tOSU @ Northwestern, Sat Nov 5, 12pm, ABC

[Thump]

Observation I had not heard about the DL.

 

[sparcboxbuck]

That’s not a surprise to see. Earlier this week I joked about bringing kites to the game. I mentioned that I had at least one kite in my bag that would put me in the hospital if I flew in what we were forecast. During the game I thought back to that comment and thought that I wasn’t even sure if my smallest kite (1.6M 2-line foil) would have even been safe. That’s my storm chasing kite for when things get nasty… and while probably not dangerous, it wouldn’t have been fun in that wind.

Considering that I was blown off balance a few times, seeing the actual recorded wind speeds that high, I’m not at all surprised.

 

[Buckeneye]

A couple thoughts, now that I've had time to sit down and watch the game in peace.

- I wish team made the All-22 available like the NFL has. Minus the fact the NFL has removed interceptions from being viewable this year. Something I find rather.... curious.

- I'm not sure what's up with the IOL, but they haven't been where I'd expect them to be since the 2019 season.

- We used to be a split zone heavy team, yet we appear to have gone away from that? I'm not sure if this is because our coaches feel our RB's don't have the patience and vision, or because we're lacking on the Oline?
I also feel that when this team goes to gap and power, they just lack the desire to maul who is in front of them. Even then, I don't see good leverage to move, or at least 'turn' any DL out of the hole like you would see found from lineman who primarily come from wrestling backgrounds.

- DBs were slow to attack run fits downhill yesterday. So instead of NU getting 3 yards on early downs, they're popping at 4-5 a carry and staying on schedule offensively. Can't have that. (Lathan, I'm looking at you)
The overhang DB, the modern nickel, has to do everything. Not something I'd be envious of in 2022, and can be a bit 'unfair' given the wide range of responsibility you have. But on the flip side, those guys get drafted for their versatility alone. Shine and you make yourself MILLIONS.

Overall I can't get too mad with the defense, they're lightyears better than where they were a season ago. Still, like Coach Saban once said, "most people don't look under the car and see the oil leak".


- 3rd and 1 and we run outside zone to the boundary? First off, that's just dumb to begin with. However, I do like being back under center and I firmly believe the offensive life cycle that is football will see more and more teams finding themselves doing this in the future. Especially the big boy schools where these young QB's want to have the best shot at being ready for the NFL. Secondly, it's a questionable call because, even though C.J.'s feet might freeze the weakside edge, Dawand can't make it to the 2nd level and cut off any further backside pursuit because he's so huge. So him climbing to the WILL and disrupting a scape is risky business. This is where having guys THAT big can hurt your offense.
I'd love to see this team go back under center more and return to a zone running game. Hell, it'd look just like SC from the early and mid 2000's. And if we did that, at least I know that means you have to build SOME type of passing game off of those calls. Instead we're running the ball at a 90%+ clip and giving your opposition further formation tips down the road. We have issues with sustaining blocks and, yes, Williams danced a couple times he flat out had no reason to. It's 3rd and 1, you're going to get contact my guy. You cut off the ass of whoever is throwing the downblock by TE and attack the inside shoulder of whoever was on the edge and walk through them. That simple. The weather sucked, no getting around that. But the inability to efficiently crank out yardage on the ground against Northwestern IS a bit of a concern. And it's mainly on individual assignment failures on any given play. But it's happening a bit too regularly for my liking. You won't beat Georgia playing like that. Period.

- As this team has transitioned more to QB focused passing the last few seasons, the running game has suffered. I do mean suffered, as opposed to not being front and center. Instead of being a complimentary weapon that you can lean on when needed, it's been hit or miss. I don't find it any coincidence that when the Bucks started to transition away from a running game that involved the QB (Fields being the last of that group) things started to slide downhill. Have to find ways to make the running game hum along and not require a passer who runs a 4.4. (Again, hello under center?) I don't want the 2019 offense because that's why we lost to Clemson. We had a young Fields who leaned a bit too heavy on the running game and when we had to pass our way out of it, things sort of went south. I also don't need 2019 LSU, because the odds of having a Pro-bowl trio of QB and 2 WR's are slim, even in this era of top heavy recruiting. I need... the tail end of 2005. Troy can be the man, but he can also turn and hand it off 20+ times a game and we can rely on the running game keeping us ahead of the gains. Mixing in efficient running, explosive running and offensive balance with a passing game that doesn't overly expose your QB to taking unnecessary hits either as a runner or passer. Biggest of all, I need to see assignment sound play up front. You have 3 weeks before The Game, need to have a humbled moment where the coaches hold themselves and players accountable for why Ohio State football can't do what we've done well the past 100+ years... Run. The. Damn. Ball.


Anywho, I'm grateful for the win no matter how sloppy. But you always have to take it as room for improvement. There really is no perfect game.

 

[RB07OSU]

Both halves of that claim are absurd.

It's being offered up like Georgia didn't slug through Missouri 4 weeks ago. Like they didn't set offensive football back 10 years against Clemson last year.

Forget 2002, who slogged constantly.

2014, the great SEC slaying team. So much is made of the turnaround at Sparty. What happened on November 22nd, even later in the year than this? They were winning by 1 score at home against a terrible Hoosier team midway through the 4th. They scored 21 in the 4th qtr to pull away.

Half of the top-6 looked very flawed today, and 2 of the 6 looked dreadful.

Let me know how the "run around for 8 seconds to throw" bama offense would look if held in a northern tornado. I bet the WRs who can't catch would thrive in that setting. (which remains dumbfounding given how they recruit)

OSU has major things to fix. That's a very separate topic from this outlandish claim.

You've been around far too long to pretend like great teams don't get in wimpy slapfights with welterweights during title chases. If that's your primary point, it's a dramatically shortsighted and erroneous one.

can they keep getting away with this? no. but the pieces are there. and a little bit of CJ rushing is a surprising addition

I hear most of what you're saying. But this isn't the first game we've struggled and our points of weakness remain weaknesses, and have actually got worse. You mention we have major things to fix that we can't keep getting away with. That's really my point, we won't get away with those things on November 26th and there's very little time to fix it before then.

I shouldn't say championship caliber teams don't play like that here and there, every team has a week or two where they look fallible. But we've had several and the offense appears to have been figured out by opposing defenses to the point where it looks like they could almost call the plays in our huddle.

I'll agree the pieces are undoubtedly there, but the time to put it together is running out. I sure hope we do because I want to live in no world where we drop 2 in a row to ttun, but we will if we play like we did against Iowa, PSU and NW.

 

[RB07OSU]

To me it just seems like our running game is stale. It's the same plays and in the same situations. We always have new passing concepts and gadget sort of plays (TE throw backs etc) but we don't put that same energy into our running game.

At first I likes going under center and bringing in Rossi etc but now I can't stand it. We are a spread team and IMO trying to have Wisconsin formation sets is a mistake. Thats not who we are.

I'm not saying don't run the ball but what I'm saying is spread the field and then run the ball. Things seemed to open up when we went 3 wide and started running zone read. Last I checked a 30+ yard is the same whether in I formation or from shot gun.

The way I look at it is Rossi and Fryar are not one of the top 11 players so playing them sort of takes away from the offense overall.

Speaking of... if Matt Jones is hurt he needs to rest and should've rest this game.

I don't mind Rossi and Fryar on the short yardage situations here and there, though you're right that it seems better when we spread it out. What I hate are the stretch and toss plays to the short side of the field, that never works and it's football 101... you run that and the defense laughs because you just gave them a shorter patch of grass for everyone to get to the ball carrier. If you run those plays, never go to the short side of the field. We refuse to stop trying that and it's beyond frustrating (putting that as mildly as I can).

 

[brodybuck21]

Observation I had not heard about the DL.

Watched this. Ton of great points

DL rotation is puzzling
Matt Jones struggling at RG
Playcalling is disjointed.
Missed tackles
Dropped passes

 

[sflbuck]

Agreed. Take out the kneel downs and Northwestern ran the ball 55 times for 226 yards (4.1 average) and a touchdown.

Digging deeper, on the first 2 NW drives ( a 3 and out and their scoring drive) they had 65 yards on 9 carries. Most were from the wildcat (many with QB motion-likely something that was a new wrinkle for NW). That means after adjusting to the NW game plan, OSU allowed 165 yards on 46 carries for 3.5 yards per carry. While you may say we should not give up even that to NW, to me that is not the run defense getting their but kicked.

 

[Thump]

Watched this. Ton of great points

DL rotation is puzzling
Matt Jones struggling at RG
Playcalling is disjointed.
Missed tackles
Dropped passes

DL rotation was one aspect that I had not realized.

 

[jwinslow]

I agree, and they need to have some very serious soul searching. That said there's a strong tendency to only look at certain flaws.

I hear most of what you're saying. But this isn't the first game we've struggled and our points of weakness remain weaknesses, and have actually got worse. You mention we have major things to fix that we can't keep getting away with. That's really my point, we won't get away with those things on November 26th and there's very little time to fix it before then.

I shouldn't say championship caliber teams don't play like that here and there, every team has a week or two where they look fallible. But we've had several and the offense appears to have been figured out by opposing defenses to the point where it looks like they could almost call the plays in our huddle.

