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osuvictory1
Just a schlub from Y-town
Oh man! I guess all those times when the Bucks had struggles to begin the season and did great things in the end were all wrong.
Seriously..... we may have the best and also the worst fan base. Lol!!!!!
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Captain Buckeye
Legend
Rewatched some highlights. Few things.
1. Simmons really struggled picking things up on the left side. Indiana brought a ton of heat to the left and right of Simmons and they were successful a lot with that (specifically shooting inside). Simmons needs more help or we’ve got to try someone else if we aren’t willing to do that.
2. Spoke on this a bit yesterday but we’ve got to be willing to go down the field. There was zero downfield presence which allowed IU to take away the run. This is paramount to our success this year. If we aren’t going to trust this OL enough to allow our QBs to get the ball to 18, 2 and 4 down the field then it’s going to be tough sledding vs the better teams this year.
3. Really want to see Hayden. The one diss on any player I have is I’m so tired of seeing Henderson dance and get blown up in the backfield. I’m sure he’s still officially fast but he doesn’t play fast.
1. Simmons really struggled picking things up on the left side. Indiana brought a ton of heat to the left and right of Simmons and they were successful a lot with that (specifically shooting inside). Simmons needs more help or we’ve got to try someone else if we aren’t willing to do that.
2. Spoke on this a bit yesterday but we’ve got to be willing to go down the field. There was zero downfield presence which allowed IU to take away the run. This is paramount to our success this year. If we aren’t going to trust this OL enough to allow our QBs to get the ball to 18, 2 and 4 down the field then it’s going to be tough sledding vs the better teams this year.
3. Really want to see Hayden. The one diss on any player I have is I’m so tired of seeing Henderson dance and get blown up in the backfield. I’m sure he’s still officially fast but he doesn’t play fast.
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Onebuckfan
classof76
Cogent analysis: MJH did not get ten plus targets. The offense and QBs failed. Don’t make this so complicated Day(genius)
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Pretty much Zero downfield attack against a horrible Indiana secondary is very concerning to say the least
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A few postgame thoughts....
• After 5+ years of first-round QB play, beginning with Dwayne Haskins's brief coming out party against Michigan in 2017, the Kyle McCord Era got off to a predictably rough start. His INT, thrown late over the middle while on the move, is the kind of play that could be a career-ender, especially when you have a five-star prospect waiting in the wings. While it is always difficult to form conclusions from such a limited body of work, early results tend to suggest that McCord is not the answer, at least if the question is "Which QB can lead the Buckeyes to a national championship?" Then again, the last two Buckeye QBs to actually win a national championship were Crag Krenzel and Cardale Jones, so anything is possible. We should know a lot more about McCord after the Notre Dame game in three weeks (at least assuming that he holds onto the starting job that long).
• The running game also did not look good, but some of that lack of success might have been "deliberate" – Ryan Day using a vanilla game plan and working on weaknesses against an overmatched opponent in order to prepare this team for greater challenges down the road (Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan, playoffs). One quibble that I have (and have had since last season) is the usage of TreVeyon Henderson, who operates well in space but is not an every down back. I imagine that there are egos involved here, but I would prefer to see a "power" back like Miyan Williams or DeaMonte Trayanum get the "starting" reps and use Henderson more selectively in both the running and passing games (like Curtis Samuel from a few years back).
• The defense looked great for the most part, keeping an FBS opponent out of the end zone for the first time since beating Northwestern 52-3 on October 18, 2019. Of course, a lot of that apparent success could be due to the fact that Indiana's offense is stuck somewhere between inept and inert. After showing occasional flashes throughout his career, safety Josh Proctor looks like he might have finally found his way during his sixth season in the program.
• After 5+ years of first-round QB play, beginning with Dwayne Haskins's brief coming out party against Michigan in 2017, the Kyle McCord Era got off to a predictably rough start. His INT, thrown late over the middle while on the move, is the kind of play that could be a career-ender, especially when you have a five-star prospect waiting in the wings. While it is always difficult to form conclusions from such a limited body of work, early results tend to suggest that McCord is not the answer, at least if the question is "Which QB can lead the Buckeyes to a national championship?" Then again, the last two Buckeye QBs to actually win a national championship were Crag Krenzel and Cardale Jones, so anything is possible. We should know a lot more about McCord after the Notre Dame game in three weeks (at least assuming that he holds onto the starting job that long).
• The running game also did not look good, but some of that lack of success might have been "deliberate" – Ryan Day using a vanilla game plan and working on weaknesses against an overmatched opponent in order to prepare this team for greater challenges down the road (Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan, playoffs). One quibble that I have (and have had since last season) is the usage of TreVeyon Henderson, who operates well in space but is not an every down back. I imagine that there are egos involved here, but I would prefer to see a "power" back like Miyan Williams or DeaMonte Trayanum get the "starting" reps and use Henderson more selectively in both the running and passing games (like Curtis Samuel from a few years back).
• The defense looked great for the most part, keeping an FBS opponent out of the end zone for the first time since beating Northwestern 52-3 on October 18, 2019. Of course, a lot of that apparent success could be due to the fact that Indiana's offense is stuck somewhere between inept and inert. After showing occasional flashes throughout his career, safety Josh Proctor looks like he might have finally found his way during his sixth season in the program.
