Game Thread Southern Cal 18, at tOSU 15 (Sept 12th, 8 pm, ESPN)

[Silent Nature]

In other news, Ohio State dropped to #8, almost dropping behind #9 BYU by one vote.

Ohio State should move into Top 5 if they beat USC though.

If they get beat by USC, they'll probably drop to #20-#23.

Here's to hoping that Terrelle Pryor will look to make some absolutely huge plays with his legs for once. Screw being a Pro Style QB for this game and do what you have to do to help the team to win.

 

[Coqui]

If tOSU wins, USC will get a pass saying tOSU played at home, and against a team with a freshman QB. Barkley will also get the same pass, with people saying he had freshman jitters. On the other hand, if USC wins, they came to tOSU and beat us at home, in front of a 100,000+ crowd, with a true freshman QB. I don't think its unreasonable to say the game is bigger for Pryor than it is for Barkley. We have everything to lose. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Did we get a pass last year when USC played at home and against a team with a freshman QB?

 

[EidoloN]

Did we get a pass last year when USC played at home and against a team with a freshman QB?

Has USC choked on the national stage?

I agree with ant.

 

[Silent Nature]

Did we get a pass last year when USC played at home and against a team with a freshman QB?

Not really. We didn't have our main offense in Beanie Wells and no one cared. We got our asses kicked and sent back home, plain and simple.

We still came back later in the Fiesta Bowl and gave Texas hell of a game. The media said that Texas got complacent and almost gave it away to us.

In my opinion, It's a lose-lose situation. All I want is for Ohio State to beat USC soundly and keep watching them fight throughout the Big 10 conference play and hope for the best.

Beat USC then lose to Penn State or Lose to USC and beat Penn State?

Honestly, I'd rather want to beat Penn State. We want that Big Ten title, first and foremost. Who knows? We may have another shot at USC, especially if we beat Penn State.

 

[PlanetFrnd]

If tOSU wins, USC will get a pass saying tOSU played at home, and against a team with a freshman QB. Barkley will also get the same pass, with people saying he had freshman jitters. On the other hand, if USC wins, they came to tOSU and beat us at home, in front of a 100,000+ crowd, with a true freshman QB. I don't think its unreasonable to say the game is bigger for Pryor than it is for Barkley. We have everything to lose. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I agree that USC might not drop that far in the polls, but only because they're USC and voters typically love USC... I have little reason to believe that they would get a "pass" if Barkley plays poorly. People would recognize that he is a freshman, and I think the talking heads would pat themselves on the back for (predictably) pointing out that one of the "keys to the game" would be Matt Barkley's play, etc. etc. And, if he does play poorly, the question of "how will Barkley play?" will precede their next several games until he puts together a string of strong performances.

I also disagree that they have nothing to lose... they just might have less to lose than tOSU, as far as national perception, etc. In that regard, however, I think tOSU has MUCH more to gain, which is likely where the pressure comes from.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

They are going to hear this stuff all week and that's what concerns me. They've been hearing it for the better part of two years now. This is exactly what this team didn't need this week. They've been hearing that they suck wind in big games nationally and now the locals have joined in (I am as guilty as anyone I suppose).

This team needed confidence going into the USC game and the opener did nothing to inspire confidence in anyone.

Like I said before: USC is swaggering into this game and Ohio State is limping into this game.

if that's true (and I don't believe it is) then this team and this coaching staff is pretty damn soft.

 

[Derek2k3]

No offense but I think the whole Underdog/Disrespect card is pointless at this point.

If this team wanted to make a statement about how good they, they could have made it on the field last week by putting up 60 on Navy. You don't wait for a big game to make a statement, you make it every time you take the field.

Interesting thought, but not really true. Tressel has never believed in running games up, to a fault. People need to remember the NC season, we couldn't blow out the Meadowvale Nursing Home team that year, yet went undefeated and won the NC. I'm not saying this is the same style team or anything, I'm just saying margin of victory is not an indicator of a teams future success.

I'm happy with the fact that TP looked like a QB Saturday, that Rolle had a good game and no one was injured. Saturday will be a great game.

