Why OSU will beat UM

OSU Football**Updated to include more info

Earlier this week, we listed some reasons as to why the vomitous pustules from up north could beat OSU. It took me a few days, but I finally got el Kaiser to stop laughing long enough to help compose the counterpoint to that post. If reading “Why UM will prevail” seemed like drinking a foul tasting tequila shot, then reading this post will seem like the sweet, refreshing bite of the lime afterwards.

Why OSU Will beat UM
First, The Wolverines’ defense has not been spread out all season long. It has not faced a single spread offense. Everyone knows about UM’s success against a pounding rushing attack, but there’s no way the Michigan defense can stay in the 4-3 and not get eaten alive by the spread. If UM stubbornly sticks with the 4-3, then it’ll have linebackers trying to line up man-to-man against the deepest receiving corps in college football. When Sweatervest spreads out Carr’s defense, Carr will have to make a choice: Go with the nickel to slow down the OSU pass game, which removes his advantage against the run; or stick with the 4-3 and hope that your backfield can cover OSU man-to-man.

UM’s secondary is fair at best.

Regarding the UM front seven: Carr has set it up to work best when it can be aggressive, but OSU’s most explosive plays rely on aggressive play by the opposing defense… screen passes, options, quarterback draws, etc.; not to mention that blitzing always leaves single coverage somewhere — and again, no team in the country has the personnel to man up against Ginn, Gonzo, Robiskie, Hall, Hartline, Small, Nichol, and Ballard. Yes, Smith really does have that many weapons on almost every play. Troy has spread 27 touchdowns across those eight receivers this year; and those numbers don’t include the threat posed by the OSU RBs or FBs, or even Smith’s own feet. In short, UM will have to be very selective when it blitzes, and mask it very well. If they blitz too much, Smith will eat them alive. If they blitz too little, then OSU will just move down the field on four/five yard dink plays all afternoon.

One of UM’s biggest weaknesses is defending against the screen pass… the aggression by the front seven, combined with the lack of speed in the secondary, makes UM very vulnerable there. Conversely, OSU is one of the best in the country at executing the screen pass. Therefore, if OSU is having trouble rushing against UM’s stout front four, Tressel could simply use the screen pass as a substitute for a lot of rushing yards (three yards here, four yards there, with an occasional 83 yard scamper by Ginn for good measure).

UM’s defense may slow down the OSU offense, but it will NOT stop them from scoring a healthy amount of points. If UM wants to come out victorious, it will have to open up its offense and put a lot of points on the board. This is something it has had a hard time doing against poor defenses; how likely is it that they’ll “suddenly” find success against OSU’s superior D?

OSU’s D-line is the best UM will see this year, and will get pressure on Henne, letting the linebackers either fall back into coverage or come forward to help stop Hart for a low YPA. As a result, Henne will probably have to outscore the OSU offense with his arm and feet to win the game. That’s just plain unlikely.

OSU’s O-Line is the best that UM will see all year. How will UM’s players and (more importantly) the coaches respond to what will be a very frustrating afternoon for them?

OSU has essentially played UM already, during the Texas game earlier this year. (For most of this season, Texas and UM were nearly identical in all statistical categories. Yes, Texas has imploded the past two weeks, and UM has not. However, OSU met the ‘Horns earlier in the season, before the ‘Horns’ implosion.) And we all remember what happened when OSU played Texas.

Continuing the Texas comparisons, the ‘Horns are a much, much better offensive team than the Wolverines, and OSU’s defense only gave up seven points to Texas.

Over his decade-plus reign at UM, no matter what kind of coaching staff Carr has had serving under him, he’s repeatedly shown himself to be a pretty bad big-game coach. In contrast, Tressel saves his best for — and coaches his best in — big games. Think about it this way: Tressel went 14-0 and won a national championship with Craig stinkin’ Krenzel, and Carr wasn’t able to even contend for the title with Tom Brady. (If you’re reading this, Craig, no disrespect intended! Just trying to make a point.)

Michigan has been fortunate this year to keep themselves out of the “close” games (decided by a touchdown or less) that were their bane in 2005. Mostly, this is because UM has had an easier schedule in 2006. But don’t forget: this is the same team that loses the majority of its close games. Conversely, Tressel’s reputation is made on winning almost 100% of those types of games. OSU and UM is typically a “close game,” and this favors the Buckeyes.

Horseshoe.

Noise. Using the silent count for 60 minutes favors OSU, not UM.

