tOSU at Notre Dame, Sat. 9/23, 7:30pm EST, NBC

[buckeyemania11]

The Domer fans around me - those who will trade the navy and gold for candy striped IU basketball gear in December - they are all really confident.

Gotta say it’s a little scary seeing them actually have a QB for the first time in a decade +. And that RB is a stud. It’ll take a huge effort by the DL (concerned) and LBs (less concerned).

I’d be taking the underdog home team, if I had to make a play. Seems like a game they could just smashmouth the Bucks and control it.

As I have with other big games and my emphasis on Ryan Day’s coaching - this team has to lead by offense. Him and Hartline need a gameplan the kid’s can execute and then the QB and playmakers need to do their thing. It’s an offensive game and an offensive built team so go put up 30+ points.

Defense, I fully expect headaches. But the offense can’t sputter and leave them in worse situations.

No matter what I’ll be a mad, nervous, screaming Buckeye fan around mostly ND fans come Saturday night so I’m ready for OSU to shut up these sanctimonious asshats.

Or they could try to smash mouth, fail and quickly fall behind 2 scores.

Hartman is good but NDs WRs and TEs don't really scare me at all. The secondary just needs to keep the back breaking breakdowns to a minimum and we have a great shot.

 

[OHSportsFan]

Yeah I get it that Hartman is good for them but I really think our DBs have a pretty substantial advantage over their WRs. We can load the box to stop the run without the nerves of the big breakdowns in the secondary I think.

Also I get it that Freeman wants to be more aggressive but I think that’s a fine line vs a team like Ohio State. Aggression can lead to fatal mistakes and those can compound.

I hear ya. And I think our DB play is better than it has been in a couple years - very happy to have Burke back to himself.

But I’ve also seen big plays given up to lesser athletes and QBs than the Bucks will face on the road (Bennett, Stetson and McCarthy, JJ).

I hope they play to their potential and at least keep things in front of them.

 

[OHSportsFan]

Or they could try to smash mouth, fail and quickly fall behind 2 scores.

Hartman is good but NDs WRs and TEs don't really scare me at all. The secondary just needs to keep the back breaking breakdowns to a minimum and we have a great shot.

Agree with this 100%

And why I put more emphasis in Day’s offense in bigger games than I do the defense. They need to show up and show up quickly to set the tone.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

Agree with this 100%

And why I put more emphasis in Day’s offense in bigger games than I do the defense. They need to show up and show up quickly to set the tone.

Agreed and I hope we take the ball first. Personally prefer that anyways because the odds are we either score or punt (at least still scoreless after 1 possession). Not only that but the other team typically will always defer so if we always receive you know how the beginning of the game is going to go exactly so you can literally prepare for the first 5 minutes.

This ND team is not built to play from behind. So if we can get up quick and force them into obvious passing situations we will be more than fine.

Again, I like the matchups. Their strengths go against our strengths.

 

[1926Buckeyes]

The Domer fans around me - those who will trade the navy and gold for candy striped IU basketball gear in December - they are all really confident.

Gotta say it’s a little scary seeing them actually have a QB for the first time in a decade +. And that RB is a stud. It’ll take a huge effort by the DL (concerned) and LBs (less concerned).

I’d be taking the underdog home team, if I had to make a play. Seems like a game they could just smashmouth the Bucks and control it.

As I have with other big games and my emphasis on Ryan Day’s coaching - this team has to lead by offense. Him and Hartline need a gameplan the kid’s can execute and then the QB and playmakers need to do their thing. It’s an offensive game and an offensive built team so go put up 30+ points.

Defense, I fully expect headaches. But the offense can’t sputter and leave them in worse situations.

No matter what I’ll be a mad, nervous, screaming Buckeye fan around mostly ND fans come Saturday night so I’m ready for OSU to shut up these sanctimonious asshats.

I also fully expect an arm punt bouncing off 3 players and being caught in the helmet guard of someone named Murphy Fitzpatrick, who is a 24 year old walk-on that they somehow have a whole segment on.

 

[scarletngray]

The college football world is going to be watching this game. A great showing by the good guys will go a long way in how the team is perceived. Chomping at the bit for this one.

