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

[OsUPhAn]

Tough loss, butt a loss none the less. I thought for sure the good guys would come out on top and they didn't. Life happens. However, a win is a win and a lose is a lose, no matter how they occur or who the oppent. Time to move on and prepare for an interesting UT team.

Proud to be a Buckeye!
:osu:

 

[jwinslow]

great game. Painful but proud after that performance.

Aaron Pettrey has an absolute cannon for a leg and we didn't let him use it Instead of controlling the game on his terms, he withdrew and asked USC to try and fire their last bullet. I think there's a case to be made at this point that a more aggressive approach at times would enable JT to regain more control over the tone & outcome of some games.

Clinging to a fragile 5-point lead late in the 4th, how can the same team pass on a makeable field goal, and then turn right around and blitz the cornerback?

Given the caliber of the game, and the fairly clean play, it's too bad it had to end with typical USC showboating into the endzone. Stafon seems to get away with that quite a bit.

 

[BuckFan38]

same thing that happened to sanzo and carter and stoney... and everyone else not named posey. they were open all game. we just couldn't get them the ball. the deep slants? sanzo was open every time. i didn't see anyone cover him affectively on that play all game. i remember one play where stoney went across the middle against a lb. had him beat by atleast 3 yards with no safety over the top. a baby lob ball would have gone for 30+ before support could have gotten there. it was there the entire game. we just didn't execute. sucks hard but this is how you learn. when pryor looks at the game film his stomach is going to do back flips.

TP can only extend his vision through real time experience. If JT would actually allow TP throw the ball around and light up the score boards, once we already have beaten the weaker teams (like Every big boy program does) that rhythm would carry over to the big games as well.

Running up the score speeds up the offensive growth. Tressel is just too nice for his own good..literally lol

 

[milkman21]

Great analogy

but later, when it looks like the german is going to get away again, Upham shoots him dead :) So I take that as a future win over a team that has one of those slow TD drives and OSU comes back with a quick strike winning TD to put it away.

Haha, well I don't need it to get that violent, but it would be sweet to get some revenge. A Rose Bowl versus USC would be fantastic. Actually ... USC is pretty scary in the Rose Bowl so maybe not.

 

[1926Buckeyes]

Good lord. Thanks for this board being here... Any other boards all you hear is "Tressel should be fired" "Bench TP" "Conservative play calling"... The sky isn't falling!

This is the one thing I'm confused about. Everyone, even many OSU fans, thought OSU was going to get blown out. Yet after a very close game all I hear and read is 'Fire Tressel', "Sit Pryor". I'm not happy with the loss, but I am happy that the team showed definite improvement and I thought others would be able to see the positives and the negatives. Some of the threads I see on other places sound as if this was a loss to a MAC team. I expect dissapointment, but the reactions are confusing. I swear some people will never understand how to see both postives and negatives in games.

I'd never let go of Tressel though. There's about a 25% chance you hire someone as good as him and a 5% chance you find someone better than him. Looking back at Woody's records as a coach, I was surprised at what I saw. Before the 68-75 period he had won 2 titles (or 3 if you count 61) but many of his seasons inbetween had been downright mediocre years and one or two losing ones. He was on the ropes in '67. Point is though, OSU stuck with him and got another NC out of it and the greatest stretch of success in the program's history.

After looking at this history I see no reason to let go of Tressel in search of something that may not even be there. IMO OSU has a coach that is possibly just as good or better than Hayes and if they stick with him they will get just what they are asking for. Doesn't mean Tress doesn't have to adapt and change though. He will just as Woody had to.

If anything this game is a building block. I just feel like Tressel would have come in with a more aggressive game plan if this offense was ready for one. This offense is still young, and has ALOT of improvements to make. But that will come with time, and game by game, they will improve. They were leaps and bounds better than they were to start the season last year. I don't see it being any different this season. Nothing to hang our heads about.

I understand the frustration that some have concerning this loss and perhaps some statements you make. People expect OSU to win titles and at least some big games and they are getting impatient and they have been told to wait and have patience. Problem is that is just what they have to do. Either Tress will win another and Pryor will develop or not. We'll have to see.

IMO Pryor and O are full throttle at the end of the year just as Troy was in '05. I see a 11-2 final with a BCS win and suddenly Tressel is back to being a top 5 coach magically, even though not much will have changed.

