I finally made it through the entire game thread. Looks like most of my reactions through the night were similar to what was going on in the thread.
First of all, I'm proud of the preparation this team did. They came out crisp and aggressive and really took it to Arkansas. Jim Tressel took risks - even the onside kick that didn't work I thought was not a bad idea at the time. The commentators kept referring to the playcalling acumen of Bobby Petrino, but in the first half at least Jim Tressel's plan really had Arkansas on its heels.
I am loathe to get into players' level of motivation, but it looked to me like they came out in the second half without the same edge - as if they thought the rest of the game was going to be easy. I guess now we know what a Razorback does when you back it into a corner. They fought like hell and damn near snatched away the game. My hat's off to them for their effort.
As the afterglow of the win wears off, people are going to start dissecting the second half in particular. I've already started to see the questions of the second half playcalling, and I want to say this: The offense didn't get buttoned up by JT until AFTER the offensive line started to pucker up. JB Shugarts in particular was getting his ass whooped up and down the field in the second half, and Arkansas was setting up camp in the Ohio State backfield. Also, Pryor came right out of the gate in the second half making poor decisions with his throws, which makes it difficult to justify taking risks with the playcalling.
Field position also had a lot to do with the way the second half played out. All the credit for that goes to Arkansas' punter and coverage team. That was extremely frustrating to see happen EVERY SINGLE TIME. Great job by them. I think we may have seen a few more calculated risks in the offensive playcalling if the field position had been better.
It almost goes without saying that the defense was huge. I think people are right when they say that Cam Heyward deserved an MOP award. He was easily the most dominant player in this game. It's always fun to see a senior go out in a big way, and I'm sure he made himself a lot of money tonight. The entire defensive line played great in my opinion. Larimore, Simon & Williams were unblockable for the most part, only kept in check by rampant holding (more on that later). Heyward was not just unblockable, he was unholdable. He would not be denied.
I'm also proud of the secondary. Already thin from injuries throughout the season, several guys were asked to step into big roles on the spot and did so quite admirably. The broadcasters kept pointing the subs out, fully expecting them to get abused. Instead they held their own and then some, really only getting beat on some perfectly thrown balls that you really can't defend. The future is bright in the defensive backfield for the Buckeyes.
The refs left a lot to overcome in the second half in particular. First of all, one thing they did well - they were fair and let the WRs and DBs play. It was physical on both sides by not cheap or dirty. With the exception of the play where Corey Brown was tripped, I think they did a pretty good job in that aspect of the game. They were pretty much blind to blatant holding however and missed Heyward getting the Glenn Dorsey treatment, which is inexcusable. Two calls in particular - the so-called "safety" and the overturned DJ Williams TD were as bad as I've seen all season.
This game was fun because it was a true team effort and the ending really magnified all of the little plays from early in the game. I don't think any of us thought Barclay's 3rd quarter FG was a big deal at the time, but I hate to think of how this game would've ended if Arkansas was only down two points after the blocked punt, already in FG range. There were widespread mistakes in this game by the Buckeyes, but also widespread contributions.
Speaking of the blocked punt... Find the pages of the playbook with that awful spread punt formation, tear them out, set them on fire, piss on the ashes and priority mail them to Ann Arbor before Rich Rodriguez leaves town so he can take that shit with him back to the lousy Big East where it belongs. Seriously.
