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OSU-Northwestern 2004

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There's just nothing surpising from week to week and if they do change tactics it isn't executed right. OSU must be the easiest team to figure out on game tape.

Tressel has to give up calling the plays, Snyder needs to get his butt up to the booth and grow a pair
 
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Here is my two cents, the bad points first....

1. We simply played horrible in all three phases.

2. We made critical pentalies on special teams that affected our field position on at least two occasions.

3. NW played out there asses, there is no mistaking that fact, they were extremely focused.

4. We tackled horribly, especially by our secondary (when does fox come back?)

5. The offensive line is simply not very good. Ditto goes to the D line.....

6. To many dropped passes by Hamby....Childress and yes Holmes dropped a few.

7. Zwick needs to see the whole field, he missed at least two touchdowns in that game.

Now that was the bad....here is the good if you can get anything good from a loss...

1. This team tasted a loss, its amazing sometimes what that does to teams, it makes them hungry and I know they are embarrased.

2. The running of Zwick, sometimes he looked like Krenzel, espeically in the fourth quarter (51 rushing yards)

3. A loss like this is hard to forget and will help them in the future.

I have alot of faith by next Monday we will be celebrating a big win in the shoe and the loss to NW will be a distant memory.
 
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What I saw was a team that thought it could win just by showing up. I saw this in all three phases. We have relied on our athletic talent and the record we have amassed in close games (not entirely luck or work) to get by all year and much of last year. Saturday, we saw that it wasn't enough, but it should have been obvious much earlier. Fortunately, if that word can be used in this situation, it was a team loss. That is, it wasn't one that the defense could hang on Zwick and the offense. We got our collective ass kicked by a team that wasn't afraid of us and wanted to compete and did. This was clear early in the game and I thought we would adjust our temperment and take the game to them. However, it looked to me like we thought we could take their best shot and win at the end. It shouldn't have come to that. There are no excuses, tOSU needs to strap it up and play the game like it ought to be played by tOSU next week.

Sorry for all the "we's" and "our's" above.
 
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There was an interesting letter in this Sunday's Dispatch Letter-to-the-Editor section (obviously before the loss) that I believe makes a debatable point:

The writer said that the Buckeyes had basically one running play - Up the middle. All the different set, 2 TEs, men-in-motion, 5 wide, whatever, doesn't disguise the fact that they run up the middle. No sweeps, no options, no counters, nothing. I can't endorse this view 100%, but I think they are on to something here.

What does everyone else think?
 
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I say we finally got beat by the target on our chests. Northwestern played well above there heads and Ohio State did not show up until they realized they were in a dog fight and by then Northwestern had it in their heads they could hang with tOSU. Couple of things I would like someone who has the game on tape to look at for me:

1: On the screen play that went for a TD to that kid from ohio, Underwood is in good position to make a play and a pulling lineman hits him in what appeared to be his back and that allows for the big TD.

2. On the bomb to Holmes in the last few moments of regulation, you don't get a very good view but the ball hits Holmes in the chest and for some reason he is not able to get his other hand up. Was the DB holding his other arm? The replays the game showed I was unable to pick it up.

3. On multiple occasions Northwestern has the TB Herron in a motion that he would loop around the QB and be coming forward when the ball was snapped, am I just imagining this or was this really happening? He really appeared to be moving forward at the time of the snap on these plays and there was never a word said about it.

I still say tOSU did not do what they needed to do to win the game but I think the refs helped keep Northwestern in the game mentally and that really helped them.

Zwick really took a step Saturday night but I am not sure in what direction. He fumbled (again), threw a pick (great play by the DB on a late throw), and really held the ball WAY too long. He has to have that QB clock that says get rid of the ball. Even when he would see the pressure he would not avoid it and often stepped into it. Zwick did show a knack for running for good yards when needed and had some very nice throws mixed in with his ducks. I saw him throw into double coverage alot and he got away with it, that concerns me. On one had he looked to be afraid to throw the ball in tight spot and on the other he would pick his target pre-snap and let it go regardless of who happened to be covering him.

As for the running game, I know Ross and Pittman had roughly the same stats but when Pittman had the ball you could just see he was a step away from breaking a big one. Ross just seemed to be always falling down and gaining a few yards as he landed. I would like to see that carries split that way and see if maybe we can keep going with the run. P.S. on the first play of the game, Ross missed his man on a poor attempt at a block and Zwick was sacked, not good.

Defense, well Snyder needs to learn to make adjustments that is for sure. I tend to agree with the majority here that he may need to be in the box to be able to see what is going on, but I cannot stand to see the same play kill us 9 times a game. That is horrible. D-line is getting blocked so far back that the LBs cannot make the play until the Offense has gain 5 or 6 yards, that has to stop. Pressure on the QB? whats that? Our D-line could not even tell you where their QB was on half of their plays, that was sad.
 
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bucknuts44820 said:
Pittman played alot last night and was average, so look elsewhere for the running game not working, like the young o line.
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If you look at the play by play drive chart... Pittman was definately more effective. Ross had 3 runs over 3 yards 2 of those times were AFTER Pittman had gotten a chance. Pittman had 6 carries that went for more than 4 yards. IMO, Pittman should be starting and they should by TRYING to establish the running game.
 