My $.02

 

[Silent Nature]

if that's true (and I don't believe it is) then this team and this coaching staff is pretty damn soft.

I agree with this.

They did that the whole bowl season about how Texas will hang up 50 points on Ohio State and play with their 3rd stringers at end of the game.

It turned out that Texas was the one that had to survived the game with a great drive (That's without Beanie Wells in 4th quarter as well.)

 

[NateG]

Pryor will to improve passing the ball, he looked inaccurate against a weak Navy defensive back 4, he struggled rolling out and getting his eyes down field. Also He will obviously be able to create time in the pocket, but he won't be breaking as many sacks in the pocket against USC.

I am stilled baffled at comments like this. Pryor had a good/great day passing.

14 of 21... including 2 drops, a incompletion due to a freshman not knowing where the sideline was(Duron still almost got his feet in), and 2-3 throw aways(either where he knew it was not getting picked or because no one was open) The pick is the only play that he possibly made a mistake. He had an option to run, pass to Sanz, or pass to Herron. You could tell though that Tress told TP to play things safe especially in the second half. One designed draw and he went out of bounds and one pass that he decided to run and he got the first and went out of bounds.

If you add just the 2 drops he went 16/21-76%.

TP threw strikes on rollouts. He had no issues of keeping his eyes downfield. He hit Ballard twice on rollouts, Sanz once on a deep rollout, and Stoneburner. Again he only had one really bad decision, trying to force that pass to Sanz which Sanz almost caught.

Posey left the game early,Twash wasn't himself, Small was ill, that right there are 3 more weapons at TP's disposal. If he spreads the ball around like he did(5 to WR, 4 to TE, 6 to RB) against Navy, he will be that much more dangerous due to all the options he could have.

I believe(and pray to God) that Tress will remove some of the running restrictions on TP and let him play a more natural game. We also have a better chance to keep rythym as, barring injury, Bauserman won't be coming in. I do not think TP's play is an issue.

 

[buckeye78]

Relax

I for one, don't think the sky is falling.

I had a chance to rewatch the first half earlier today (will get to the second hopefully in the next day or two). Obviously the second half is where things went a little haywire. That said, this is a young team, and my impressions from the orginal airing of the game were that we let up and that the offensive line didn't play very well.

Impression #1

We did let up. The fact that Tress decided to go for it on 4th and 2 tells me as much. If he thinks that the Middies have any chance at that point, he kicks the FG. If Tress thought it was over, I guarantee that our freshman and sophomores did too. Chalk it up to a lesson learned. The close battle has certainly helped the buckeyes before (02). And no, I wouldn't compare it to Ohio from last year for a couple of reasons. First of all, we played very well for a while in this game. After the 1st navy drive they had only 15 yards and a couple of turnovers the rest of the first half. Secondly, the offensive line didn't play as poorly as they did against Ohio last year.

Impression #2

This one was totally false. I thought the O line got pushed around all day. After rewatching in slow motion (I love DVR), what happened was clear to me.

A little of it was blown assignments. Cordle and Brewster both got blown up at least once in the first half and the left half of the line played very well. On the first drive, boom gets stuffed going off left tackle, but it was brewsters man that disrupted the play. Miller had turned his guy, and Boren had already gotten a chip and moved downfield to snag a backer. The hole was HUGE! (except the DT that brewster blew up).

Obviously this doesn't mean everything's ok. It seems to me that it speaks more to consistency not talent or drive though. The line actually played pretty well as most of the pressure was caused by...

Our RB's seemed to have no idea what they were doing in pass protection. The overwhelming source of pressure was not from down lineman but from backers who should've been picked up by one of our FR fullbacks or boom and saine. It will be nice to have Jermil Martin back!

In the run game, it's not too different of a story, IMO. Many of stuffs, or 2 yd gains I saw (again, only from the first half) were on the RB. I love boom and saine, as they are both running really hard and plowing over and through guys much bigger than they are. What I saw was an occasional lack of vision, a little hesitation in the hole at times and failure to read blocks properly in a couple of instances.