OSU will win the turnover battle (the single biggest indicator of success in the OSU/UM matchup).

If the weather is favorable.

Michigan has a terrible track record against number one teams. They’ve gone 3-16-1 against opponents ranked number one (for comparison, OSU has 62 victories against number one teams). The last number one team UM beat was in 1984 (Miami).

In its ~125 years of football history, UM has never won a #1 vs. #2 matchup.

Troy Smith. No QB in college football is better in big games than Troy Smith. UM has no counterpart to him. Henne doesn’t come close in the technical aspects of quarterbacking, and there’s no player on the Michigan team that leads or controls his team like Smith does. Don’t get me wrong – UM has its leaders – but something tells me that the OSU offense would lie down in traffic if Smith asked them to. Everyone on that team, offense and defense, rallies behind him and follows his lead. He sets the tone for the entire team.

The bigger the game, the harder he’s played. The higher ranked the opponent, the better he’s played. This is the biggest game of his entire career. It’s his second #1 vs. #2 game this season, and he’s fighting to qualify for a third. It’s his last regular season game. It’s his last game in the Horseshoe, his last opportunity to scamper on scarlet painted turf that’s been smudged by the footprints of a band that just marched “Script Ohio.” It’s the last time that he’ll be able to throw a TD pass to Teddy Ginn in front of a home crowd. It’s his last chance to play Michigan, his last opportunity to complete his legacy as the Wolverine killer. It’s the last chance he’ll have to win or lose the Heisman trophy.

The more “lasts” you can think of, the more you understand the danger that UM faces this Saturday. Simply put, the more serious Troy Smith gets about this game, the more assured it becomes that UM will lose. We could remove all the long-winded arguments in this post, leaving only two words: “Troy Smith,” and that would be enough to convince most people that OSU would win on Saturday.

Comments

  1. “Over his decade-plus reign at UM, no matter what kind of coaching staff Carr has had serving under him, he’s repeatedly shown himself to be a pretty bad big-game coach.”

    That is a strange statement to hear, even for a huge Buckeye Fan like myself. To recap his resume:
    -Beat OSU in each of his first 3 years, 6-5 all-time
    -Notre Dame: 4-4 all-time
    -Bowl Games: 5-6 all time
    -1997 “Judgement Day #4” beating #3 PSU 34-8
    -1998 Wins Rose Bowl and Nat. Champ over Wash St
    -2000 Wins Orange Bowl over Alabama
    and more recently
    -2005 Beat PSU (only loss for season by PSU)
    -2006 Dominated then #2 Notre Dame 47-21

    While not the best of all time, I don’t see how you make the statement that he’s a bad big-game coach.

  2. Thanks for the stats, JTin. You have some good points. Perhaps I overstated it a bit… my intention was to emphasize how good of a big game coach Tressel is compared to Carr.

    One thing I will point out, though, is some context to a lot of those numbers you provided.

    Carr is 50% on his bowl appearances… he’s 50% on ND (even through the worst teams in ND history), and he’s about to go 50% on OSU, (even though he coached through Cooper’s abysmal record).

    Also, his victory against PSU last year was, by all accounts and collective consensus, due to an official’s error (they accidentally gave UM an extra chance to win after PSU had won the game).

    So I’ll concede that I overstated it when saying he’s a “pretty bad big game coach.” But he’s certainly nothing special. Put it this way: If you were a football player, and could choose any coach you wanted to prepare for a huge game, would you choose Carr? I doubt he’d even be in the top five or ten coaches on your list to call. 🙂

  3. Ok. I might agree with your over all conclusion that OSU will win this game, but your logic in getting there is very flawed, if not nonexistent.

    “First, The Wolverines’ defense has not been spread out all season long. It has not faced a single spread offense.” – Really? Hmm….I think “experts” might disagree with your there. And calling OSU’s offense spread is crazy. Do they spread it out? Yes, but I-form, 2 TE sets are just as common. If they can’t run it, they won’t be spreading anything.

    “combined with the lack of speed in the secondary, makes UM very vulnerable there” – uh….I think a couple of guys in that slow secondary beat Ginn in races. Must be real slow.

    “OSU has essentially played UM already, during the Texas game earlier this year” – How you can equate a team that did not play defense and with a freshman QB that threw the game away to what will happen (and has happened) is just dumb. Sorry, but you either know nothing about football or are just trying to stir things up. That has to be the single dumbest comment about these comparisons yet.

    Wow….just wow

    Go Bucks….

