Ah, well…

OSU FootballJust following up el Kaiser’s analysis with a few thoughts of my own.

I know I might not speak for all of us here at MotSaG, but if you’ve gotta lose…

…you want to lose like that.

To a better team.

To a team that played above its own capability, a team that played as a single unit, a team that played clean football, and a team that executed a near-perfect game plan.

You don’t want your team to lose because of some gimmicky trick plays, you don’t want them to lose because the officials stole the game, you don’t want them to lose to a dirty team, and on and on and on.

I know it might be hard for Buckeye nation to accept, but the fact is that OSU’s defense gave up 80 points in the last 8 quarters of the season. Clearly, the young, inexperienced defense, that had performed above expectations through most of the season, began to get worn down after 13 games. Something in OSU’s films proved useful to Carr and Meyer.

Offensively, we have to admit this hard fact: Tressel got outcoached. When the time came for offensive adjustments, he refused, even panicked; after the most dangerous weapon on his team was sidelined. Once Ginn went out, Meyer doubled Gonzo and ordered a zone blitz on every play, and the OSU coaches did not adjust with a single quick toss, reverse, draw, screen play, or anything else that is designed to work against the defenses that Urban was using. Tressel, et. al. stuck with the seven-step zone read, until it was too late to try anything else, and Smith paid the price.

And can someone please take Alex Boone out to the Gitmo barracks and give him a code red?

But I’m starting to dive into analysis, here; and that it was I wanted to avoid.

Simply enough: Florida was better, the BCS worked again, and as soon as the disappointment wears off, I’m sure this OSU team will still be remembered as something to be quite proud of.

Congrats to the Gators. Congrats to Urban Meyer, who is no doubt the primary candidate for the OSU coaching job if Tressel goes to the Browns (not that I’m starting any rumors or anything!).

So comes to a close the Tressel and Smith era; just as the Matta and Oden era begins. Ah, the life of a Buckeye fan!! Still better than rooting for anyone else.

Comments

  1. Well, your prediction of Troy Smith domination certainly didn’t come true. Has there ever been a more disappointing performance in a bowl game by a Heisman trophy winner? Where are all of the people who were anointing him the next great NFL QB? He will be lucky to be picked on the first day.

  2. threadogie says

    This proves how screwed up the BCS is in allowing over hyped and over rated teams like the Buckeye’s and Irish in bowls at the cost of true champions like Boise State. It’s a cancer to our national sports interests and only serves the corrupt merchandising machines of these universities.

  3. threadogie – Are you saying that OSU was overrated and shouldn’t have been in the BCS Title game? Wow, that’s mind boggling. They were undefeated, beating the #2 team (at the time) twice.

    That is what you’re saying, right? That Boise State and Florida should have played? Incredible.

  4. threadogie – you lost your point when you compared OSU to the Irish.

  5. yall got your ass whipped and thats that hookem horns baby

  6. The trolls sure come out of the woodwork when we lose don’t they, been waiting for this all season haven’t you guys?

    Since I’m not a sore loser I’m not blaming the 51 day layoff as the reason we got beat but it’s just a reasonable if not more reasonable an argument for the outcame as we were overhyped and undeserving.

    Quite frankly if we had this precious tournament so many of you beg for, our National Champs wouldn’t have even been in the game. Little nugget of info, the teams in the final game of a tournament are the ones who didn’t lose or lost the least. So if we retroactively applied the records to a tournament system our National Championship game didn’t even include Florida, it was Boise State vs Ohio State.

    Ohio State got beat, and beat soundly you can say what you will whether your a Buckeye fan or a Buckeye hater but one thing you can’t say is Ohio State didn’t belong in that game.

  7. They should rename this video, “How it Feels to be an OSU Fan”.

  8. >>Quite frankly if we had this precious tournament so many of you beg for, << Great point, EarthViper. I would also add one more thing: OSU made it to the title game. I think it's odd that Boise State/Texas/UM fans are trolling OSU sites, taunting the fans, when their teams didn't make it. I'd rather go and lose, than not be good enough to go at all.

  9. Congrats on a great season, Bucks. VERY good analysis of how this went down, SportsMonkey. I kept wondering when Tressel was going to do something to keep those Fla guys from pinning their ears back on EVERY play.

    I can see what he was aiming for: a lightning strike that would scare Fla into being more conservative, which would have opened up the running game. But without Ginn, that lightning’s obviously harder to come by.

