due to injury? It isn't a disappointment that our 5th year starting QB that had previously been referred to as an NFL-caliber talent is currently sitting on the bench because he was unable to face a pass rush? I give TB all the credit in the world for the way he's handled this situation, but it's a disappointment it ever came to him being replaced. Do you think any of the guys who elected to come back, aside from Jenkins, have improved their draft stock with their on-field play? Are you not shocked that the special teams play has probably gotten even worse than it was last season? If you "disagree with my post completely," please feel free to get specific and set me straight. I still love my Buckeyes, but you've got to be looking at this season with some pretty heavily tinted scarlet and grey glasses to not be able to acknowledge things have been disappointing this season.
