1) If last night had been my first experience with American football, then I'd never watch another game again. That was quite simply the lamest, ugliest excuse for a football game that I've ever seen, and both teams were equally at fault. The one and only big play in the entire game resulted from a boneheaded move on the simpliest play in football - the quarterback sneak (but more on that later). It wasn't a defensive slugfest ... it was offensive ineptitude at the highest level.
2) Terrelle Pryor is a true freshman, and we certainly expect him to make freshman mistakes. But his fumble on the aforementioned quarterback sneak was not a freshman mistake ... it was a stupid play. Pryor has played enough football to know that his job is to take the snap, follow his center, fall forward, gain eighteen inches, and go back to the huddle to call the next play. You can't become a hero on a quarterback sneak, Terrelle ... but you certainly can become a goat.
3) Before the year started, I thought that Pryor would win a game all by himself, and he did that at Wisconsin. And now he has the distinction of losing a game all by himself. It's generally pretty difficult to identify a single play throughout the course of a game that was the definitive turning point, but his fumble
was that play. At that time, Ohio State was up 6-3, with 11:03 left in the game, with third down and inches to go. The Buckeyes had just run five straight times for a combined 22 yards, and had crossed into Penn State territory. The Nittanty Lions' defense looked like it was finally wearing down, and a successful quarterback sneak would have given the Buckeyes further momentum and a fresh set of downs ... and capping the drive with a touchdown would have essentially ended the game. But after the fumble, Penn State got the ball in great field position and eventually scored the game-winning touchdown against a rather dis-spiritied Ohio State defense. Although they had a final chance (see below), the Buckeyes never really recovered from that unfortunate play.
4) The fumble was definitely Terrelle Pryor's "
Joe Pisarcik Moment", but he did have a chance to redeem himself at the end of the game. Down 13 to 6 with 1:07 left, the Buckeyes began their final drive of the game at their own 20-yard line after a touchback. Pryor completed a couple of passes to Ray Small to move the ball into Penn State territory, and then he tried to play the hero once again. After a fierce pass rush from Aaron Maybin (more on that later), Pryor rolled out to the right, set himself, somehow found Brian Hartline engulfed in a sea of white jerseys, and with plenty of time to throw launched a bomb into triple coverage that was promptly picked off. On that play, the four Penn State pass rushers were all caught inside, three pass defenders were following Hartline to the endzone, and the short zone on that side of the field had been vacated. Pryor was already near the right sideline, so all he had to do was take off running, gain ten or fifteen yards for the first down, go out of bounds to stop the clock, and then run the next play. But instead, Terrelle thought with his ego and not with his reason, and he went for the highlight reel play instead of the sure thing. Now of course, we can write that off as a "freshman mistake", but we also have to wonder if Pryor is one of those players who will always try to win the game all by himself ... and if that is the case, does he have the talent to do so? If the answer to the latter question is "yes", then we may have the next Vince Young in Columbus ... but if the answer is "no", then we might just have a problem on our hands....
5) Two big games, nine total points. That ain't gettin' it done, folks. It all starts up front, and after a few solid (but certainly not spectacular) games in a row, the Buckeyes' offensive line reverted to their true form ... getting blown up on running plays and blown by on passing plays. Blame the coaching all you want, but the talent ... and the depth ... just isn't there.
6) And another thing about the offensive line ... have the Buckeyes had a truly athletic offensive lineman since Orlando Pace? Maybe LeCharles Bentley and Nick Mangold, but that's about it. Brewster, Shugarts, and Adams seem to be a huge step up in terms of athleticism ... and Justin Boren is a proven commodity ... so let's hope that the offensive line gets a huge upgrade next season.
7) While the offense was anemic last night, the defense wasn't anything special. Yeah, they held the allegedly high-powered Nittany Lion offense to 13 points and 281 total yards (both season lows), but we all watched the game last night, and none of us was impressed with that Penn State team. The defense made no big plays (no turnovers, one sack), did nothing to change the momentum of the game, couldn't hold Penn State to a field goal after the Pryor fumble, and couldn't force the Lions to punt on their final drive. In general, the Buckeyes' defense got "out-hit" by the Lion's offense ... the Penn State offensive line won most of the battles in the trenches, and the Penn State ball carriers were consistently able to fight through tackles for extra yardage. Oh, it wasn't a bad game by the Buckeye defense by any means, but when they were called on to win the game in spite of the Buckeye offense, they just couldn't do it ... and that is what separates a truly great defense (2002) from a merely good defense (2008).
8) Penn State was called for exactly one penalty last night (it was declined by Ohio State). If those had been two SEC teams, then we'd all be saying that the officials (with orders from the league office) were trying to help the undefeated team stay undefeated so that they could get to the big money national championship game. But those were Big Ten officials last night, so we can just blame it on plain old incompetence.
9) I don't care what anyone says, games like last night's hurt worse than the blow-out losses. Yeah, we can try to rationalize those games away with a bunch of "what ifs", but in reality we know that our team got beat from start to finish by the likes of Florida, LSU, and USC. Last night, however, we really should have won the game, and but for perhaps the single most ill-advised, momentum-killing play in the history of Buckeye football, we probably would have won the game. And that just plain sucks....
10) Was it just me, or did the whole team seem flat for most of the game? For a homecoming night game against the #3 team in the country, it sure seemed like the visitors were way more pumped up than the home squad.
11) I am convinced that several players on this team "mailed in" the season from day one. Fortunately, they'll all be gone next year. No names, please, but I am
not referring to Jenkins, Laurinaitis, or Boeckman....
12) This is Ohio State. There are no moral victories, no good losses, no learning experiences. The Buckeyes are supposed to win 80-90% of their games, and last night's contest was one that should have gone in the "win" column. No excuses.
13) After the USC game, I said that the Buckeyes' season was officially "over", and that Tressel should start Terrelle Pryor for the remainder of the year so that he could gain valuable experience for the 2009 season. It worked. Now I'm saying that the Big Ten season is officially "over", and that Tressel should open up the offensive play book so that Pryor can gain valuable experience for the 2009 season. Please listen....
Trent. They don't have Morielli anymore. Their line plays very well for it's size. Their linebackers are as solid as ever (Although we clearly had the better cast yesterday, that one LB on Penn State really stood out). They don't have Morielli anymore. They have a great kicker. Their DBs are reliable. They don't have Morielli anymore. Their return game is very solid with Williams. Jay Paterno put away the PS3. They don't have Morielli anymore.