 

[Onebuckfan]

Right or wrong referendum on tOSU and the Big 10.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Agree with this 100%

And why I put more emphasis in Day’s offense in bigger games than I do the defense. They need to show up and show up quickly to set the tone.

Agreed and I hope we take the ball first. Personally prefer that anyways because the odds are we either score or punt (at least still scoreless after 1 possession). Not only that but the other team typically will always defer so if we always receive you know how the beginning of the game is going to go exactly so you can literally prepare for the first 5 minutes.

This ND team is not built to play from behind. So if we can get up quick and force them into obvious passing situations we will be more than fine.

Again, I like the matchups. Their strengths go against our strengths.

This is the "styles make the fight" stuff we've talked about before. Day has built his program one way, most of the opponents left on the schedule are built the other way. Whoever can impose their style is going to win and likely in convincing fashion.

Day's path to victory is like what we saw Saturday, and vs MSU in '21 and Clemson in '19-explode on them early to the point where they have to change the way they play and can't grind his defense and bleed clock with the run. If a quality opponent keeps it close, we've seen that usually doesn't work out well for a Day coached team.

I don't know if ND (or Penn State & Wisconsin) are good enough to do what tsun does to him but we are about to find out. Day has the best WR in CFB and plenty of other bullets in the gun. The weather should be fine so if he's going to do his thing, this is about as good a spot as he could hope for. That said, he had all of that in his favor late last November and shit all over himself so who the hell knows?

One thing that does make me wonder is the betting line. Favoring OSU in such an obviously tough spot (on the road, at night with new OL and inexperienced QB) seems like easy money taking ND and the points at home. Big shiny building in Vegas weren't built on them handing out easy money. I don't know. It can be explained but experience tells me the line is weird. It may be thin but it gives me more hope than our HC does.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I also fully expect an arm punt bouncing off 3 players and being caught in the helmet guard of someone named Murphy Fitzpatrick, who is a 24 year old walk-on that they somehow have a whole segment on.

His name will be Seamus and he'll be besties with a cancer kid.

 

[OHSportsFan]

I also fully expect an arm punt bouncing off 3 players and being caught in the helmet guard of someone named Murphy Fitzpatrick, who is a 24 year old walk-on that they somehow have a whole segment on.

Does he do amateur boxing too??

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

His name will be Seamus and he'll be besties with a cancer kid.

Seamus O’Callahan……Same name as one of the officials. Weird!

 

[Jaxbuck]

Seamus O’Callahan……Same name as one of the officials. Weird!

Cancer kid’s name will be Ginger McGiggles. They’ll keep us guessing on the pronoun because, hey it’s 2023.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

Does he do amateur boxing too??

No but they’ll have a player who’s also an MLB pitching prospect

 

[Captain Buckeye]

Btw it’s sort of hilarious that ND states they have the #1 pass efficiency defense.

You played a service academy, a 1AA team and Central Michigan (who by the way scored more vs you in one half than they could muster all game vs Sparty). You played one game of note and gave up 260 yards passing. Bragging about being a statistical leader 4 games in is like me bragging I’m leading a marathon after 6 miles which was all downhill and is now headed toward a mountain.

So far what I’m hearing is this is a finesse vs physicality game. Skill vs toughness. Hopefully we prove them wrong.

 

[cincibuck]

I saw YSU push our DL for a crucial yard on 3rd and short. Same for WKU.

If that is somehow a missed assignment or whatever then fine. Call it what you want. Teams have been able to run when they want to and stop us from running when we need to.

Hopefully they shove it down NDs throat and it’s nothing to be concerned about but we’ve seen this before. It’s the negative side of the Day pattern.

Old military tale, in 1914 the French military philosophy was "le offense a' outrace," that going on the defense would lead to defeat. Watching the recruiting during the Myers and Day years led me to think that perhaps the same philosophy had taken root in Columbus.

I understand that it takes time for a new DC to recruit "his" players and for the team to understand and accept his scheme. The defense that gave away huge chunks of yardage to Michigan played pretty damn good against a much better Georgia team and I expected to see that from week 1. Perhaps the number of forced passes, a couple of sacks, a fumble recovery and a pick six are signs that this defense is ready.