My weekly recap:
1) That deep ball on Bell was 100% technique...when you read the WR running a fade, you have to switch your hips early and get in his hip pocket. Bell was still all over him but a quick hip adjustment and he would've had his head turned on the ball. He will learn from that.
2) Really liked how we made it a point of emphasis to get Dontre the ball. Love distributing the carries between EzE, Dontre, and Smith.
3) Easily JT's best game as a Buckeye imo. His reads were on the money in the pass game, he distributed the ball around, made excellent zone reads, and managed the game like a seasoned veteran. Really made proper checkdowns and protected the ball. Extended plays when he needed to and ran the ball very well, loved how conscientious he was about covering the ball properly upon contact....you don't see many QBs do that, especially not a freshman. I also like how they are bringing him along with the playbook, they are easing him into more responsibility and he is handling it well. I counted only 3 errant passes total...the rest were throw-aways or drops. Very impressive for 36 pass attempts.
4) Gunner Kiel is every bit as good as advertised and then some. He is going to have a huge career in Cincy. I seriously think he is 1st round grade material down the road, kid makes every throw and is a big, tough SOB. Also, Jeff Luc at LB is an animal...that kid has an NFL career ahead of him.
5) My Captain Obvious observation: Ezekiel Elliott is just a treat to watch. I cannot believe how well he is playing considering his injury. You can tell how hard he worked in the offseason, he seemed to get stronger every carry (ala Hyde). I am sure you very proud of you son
@Dawn Elliott , he is an incredible talent and leader out there...he ran with a clearly violent attitude, have to love that at RB. Rod Smith is a really nice compliment and is starting to have the season I was hoping to see for him. Way to stick it out and play your tail off Rod.
6) There has been some talk of the lack of "the big play" and I can be included there. I really like these chunk plays though that get everyone involved...really long sustained drives, everyone touches the ball, and the tempo just exhausts the opposing defense and takes away their will. Plus you give your defense a nice break and more time to in-game make adjustments. Big time kudos to Tom Herman on Saturday, the play calling was very impressive and I give credit where it is due, great job coach. Plenty of ingenuity in the calls and kept the defense off balance all night. Oh yeah, you cannot dismiss the fact that Herman brought in JT and has developed him into a fine QB in what seemed to be a dire situation. Major props. 40+ first downs? Yes please.
7) Great job by the OL, much more cohesion and they played with a nasty edge in their run blocking. Really protected the QB well in pass pro as well, great game all around. Chase Farris looked good out there, sprung Spencer on that screen TD with a great block. Coach Warriner is a remarkable coach, the progress in this unit has been incredible.
8) I must've been distracted during that Bosa sack...when he gets drafted in the top 10, they will show that sack. I think it may well be his signature play (despite his numerous other incredible play).
9) We are definitely missing an element to our defense without Spence...losing him was much more costly than I anticipated. I'm with our other posters, I want to see much more Jalyn Holmes out there...Miller and Frazier are good against the run but Holmes is just the most talented pass rusher we have not named Bosa.
10) I really get the sense that our team is starting to come together. There is cohesiveness, they are having fun out there, and they are starting to play with an edge. We're still very young obviously but it looks like they are learning and improving with each snap.
11) Pass defense: Yes, we got beat deep...but by one of the best QBs in the country with a very good WR unit and each time it was a very fixable mistake except for Apple at the end of the 2nd (he just got toasted unless he was expecting support over the middle from the safety). I still see all the talent back there and they are flashing it more and more each game. We wanted press coverage and while we are instilling this philosophy into our secondary, we are going to have to live with some big plays against us. Hopefully the amount of big plays gradually dwindle but we are about where I expected us to be headed into our fifth game.
12) The fumble by Samuel was unfortunate because we were about to put the nail in the coffin on that drive. He needs to realize when to just put his head down, cover the ball, and take his medicine. But that was a very good play by Luc to force that fumble, not like Curtis was being careless with the ball. And I didn't realize how hot Samuel was before the fumble...he was having a great game. He'll learn from it and keep having a great freshman campaign.
13) Too many dropped balls...it is Game 4 and it is just unacceptable at this point. This WR unit needs to focus on catching the ball before running with it, every drop was a product of not focusing on making the catch first. That can be fixed with emphasizing that in practice but it needs fixed as of yesterday.
13) Great utilization of the tight end, really glad to see us incorporate Vannett and Heureman.
14) Really great atmosphere, the 'Shoe was rocking when we needed it. Great job by the crowd.
15) Really good adjustments by the defense at the half. I've seen complaints about getting pressure on Kiel but we actually forced him into some very errant throws by bringing pressure at the right time...he just got rid of the ball quickly for the most part. And Bennett quietly had a great game forcing Kiel into throwing the ball earlier than he wanted to
16) Most consistent game I've seen for Devin Smith. Two TD catches but he didn't disappear for any part of the game and had catches all over the field. Other than the bad drop, great performance.
17) Overall a great performance in most facets and a lot of improvement across the board.
