Game Thread Sugar Bowl: tOSU vs Arkansas, Tue, Jan 4th, 8:30 ET ESPN

[EireHog]

If special teams is your weakness, then we might never see either team's offense or defense take the field. :tongue2:

Our coverage teams were downright awful for a good portion of the season, but less awful late in the season. Hopefully the improved results were due to actual improvement rather than just playing teams without any playmakers in the return game.

Good things for me to say about our KO coverage:

Our kicker is the best tackling kicker in America, and has proven it week in and week out.

 

[NFBuck]

but I'm just not seeing any quality wins on y'alls schedule this year.

No disrespect intended, as you can't really control the quality of your opponents, but against the better couple of teams on your schedule, you haven't really scored a lot of points.

Y'all put 20 on a mediocre Iowa team, 38 on a well below average Penn State and 18 in your road loss to Wisconsin. The rest of your schedule is filled with cupcakes.

I'm just not seeing it.

Your defense looks stout, but I'm not seeing anything offensively to be that worried about.

Oregon said the exact same thing last year...nearly word-for-word.

 

[bassbuckeye07]

but I'm just not seeing any quality wins on y'alls schedule this year.

No disrespect intended, as you can't really control the quality of your opponents, but against the better couple of teams on your schedule, you haven't really scored a lot of points.

Y'all put 20 on a mediocre Iowa team, 38 on a well below average Penn State and 18 in your road loss to Wisconsin. The rest of your schedule is filled with cupcakes.

I'm just not seeing it.

Your defense looks stout, but I'm not seeing anything offensively to be that worried about.

Yes Arkansas will be our stiffest test... Iowa, PSU, The U all flamed this year. Maybe we shouldnt play

 

[hawgfanintigerl]

My best friend's sister(more like a sister in law) is married to a Buckeye fan, who happens to not know a effin' thing about football. He yells inaine things and throws tantrums when OSU is not playing well. You can guess, I would be pulling for Arkansas for this reason alone. I am glad to say, most of you guys seem to be better informed than he is, and this so how surprises me.

 

[jlb1705]

I can understand where you're coming from, but I do believe you folks are pretty severely underestimating the Arkansas offense. In terms of being well rounded, it's probably one of the five best attacks at the collegiate level in the past 20 years. I'm saddened that Mallett will depart before we've seen him have a full year with the starting cast, because the scoring records set by 2008 Oklahoma would be imperiled.

We've all seen gimmick offenses that could do one thing very well, or that relied on simple power or excessive finesse, but the well-rounded teams have been relatively rare. Earlier in the year, the matchup would have been much different, and I would have given OSU a decided edge. Things have changed considerably, though, over time.

Many of us are also giving your offense the benefit of the doubt; I'm expecting Pryor to have an absolutely huge day, and for our defense to be utterly unable to stop you folks in 3rd and short situations. Most of us firmly believe that there has been a decided effort in Columbus to upgrade the overall team athleticism and speed in the wake of previous problems, and I really expect that to show in January. Barring turnovers, I don't see any way this game is a one-sided affair.

Special teams will be your route to a win, if it happens. To call Arkansas' KO coverage anything less than God-awful is sacrilegious.

I don't think you're gonna find too many Buckeyes around here that will concede 30+ points to any team before the fact. We know you guys have a pretty good offense, the Buckeyes are indeed going to have their hands full. However, we've also seen fans from other teams come and go, all talking about how good their offense was going to be, or how we hadn't seen anything quite like what their team can do before. With just a couple high-profile exceptions in the last decade the Buckeyes at least slowed down all of them.

We'll have to agree to disagree I think but I envision the Buckeyes being able to hold a team like Arkansas to somewhere around 24-28 points.

 

[DaveyBoy]

but I'm just not seeing any quality wins on y'alls schedule this year.

No disrespect intended, as you can't really control the quality of your opponents, but against the better couple of teams on your schedule, you haven't really scored a lot of points.

Y'all put 20 on a mediocre Iowa team, 38 on a well below average Penn State and 18 in your road loss to Wisconsin. The rest of your schedule is filled with cupcakes.

I'm just not seeing it.

Your defense looks stout, but I'm not seeing anything offensively to be that worried about.

That's a fair observation. However, Ohio State uses its offense to score just enough points to win. We do not run up large scores. Seriously. If the opponent has a pulse (not Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, Eastern Michigan, Michigan) then Tressel plays it very close to the "vest" and coasts to victory. I"m not going to say the OSU offense can score whenever it feels like it, but it can score more points than it shows on the season stat page.

Ohio State is very fast and athletic....much like SEC teams. So while we won't be the fastest team you've faced all year probably....we definitely will be one of the fastest teams you've faced.

