why didn't tressel and bollman establish or attempt to establish a running game in the second half? it was as though they packed in the running game and decided that the passing game was the only way. a good passing threat is most often potent due to the running threat. there was no running threat in the second half.
as far as smith or zwick? i don't know. smith played horribly tonight. he does not go through his progressions still, and he passes the ball too late. his downfield accuracy is poor. he has a tendency to throw shorter passes way too hard. his scampering works against mediocre to fair defenses, but psu has neither. psu can close on a runner much faster that the other defenses we've faced... even texas' defense. zwick? i don't know about him either. we must have very short memories if we already think that zwick is a great quarterback. the concerns we have about smith right now are those concerns we had about zwick only a short time ago. to be honest, i won't be at all upset if tressel goes back to zwick. i don't think that it would be good for the team's confidence, but it is something different. smith is not a passing quarterback.
as a side note, some before cited zwick's completion percentage. that statistic is largely misleading, as he garnered a substantial amount of completions while playing during garbage time.
our defense played very well today. effectively, the defense got us a tie ballgame. the defense kept 3 from becoming 7 and nearly stopped another touchdown after the interception. if our offense can't score more than 10 points, we deserve to lose. we are not a national championship caliber team. as good as our defense would or might fair against usc, texas, and others, there is absolutely no way that our offense could score enough points.
ginn looks like he's been running in mud. and he runs only sideways. he is a completely different player from last year. i hope that we no longer hear the exclamations that we must give ginn the ball more often if we want to win. this is not the case. had i not seen ginn last year, i'd say that he is just an average return guy/receiver. i've seen nothing special from him this year.
pittman is fine. pittman does a workman's job. he does nothing spectacular, but he can give you what you need if the offensive line does its job. it hurts, though, to watch sutton at northwestern. i have my concerns when i hear that tressel offered mr. ohio nothing. how many yards did he gain against psu?
who knows if our receivers are the best in the nation. if they don't get the ball, we can't know. yes, a large part of being a great receiver is running great routes and finding ways to get open. i don't know if that is what is keeping our receivers from being productive, however. i know holmes and gonzo run very good routes, so...
today was very frustrating. if our defense is going to remain a beast, they must given something to fight for. even great defenses become less so if their counterparts don't give them a reason to fight.