 

[TDG]

I forgot to mention, Heyward, Rolle, and Saine were great tonight. I'm really looking forward to seeing Saine develop, looks like he'll be following in Pittman's footsteps of being a quietly excellent RB.

boy more "moral victories"..........

you have the ball at basically the 1/2 yard line and settle for 3 points, when you have a 6'6 235 pound QB, even in the event you dont get it USC is pinned inside the 1

when you play not to lose.....you lose, and thats exactly what happened tonight

I agree on both points. These moral victories aren't winning us any big games, and they aren't keeping us from being the joke of the BCS. And you didn't even mention punting when we had it within Pettrey's range.

This is the one thing I'm confused about. Everyone, even many OSU fans, thought OSU was going to get blown out. Yet after a very close game all I hear and read is 'Fire Tressel', "Sit Pryor".

Not too sound supportive of those calling for Tressel's head, but isn't the big reason for these fans to be upset not the result, but the fact that it was even reasonable to expect a blowout at home against a freshman QB?

 

[buckeyemania11]

 

[Wingate1217]

Yeah no.. I think Pryor is the douche did you see in the beginning of the game where is teamate patted his helmet and pryor pushed his hand away thats a douche, Barkley is a humble stand up kid!

I think calling anyone a douche after a tough loss is beyond contempt. But be careful there Sparky because you are on a Buckeye board and we don't take kindly to calling our player's names. And I know it cuts both ways.....

 

[mikek1024]

Holy [censored] our defense was awesome! They've been stepping up in the big games as of late (texas, penn state) I'm still waiting for Pryor to take that next step. It feels like when a pitcher throws a complete game with one run given up (our defense tonight) and you lose because you're offense can't score. But man am I proud of our D! And Herron scares the [censored] out of me! He runs like a giant but he's relatively small. He would run over the hulk if he got in his way. I think the thing that I noticed most about Pryor was when he does scramble to get free he constantly overthrows some wide open receivers. I think he had saine on the sideline and ballard once or twice. That's all right, all is fixable (it's like his 11th start or so right?) Special teams was awesome again! If we just tweak a few things on offense, we could cause a ruckus come bowl season.

 

[3074326]

Yeah no.. I think Pryor is the douche did you see in the beginning of the game where is teamate patted his helmet and pryor pushed his hand away thats a douche, Barkley is a humble stand up kid!

His comments before the game were not humble or stand-up.

I'm willing to bet the pushing away of the hand was more of a "it's not okay, this was on me" more than a "fuck yourself, teammate" type thing.

I don't have a problem with Barkley, just saying.

 

[Bobby Hoying]

His comments before the game were not humble or stand-up.

I'm willing to bet the pushing away of the hand was more of a "it's not okay, this was on me" more than a "[censored] yourself, teammate" type thing.

I don't have a problem with Barkley, just saying.

He's talking about before kickoff when Pryor pushed someone away when they tapped him on the head.

And Barkley did say the Buckeyes played phenomenal...

 

[Dryden]

I caught that cold shoulder before the game kicked off. I don't think TP was being a douche, I sometimes think maybe he's just wound too tight.

 

[1926Buckeyes]

i would have liked to have seen us throw more of first down. but other than that... pryor just had a bad game. its hard to knock the play calling when the qb isn't executing. usc gave us throwing lanes all day. we just couldn't take advantage.


agreed. saine has already exceeded my expectations for this year. the kid is flat out good! better than i thought he would be this season.


same thing that happened to sanzo and carter and stoney... and everyone else not named posey. they were open all game. we just couldn't get them the ball. the deep slants? sanzo was open every time. i didn't see anyone cover him affectively on that play all game. i remember one play where stoney went across the middle against a lb. had him beat by atleast 3 yards with no safety over the top. a baby lob ball would have gone for 30+ before support could have gotten there. it was there the entire game. we just didn't execute. sucks hard but this is how you learn. when pryor looks at the game film his stomach is going to do back flips.

Thank God. I don't think Tressel called a great game, but at least someone understands the fact that Pryor had a poor game and will have to learn from it.

 

[esham976]

wow...we always seem to choke in big games. oh well. we still played a great game:)

gotta go to work now and hear the ohio chokeeyes jokes.

[Edit - infracted post]

 

[milkman21]

Oh, and BTW our 2-minute drill needs some serious work. It's a long season ahead of us, and that's an aspect of the game that needs to be on point.