  4. Jr –

    Lots of negativity, there. Only my wife is allowed to call me “dumb.” 😉

    I couldn’t help but notice, though, how after criticizing how poorly I argued my points, your own arguments were were terribly vague and poorly informed.

    >>I think “experts” might disagree with you there<< Really? Can you give me one example of spread offense that Michigan has played? What "experts?" Are we at MotSaG, who have been analyzing, comparing, and writing about OSU all season not "experts" on OSU football? >>And calling OSU’s offense spread is crazy.<< Are you serious?!? Have you watched a game? Four to five wideouts on most plays? You mentioned TE sets... do you know that OSU didn't start experimenting with double TE plays until just a couple of weeks ago, nine games into the season, when OSU's O-line started racking up injuries? Getting the FBs into the game has been a recent effort of Tressel's, too. He wants to develop as many weapons as he can as the season goes on. At any rate, what is your point, anyway? Do you disagree that OSU is capable of spreading UM out, and if so, why not? >>I think a couple of guys in that slow secondary beat Ginn in races. Must be real slow.<< Now you're just trolling. Check out how teams have taken advantage of UM's secondary all year, and then compare those WRs to OSU's. If Minnesota's Payne can get 104 yards and 2 TDs against UM, I'm pretty sure that the group of Ginn/Gonzalez/Robiskie/Harline/Small/Nichol/Ballard can do even better.

    >>How you can equate a team that did not play defense and with a freshman QB that threw the game away to what will happen (and has happened) is just dumb.<< "A freshman QB that threw the game away"? Wow. You're actually suggesting that OSU won that game because McCoy "threw it away." I'm just speechless there. At any rate, can you give me some reasoning as to why Texas and UM are not similar? I know that Texas imploded a couple of weeks ago, and McCoy's been hurt since. But as I pointed out, for the first 9 games of the year, UM and Texas were almost side-by-side in every offensive and defensive category, and had similar challenges on their schedule. Both had big games, (Texas against OSU and UM against Notre Dame). Both saw great running backs (Peterson and Hill). Both played against rivals (Oklahoma and MSU). And after all that, the numbers were nearly identical. Hey - I know more than anyone else how loser-y I can be. 😉 But don't just dismiss my point unless you have a valid argument to make in return. Just being vague & saying I'm "dumb" doesn't help me do a better job for you guys. If I'm wrong or incorrect, let me know and I promise I'll be the first to admit & fix it. Wow, everyone, tempers are flaring! It's OSU/Michigan week for sure!!

  5. First, I apologize. I didn’t mean to call you dumb….I really am sorry. I just think your points were less than legit. I wanted to keep my post short, so I did not, as you pointed out, offer many details, so I will.

    No spread offenses faced. Lets throw Michigan State, Northwestern, Indiana for starters. Not good, but that’s what they do (or try).

    On Ohio State Spreading out a team. Sure, 2, 3 or 4+ wide reciever sets are there, but so are they for so many teams that can hardly be called spread offenses. OSU also uses the 3 TE, the 3TE in an I, 3 Wr I, I 1 WR , I 2 WR. Calling them a true spread is a bit of a stretch, just like it would be calling Michigan one. Combo offense, sure. That’s what is so great. Mixing it up. My issue is that spreading them out may not be enough, if they can do it. There is a lot of speed in that front 7 and they haven’t seemed to notice other teams trying to spread them out. The LB and DE’s just keep coming.

    You mention teams throwing for yards against Michigan. Yes, that is true, but only becuase they have no other choice but to throw it down field. Linebackers tee up and the DE’s just run to kill the QB. Knocking out 3 quarterbacks in succession is no small feat and a little scarry. You point out how many yards Michigan gave up. Ok, they averaged giving up 201.5 per game through the air. OSU, 171.5 -that’s a grand total of 30 yards difference. Michigan is allowing 29.9 yds on the ground, OSU 90.2. Forcing teams to throw becuase they cannot run and giving up an average of only 30 more yards per game through the air! The secondary is not as soft as I think many of us would like to believe. Especially when you consider how much man2man they play.

    And let’s be honest, the Bucks haven’t exactly played any great secondaries this year. (Penn State @182 yds/game, Bowling Green @ 185 yds/game, Illinois @ 174.4 yds/game unfortunately the only ones in the top 50). What were the Bucs able to do against them? 115 through the air against PSU, 191 against BGSU, and mighty IU….108.