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You can make all the analogies there are out there as to who is at fault the most and why our offense sucks but everything is related to one thing and that is the maturity of the Quarterback. That is such a hard position to master and command. Its going to take time. Yes our offensive line needs to sustain blocks longer and do better. Yes our running game is in major need of an overhaul and adjustments to be made, but until Justin Zwick can take control and make defenses play conservative themselves, we will always see opposing teams stacking the line and cheating up to stop the run . That has alot to do with the poblems. Fact is we don't currently have a RB who can run like that, and smash through tackles at the very moment he gets the ball or as soon as he hits the LOS. Some can do it .. he can't. When Justin Zwick masters Coach Tressels playstyle and reduces errors, then we will see opposing DB's and Lbs' move back and respect Justin Zwick and the passing game more . Even though our passing game is pretty good its not scaring opposing teams. Alot of times Osu is 3 and out. They are ALL making him have to beat them and so far its not scaring anybody !!! When they do move back , the running game will be more successful and the blocking will seem better (even thuogh the O-line still needs work). So until Justin matures and does well consistantly we are in for a bumpy road and opposing teams will exploit all our other current weaknesses.
 
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StoRMinBrutus said:
Yes our running game is in major need of an overhaul and adjustments to be made, but until Justin Zwick can take control and make defenses play conservative themselves, we will always see opposing teams stacking the line and cheating up to stop the run . That has alot to do with the poblems.....So until Justin matures and does well consistantly we are in for a bumpy road and opposing teams will exploit all our other current weaknesses.
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Nope. The biggest problem with the running "attack" is that opposing teams are stopping it without stacking the box. The opponents DL and LB are getting off the ball and penetrating, therefore not allowing our RB any gain, or minimal gain. Yet even in a "spread offense", or obvious passing downs (when we ran), Northwestern was blowing our OL off the line of scrimmage, and stopping the run with no safety help. Our OL is simply outmatched, and so far no RB has stepped forward...without the threat of a running game, Zwick is screwed. It will take him 5x longer to learn stuff, because he will be spending most of that time on his ass.
 
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Pittman: 11 rushes, 32 yds.

Not the answer.
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What was the question?

Oh yeah....

Its the OL... its the RB's.

Its both... One question I'd really like to get to the bottom of is why is Mike Kne starting? Nothing against him or anything... but I kind of sit there and think to myself... "Was Computerbuck right?" :wink2: (If he was right... it was still a couple years late)

Seriously though... I often wonder when I hear, "We have so much talent on Offense... blah, blah, blah."

If we have so much talent.. why is TGII playing WR and not being groomed to play CB? (This isn't a pointed question that I'm looking for a big response to, the point goes more to depth than TGII himself... maybe he ends up a WR, but it seems odd to me... to take that further, why is Troy Smith working at other positions?)

Maybe the frustrating part of that people (not me) have about Zwick/Smith is that that's one place where we have good depth but obviously you only have one QB at a time.

Think about all the other positions and tell me that you love the depth chart at this particular moment in time.... (on Offense)

We really do have a lot of youth... and Not to call one guy or another a bust... but we have some guys that just haven't come along the way we need them to.
 
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FKAGobucks877 ... so your saying that the opposing last 4 teams have not been stacking the line ?? Hmmm I taped all the games except this last one. I'll give you the NW game but I counted no less than 15 plays where they stacked the line with at least 7 players then got tired of doing that... but I'll give you that game because I don't have it on tape. All the other games I went back and slo-mo'd the game. Being an O-line/D-lineman myself I watch them the most. Goofy huh, haha but I do. I can go back and count the times the opponnent did this but I will easily tell you they did it 80-85% of the time or threatened too do this. Thats comon coaching that if you have a New QB, you isolate him and take the run game away by cheating up to the line and force the QB beat you through the passing game in hope he makes alot of mistakes. To date though they are not afraid of Justins' arm yet. We'll just have to disagree on this one then. I respect your opinion but disagree.
I am totally not disagreeing with you in that the O-line needs help and so does the runningback situtation but they just are not where they need to be right now and until they are, the Defenses are going to come after Justin Zwick and cheat up to get at Justin. Until he can make them pay for that consistantly they will continue !!!
If the O-line can come around .. fine. They will. If the RB;s come around .. GREAT... but the more important thing is to get the DB's and Lb's to respect Justins arm (which is good but not scarry yet to other teams). YEa it would be awesome if Justin had 5 or 6 sec. to but that whole Offense needs to mature. My only point was that some of that pressure will subside IF Justin learns to make those Db's respect his passing game more. Which is coming along. Its a maturuty thing all around though ...
 
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i see the debate is rising as to wether it is our OL or RB's that are responsible for a lack of a running game. While blame can be placed on both, the real problem lies within the bland zone blocking scheme Bollman is trying to install. This scheme makes it far too easy to stack the line and hit gaps. It doesnt matter if Orlando Pace and Lecharles Bentley were still here, the running game would stink under this system. Look at Bollman's track record. The system was fairly successful at YSU. But he was sent packing from the Eagles, and Nick Saban basically packed his bags for him at MSU for this very reason. His time at NCST did nothing to prove his worth either. Running a 1-AA scheme at this level isnt going to cut it.

Maurice Clarett simply masked the problem in 2002.
 
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