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Strong disagree here. It was 4th down, and the guy he was supposed to throw it to was knocked down. He did the best he could in that situation. He also improved greatly over the course of the game in my eyes. Was it better play calls or better play in the 2nd half? I'm not sure. But that throw to Stover showed great finesse, while the very next play was a precision rocket to Marv for a TD....only negated by something out of McCord's control. I saw a lot of CJ in the throw to Stover, and a lot of Fields in the bullet to Marv.
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cjmik_75
Legend
Well, 15-0 might be a stretch. 8-4 is probably worst case scenario at this point. Can they gel enough to look dominant against these up coming teams?
Legit concerns on offense still. Lack of push in short yardage is number 1. If this doesn't get fixed ND will be the first loss guaranteed. Offensive identity is what exactly? IU DBs holding 18 and 2 to almost nil. Say what you will about first game rust, that was not a good start to the year offensively, at all.
Defensively I like what I see. And the potential to be very good to great is there.
Special teams looked below average again. I'm not sure what our PR scheme is or what exactly the returner is being told but lack of explosion is not something I would expect is being practiced. Are we just always in safe mode??? X made a decent kickoff return (out over the 25) Damn concerning the overall lack of explosive plays from the offense and special teams.
Punting was just meh. Kicker at least made some kicks hopefully he's not needed to make a lot of tackles.
Being cautiously optimistic and really hoping we see that big 'JUMP' from week 1 to week 2 but 3 out of 4 of the best opponents are games on the road...and PSU at the shoe is never easy.
It sucks wanting to win every game and feeling like anything less than that is a failure. I'm not saying THAT, because 15-0 isn't my expectation. I feel like getting to The Game 9-2 might be a reasonable expectation now ...and let the chips fall where they may.
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McCord's first start is not that different than CJ's first start on many levels. Both came against a B1G opponent and not a soup can. Both games involved clunky offensive play. CJ got the benefit of some big plays that Kyle did not (And Kyle missed some open deep throws - both balls he threw and balls he didn't) (I remember Trey took a wheel 75 yards and Garrett had a score where @DaddyBigBucks noted the only way he wasn't going to score was if he died of loneliness), but Kyle had a much better short and mid range game than CJ did.
If Marv doesn't step out of bounds, it looks slightly better for McCord as well. That's not on him, that's on Marv. Likewise, I don't recall who was on the 2021 O-Line, but I'm certain it was a better group than the current line, specifically at Tackle. That hurt McCord by way of comparison to CJs first start as well.
All to say, it's way too early, in my IMO, to declare McCord unable to take this team to the highest heights. I was not impressed with his first outing, but I'm not ready to make any sweeping conclusions just yet. It seemed to me he had better command than Brown did, although that's not particularly fair to Brown by me.
If Marv doesn't step out of bounds, it looks slightly better for McCord as well. That's not on him, that's on Marv. Likewise, I don't recall who was on the 2021 O-Line, but I'm certain it was a better group than the current line, specifically at Tackle. That hurt McCord by way of comparison to CJs first start as well.
All to say, it's way too early, in my IMO, to declare McCord unable to take this team to the highest heights. I was not impressed with his first outing, but I'm not ready to make any sweeping conclusions just yet. It seemed to me he had better command than Brown did, although that's not particularly fair to Brown by me.
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Yeah, Special Teams play was .... umm... let's do it this way...
I am at a complete loss why OSU has a dedicated ST coach if these are the results we're going to get.
I am at a complete loss why OSU has a dedicated ST coach if these are the results we're going to get.
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Indiana’s offense must be ‘ineqt‘, since that’s what’s “between inept and inert”.
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AuTX Buckeye
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Captain Buckeye
Legend
We have all these fast athletes and we can’t get a decent return in either kick or punt return. In a year where our offense is going to need some time we critically need our special teams and defense to set up our offense a time or two a game.
Yeah I agree. The easy answer right now is a desire to see the back up to see what they can do but McCord had a few really nice throws. He can’t make that throw across his body that was picked off but his second half was great I thought.
I think what contributed to the lack of explosiveness was just the overall plan of attack. To me it was obvious that Ryan was hell bent on not making the same mistake as 2021 where he asked CJ to throw for 400 yards vs Oregon. He’s stated multiple times that we didn’t stick with the run enough and that was a disservice to CJ. Yesterday was coach Day sort of over compensating.
We used big personnel a ton to help with pass pro and the downside of that is you will struggle to find open WRs. We had Stover, Scott, Royer and Traynum in a lot (along with a RB). Eventually you’re just going to have to spread the defense out and trust your OL. Perhaps yesterday just wasn’t the best game to do that since it’s game 1, on the road and vs a conference opponent. I’d really hope we use our WR rotation more these next few games instead of our TE room.
With the running clock teams won’t have to try very hard to reduce our offensive snaps. I think we need to consider more tempo as well. Way too many drives yesterday that were 3-6 minutes that only produced 0-3 points. That first touchdown drive took up like 6+ minutes for example. We had from what I can tell 15 or so less plays than typical. That’s huge for opposing defenses vs our offense and that concerns me vs a team like TTUN.
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bigdog3300
The G.O.A.T.
I think they made a crucial mistake not attacking sideline to sideline with crossing routes when our OL wasn't able to buy time. Skinny pick plays with Egbuka or some short drags would have pulled the defense back a bit, got McCord into more rhythm, etc. but we kept trying to take the lid off. Their LBs were coming up so hard and corners were in man, there was oh so much yardage to be picked up off of simple 5 yard routes.
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