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Game Thread tOSU vs. Sparty, Sat 11/21, 3:30pm ET, ABC

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buckeyesin07 said:
You didn't address their strength of getting after the QB. Particularly given the struggles OSU had in pass protection last weekend, I think the OSU o-line will have its hands full with McDowell and Calhoun, who are both very good.
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My biggest concern. It's only one match up, but it's one that if lost badly negates pretty much everything else. But assuming that JT doesn't get inured, I think that his running skills, and at least an ok performance by the OL, will be enough to keep it from being too big of a problem.
 
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WHAT’S BEEN THE KEY TO RECENT OHIO STATE-MICHIGAN STATE MATCHUPS? THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE HAS “BEEN THE DIFFERENCE,” URBAN MEYER SAYS

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How has the winner of the three previous Ohio State-Michigan State games been determined in the mind of Urban Meyer?

The answer is simple: The game has been won, and lost, at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s been the difference,” Meyer said Tuesday on the Big Ten coaches weekly teleconference.

This isn’t a groundbreaking phenomenon. Most football coaches would tell you the key to winning any game is winning the battle up front.

But there’s something different about that matchup when the Buckeyes and Spartans square off. Most of the season, each team has a significant talent advantage along the offensive and defensive lines, but not in this one. Each group has multiple future NFL players on it and it creates several high-profile matchups. Whichever side plays better up front wins the game.

Michigan State’s offensive line has a future first-round NFL Draft pick in left tackle Jack Conklin. He’s one of the best at his position not only in the Big Ten, but in the country, and a potential All-American candidate. The Spartans also have a fifth-year senior at center in Jack Allen, who is in his fourth year as a starter up front.

Going up against that group is Ohio State’s defensive line, which also features a bevy of future NFL Draft picks and when discussing that Buckeyes’ unit, things must start with the potential No. 1 pick in next year’s draft, defensive end Joey Bosa.

Bosa isn’t having the statistical season he had a year ago — he has just four sacks — as teams continue to scheme toward him, but anybody who has watched Ohio State play this season would say Bosa has been just as disruptive as he was a year ago, if not more so. Bosa already has 15 tackles for loss on the season.

The Buckeyes also have a potential first-round pick on the interior of their line with defensive tackle Adolphus Washington, who has had the best season of his career this year. Tyquan Lewis and Sam Hubbard are also potential NFL players up front for Ohio State.

“We’ve got to stop the run game most importantly. They can’t run inside the tackles and that’s our No. 1 goal,” Bosa said. “Gotta make sure the ball bounces outside and then once we dominate the run game that’s when we really get after them in the pass and that’s what we’ve gotta do as a D-line.”

Entire article: http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-...igan-state-matchups-the-line-of-scrimmage-has
 
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Saturday's Game Against Buckeyes is Personal for Spartans

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Leading 14-7 over the Buckeyes in the first quarter last season, the Michigan State Spartans had to feel pretty good about their chances to ruin Ohio State’s season just like they had in the Big Ten Championship Game the year previously.

Then J.T. Barrett and his OSU team went on to outscore MSU 42-23 over the final three quarters.

It was a painful home loss for a team with national title hopes, and it is still a loss that Spartan players aren’t yet over. In fact, quarterback Connor Cook and defensive end Shilique Calhoun have both said that part of the reason that they decided not to leave early for the NFL was because they both wanted one more shot at the Buckeyes.

Nearly 10 years ago, there were a few Michigan Wolverines – Chad Henne, Jake Long and Mike Hart, to be exact – who did the very same thing, but things didn’t work out so well for them.

"How can we say we're the best class in history and we haven't beaten Ohio State?" Hart said prior to the 2007 season where he and his classmates would lose to the Buckeyes for a fourth-consecutive year. "You can't. So to put everything together, you have to beat Ohio State and you have to win a bowl game. And if you don't, you can't say we're the best. That takes the whole argument away. You can't have it when we're 50 years old, arguing with former players about who's the best player. I can't argue that Chad's the best quarterback if he never beat Ohio State. Same with me."