Frankly, Arkansas reminds me a lot of the MIami Hurricanes that we faced in September. Extremely gifted skilled position players with a great passing QB....only Mallett is better than Harris. Plus, Arkansas is better coached.

I really don't think either team will walk away with this game until the very end.

 

[muffler dragon]

but I'm just not seeing any quality wins on y'alls schedule this year.

What's your definition of "quality wins"?

No disrespect intended, as you can't really control the quality of your opponents, but against the better couple of teams on your schedule, you haven't really scored a lot of points.

Y'all put 20 on a mediocre Iowa team, 38 on a well below average Penn State and 18 in your road loss to Wisconsin. The rest of your schedule is filled with cupcakes.

I'm just not seeing it.

I wouldn't grade this Ohio State offense strictly by points. Ball control, field position, and the chess match behind the game is the way Tressel coaches. It may not look spectacular, but 10+ win seasons six times in a row shows a consistency that goes beyond points.

Your defense looks stout, but I'm not seeing anything offensively to be that worried about.

We're solid passing and running. The balance of this offense should give you concerns more than the number of points that they produce.

 

[jwinslow]

No disrespect intended, as you can't really control the quality of your opponents, but against the better couple of teams on your schedule, you haven't really scored a lot of points.

There's no spinning the schedule. When it was scheduled, they were the mightiest program in america. Unfortunately, they went in the dumpster. It was great playing Texas & SC, but there will be Miami's to balance things out.

Y'all put 20 on a mediocre Iowa team, 38 on a well below average Penn State and 18 in your road loss to Wisconsin. The rest of your schedule is filled with cupcakes.

3 things:

1) You're right. OSU's offense is not a juggernaut, though OSU improved offensively when they shifted back to the running game and away from a Pryor-centric passing offense. They did this last year too late in the season with very similar results. The michigan game was the exception to this, for the first half. They leaned too much on pryor and didn't attack downhill enough. After halftime, they gave Boom the rock inside and he dominated.

One year later, and they made the same mistake imo. Pryor is by far the hardest weapon to stop in OSU's offense, but he just wasn't ready to be that much of the offense. He can make the throws and wants to be a complete QB, but he simply doesn't execute consistently yet. He gets better with time, but he is still working his way up from a very low starting point. He didn't even know how to do a 3-step drop properly when practicing for the Army AA game.

RB Boom Herron has also raised his game considerably. He was always a tough, steady back, but a bit underwhelming. He has really raised his game this year, showing vision & agility that he didn't have before and few if any expected him to develop.

2) Wisconsin & Iowa are top defenses. I'm not sure I agree with projecting those results to Arkansas' defending OSU, particularly their low-ranked rush defense against a very strong rushing squad like OSU.

3) PSU's rush D is comparable to Arkansas'. I'm not sure that bodes well considering what Boom did to them.

 

[SmoovP]

That's a fair observation. However, Ohio State uses its offense to score just enough points to win. We do not run up large scores. Seriously. If the opponent has a pulse (not Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, Eastern Michigan, Michigan) then Tressel plays it very close to the "vest" and coasts to victory. I"m not going to say the OSU offense can score whenever it feels like it, but it can score more points than it shows on the season stat page.

Ohio State is very fast and athletic....much like SEC teams. So while we won't be the fastest team you've faced all year probably....we definitely will be one of the fastest teams you've faced.

Frankly, Arkansas reminds me a lot of the MIami Hurricanes that we faced in September. Extremely gifted skilled position players with a great passing QB....only Mallett is better than Harris. Plus, Arkansas is better coached.

I really don't think either team will walk away with this game until the very end.

Your last sentence is about how I'm seeing it too.

While a lot of my Hog brethren will go on and on about our offense, it is certainly not unstoppable.

The key to slowing the Hogs down is to get Mallett moving his feet. If you can hit him a few times early and get consistent pressure on him, he's prone to make a mistake or two.

While he's not quite the statue he is made out to be at times - he can step up in the pocket, side step the blitz and you have to hit him square to get him on the ground - but he's not going to beat you with his feet or do any scrambling around in the backfield to buy time.

If your defense can keep the pressure on Mallett without a lot of blitzing, you can make it a long day for the Razorback offense.

 

[DaveyBoy]

Your last sentence is about how I'm seeing it too.

While a lot of my Hog brethren will go on and on about our offense, it is certainly not unstoppable.

The key to slowing the Hogs down is to get Mallett moving his feet. If you can hit him a few times early and get consistent pressure on him, he's prone to make a mistake or two.

