OSU-Northwestern 2004

[KillerNut]

Clarity with all due respect there is a difference between Miami getting beat by Ohio State, Virginia Tech, ect... and us getting beat by Northwestern. That would be like Miami getting beat by Rutgers or Temple.

If this were an upset to Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue... then I don't think the level of frustration would be as high as it is.

 

[OSU Rob]

I don't really have the time to repost it clarity. Whatever, I said what I needed to. Hopefully our team uses this as a learning experience and adjusts for the future. If we dont tackle this week it could easily get ugly against Wisky. But once again, Tressel is 35-8 I believe. People need to stop with the 28-3 crap- when are you going to stop? 31-4, 35-4, 40-7....? No other fans keep repeating the record over the last 3 yrs as some sign that their coach is infallible. I have no problem w/ JT as HC but his offensive playcalling is hardly innovative (its called a reverse, its called a halfback pass, stick w/ shotgun, quit running Ross for 1 yd. gains....)

 

[nwbuckeye]

how about this, we havent been able to run the ball for 3 years now. even when we had a senior laden line that sent players to the nfl we still are not able to run the ball at all. this is THE osu after all and although i dont want to see 3 yards and a cloud we still should be able to run the ball on weaker teams we play early in the schedule but we cant. mo was able to make 5 yards not because he ran through gaping holes but because he could make the first man miss or bounce outside. can someone who is closer to columbus than i (i have moved to the pacific nw) tell me why our run blocking is so horrible. the only consistant thing i see over the past few years is the o line coach. is it a player issue or a coaching issue please. all is not lost but if our offense goes 3 and out and we have the nations worst conversion rate on 3rd and long this wont be the first dissapointment this year.

 

[Clarity]

I don't really have the time to repost it clarity. Whatever, I said what I needed to. Hopefully our team uses this as a learning experience and adjusts for the future. If we dont tackle this week it could easily get ugly against Wisky. But once again, Tressel is 35-8 I believe. People need to stop with the 28-3 crap- when are you going to stop? 31-4, 35-4, 40-7....? No other fans keep repeating the record over the last 3 yrs as some sign that their coach is infallible. I have no problem w/ JT as HC but his offensive playcalling is hardly innovative (its called a reverse, its called a halfback pass, stick w/ shotgun, quit running Ross for 1 yd. gains....)

When you introduce the efficacy of JT's philosophies into the discussion, his history and accomplishments under that approach immediately become quite relevant. Ignoring them may make it easier to make your points, but it doesn't just make a ton of logical sense to do so. Granted, they shouldn't be a "be-all, catch-all" response to your type of argument, and too often they are.

 

[OSU Rob]

Clarity its the "be all catch all" approach that fans use that pisses me off. Heck, you dont need to tell me that JT has had great success. But when thats twisted into "JT has no faults" type of reasoning its extremely irritating. Why can a team like TCU put up 45 on NW and we're happy w/ 27? Why can a team like Miami (OH) run the ball on Marshall and score more points than we did? Do these teams have better offensive talent. Hell no! People are really outthinking themselves if they think there is some "magical strategy" JT has which is why we "choose" to play even the shittiest of teams to close nailbiters.

 

[OH10]

I agree with OSURob's point, but not his tone. I'm not pissed that we lost the game, but we absolutely need to realize that we cannot and should not play the inferior teams the way we play the good ones. We should have an open offense with some creativity and we should play more man-to-man. We should blitz more on defense to keep the QB in the pocket. Being more aggressive with these teams would allow us to use our athleticism at the skill positions more.


Now I love Tresselball against the good opponents like Michigan, who have equal athletes, but against these inferior teams (and NW is most definately inferior), we need to match their emotion and aggressiveness. It shouldn't be a chess match against them - we should go for domination.

 

[Clarity]

Clarity with all due respect there is a difference between Miami getting beat by Ohio State, Virginia Tech, ect... and us getting beat by Northwestern. That would be like Miami getting beat by Rutgers or Temple.

If this were an upset to Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue... then I don't think the level of frustration would be as high as it is.

I can agree with that. USC had an incident like this a couple years ago though, it happens. Upsets in college football do happen, and sometimes they're major upsets. I'm no more happy about this one than anyone else is. I'd say it's one of the hardest losses we've had to stomach in a while -- but the bottom line is we have to hope that the team can learn from this, and improve at a faster rate than they were before.

No school loses 14 guys to the NFL and doesn't go through growing pains the next season. That's not an excuse either.

The upside is this loss forces them to address issues before we face Wisconsin. It's also going to make this team hungry, something they haven't had to be in a few years. Will this ultimately end up being a positive? I doubt that, but some good can come of it.

Clarity its the "be all catch all" approach that fans use that pisses me off. Heck, you dont need to tell me that JT has had great success. But when thats twisted into "JT has no faults" type of reasoning its extremely irritating. Why can a team like TCU put up 45 on NW and we're happy w/ 27? Why can a team like Miami (OH) run the ball on Marshall and score more points than we did? Do these teams have better offensive talent. Hell no! People are really outthinking themselves if they think there is some "magical strategy" JT has which is why we "choose" to play even the shittiest of teams to close nailbiters.