    As for the Texas game. They were over rated then, and they are over rated now. Beating Rice, North Texas, and the like does not make you good. Giving up over 300 through the air against any team that has an arm is even worse. Comparing them to Michigan, or many other teams, is a joke. And yes Texas threw that game away. A pick and a fumble, along with a puny 150 yds passing decided that game.

    Watch it again and be objective. It wasn’t so much that OSU played great as Texas just plain sucked. Texas’ reliance on the run without and real threat of a quick strike allowed the Buck secondary to roam and make plays, which they did. McCoy was allowed to grow against teams that were vastly inferior, but when faced with decent/good teams, he failed. Vince Young made that team. Without him they are 2nd tier this year.

    The Bucks have done a great job at scoring on turnovers. The deep threat is there but not used enough to be the trump. The speed in the secondary for Michigan is there with Trent and Hall is one of the best cover corners out there. There are opportunities to be sure, but to utterly dismiss it is dangerous, as is ignoring the turnovers they cause. We should know as it has saved us more than once this year.

    This should be a fight and I am looking forward to it and the victory to follow. I just think pointing out differences/advantages when the teams are so very similar in so many areas is a recipe for disaster.

    Again my appologies for being an ass…..

  6. Jr –

    You are not an a** at all. 😉 We’re quite happy that you stopped by; we always enjoy it when readers get involved in what we wrote.

    And I will admit that some… some… of my post may have been written in such a manner as to, ahem, “stir” things up a bit. After all, it is UM week, eh?

    Still, I respectfully disagree that McCoy was the reason that OSU won the Texas game. OSU got it done on offense, on defense, and on special teams. McCoy didn’t play defense that day… it was the Texas D that gave up three touchdowns and 270 yards passing (including 142 yards to Gonzalez alone).

    I’ll let your points stand for themselves. You’ve made some good ones. Everyone should read your comment – it is very insightful.

  7. Someone whose name will not be revealed cough JR cough…..seems to claim to be a Buckeyes fan. But his arguements on this topic seem to put him strongly in the anti-buckeyes fan club. Now I am not saying he is Bo Schembecklers Son or anything (all though he might be). I do however find it hard to believe that any BUCKEYE fan would have so much negative to say about why we think OSU will beat the scUM. Only a true Anti-Buckeye fan would disagree so fervently with every aspect of our post.

  8. Looks like JR argued pretty well against several of your points, but I wanted to add in one more stat. Lloyd Carr is 15-5 in games against teams ranked in the top 10. Im not positive that Tressel has the big game edge.

    Additionally, Michigan has played against spread attacks from Indiana, Northwestern, MSU, Central Michigan, Ball State, and Vanderbilt. None of those come close to the type of offense that OSU has, but they still count as spread offenses.

    Finally, Michigan is not similar to Texas. Texas was an explosive offense that beat up on weaker opponents. They escpaped against Nebraska and Texas Tech, while Michigan, much like Ohio State, hasn’t really been in a tight game all year. Michigan hasn’t even trailed in the 2nd half this year.

  9. Michigan Dan says

    You are an amatuer. Michigan’s most common set this season is a 3-3-5 Nickel. They used their base 4-3 defense once last week. Good research. So much for “stubbornly stick[ing] with the 4-3…” You Buckeye clowns cling to this phantom notion that Michigan can’t handle the spread. Nonsense.

    The real problem is your defense, whose inadequacies are concealed by that unit rarely having to play anything but a one-dimensional team coming from way behind.

    Roll the Biakabatuka tapes, boys. Warm you up for Saturday.

  10. AF – not sure where you got your info, but Carr is NOT 15-5 against teams in the top ten.

    In the past five years alone, Carr is 4-6 against top ten teams.

    Michigan Dan – how is that different than UM’s offensive inadequacies being concealed by a unit that has not played against a single decent defense all season? Goes both ways. Roll the Smith tapes from the past two years. Warm you up for Saturday.

  11. Article in USA today says Carr is 16-6 against the top10. If I recall he started out 10-0 or something, so it is not as good in recent years.

    http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2006-11-13-tressel-carr_x.htm

  12. Michigan Dan says

    sportsMonkey – “that has not played against a single decent defense all season.”

    Are you mad?

    First of all, Michigan has the second most difficult schedule according to the NCAA, while you have the 34th.

    http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2006/Internet/toughest%20schedule/ia_9games_cumm.pdf

    Second, Michigan has played the 7th and 13th ranked defenses in the country. Your highest is the 13th and your offense barely scored 10 points on them (Morelli gifted you the rest).