    I’m a Notre Dame fan, and the way the Bucks performed in Ginn’s absence reminded me of a 1990 (maybe 1991?) game between the Irish and Michigan. Rocket Ismael was tearing Michigan up in the first half, but went down with an injury. Whe the Irish returned for the second half, they were completely lost without him and they lost th game.

    Anyways, good season. And it’s nice to see a place where OSU fans are keeping it clean. A lot of the posters on the ND sites are just polluters, and that just sucks.

  10. I will maintain that if the two teams swapped coaching staffs, the Buckeyes would have won yesterday. That’s how horribly coached this game was. The injury to Ginn was a tough break, but staying with an offense that only works with Ginn on the field was a self-inflicted wound. And as for the 4-quarter prevent defense, I’d have to say that was a mistake as well.

  11. threadogie says

    el Kaiser~
    What I’m saying is that in a better system than the BCS, say a playoff situation you’d have more of these hyped teams like the Irish, Wolverines and Buckeye’s get knocked off in the earlier rounds giving the chance for the Cinderella type story like Boise State to unfold. A new system also might help the Big Ten because instead of 32 Bowls (a third of which we don’t give a flying crap about) we’d have say half that many of the best teams playing in various cities across the nation keeping physically in game form. Note how flat those Buck’s looked. Instead of allowing the hype to build for 50 days we’d had this all over by New Years Day. As an example we could have teams like USC in a playoff games in Indianapolis and rotating the NC game to various national regions.
    The old bowl system is an outdated relic from years gone by when teams took trains out west for a rewarding winter vacation. Times have changed.

  12. Michigan Dave says

    The NC game was probably an aberration. If the teams played again a dozen times I doubt that it would happen this way twice. Now we are hearing sweeping statements about the SEC ( a conference that is 1-3 against the Big 10 this year).

    The adjustments were poor and that soft zone is the intellectual property of the ‘05 Michigan defense. There should be a royalty check on its way to Ann Arbor right now.

  13. threadogie – I respectfully disagree… if there’s anything that this bowl season taught us, it’s that the “cinderella” teams would have NO CHANCE in a playoff. The playoffs would be dominated by the “few big schools” even more than the bowl games are now.

    Seriously… I know Boise St. ended up with the victory, but there’s no way a school like Boise could put back-to-back games together like that, as would be required of them in a playoff system. It took four weeks of hard practice and perfecting trick plays just to play well enough to take Oklahoma into overtime! And Oklahoma is not among the nation’s elite this year.

    Had we been in a playoff, Boise St. would have faced an even better team just a few days later. Imagine the shock that would go through the Boise locker room, if their ecstasy over beating Oklahoma, for whom they had prepared for an entire month, was interrupted by news that just four days later they would have to take on USC to get to the next round.

    The bowl system is the only way “cinderella” teams have a shot to finish near the top of the polls. If NCAA goes playoff, then teams like Boise State & Wake Forest can say goodbye to whatever chances they have of winning a championship. All the $$ would be hoarded by the Pac 10, Big 10, Big 12, and SEC (which happens now, but not to the extent it would under a playoff).

    Until then, they’ll have to earn respect like all the other schools do. Lots of folks don’t think it’s fair that everyone “automatically” respects USC, UM, OSU, etc. while teams like Boise St. don’t get it. But all those other schools have earned that respect over decades of consistent domination. Boise St. is making a name for itself. If it keeps plugging away, then it will earn its shot. It finished top five this year, and if it picks up where it left off, each year it gets closer and closer to making a title run.

  14. threadogie says

    sportsMonkey~I understand your arguement, a friend also pointed out the preparation part, the subjecting of kids to more possible injury before they hope to turn pro. It’s a difficult situation because it’s a cruel game unlike basketball to an extent.
    Having said that, there are many people who are unhappy with the current system. I would imagine someday the BCS will again be modified somehow to try and address these issues. At some point in the future we will look back at the present system and view it as very primative. Someone will come up with better ideas. I for one would like to see a BCS bowl in Detroit or Indy in my lifetime.

  15. >>I for one would like to see a BCS bowl in Detroit or Indy in my lifetime.<< Amen, threadogie. IMO, the biggest flaw in the bowl system is that the games always take place in good venues with perfect weather, where the regular season has nothing like that. It'd be really fun to watch schools duke it out somewhere where it's cold, or snowing, or raining, etc. Imagine a BCS title game held in Lambeau field, on January 8th. That would be an old-school football game worth watching.

  16. Woody Hayes says

    Hey, anybody have one of those handy dandy reset buttons?

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