While he's not quite the statue he is made out to be at times - he can step up in the pocket, side step the blitz and you have to hit him square to get him on the ground - but he's not going to beat you with his feet or do any scrambling around in the backfield to buy time.

If your defense can keep the pressure on Mallett without a lot of blitzing, you can make it a long day for the Razorback offense.

I was at the Michigan vs OSU game in Ann Arbor in 2007...when Mallett was a freshman at UM. Henne started and struggled all game....then they brought Mallett in for the 4th quarter. Instantaneously our DBs had to guard up a little closer because they knew Mallett had the the arm strength to throw frozen ropes to receivers by the sidelines. While Henne had a sore shoulder that day, it was obvious that we were witnessing one of those big time arms with Mallett. He reminded me a bit of Drew Henson.

The guy is going to be a very good one at the next level.

 

[hawgfanintigerl]

Sad, but true

I was at the Michigan vs OSU game in Ann Arbor in 2008...when Mallett was a freshman at UM. Henne started and struggled all game....then they brought Mallett in for the 4th quarter. Instantaneously our DBs had to guard up a little closer because they knew Mallett had the the arm strength to throw frozen ropes to receivers by the sidelines. While Henne had a sore shoulder that day, it was obvious that we were witnessing one of those big time arms with Mallett. He reminded me a bit of Drew Henson.

The guy is going to be a very good one at the next level.

I would love to see him back at UofA next year, but he would be stupid to pass on the money. Our only hope is a work stopage in the NFL.

 

[SmoovP]

Oregon said the exact same thing last year...nearly word-for-word.

They don't play defense in the PAC10, so they had no idea what to expect.

 

[SmoovP]

There's no spinning the schedule. When it was scheduled, they were the mightiest program in america. Unfortunately, they went in the dumpster. It was great playing Texas & SC, but there will be Miami's to balance things out.
3 things:

1) You're right. OSU's offense is not a juggernaut, though OSU improved offensively when they shifted back to the running game and away from a Pryor-centric passing offense. They did this last year too late in the season with very similar results. The michigan game was the exception to this, for the first half. They leaned too much on pryor and didn't attack downhill enough. After halftime, they gave Boom the rock inside and he dominated.

One year later, and they made the same mistake imo. Pryor is by far the hardest weapon to stop in OSU's offense, but he just wasn't ready to be that much of the offense. He can make the throws and wants to be a complete QB, but he simply doesn't execute consistently yet. He gets better with time, but he is still working his way up from a very low starting point. He didn't even know how to do a 3-step drop properly when practicing for the Army AA game.

RB Boom Herron has also raised his game considerably. He was always a tough, steady back, but a bit underwhelming. He has really raised his game this year, showing vision & agility that he didn't have before and few if any expected him to develop.

2) Wisconsin & Iowa are top defenses. I'm not sure I agree with projecting those results to Arkansas' defending OSU, particularly their low-ranked rush defense against a very strong rushing squad like OSU.

3) PSU's rush D is comparable to Arkansas'. I'm not sure that bodes well considering what Boom did to them.

The deeper I look at things, it seems to me that this should be a really good matchup.

Our very good offense vs. y'alls scary good defense.

Y'alls decent offense vs. our decent defense.

If what I'm hearing here is accurate, both our kick coverage teams should be entertainingly...umm...eccentric.

Here's where I give y'all the edge: Big Game BCS Level Experience. That might prove significant. We're still a pretty young team and no one on it will have ever been in a game this big with anywhere close to this level of hype, anticipation, scrutiny or attention.

I sure hope Auburn does what they are supposed to do this Saturday.

 

[DaveyBoy]

They don't play defense in the PAC10, so they had no idea what to expect.

OSU played ball control offense against Oregon and coasted in with 26 points. Could have gotten 36 if we needed it. Also...Pryor was about 80% during that game due to a tweaked knee from late season.

The more amazing stat is that Ohio State held Oregon to less than half of its per game average....despite giving Oregon midfield field position on nearly every kickoff return due to our crappy special teams. Oregon had an incredible offense (and well balanced with LeGarett Blount, LaMichael James, and James Barner toting the rock) and we nearly shut it down.

I fully expect Arkansas to have a better defense than Oregon, however.

 

[TDunk]

If this game were to happen, I see this game going down to the wire. I could see a special teams TD by OSU. But also a blown coverage for a huge TD for UARK. The difference will be in the turnover category. We are currently tied for #2 in the country in turnover margin (on the plus side). If that trend continues, we win. But if we cough it up more than usual, I could see another tough SEC defeat.

Even if this game doesn't come to fruition, it was a pleasure interacting with some pig sooie fans. I'm sure both schools are fans of the scUM hiring of Rich Rod. GBYBM YMSOB!

:osu: