Game Thread tOSU vs. Hawaii, 12 Sep @ 3:30p ET, BTN

[Dryden]

Rewatching the game on the BTN Football in 60 replay. The offense was playing well in the 1st Q. First three drives rolled up 154 yards of offense but only 7 points. The fourth drive began with the 24 yard pickup by Marshall on the fly sweep, putting them at 178 yards of offense ~18 minutes into the game. Just in that timeframe, there were two false starts caused by Hawai'i LBs clapping (OSU adjusted by switching to hard counts after the second penalty), a dropped hold on a FG attempt, and three errant snaps. The first drive had reached the Hawai'i 26 and the fourth drive reached the Hawai'i 28. Contributing to the fourth drive mess was Cardale taking two sacks due to blown assignments on the line and a penalty when Baugh shifted late. Without the OL miscues and missed FG, they'd have put 10 - 17 points on the board. The offense not converting drives into points at that point in the game was not on Cardale.

Barrett's three drives to end the 1st half only covered 64 yards, and Cardale looked completely out of sorts/rhythm when he took over to start the second half. In hindsight watching the replay, I think the staff went too deep into the playbook trying to manufacture a spark with personnel groupings and playcalls, when what they were already doing (power runs, fly sweeps, and the occasional deep shot) had worked and had Hawai'i guessing, despite the 7-0 score.

 

[kippy1040]

Rewatching the game on the BTN Football in 60 replay. The offense was playing well in the 1st Q. First three drives rolled up 154 yards of offense but only 7 points. The fourth drive began with the 24 yard pickup by Marshall on the fly sweep, putting them at 178 yards of offense ~18 minutes into the game. Just in that timeframe, there were two false starts caused by Hawai'i LBs clapping (OSU adjusted by switching to hard counts after the second penalty), a dropped hold on a FG attempt, and three errant snaps. The first drive had reached the Hawai'i 26 and the fourth drive reached the Hawai'i 28. Contributing to the fourth drive mess was Cardale taking two sacks due to blown assignments on the line and a penalty when Baugh shifted late. Without the OL miscues and missed FG, they'd have put 10 - 17 points on the board. The offense not converting drives into points at that point in the game was not on Cardale.

Barrett's three drives to end the 1st half only covered 64 yards, and Cardale looked completely out of sorts/rhythm when he took over to start the second half. In hindsight watching the replay, I think the staff went too deep into the playbook trying to manufacture a spark with personnel groupings and playcalls, when what they were already doing (power runs, fly sweeps, and the occasional deep shot) had worked and had Hawai'i guessing, despite the 7-0 score.

Have to agree with you here. But to be honest, with only 3 days to prepare, to me the offense looked out of sync until we started to wear them down in the 4th quarter. Plus ,i think we did not take Hawaii seriously enough. Hope we can re-group and see an improvement this coming saturday.

 

[scarletmike]

Rewatching the game on the BTN Football in 60 replay. The offense was playing well in the 1st Q. First three drives rolled up 154 yards of offense but only 7 points. The fourth drive began with the 24 yard pickup by Marshall on the fly sweep, putting them at 178 yards of offense ~18 minutes into the game. Just in that timeframe, there were two false starts caused by Hawai'i LBs clapping (OSU adjusted by switching to hard counts after the second penalty), a dropped hold on a FG attempt, and three errant snaps. The first drive had reached the Hawai'i 26 and the fourth drive reached the Hawai'i 28. Contributing to the fourth drive mess was Cardale taking two sacks due to blown assignments on the line and a penalty when Baugh shifted late. Without the OL miscues and missed FG, they'd have put 10 - 17 points on the board. The offense not converting drives into points at that point in the game was not on Cardale.

Barrett's three drives to end the 1st half only covered 64 yards, and Cardale looked completely out of sorts/rhythm when he took over to start the second half. In hindsight watching the replay, I think the staff went too deep into the playbook trying to manufacture a spark with personnel groupings and playcalls, when what they were already doing (power runs, fly sweeps, and the occasional deep shot) had worked and had Hawai'i guessing, despite the 7-0 score.

The bolded pisses me off to no end, mainly because the B1G (and probably NCAA as a whole) evidently doesn't view the clapping snap count style as a legitimate snap count procedure, despite most (all?) calls by teams that never go under center using that style. It's especially bad when it is so blatantly obvious the D is doing it to simulate the snap count like Hawaii was, and not using it to communicate changes.

 

[Dryden]

Yeah. Wife and I had to Google the result of the Nebraska/Michigan St flap to see what the official ruling was on that. Remembered Pelini being furious that Sparty had done it to them a couple of years ago.

 

[bukIpower]

The bolded pisses me off to no end, mainly because the B1G (and probably NCAA as a whole) evidently doesn't view the clapping snap count style as a legitimate snap count procedure, despite most (all?) calls by teams that never go under center using that style. It's especially bad when it is so blatantly obvious the D is doing it to simulate the snap count like Hawaii was, and not using it to communicate changes.

I lost my shit on the first play when I saw them doing that... I'm really disappointed that UFM didn't lose it as well because that's unsportsmanlike conduct and a free 15 yards FIRST OFFENSE thank you very much.

Lots of stuff went wrong for us yesterday and we still came away with a 6 score win. Think about that for a moment. We had a 3 day prep period where normally we get 5 days, we're playing a poor team (at least the last 4 or so years), we just came off a revenge game, and to be frank (no pun intended) our QB situation was handled fairly poorly. As I say despite all of this we still walk away damn near covering our 41 point spread....

Side note, I am a JT advocate but at this point I don't give a damn just pick someone Urban and roll with them. IMO, this QB thing is starting to wear on everyone and you could tell Urban was agitated as well when being interviewed before the opening kick off as he gave the reporter a tongue in cheek answer (although her question kind of set herself up for it). It's a tough ass decision I know that and I realize you love the kids involved in this QB race but make the tough decision as it's for the betterment of the team.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

The style of kickoff that urban goes for (kick it high with the goal of getting it between the 5 yard line and the goal line, while also getting it between the sideline and first hash mark) will result in kicks out of bounds. It just will. BUT, it better not result in an average of 1.5 per game. 0.5 per game you can live with, but definitely not 1.5.

I love the style. I love the mentality. With a defense like ours (and offense when they aren't playing half asleep), I don't care if they do 3 OOB.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

The style of kickoff that urban goes for (kick it high with the goal of getting it between the 5 yard line and the goal line, while also getting it between the sideline and first hash mark) will result in kicks out of bounds. It just will. BUT, it better not result in an average of 1.5 per game. 0.5 per game you can live with, but definitely not 1.5.

A top-flight FBS kicker should be able to put the ball in between the sidelines and left hash marks 100 out of 100 times if there's no significant wind...especially a graduate kicker brought in to the national champs specifically for kicking off. The distance between the sidelines and hashes is 20 yards, plus there's no snap, holder, or rush to deal with. There's a reason why Meyer goes ape shit when the kicker boots it out of bound on the kickoff, and it's not just because he's ultra competitive...

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

18,040 — Distance in round-trip miles Hawaii traveled for its game against Ohio State in Columbus

I don't know what airline they took, but it's no where near 18,000 miles roundtrip, but rather about half that. Going from Honolulu to Columbus would likely require a stop at either, LAX, ORD, DFW, or IAH (Houston).

HNL to LAX 2560 miles, LAX to CMH 1975 miles = 4535 miles one way, 9070 mile roundtrip.
HNL to ORD 4240 miles, ORD to CMH 295 miles = amazingly, the exact same distance as the HNL-LAX-CMH leg.
The distances going via Dallas or Houston would not be much different. I'm guessing some mistook the 9070 miles roundtrip distance as one-way and doubled it for roundtrip.

 

[Mike80]

Rewatching the game on the BTN Football in 60 replay. The offense was playing well in the 1st Q. First three drives rolled up 154 yards of offense but only 7 points. The fourth drive began with the 24 yard pickup by Marshall on the fly sweep, putting them at 178 yards of offense ~18 minutes into the game. Just in that timeframe, there were two false starts caused by Hawai'i LBs clapping (OSU adjusted by switching to hard counts after the second penalty), a dropped hold on a FG attempt, and three errant snaps. The first drive had reached the Hawai'i 26 and the fourth drive reached the Hawai'i 28. Contributing to the fourth drive mess was Cardale taking two sacks due to blown assignments on the line and a penalty when Baugh shifted late. Without the OL miscues and missed FG, they'd have put 10 - 17 points on the board. The offense not converting drives into points at that point in the game was not on Cardale.

Barrett's three drives to end the 1st half only covered 64 yards, and Cardale looked completely out of sorts/rhythm when he took over to start the second half. In hindsight watching the replay, I think the staff went too deep into the playbook trying to manufacture a spark with personnel groupings and playcalls, when what they were already doing (power runs, fly sweeps, and the occasional deep shot) had worked and had Hawai'i guessing, despite the 7-0 score.

It looked like (and likely is/was) a result of the shortened week of prep. It's very important to the players, but the coaches get that extra time to see the plays run in practice and see the film more acutely (looking for the word there) to help in that prep.

Also, Hawaii had 11 days. They aren't the greatest team but they are a legit FBS squad. Any FBS squad with 11 days of prep time for someone will have some wrinkles. Saturday could have been a perfect storm - short week for Ohio State, mental exhaustion, Hawaii having extra prep time and the "no one believes in us" chip on their shoulder - yet Ohio State still won by 38.

Another thing I'd like to point out - the offense DID start to look more rhythmic in the 4th quarter as well. Those long drives will do good things for this team going forward I believe....extra game reps and all that.

 

[UpNorth_Buckeye]

A top-flight FBS kicker should be able to put the ball in between the sidelines and left hash marks 100 out of 100 times if there's no significant wind...especially a graduate kicker brought in to the national champs specifically for kicking off. The distance between the sidelines and hashes is 20 yards, plus there's no snap, holder, or rush to deal with. There's a reason why Meyer goes ape [Mark May] when the kicker boots it out of bound on the kickoff, and it's not just because he's ultra competitive...

He has said on more than one occasion that the kickoff style they do resulting in a kick out of bounds is a risk that they're willing to take in order to pin a team inside their 20. I found a few game quotes online but I'm too tired to paste them. We're talking about COLLEGE kickers. Not professional kickers. But again, going back to my point earlier, I'm just saying that you have to accept an occasional kickoff going out of bounds (unless your expectations are more than Urban's). But the amount is too high. Not sure what Urban's threshold is. I just threw out 0.5 per game. But maybe even that is too high.

Here's one quote at least:

http://theozone.net/Ohio-State/All-...l-Post-Practice-Updates-from-Wednesday-Oct-15

+ Asked about kickoff coverage and the kickoffs out of bounds, Meyer said it was a risk they are willing to take in order to pin opponents inside the 20 with their coverage unit

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Just went to watch the recording of the game, and BTN decided to keep the BGSU/Maryland shit-fest on until the end, meaning I miss the entire first quarter (which in retrospect is probably a good thing). BTN switched to our game just in time to show 12 Gauge dropping the snap on 3rd and 10 near midfield early 2nd quarter.

 

[Coqui]

I don't know what airline they took, but it's no where near 18,000 miles roundtrip, but rather about half that. Going from Honolulu to Columbus would likely require a stop at either, LAX, ORD, DFW, or IAH (Houston).

HNL to LAX 2560 miles, LAX to CMH 1975 miles = 4535 miles one way, 9070 mile roundtrip.
HNL to ORD 4240 miles, ORD to CMH 295 miles = amazingly, the exact same distance as the HNL-LAX-CMH leg.
The distances going via Dallas or Houston would not be much different. I'm guessing some mistook the 9070 miles roundtrip distance as one-way and doubled it for roundtrip.

Maybe they traveled west only? :P

Just went to watch the recording of the game, and BTN decided to keep the BGSU/Maryland [Mark May]-fest on until the end, meaning I miss the entire first quarter (which in retrospect is probably a good thing). BTN switched to our game just in time to show 12 Gauge dropping the snap on 3rd and 10 near midfield early 2nd quarter.

They played the entire game on an alternate station and then switched to the OSU game on its scheduled channel later.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

They played the entire game on an alternate station and then switched to the OSU game on its scheduled channel later.

I was in the garage watching the game with my neighbors watching it on cable (no DirecTV feed in the garage), so I didn't see the on-the-fly programming change while it was recording. The first quarter was hardly worth watching anyway...

 

[kujirakira]

Rewatching the game on the BTN Football in 60 replay. The offense was playing well in the 1st Q. First three drives rolled up 154 yards of offense but only 7 points. The fourth drive began with the 24 yard pickup by Marshall on the fly sweep, putting them at 178 yards of offense ~18 minutes into the game. Just in that timeframe, there were two false starts caused by Hawai'i LBs clapping (OSU adjusted by switching to hard counts after the second penalty), a dropped hold on a FG attempt, and three errant snaps. The first drive had reached the Hawai'i 26 and the fourth drive reached the Hawai'i 28. Contributing to the fourth drive mess was Cardale taking two sacks due to blown assignments on the line and a penalty when Baugh shifted late. Without the OL miscues and missed FG, they'd have put 10 - 17 points on the board. The offense not converting drives into points at that point in the game was not on Cardale.

Barrett's three drives to end the 1st half only covered 64 yards, and Cardale looked completely out of sorts/rhythm when he took over to start the second half. In hindsight watching the replay, I think the staff went too deep into the playbook trying to manufacture a spark with personnel groupings and playcalls, when what they were already doing (power runs, fly sweeps, and the occasional deep shot) had worked and had Hawai'i guessing, despite the 7-0 score.

Urban seemed pretty clear in post-game that they were experimenting on purpose -- trying to get some looks. And a bit disappointed that they had to go back to Eze to put the game away.
Basically this was a preseason game to the offensive staff... thus why we saw a lot of funky stuff and not a clear progression. A number of factors seemed to play a role in the offense never find a rhythm.
- Offensive non-gameplan
- Flag-happy officials (nothing egregious, just wish we had the crew for MSU-Oregon. Let the kids play the game.)
- Swapping QBs
- Swapping personnel
- First game with the 3 suspended WRs back
- short turn-around
- Hawaii screwing with snapcount

 

[scarletmike]

Urban seemed pretty clear in post-game that they were experimenting on purpose -- trying to get some looks. And a bit disappointed that they had to go back to Eze to put the game away.
Basically this was a preseason game to the offensive staff... thus why we saw a lot of funky stuff and not a clear progression. A number of factors seemed to play a role in the offense never find a rhythm.
- Offensive non-gameplan
- Flag-happy officials (nothing egregious, just wish we had the crew for MSU-Oregon. Let the kids play the game.)
- Swapping QBs
- Swapping personnel
- First game with the 3 suspended WRs back
- short turn-around
- Hawaii screwing with snapcount

If I never see another yellow piece of cloth I'll be happy. So many freaking flags in that 1st half! One might think the ref liked hearing himself over the PA.

All good points, though.