TOSU

[Snow Sled Baby]

was playing golf yesterday.....Indiana that good?.......Fields have a bad day?.......osu secondary suspect?.......haven't seen the highlights yet

 

[MichiganHerd]

Indiana has a decent team, with a pretty good coach. I don't believe Ohio State's quarterback had a good game, but as tosu has admitted, Ohio State's defense isn't as good this year as they normally are, nor is their play on both sides of the line. Will be interesting to see how they perform against the top teams should they make the playoffs, which should be a given at this point.

 

[tOSUGrad90]

Fields easily had his worst day as a Buckeye yesterday. The one weakness in his game before yesterday was that he held on to the ball for too long, but it was acceptable because he had thrown for 41 TDs and 1 interception in conference play before yesterday. Yesterday, he held on too long, but made bad decisions after he had done so. It's only one bad game in his 18 starts, so I'm not concerned about him.

Ohio State's offensive line bullied Indiana's defensive front in the running game all day, but Ryan Day got too cute with his play-calling, and called far too many pass plays. Ohio State would have blown the Hoosiers out, if Day would have called more runs, then called play-action passes to take advantage of Indiana's DBs cheating up into the box to try to stop the run.

Ohio State's secondary is a problem. Three DBs off of last season's team are starting for NFL teams now (two first round draft picks included), but they have not been replaced by good or experienced players. Moreover, Jeff Hafley, who did a great job as tOSU's secondary coach and co-Defensive Coordinator last season, was hired as Boston College's head coach, and is sorely missed. Ohio State plays a lot of man-to-man on the perimeter, but doesn't have the athletes to play this way successfully at this point. Not good enough to win in the Playoffs at this point, anyway.

I'd disagree with MichiganHerd's comments about Ohio State's line play. The big uglies up front opened up huge holes in the running game, and only struggled in pass protection when Indiana blitzed multiple guys and Fields held on to the ball for too long. The Defensive Line doesn't have a stud like the Bosa brothers or Chase Young, but played fine yesterday. They were great vs. the run (Indiana didn't have a single yard rushing), and although they didn't pressure Penix much, Penix has a very quick release, so it's hard to sack him.

I watched the end of the Michigan/Rutgers game. Schiano is the only coach who can make Rutgers competitive at all, but his staff chokes at the end of close games. After Michigan missed a FG in the first overtime, Schiano's O-Coordinator called the dumbest series of plays imaginable, and ended up losing two yards, making his young kicker's FG attempt longer than it had to be. I see why Rutgers lost so many close games to WVU when Schiano was at Rutgers the first time.

 

[MichiganHerd]

I'm not sure why Rutgers didn't run up the middle three times. Even if they only gained 5 yards, it would have been a 37 yard field goal. Instead, they decided to go backwards. Michigan couldn't have hoped for them to do something that foolish.

 

[tOSUGrad90]

Yep, you, me, and Laurinitis all thought the same thing, but Schiano's offensive coordinator decided to get tricky. It never ceases to amaze as to how often offensive coordinators in the spread era are more concerned with being creative than achieving success. Every one of them should be subjected to watching game film from the Woody/Bo era. Running between the tackles is still the smartest and safest way to win a game, if the opponent is unable to stop it. Even Harbaugh knows this to be true.

 

[westsiderSJHS77]

Yep, you, me, and Laurinitis all thought the same thing, but Schiano's offensive coordinator decided to get tricky. It never ceases to amaze as to how often offensive coordinators in the spread era are more concerned with being creative than achieving success. Every one of them should be subjected to watching game film from the Woody/Bo era. Running between the tackles is still the smartest and safest way to win a game, if the opponent is unable to stop it. Even Harbaugh knows this to be true.

That didn’t work out too well for WVU coach Brown last year. Well, let me clarify: Running anyway.

 

[tOSUGrad90]

Don't get me wrong, Coach. If your running game stinks, then I don't recommend that you continue to slam your head into a brick wall. It's when the running game does work that I question the wisdom of the gurus who want to take unnecessary risks by throwing the ball all over the lot.