I agree with all of the above. I don't think we need to put up 45 on anyone to win though. 27 should always be enough, and I would rather see our D give up 0 points, than our offense score 40+.

But I do agree (how could I not?) that the offense is not what it needs to be. I just don't think this is what JT wants either.

My feeling is that the D shoulders more blame for this loss than the O does, but that the O is a much deeper problem. We can never afford a poor game from the D with our O the way it is, and that's a problem.

 

[TheStoicPaisano]

The inexperience most certainly is a factor is the play of the defense. Remember 2001? Rookie (to 1a) defensive coordinator, like 2004. Talented, but young players. The result? 7-5. Including losses to a 5-7 Wisconsin team and a 5-6 Penn State team.

The next year, names like Wilhelm, Grant, Reynolds, Doss, Nickey, Fox, Smith, Scott, Anderson, and Peterson become household. Why? Because of the experience they and their defensive coordinator gained.

I expect to see the same type of improvement next year with OSUs younger players and a more experienced Mark Snyder. And we don't even know if this team is on their way to 5 losses ala 2001, 2 ala 2003, or somewhere in between.

 

[KillerNut]

Northwestern's RB

Did you guys notice how he kept driving his legs, and fought for yards? Did you see how he kept breaking our tackles by being decisive and never stoped moving his feet?

Can someone please explain to me why Lydell can't do that?

 

[kn1f3party]

Problems

USC had an incident like this a couple years ago

That is true, a new coaching staff alleviated the problem. I think Tressel is a great coach. However, I have to agree with many of Rob's points. Ohio State is better than that. The Defensive Coordinator needs to be upstairs and the Offensive playcalling better improve or I expect vacancies. We may have a young team but the skill players are playing as expected. I truely believe we were outcoached. I'm content with placing it on Tressel for not playing Pittman, Bollman for High School offensive playcalling, and Snyder for not being aggressive. This was not Ohio State that I watched last night. We played more like a mid-major school. Maybe the MAC could use another team? I'm not satisfied and I think we need to wake up and smell the coffee before things get a lot worse and we lose great recruits.

 

[Holy Buckeye!]

Bad Balance.

 

[Holy Buckeye!]

Pure and simply. Tressel always says," Nothing good happens after 10:00 at night" Hmmmmm!

 

[StoRMinBrutus]

Shit happens. We are young. Northwestern is no longer a joke. We sent 14 players to the NFL - they returned 17 starters. Our QB was starting his 4th game - their's his 26th (anybody think they beat Zwick when he learns the position?). They played at home - which is where their minds were. Our minds were on Wisconsin - which is who we spent part of the past two weeks preparing for if I had to take a guess.
You lose as much experience as we did and play behind a young QB on the road and you are going to struggle at times.
Let's see what they are made of next Saturday.

I totally agree that our defense had a bad day but when you rely on them to win every game and don't have your offense command the game, and command the clock, and make those moral crushing drive. When you don't have a QB that can take over its hard for any team. Any team in the country would have a hard time with a new QB. Most all QB's struggle in their first years but given time, when Justin Zwick (and he definitely will) learns to take over his offense and to pick apart the Defenses. WOW we will be so much better and then the critics will all be on the bandwagon. Until then its going to be a bumby road. Until then all those other marginal weaknesses will be soooo aparent and will be exposed and exploited. Maybe not til next year when we get those two RB's in there full time and/or maybe it will take that long for Justin to mature.
Until then Cheer and support your team because even more now they need it.
GO BUCKEYES !!!

:osu2: I'd STILL rather be a BUCKEYE !!! :osu2:

I agree also in that the Defensive coordinator should be upstairs int he press box. I don't understand that at all. good point

 

[Clarity]

Pure and simply. Tressel always says," Nothing good happens after 10:00 at night" Hmmmmm!

Last year's Wisconsin game was on the road at night too, wasn't it?

 

[Sloopy45]

Fellas, come on. The team was sleepwalking last night!! There's no inherent problems with the system or with Tressell. We have a major problem at Tailback, but other than that, the team is fine, the coaches are fine, Tressellball is fine, the waters are still calm in the Olentangy, and you can all relax.

The kids showed up last night for a coronation, not a football game. If you put those same Northwestern players in a Maize and Blow uniform, they'd have their doors blown off.

They just got complacent. They came off a big OOC win (where most picked them to lose), a bye week, and have Whisky (who we lost to last year) next week. The thought never occured in anyone's mind that the team was looking past this game a bit too much?

Look, last night's loss was as embarassing and as shocking for me as much as anybody. But there's no reason to hit the panic button.

Tressell knows we have no option at TB. Tressell knows that Ross isn't good (he benched him for a true freshman in '02, remember?). But there's nothing he or we can do about it right now. There's no Eddie Heisman or Tim Spencer on that bench waiting to hear, "Get in there, kid." We have to hope to get some production from that position, beat Purdue, beat scUM, and win the Big Ten.