No we didn't impose our will, but to get my jab in at Mark May---they didn't have anyone on their "heels" all day except the ladies in the shoe trying to look demure for all of the men in uniform!

The fourth and two is a blackeye, but it was the exact play we had just run (i think so anyway) and that kind of playcalling speaks to the fact we (Tress included) were a little cocky. That kind of failure can serve as a lesson, and a hard fought game against a disciplined team that demonstrated for the buckeyes what it means to NEVER QUIT can only help us in the long run.

Do we beat USC--I don't know, but I like our chances, and not because of barkley, night game, home crowd, etc. I think we have the talent and the will to compete. People shouldn't mistake youth and bravado that allows a lesser but more disciplined opponent to hang around for a lack of talent.

Is USC gonna come in the 'Shoe and embarass us? Heeeeeellllllll no! We are not San Jose State. We are The Ohio State University Buckeyes and will not just roll over and accept the loss that so many suddenly seem so willing to take for granted.

Our D line will get pressure (SJST sacked barkley twice i think?) pryor sacked O times. we played a quality opponent, check. Barkley video highlights watched where he made easy one read throws to a tight end or tailback five yards down the field over and over and let his athletes break tackles to pad his stats...check. Many of those throws were also behind, or high, etc. He certainly isn't as accurate as Pryor, or at least not any more accurate.

Anderson Russel does make me a little nervous, but only because of the mental aspect. The kid can play, he just needs to remember it.

Brian Rolle is a Human Missile that is going to wreak serious havoc this week.

Our DT's need to do a better job of getting low and holding the line *(we did a pretty good job of this for the most part--except the two long td drives).

Our DE's and outside linebackers need to not get sucked in and whoever has outside contain needs to be committed to that first and foremost.

The gimmick offense certainly kept us confused, and I think our D line is achin to pin their ears back and play a traditional style offense with a true FR quarterback behind center. Not saying we annihilate them, just that if I'm Thad (DEM), i'm drooling over the licks I know I'm gonna get in one way or the other.

Everyone just relax.

We will be fine. Win or lose, I refuse to pull the stunt that the CPD has done in their give up and roll over article. This crap is unconscionable, and I can't wait to see that guy eat every left over copy of this article.

Even if we don't win, we ARE an elite program and capable of competing.
I think we do win, especially after being reassured by actually watching the game in slow motion and seeing what actually happened with the O line...our favorite scapegoats.

Now as long as I don't watch the second half :)

GO BUCKS

BEAT USC

LEAVE IT ALL ON THE FIELD

 

[RugbyBuck]

Well, that about says all that needs to be said. Moderators can shut this thread down.

 

[MD Buckeye]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w35aiaq_iKo]YouTube - USC Preview 9/6/09[/ame]

 

[ttk]

We have everything to lose. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I really don't think that's the case.

You guys obviously know your side best, but for us it's not a done deal. A 6 point spread doesn't say "it's gonna be a slaughter."

A lot of us are worried about the Ohio State game, or at least nervous. Barkley might not be (and not out of disrespect to you guys -- interviews with him have him saying he does everything to stay calm at all times because if he gets excited he can psych himself out), but I know a ton of the fans are.

What do we have to lose? It's not like the Pac-10's reputation is far enough ahead of the Big 10 to really help. We know that one loss usually means no national championship game for us. With Oregon looking weaker this year, probably only this game and the Cal game are going to make waves nationally. We've learned that we can't count on the rest of the Pac-10 to "hold up their end of the deal" when trying to make conference statements, so the margin of error is practically non-existent if we want into the NCG. EVERY GAME COUNTS.

Adding to that doubt?

Freshman QB making his first major start, his first road game, against an extremely hostile crowd. Sure, a Michigan crowd would be hostile too, but this is Ohio State, or so I was led to believe. You guys are still a top-ranked team. You still have unbelievable talent on your team.

We lost our offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, Sarkisian and Holt, to Washington. We're breaking in new guys on the coaching staff, too. Our linebackers could be great but this will be a huge first test for them as our starting squad. Our punting situation last week was pretty bad, and the field position game figures to be huge. We're missing our fast WR, Ronald Johnson, who is crucial in helping to spread the field and pull back opposing secondaries.