I'll agree the pieces are undoubtedly there, but the time to put it together is running out. I sure hope we do because I want to live in no world where we drop 2 in a row to ttun, but we will if we play like we did against Iowa, PSU and NW.

Michigan won't get away with never trusting JJ.

they won't get away with needing 4 downs to gain 3 yards in the RedZone against terrible Rutgers talent, let alone osu's DL or UGAs. they have a top 3 back in the country yet even they're struggling to run it consistently.

they won't get away with wr play so bad that the fans are calling for the freshman, who are not high level recruits.

they won't get away with corners who get bullied by anyone with size.


There's a scenario where OSU is not good enough to capitalize on these flaws, because they cannot dictate or compete well enough in the flaws you mentioned. But they have very real flaws.

And frankly, UGA remains a surprising reset to the 2000s in terms of style of play. I happen to love that style (and many of us do), but they are not without flaws either. They just have less of them, and are being challenged by much more suspect teams behind them so far.

 

[mendensa]

Digging deeper, on the first 2 NW drives ( a 3 and out and their scoring drive) they had 65 yards on 9 carries. Most were from the wildcat (many with QB motion-likely something that was a new wrinkle for NW). That means after adjusting to the NW game plan, OSU allowed 165 yards on 46 carries for 3.5 yards per carry. While you may say we should not give up even that to NW, to me that is not the run defense getting their but kicked.

I believe it is when there was absolutely no threat of a downfield passing game. Man-up and dare them to throw the ball deep. OSU should have been playing with a half field all day long.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

I don't mind Rossi and Fryar on the short yardage situations here and there, though you're right that it seems better when we spread it out. What I hate are the stretch and toss plays to the short side of the field, that never works and it's football 101... you run that and the defense laughs because you just gave them a shorter patch of grass for everyone to get to the ball carrier. If you run those plays, never go to the short side of the field. We refuse to stop trying that and it's beyond frustrating (putting that as mildly as I can).

Yeah I won't like thats really confusing. Like why are we running outside into the short field? Run out of real estate awful fast doing that and like you said the defense is sort of let off the hook.

 

[shetuck]

Very pedestrian D yesterday. Lined up and went. Nkt many stunts or movement upfront. Still concerning. Too many tackles with the runner falling forward for 2 more yards. Need to play with controlled aggression

i don't know sh*t from shinola when it comes to schemes and coverages and whatever, so i trust what you're saying.
i just know that if day and co do that same thing on nov 26th, we're going to have a biatchabuka reawakening.

 

[BB73]

Certainly not trying to defend the fact the NW is terrible, but if you want to feel a little bit better, check on the NW-PSU game from 10/1. Similar conditions - probably raining harder but not nearly as much wind. They are a well coached team and Pat Fitzgerald is a heck of a defensive coach.

Penn State had 5 turnovers at home in that game.

One thing the Buckeyes did right in that terrible wind-storm was protect the ball.

 

[BB73]

This game reminded me most of the 2006 road game at Illinois. The weather was similar - 49 degrees and 15 mph winds, which probably seemed more like 30 mph in the wind tunnel that is Memorial Stadium. Future Heisman winner Troy Smith was 13/23 (.565) for 108 yards (4.7 yd/att), 0 TDs, and an INT. The Buckeye offense as a whole managed to grind out only 224 yards on 70 plays (3.2 yd/play). Led by linebacker J Leman (19 tackles, 3.5 TFL, a sack, and a forced fumble), Illinois had 3 sacks, 12 TFLs, 6 QBHs, 3 PBUs, and forced 2 turnovers. Despite the sloppy play against a 2-8 team, the Buckeyes held on to win 17-10 to improve to 10-0 on the season and keep their national title hopes alive (they would go on to crush Northwestern and edge Michigan in the Game of the Century to finish as undisputed Big Ten champs and regular season national champions). So one bad game in bad weather against a bad team won't necessarily derail this team's title aspirations. But a similar performance against a better team certainly will.

That game in the Champaign Wind Tunnel is the game that I also thought of while having the Evanston experiencing on Saturday

I attended both of those games, and as you said, and it was extremely difficult for Troy Smith to throw the ball that day. In each case, one doesn’t really appreciate how difficult the conditions are from watching on TV. But the game in Evanston was much worse than the one in Champaign, another magnitude of difficulty when it came to the passing game.

 

[Thump]

That game in the Champaign Wind Tunnel is the game that I also thought of while having the Evanston experiencing on Saturday

I attended both of those games, and as you said, and it was extremely difficult for Troy Smith to throw the ball that day. In each case, one doesn’t really appreciate how difficult the conditions are from watching on TV. But the game in Evanston was much worse than the one in Champaign, another magnitude of difficulty when it came to the passing game.

Didn’t Braxton throw 1 pass at Illinois one year that we beat them over there?