    I have never seen a case of a more overrated #1 than this OSU team. You have a great quarterback and a great head coach and an otherwise Top 15 team. This will be exposed on Saturday when your defense has to play more than 1/2 of 1 quarter.

  13. UM has never won a #1 vs. #2 matchup – What, are we 0-1?

    for comparison, OSU has 62 victories against number one teams – I call shenanigans!

    Michigan has been fortunate this year to keep themselves out of the “close” games (decided by a touchdown or less) that were their bane in 2005. Mostly, this is because UM has had an easier schedule in 2006. – I call shenanigans!

    but there’s no way the Michigan defense can stay in the 4-3 and not get eaten alive by the spread. – Michigan has used either the nickle or the 3-3-5 as much as the 4-3 this year.

    Continuing the Texas comparisons, the ‘Horns are a much, much better offensive team than the Wolverines – giggle

    OSU’s D-line is the best UM will see this year, and will get pressure on Henne, letting the linebackers either fall back into coverage or come forward to help stop Hart for a low YPA. As a result, Henne will probably have to outscore the OSU offense with his arm and feet to win the game. That’s just plain unlikely. – How come OSU hasn’t been able to keep anyone ELSE to a low YPA this year? You’re just making stuff up for fun now, aren’t you?

    Ginn, Gonzo, Robiskie, Hall, Hartline, Small, Nichol, and Ballard. Yes, Smith really does have that many weapons on almost every play. – Shenanigans! There’s only 5 eligible receivers on any given play, dumbnuts. And is OSU going to play with two offensive linemen?

    If UM wants to come out victorious, it will have to open up its offense and put a lot of points on the board. – There’s a lot of dumb things you say (see above) but this sums up the problem with your argument. Look, the reason that OSU leads in scoring defense is because their proven vulnerability to the run has been saved by the fact that they jump out to multi-touchdown leads and then play nickle all day long. If that happens, UM is in almost as much trouble as every other team that plays OSU. But if that doens’t happen, there’s no reason why UM will have to “open up the offense” – the idea that UofM’s offense needs to take risks becaus OSU will score a ton of points is simply assuming the answer. Sure, if OSU scores at will against UM, I will grant you that OSU wins the game. If UM scores at will against OSU, I think UM is in fine shape.

    I still think OSU has the advantage in this game. But the advantage is minor – and its at one position. Our 3rd DB versus your third WR. That’s it. If that doesn’t pan out for you, forcing Michigan to make serious adjustments for which OSU can then take advantage of those adjustments, then Michigan wins this game going away.

  14. Eric: Thanks for the link. There\’s some confusion between USA Today\’s numbers and those elsewhere (including the UM site). After digging, I calculated that against top 10 teams, Carr is 13-7. Almost all of those came in 96-99. From 2000 on, Carr is 4-6.

    Michigan Dan – The NCAA ranking is the aberrant ranking of the bunch. All other SOS rankings (including the ones the BCS uses) have UM down near 30. (Sagarin has them at 27).
    http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt06.htm

    Moreover, even though OSU is 48th and UM is 27th, they\’re numerical difference is 70.66 and 73.09. In other words, for all intents and purposes, pretty close. This means two things:

    (1) that UM\’s opponents\’ opponents have slightly better records than OSU\’s opponents\’ opponents. (Most of that comes from the crappy teams that Texas played against), and

    (2) UM has two away games against top 10 opponents this year (ND and OSU), while OSU splits it\’s top 10 games home (UM) and away (Texas).

    Hopefully, you see the fallacy of using SOS to predict victory. Just because your SOS is higher because you travel to OSU on Saturday, doesn\’t mean that it is more likely you will win that game.

    I\’ll lower myself to throw in this final shot: if the \”mighty\” UM defense can give up 300 yards and 26 points to Ball State, I think OSU can do the same or better. (And don\’t complain about how \”our backups were in.\” OSU\’s been playing backups from the second/third series of every game this year, and it\’s never given up that many points.)

  15. Eric: Thanks for the link. There’s some confusion between USA Today’s numbers and those elsewhere (including the UM site). After digging, I calculated that against top 10 teams, Carr is 13-7. Almost all of those came in 96-99. From 2000 on, Carr is 4-6.

