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Several Big Ten teams played bowl games today at around the same time, and nearly every one of them struggled . Ohio State joined that club in their game against the Florida Gators, losing 24-17. The Buckeyes valiantly attempted to stage a comeback in the game down 14 with 3 minutes left, but were unable to secure the onside kick with under a minute left. Braxton Miller showed some impressive passing at the tail end of the game, ending the game 18/23 for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns.
This is the first time since 1897 that Ohio State has had 7 losses in a single season, and the first time since 1946 that the team has lost 4 games in a row. It is the first time since 1988, John Cooper’s first season, that the Buckeyes have suffered a losing season.
The Florida Gators started the game with the football in excellent field position. Drew Basil was unable to keep the ball from going out of bounds at the one yard-line off a bounce on the opening kick. The error gave the ball to the Gators at the 40 yard line, where Florida quickly built a big head of steam running the ball to the left edge. Surprisingly, showing an early aggression that they haven’t been able to find all season, the OSU defense managed to respond quickly and force Florida into a fumble.
Boom Herron started things off for the Buckeyes going the other way with a couple nice runs up the middle. The Bucks were also helped by a Florida late hit on Braxton Miller as he was going out of bounds, eventually allowing the Buckeyes to work it down inside the 40. Unfortunately, the Gator defense stiffened and got a pair of sacks to put OSU in a 3rd and 18. Jim Bollman chose to go conservative and run a QB draw, hedging on the punt and the field position battle.
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Write This Down, Our D is Comin' for you!
One of those cliche’ phrases that seems to come true more times than not is that “defense wins championships”. It is true that most of the elite teams do what they do the defensive way and that if you choose to dictate what the opponents offense can and will do, you will win. The Buckeyes and Gators aren’t playing for a National title this time, but they are playing for Coach Meyer bragging rights. Which team IS better, his old team that he clearly will always have an affection for? Or his new team that he has always dreamt of coaching and now holds the key to the future of in THE Ohio State Buckeyes?
Let’s get into crunching some numbers about these two defenses. On paper the Gators appear to have the edge. #9 overall in the nation and only giving up 299 yards a game and allowing roughly 3 scores a game is 25th in the nation. Their #39 rush defense has allowed an average of 132 YPG and their pass efficiency defense is in the top 20 at 114. Yardage wise, their #10 pass defense only gives up 167 YPG.
In what has been an off-year for the Buckeyes they’re a ways down the list in national rankings. Overall they have the 24th ranked defense in the nation at 328 YPG. They are right behind the Gators in the scoring category at almost 3 scores a game. The rush defense has given up 142 YPG and comes in at 53 while the pass efficiency defense has been average at 125, good for 48th in the country. They don’t give up the yards in the passing game though, ranking 15th with only 186 YPG given up.
This is the continuation of the article posted this morning looking at a solution to the current problems.
To the victors, the spoils.
Many people have spilled an incredible amount of ink over the years trying to determine a just system for selecting a national champion. Our own Malibuckeye came up with his own system a while back and expounded upon it in length. I honestly believe there is only one possible method of satisfactorily deciding a champion with all of the proper criteria. That answer is to allow the teams to decide it on the field in a playoff format. But, unlike with many other views, the playoff isn’t the critical factor. The biggest issue is to start to make the regular season important again.
The best way to determine who gets to play in the Division 1A Playoff, while simultaneously allowing fair access to all of the conferences, is to restrict access only to conference champions. Yes, you heard that right – conference champions only.
Objectivity, Balance, and Power. Two of these are not possessed by the BCS.
This is the first of a two part article on this year’s BCS problems.
When you think of justice it obviously brings to mind the concepts of the court of law, lady justice, and a jury of your peers. Rarely do people consider justice in college football. They may use words like “fair” and “just” or their antonyms freely, but never in any rigorous context.
What the last 48 hours should have demonstrated to college football fans is that the current bowl system is inherently unjust – meant in the strictest philosophical sense.
What is the definition of justice? Dictionary.com suggests (irritatingly as the fifth definition) “the administering of deserved punishment and reward”. This gets at the very heart of the matter.
The BCS as a system was designed to solve the age old problem of determining who is the college football national champion in any given year. Where in previous years the AP and Coaches polls – and a laundry list of other polls before that – occasionally chose different teams, the BCS was supposed to be the unifying consensus. That, of course, went out the window in early 2004 when the AP poll decided to vote USC #1 over LSU, the team that won the national championship game that year.
But the ludicrousness of the BCS doesn’t even begin there. It begins with the very concept of using a poll to determine anything of importance at all.
After stuffing our bellies full of delicious dead bird, it’s finally time to ignore the family again and focus on the things that truly matter.
It's just about time to get back to this.
A worthy offensive gameplan. If Bollman comes into this game with his standard Walrusball offense it will be a disservice to the rivalry. The point of The Game is to try to win, not trying to make the other team’s defense look better than they really are.
A Jake Stoneburner touchdown. He finally got one last week against Penn State after not catching one for about 8 straight games. Time to go back to him again. If you want to do it more than once, I won’t complain.
Weeping M*ch*g*n fans. This has been the bandage on the wound that was the Cooper years. Not seeing it won’t rip it off, but it will certainly slow the healing. Yes, M*ch*g*n fans, we still haven’t done enough to you to close that wound. Maybe another decade of soul crushing will be sufficient.
Beat M*ch*g*n. This is the single most important thing we do all year. Go get it Bucks!
Dr. Jon Woods dots the I in the first ever Second Script in a single game.
I’m not going to wax philosophic after that Penn State game. Being in the stadium for Dr. Wood’s last home game was wonderful – particularly getting a chance to shake his hand and thank him for everything after the game. The game, though, left a lot to be desired.
Of course you’re not. That was simply one of the worst experiences imaginable. Lets get this over with.
Fickell wasn't particularly entertained himself.
Continue to pound the ball. Desperately trying to pound the ball is half of what got us in trouble in the first place. Purdue stacked the box on every down that they strongly suspected we would run, and given our tendencies they were right nearly every time. The few times they weren’t, they were able to get to Miller pretty quickly with their pass rush.
Three and outs. The Buckeyes only managed three 3 and outs. The Boilermakers converted fully half of their third down attempts, 9/18 for the game. Simply not good enough.
A win. Yea, no.
A Penn State loss to Nebraska. We got this at least. To bad it means a lot less now. Right now, we need to beat Penn State, and Penn State to beat Wisconsin in Madison. That’s pretty unlikely this season.
The Buckeyes visited West Lafayette today to do battle with the Purdue Boilermakers with the Big Ten Championship game still on the line. The Boilers, however, had something to say about OSU’s championship aspirations as they took the Buckeyes to overtime to secure the 26-23 victory. Braxton Miller threw 8-18 for 132 yards and two touchdowns on a day when the OSU running game simply struggled to get going. Boom Herron accounted for 62 yards on the ground compared to Ralph Bolden’s 80 yards and a touchdown.
Ohio State started the game with the football but struggled a bit. After whiffing on the kick catch in the endzone, the Bucks went to Dan Herron twice for a modest gain. On third down, Braxton Miller tried to hit an open receiver over the middle. The ball was tipped down field into the arms of Jake Stoneburner who wasn’t able to haul it in despite several chances due to some great defensive work by the Purdue coverage.
The Boilermakers were quite the opposite of the Buckeyes. Using a series of screens and runs, Purdue smartly moved the ball down the field. They managed to get the ball inside the five with a first down, but were unable to punch the ball into the endzone. The Buckeye defense had managed to stiffen, and a nice play from Bradley Roby at the goal line to bat a pass away forced Purdue to take three on the short field goal. Read More
