Buckeye Blogger Network
Hall is the first running back to hit the century mark for the Bucks this season.
Offensive Consistency. At times, this offense seemed unstoppable. Other times, they seem miserably poor. Does “Consistent Inconsistency” count?
Receivers that can catch. Not for the most part, no. Plenty of drives were killed by dropped passes. While they hauled in 60% of Miller’s passes, it still took them the better part of a half to focus on the game.
More ground production from halfbacks. Hall picked up the first 100 yard game for the running backs this season, and Rod Smith picked up a healthy 24 yards on 6 carries.
A Defense that tackles. It was an improvement, surprisingly. But, it is still not where it should be.
Linebackers that live up to their legacy. Someday perhaps. Saturday was a tad early to ask for it.
Consistency. Consistently Inconsistent – tattoo it on this team’s forehead, because it is the perfect descriptor for them.
Less Wounded Ducks. Didn’t see too many, but did see a few poor throws still. The footwork is not quite where it should be – particularly when he gets excited.
Secondary Still. It was an improvement in terms of long plays, but the coverage is not where it should be. 10 yards off the receiver is pathetic pass coverage.
Devin Smith asks you to kindly pay attention to his catching this time.
Offensive Consistency.At times this season, and especially last Saturday against Cal, our offense has looked spectacular and unstoppable. At other times it looks as though they’re impersonating themselves from last year. I want to see the offense have more consistency in their production, few or no three and outs.
Receivers that can catch. This goes along with the offensive consistency. The Receivers need to make catches. Sometimes Miller throws the ball too fast or more rarely just in an awful spot… but too many times a good throw has been ruined by the receiver dropping it.
More ground production from halfbacks. Hall had a solid return with 80 or so yards, but never looked particularly flashy. Hardly anyone else even touched the ball. It was nice to see Miller cut back on his carries and give us hope he won’t be injured from pushing himself on the ground, but someone needs to fill those yards he leaves.
A Defense that tackles. I think I’m going to call the defensive seniors from my undefeated-playoff bound home school Northwood Rangers to see if they can teach our defense how to tackle. It’s the most basic of basic fundamental skills, and we seem to have totally forgotten how to do it. Ryan Shazier is the poster boy for it. He seems more keen on going for the highlight reel smashing hit, than just wrapping up and making sure the guy is down.
Linebackers that live up to their legacy. Boy what I would give to have the likes of AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, Andy Katzenmoyer, or James Laurinaitis back for a few games. These line backers have so much talent and so much potential, but just have no lived up to it thus far. The aforementioned Shazier shows tons of promise, but just needs to tackle!!!!
Consistency. I have yet to see any consistency with this team. They do pull together to get the W but I would love 4 consistent quarters.
Less Wounded Ducks. Braxton has wowed us with his legs. He has hit some timely passes but he needs to cut down on the missed passes and hit the open receivers in stride.
Secondary Still. I’m not giving up on this. There is talent with those D-Backs, now just to show up on game day.
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Trust Ackbar
In a week like this, I would usually write something like, “beware of the trap game.”
With a date with Michigan State in East Lansing looming next week, it would be easy to declare Ohio State’s game this weekend against UAB a trap game. The Spartans are a superior team and it will be the first Big Ten game under head coach Urban Meyer.
UAB is not a trap game, though. Breathe easy, Buckeye fans.
The Blazers will come into Ohio Stadium on Saturday and bring a 0-2 record with them, including a 49-6 loss last week to South Carolina. UAB also lost its opening game to Troy, 39-29 at home.
Maybe an opponent like UAB is exactly what the Buckeyes (3-0) need right now.
After blowing out Miami in its opener, Ohio State has struggled a bit in its last two games. The Buckeyes looked less than impressive in their 31-16 win against UCF and were on the ropes late last week against Cal. Braxton Miller found Devin Smith for a 72-yard touchdown to save the day for Ohio State, though, helping the Buckeyes to a 35-28 victory.
This is the type of game that Ohio State needs to work on improving. Last week, the defense did not look like we hoped it would. There were missed tackles all over the field that led to several big plays for the California offense.