Entire article: http://theozone.net/Ohio-State/Foot...ame-Against-Buckeyes-is-Personal-for-Spartans
 
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ScriptOhio said:
"How can we say we're the best class in history and we haven't beaten Ohio State?" Hart said prior to the 2007 season where he and his classmates would lose to the Buckeyes for a fourth-consecutive year. "You can't. So to put everything together, you have to beat Ohio State and you have to win a bowl game. And if you don't, you can't say we're the best. That takes the whole argument away. You can't have it when we're 50 years old, arguing with former players about who's the best player. I can't argue that Chad's the best quarterback if he never beat Ohio State. Same with me."
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Oh, Mike, don't sell yourself short. You know you are the best damn stationary bicycler the weenies ever had grace their sideline.
 
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buckeyesin07 said:
You didn't address their strength of getting after the QB. Particularly given the struggles OSU had in pass protection last weekend, I think the OSU o-line will have its hands full with McDowell and Calhoun, who are both very good.
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It's funny but when you watch their games they don't get consistent pressure. They get sacks and *drink* can pin their ears back *drink* from time to time but they simply do not consistently control the LOS as a defensive line.

Also, when Calhoun does get after the QB he is usually alone in doing so and can leave huge gaps. I think OSU can scheme them in a way to turn Calhoun's aggressiveness into a weakness, especially with a mobile QB.
 
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buckeyesin07 said:
You didn't address their strength of getting after the QB. Particularly given the struggles OSU had in pass protection last weekend, I think the OSU o-line will have its hands full with McDowell and Calhoun, who are both very good.
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They're good but they're not better than PSU IMO. I think Zettle, Johnson, and their tall end is a better trio than MSU will show us.

Not worried about 2 of 4 dline man being good when we have played tech, PSU, and even Illinois (who has a end just as disruptive as calhoun). For a team to give us problems IMO both ends have to be good/great and not just one. As jax pointed out Calhoun is about all they have in consistent pressure.

You add osu focusing on pass pro all week as a result of poor play last weekend and you'll have a buckeye team who's ready to roll.

As for it being personal for MSU... it's 1-1 and this game is the rubber match over the last three years. Personal feelings only take you so far especially if you're the QB with a fucked up shoulder.
 
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If anyone wants more to be confident about start looking at special teams, specifically field position.

MSU gives up a lot of short fields. Depending on which advanced stat you look at they range from 20's to high 50's (rank)

OSU is elite at field position. Same rankings range 2-17
 
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Silver Bullets playing very well as of late. Without a Defensive or Special Teams TD, Sparty's gonna struggle to hit 20 for sure. I look for tOSU to hammer their line and go right at them, wearing them down. First half will be a long exchange of body blows, with us running away in the second half. I'll say 14-10 at half and 42-17 final.
 
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BROTHERS DON'T SHAKE HANDS

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The most intimidating football program from the Midwest resides in East Lansing.

That's not this season or over the past few years; it's all the time - and it's Michigan State, which on the surface can match everything its peers can offer. Sparty has a world class university offering dozens of academic specialties on an impressive, fun campus with best-in-class facilities and a global, rabid fan base.

Beneath the surface it's got (pardon the expression, Spartans) blue-blood credentials half the Big Ten would kill to have. It does both football and basketball quite well, thank you. It's geographically situated close enough to Ohio and Indiana to make provincial hay with recruits who were not raised to hate Michigan State. That indoctrinated animus is reserved for someone else in those houses.

MSU nurtures football excellence by openly declining to fortify that mission with too many erudite obstacles. There's no manufactured presumptuousness about its academic mission for athletes, as there shouldn't be in The Year of our Multi-Billion Dollar Amateur Sport Lord, 2015. But East Lansing has one prodigious advantage the rest of its conference counterparts and regional peers do not have.

A permanent, enormous chip on its shoulder. Michigan State is the only football powerhouse in America that is fueled by a grudge.

Entire article: http://www.elevenwarriors.com/colle...rs-dont-shake-hands-michigan-state-ohio-state
 
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