What I'm getting at is there are a lot of questions on our side, too. The only ones that the SJSU game answered was whether or not we'd be good this year. Well, I want to know if we'll be great.

And the only way we find that out is if you guys come out and give us your best shot.

Enough rambling for me Fight on Trojans!

 

[GoBuckeyes81]

oh no its going to be loud, as a competitor you strive for the biggest stage and setting. Barkley is excited, not nervous. He knows what he has to do and he will try to do it. This game is far bigger for Pryor than it is for Barkley.

Not when you can't hear a snap count or the play in the huddle. Or when your QB is a freshman and has 100,000+ booing him. I don't know about you but if 100,000 people were booing me in the first road game of my career I'd be a little shook. There's a reason the Buckeyes do so good in the 'shoe your downplaying the fact that being at home makes things much easier on us. Wait until he gets his ass blasted in the 1st QTR and the crowd erupts and on the next play his team-mates can't even hear the playcall and he walks up to line thinking what the fuck. Trust me it's gonna happen. This game is bigger for Pryor but he's at home this game is bigger to the Buckeyes but you act like being at home is going to make it harder?

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Interesting thought, but not really true. Tressel has never believed in running games up, to a fault. People need to remember the NC season, we couldn't blow out the Meadowvale Nursing Home team that year, yet went undefeated and won the NC. I'm not saying this is the same style team or anything, I'm just saying margin of victory is not an indicator of a teams future success.

I'm happy with the fact that TP looked like a QB Saturday, that Rolle had a good game and no one was injured. Saturday will be a great game.

My $.02

Though I agree with you about the assertion that Tressel's MO is not to run it up, the bold above is not true

Ohio State 45 - Texas Tech 21
Ohio State 51 - Kent State 17
Ohio State 25 - #10 Washington State 7
Ohio State 45 - Indiana 17
Ohio State 50 - San Jose State 7
Ohio State 34 - #19 Minnesota 3

I wouldn't really call the Wazzu and Gopher games "blow outs" per se, but considering their respective rankings I included them none-the-less

Likewise, The Buckeyes have put up pretty impressive scoring days against over matched foes during Tressel's tenure.

43 - 0 Youngstown State 2008
45-7 over Sparty 2008
45-10 Northwestern 2008
42-7 over Michigan 2008

58-7 Northwestern 2007
48-3 Kent St 2007

44-3 Indiana 2006
44-0 Minnesota 2006
54-10 Northwestern 2006

Just as a few examples...

In any case, and moving away from my response to the quoted post, Ohio State was - according to the vegas lines - about a 3TD favorite over Navy. If you watched the game, Ohio State was about 3TDs better. That is to say, if Ohio State does what Ohio State should have done on 4th down and kicks the chip shot FG, it's 31-14 Buckeyes and Navy's in a 3 possession game with an offense that averaged 15 plays and some 7 or 8 minute scoring drives before that and there's only 6:30 to play.

That might sound like an excuse, and maybe it is a little since as a Buckeye fan I'm pretty sensitive to National Media who base their analysis on box scores and ESPN's bottom line ticker. But, the plain fact is, until the Bucks sorta fell apart at the end (true enough, a legitimate cause for concern), that game was hardly in doubt.

I would have preferred if Ohio State had treated Navy with more respect as a football team than what I saw on Saturday. Understanding there's a difference between respecting a football team and respecting a career choice... Navy came to win, and they took everything we gave them - even creating their own luck by throwing the pass over Russell to get them back in it....

San Jose, I'm guessing, folded their tents at about 21-3 in route to a 56-3 beating.

I don't know... maybe I'm rationalizing... I just can't believe a freshman QB is going to waltz in to Ohio Stadium and play mistake free football when he won't be able to hear himself think (at least I would hope it's loud as hell out there). Colt McCoy wasn't able to do it, and he was playing at home in 2006. That being so, I hope the Buckeyes are able to stop the run with some consistency and put the game in Barkley's hands. A tall order, to be sure.