Meyer is not satisfied with his team either. He knows exactly how big next week’s game is against the Spartans and he is going to want to issue a statement with the game against UAB.
Michigan State will be trying to make a statement too. The Spartans suffered a loss last week at the hands of Notre Dame and will be taking out all of that frustration on poor Eastern Michigan.
I’m usually cautious around games like the one Ohio State has with UAB. But, UAB isn’t exactly a threatening team. But more importantly, Urban Meyer is the head coach of the Buckeyes and he won’t let his team look ahead to Michigan State.
I am a strong believer in those so-called trap games. But this, my friends, is not one of them. Buckeyes roll.
Win/Win Scenario?
Yup, it’s that week again- we find ourselves looking to the skies and hoping for an astronomical event to head toward… let’s see… this year the game is in South Bend, so that will do just fine. Just think, if Notre Dame’s previous coach was still on the sidelines, there just might be enough gravitational pull between the two head men to facilitate this.
Buckeye 411
Defensive Pressure you say? Bradley Roby hungry!
Pass the ball!There was definitely some passing, though perhaps not quite as on-target as we may have hoped. 16-30 for 249 yards and 4 touchdowns (with a pick) is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Run it up. Not as much of a “cakewalk” as you expected, was it? We did pick up more than Cal’s defense was averaging, but only by 4 points.
Bri’onte scoring again. Mr. Dunn did not even touch the ball on Saturday – except on a 22 yard kick return – let alone house it.
Pass rush. Definitely a significant improvement here! The pass rush was much more aggressive than we’ve seen in previous games, and led to more than a few sacks.
Braxton getting less than 15 carries. This is a case of “careful what you wish for”. Braxton got less than 15 carries, but it seemed terribly contrived, and may have caused him to hesitate a bit longer than he should have a couple times.
Secondary issues gone. I think this one speaks for itself. I’ll spare you the hideous laughter…this time.
Down field passing. Ignoring the types of routes, we definitely saw some downfield passing. We even saw a couple completions – one big one to Smith for 72 yards, another to Stoneburner for 40, and one to Philly Brown for 21.
The life of an Ohio Stadium Usher can be interesting to say the least, especially for someone like me who lives two hours away. Due to being a high school football official and working all over the state, I can get home pretty late on Fridays, only to get up at 5:30am to head to the Shoe. This wasn’t the case this past weekend as I had a very close to home game at my alma mater and was in bed and asleep by 11:30!
I had my reservations about the game but not the day as me, my daughter Kristiana and those with me were going to try to get to the Driven tent on Lane Avenue and meet the man that provides me with daily inspiration. Roy Hall is doing some amazing things with the foundation that he has built with former Buckeye walk-on then starter Antonio Smith. Please click the link to their foundation on our homepage and see what you can do to help.
One of my favorite moments as a Buckeye fan
Roy and former Buckeye Maurice Clarett have forged a friendship that is paying huge dividends for the foundation and for their lives. Maurice was in town shooting the ESPN special 30 in 30 and has been hanging out at the tent and signing autographs with Roy. I could not pass up the chance to meet them both on Saturday and it turned into one of my favorite moments in meeting former Buckeyes. Both were gracious in meeting me and it’s clear that their faith is what carries them now. It was a great time for me meeting them face to face and I am sure to never forget it. There are some great things on the horizon that I am involved in helping Driven and I hope you’ll join me!
Spent a good portion of Saturday’s pregame hanging out with my middle child Kristiana, giver her a follow plz. She is a huge Ohio State fan and is currently working her bottom off to get to Columbus and go to school. She and I have always had a great sports relationship as she has always been very athletic. She plays basketball and runs track in club sports at her current school of WVU-Parkersburg and need to stay active as I believe it’s what has kept her healthy over the years. If you don’t know me well then you don’t know that she has Cystic Fibrosis and has been amazingly well. God has taken wonderful care of her. That and my son’s conviction has contributed to my faith greatly over the years. Read More
Coach Meyer’s comments following the win over the California Golden Bears, courtesy of Fox Sports Ohio: (transcription provided by the Ohio State Athletic Department)
COACH MEYER: Thank you all for being here. The best thing about 3‑0 is a chance to go 4‑0. And that’s about it. We’ve enjoyed a win against a very quality opponent, Cal, very good athletes, well coached.