    Michigan Dan – The NCAA ranking is the aberrant ranking of the bunch. All other SOS rankings (including the ones the BCS uses) have UM down near 30. (Sagarin has them at 27).
    http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt06.htm

    Moreover, even though OSU is 48th and UM is 27th, they’re numerical difference is 70.66 and 73.09. In other words, for all intents and purposes, pretty close. This means two things:

    (1) that UM’s opponents’ opponents have slightly better records than OSU’s opponents’ opponents. (Most of that comes from the crappy teams that Texas played against), and

    (2) UM has two away games against top 10 opponents this year (ND and OSU), while OSU splits it’s top 10 games home (UM) and away (Texas).

    Hopefully, you see the fallacy of using SOS to predict victory. Just because your SOS is higher because you travel to OSU on Saturday, doesn’t mean that it is more likely you will win that game.

    I’ll lower myself to throw in this final shot: if the “mighty” UM defense can give up 300 yards and 26 points to Ball State, I think OSU can do the same or better. (And don’t complain about how “our backups were in.” OSU’s been playing backups from the second/third series of every game this year, and didn’t give up that many points.)

  16. Eric,
    Thanks for finding the stat for me. I had to look it up myself and apparently I missed a couple of games.

    SportsMonkey, looks like I wasn’t that far off. I know that 16-6 isn’t quite as impressive as 15-5, but it still means Lloyd wins 72% of the time. Does THAT count as a big game coach?

    Im not saying that Carr has an edge over Tressel, or vice versa, but it seems to me that both coaches know how to win a big game.

    Im not sure what Tressel’s percentage is in games against Top Ten teams, but I am sure its very high. Probably very similar to the 10-0 start Carr had.

  17. Michigan Dan says

    AF, good points all. Let’s face it, Tressel is a great coach, and the reason the Bucks have been living large recently. In fact, if OSU wins this year, it will be a Tressel move that gets it done. It this all unfolds mano a mano on the field, Michigan wants it more and has the horses to take it.

  18. “First, The Wolverines’ defense has not been spread out all season long. It has not faced a single spread offense”

    WTF are you talking about? Michigan has played no less than SIX spread offenses – Vanderbilt, Central Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ball State, and Indiana. If you want to argue that UM hasn’t faced a spread offense with OSU’s talent, I can buy that, but that doesn’t seem to be what you were saying.

    Also – the poster above is wrong. Carr is 16-6 against teams ranked in the top ten at the time of the game.

  19. Monkey, you are stomping these UM supporters just like the buckeys will be doing on Saturday. Way to defend our home turf.

    Who cares if Llyod started 10-0 in games against top ten teams. What have you done for me lately? Answer: 4-6 in the last five years (as previuosly pointed out).

    AF, since you asked, Tressel is 9-2 agianst top ten teams over the same period.

  20. For clarification:

    The 4-6 (Carr) and 9-2 (Tressel) records include games versus top ten teams and OSU/Michigan (who were not necessarily ranked in the top ten when the game was played).

    Really, I just wanted to put those stats side by side again so I can admire the domination.

  21. Monkey,

    You’re really digging if you are going to try and use the Ball State game as a reference.

    First of all, the Michigan D didn’t give up 26 points in that game. They have up 17 and the safety and INT returned for a TD were the other 9 points.

    Second of all, it DOES matter that there were subs in. Unless of course you expect OSU and UM to play their 2nd and 3rd teamers on Saturday. Then the fact that the OSU subs have performed better may make a difference.

  22. I just hope it is a good game. I don’t want referee mistakes to make a difference, I don’t want weather to be a factor, I don’t want it to be a total blow out.

    I also want OSU to win!!!!!

Trackbacks

  1. […] Okay, you’ve seen why OSU will lose to Michigan. Now read why OSU will BEAT Michigan. […]

  2. […] Today’s discussion: Today’s topic features our post, which answers the question, “Who wins: Ohio State O or Michigan D?” (Interesting side note, but originally the question was “Who wins: Ohio State O or Rutgers D”. Was CSTV being snarky, prescient, or did they just make a mistake? You decide). Anyway, we fellow bloggers presented our arguments (many of which you can find in this post) for why OSU’s offense should be able to give the business to Michigan’s D. The counterpoint comes from Dave of Maize and Brew. While Dave’s description of some of the Michigan personnel may be a bit … hyperbolic … he does a good job of looking at matchups. He mentions using “Pat White” as a fullback, but I think he means “Stan White Jr,” whom he refers to later. Overall, minus the prediction of a Michigan victory, Dave makes some valid points. Advantage: Do we even have to ask? […]

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