Comments on: No overconfidence here

By: Men of the Scarlet and Gray » Blog Archive » Championship Week - Florida - Open Thread

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 12:27:04 +0000

[...] Are you even looking for analysis of this game? You could read ours, of course. The sportsMonkey did a great job on that. We’ve linked to Buckeye Planet and The O-Zone all year, so there’s no need to stop now. Always enlightening stuff there. Most bloggers have theirs up, which are always worth a read. You can check out Sean’s, Buckeye Banter’s, Jeff’s, Keith’s, Brian’s, and Pfef’s. Lots of good stuff to read. You won’t be doing anything else today, will you? I’ll be the first to admit, though, I’ve read enough analysis to make one’s eyes bleed. It’s all good stuff, believe me, but I’m through. I just want the game to be here, like now! [...]

By: Michigan Dave

Michigan Dave — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:34:57 +0000

Yeah. The layoff shouldn’t affect the exchange and Tressel is unlikely to go into “cram it down their throats” mode like he did at Illinois.

The game is OSU’s to win or lose. This one “should” be over at halftime unless OSU turns the ball over. Florida is definitely not an “elite” team. They lost by 10 to Auburn and had the execution not been so horrible by South Carolina, they would have dropped that game too. Their redzone offense is impotent and they can’t kick a field goal much beyond extra point range. Against this years OSU defense they shouldn’t get to 20 points without help. (Last year’s OSU defense would have had an honest chance at pitching a shutout.)

The Fla defense is good, but Troy Smith is a slice and dice master. It’s a beatdown unless the Buckeyes play Santa.

By: sportsMonkey

sportsMonkey — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 03:18:18 +0000

Mich Dave – you are right, there’s no elite team that could get as many TOs as UM did and not win… that’s why OSU will have to not make the mistakes it made against UM (which were aberrations, as far as the season is concerned). If they give Florida three TOs, then OSU will probably lose.

I seriously doubt the layoff will affect the center/QB exchange, though. Datish has been perfect all year, except for the UM game (which again, was odd), and Smith is pretty good at not throwing INTs. Most of OSU’s turnovers for the year came from Beanie Wells, so the question is whether or not he’s still got the butterfingers. Hard to predict. :-/

By: Michigan Dave

Michigan Dave — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:38:44 +0000

An OSU win would be great for the big ten. You have a good analysis, but what about turnovers? Any time you are -3 in turnovers, you are lucky if you win. Will the layoff affect the execution in the shotgun? I don’t know if OSU can have turnovers like that again and win the NC. If the buckeyes don’t turn the ball over they should win easily.