And our guys found a way. I have been in games before where I thought we were going to lose, where I just kept waiting I thought someone would make a play, I really did.
And to see Devin Smith, having an athletic quarterback to get you out of trouble sometimes, sometimes gets you in trouble. But what is going to happen is we’re going to have to be throw the ball, become efficient throwing. We’ve gotten better. You can take a look at the evolution in the past, what’s it been 12 months, or 24 months, whatever it’s been.
But since Braxton became our quarterback, he’s much better. But we’ve got a long way to go. It’s kind of turning into that kind of a world for us right now that there’s a lot of players, people, numbers, committed to stopping the run.
And the good thing is we are developing some receivers. Devin Smith had a hell of a day, made a couple of great plays. Philly Brown is a good player. Evan Spencer is coming along. Jake had a decent day.
We’re starting to develop a little bit of depth. And you think about where that was to where it is now. If this would have happened in April whatever the 7th, they said okay, they would be able to stop the run, I’d say I don’t know; we’d have to figure out a way to score. And I think we just have to do a good job of finding a way to throw the ball a little bit better.
On defense, bad tackling. That’s all I know, is bad tackling. We’ve gotta get that figured out. It’s time to play Ohio State defense and that wasn’t Ohio State defense at all.
We’ve got to get that thing worked out. I know it won’t be from a shortage of effort. We are going to get it worked out and go. John Simon played hurt today. Gave a little emotional speech in there.
He had a sore shoulder. They kept telling me all week, it should be fine, it should be fine; it just didn’t heal as fast as we hoped. Boy, he just lost it in the locker room as far as just sharing, opening up his soul for this team.
And I’ve done this a long time, man, and he’s as good ‑‑ you mark that down there, can you put a jersey up there or something that says John Simon, because that’s a grown‑ass man ‑‑ excuse my language ‑‑ that’s a guy.
If we have another child I want to name him, what is it, Urban John Simon Meyer or something like that. (Laughter) can’t wait for that headline. But that’s how much I love that guy. I’m not ashamed to say I love him. Love that guy. Man.
Makes all of us look in the mirror and say: Are we doing enough for our team. That guy, what he just did in there, not to give you too much of what went on in there, but am I doing enough. When I say I, as our coaching staff, are we doing enough? Are we doing as much as he’s doing? No. We’ve gotta do more. Gotta do more. Gotta get you fired up.
And that’s what this great game teaches you. With that said, great respect for the team we just played and the coach I know, best thing about 3‑0 is, what, a chance to go 4‑0 and get better. Read More
As a part of the 2012 season, the Buckeye Bloggers Network is pooling their expertise to give Ohio State fans the most in-depth coverage possible for Saturday’s game.
This week tBBC looks at the Buckeye passing game against the Cal Defense. Be sure to check out the rest of this series via the links at the bottom of this post!
Buckle Up
Coach Herman is new to Ohio State, but I don’t get the sense that he’s one to lean on hyperbole.
So, when he tells his receiving corps that they will be challenged in ways that they have not yet seen, you’ve got to believe that this will absolutely be the case.
Much has been made of Cal’s “unique” defense- a Bear (seriously) look that emphasizes stopping the interior run game. It’s also been highlighted that this philosophy is dependent upon corners and safeties who have the ability to lock their men down for the evening. Given that Cal has been running this in a conference that can, at times, be a bit “pass happy”, it’s safe to assume that they might just know what they are doing.
And that’s just half the issue.
Coming into this season, one of the concerns that Ohio State fans and coaches each identified was the need for maturity and excellence from the receiving corps. Part of that was due to the issues that emerged last year- new coach, true freshman sharing time with a professional rocket launcher at quarterback, and an offensive philosophy that emphasize any number of plays as long as they were “Dave”. Losing their top playmaker for all but two games, and now losing him to graduation, it’s easy to understand why Coach Meyer came into the spring and fall looking to find out who would be the person he could count on.
I get the sense that, although we’re getting closer, they are still looking. Read More
