Freudian slip

Want more proof that ESPN is the source of the “SEC superiority” myth? Watch Chris Fowler as he calls the BCS poll the “SEC poll” without realizing it (slip-up is at the 1:15 mark):

A few of our commenters have noticed a trend occurring… OSU is playing a team with a lot of “talent,” that should “test” the Buckeyes. When that happens, “we’ll know what kind of team the Buckeyes have.” After dispatching said team, the ESPN folks say “Ohio State survived the test, but we won’t know until next week what kind of team they have.”

Obviously, it’s an canned line of reasoning, because the same things have been said each week for the past few weeks… again and again and again – it’s been said about Washington, Purdue, Michigan State, etc. How many weeks are we going to be told “we’ll see how good they are next week,” then watch OSU handily dispatch an opponent, only to cast doubt on the quality of the team’s dominance afterwards?

Herbie does it again at the end of the above video. “The OSU defense is playing like a #1 team, but we won’t know anything about the offense until next week.” Kirk, MSU came to Columbus with the 15th best offense in the country. Everyone agrees that MSU has a good offense, correct? Some ESPN analysts even predicted an upset, due to the strength of players like Ringer and Thomas. So, if OSU were to offensively outperform a team that everyone agrees is one of the best, wouldn’t it make sense to say that OSU’s offense one of the best as well?

And how did the Buckeyes do last Saturday? OSU goes out and has two players that individually outperform the entire MSU offense – Wells with 221 yards and Boeckman with 193 (compared to MSU’s 185 total). Yet, “we still don’t know how good OSU’s offense is.”

Put simply, the Buckeyes are perfectly capable of beating any team in the country, and probably would on a neutral field. The only question is whether or not the offense is mature enough to not beat itself, like was almost allowed to happen last Saturday.

Comments

  1. Yes–this is annoying. But they are all doing us a major favor; we need to remain “underdogs” in our own mind, and keep a chip on our shoulder all the way through January. These ridiculous commentaries by the pundits are simply keeping us fired up. As much as it hurts our pride as fans, the team needs this more than the sunshine we got last year.

  2. “So, if OSU were to offensively outperform a team that everyone agrees is one of the best, wouldn’t it make sense to say that OSU’s offense one of the best as well?”

    Seriously? The fact that the OSU defense shut down the MSU offense obviously says absolutely nothing about the OSU offense. This weekend, the OSU offense had an ok game against a mediocre defense. People want to see how they do against an above-average defense. Next weekend, they’ll get their chance.

  3. Well said!

    As for tiglath, you need some reading comprehenson skills.

    The OSU offense outperformed MSU’s offense. Period.

    And, offensive production is based on how well you overcome the other teams defense. OSU’s offense clearly overcame MSU’s defense.

    Wells had more yards rushing than the whole Spartan had offense. Boeckman had more yards passing than the whole MSU offense as well.

    MSU has a good defense, but not one of the top 15 defense’s so far. Either way, they had a top 15 offense, until they met the Buckeyes.

    And, many pundits predicted that MSU would upset the Bucks. No way that was going to happen. We dominated the line of scrimmage for the majority of the game. And scored when we needed too.

    Don’t forget, Tressel called the dogs off early, because Dantonio is a good friend of his.

  4. There’s another reason ESPN would say “next week is the test”…ESPN (or ESPN on ABC) has most of the Bucks games. What will bring in more viewers for the next big game – saying “OSU is dominant and will blow out everyone”, or saying “stay tuned next week for a big test showdown”?

    It would be hard for ESPN to hype up a game if they stated that tOSU is by far #1.

  5. tiglath –
    “This weekend, the OSU offense had an ok game against a mediocre defense.”

    Not sure if you knew this (it wasn’t advertised), but coming into the matchup last week, MSU had the #3 defense in the Big Ten, with numbers very close to Penn State’s.

    This included a horrendous game against NW, which is the only reason their stats were skewed in the first place. Against their other six opponents, MSU was performing at a top-five level. Their defense was a good one, which was proven by the fact that it rallied to score 14 points when the team was down. Not an elite defense, but a very, very good one nonetheless.

  6. “As for tiglath, you need some reading comprehenson skills…OSU’s offense clearly overcame MSU’s defense.”

    Don’t project your confusion onto others. Yes, OSU’s offense largely overcame MSU’s defense. The point is, that’s much easier to do than to overcome OSU’s defense, which is what the MSU offense was tasked with. The fact that the OSU and MSU offenses were playing against different defenses, makes direct comparison of their offensive production meaningless.

    “Not sure if you knew this (it wasn’t advertised), but coming into the matchup last week, MSU had the #3 defense in the Big Ten, with numbers very close to Penn State’s.”

    Whether MSU’s defense is “very, very good” is debateable, but regardless, that is completely different from your original point. And I’d assume that, whatever your opinion of MSU’s defense, you’d agree that OSU’s defense is substantially better. Therefore, you can’t meaningfully compare MSU’s offensive production last week to OSU’s, any more than you can compare Temple’s offensive production last week to MSU’s, and conclude that Temple has the better offense.

  7. tiglath –

    I appreciate your points.

    “The fact that the OSU and MSU offenses were playing against different defenses, makes direct comparison of their offensive production meaningless.”

    That’s a good point, but we can still compare offenses if they’ve played against a common opponent. Check out the offensive numbers from our “common opponent” post from last week, and you’ll see that OSU outperformed MSU against the exact same defense.

    I understand what you’re trying to say, but there’s no doubt… after considering the common opponent and seeing the two on the same field, it’s clear that OSU’s offense is better than MSU’s. True, the Buckeye defense made the Spartans look worse than they actually are, but it’s also clear that the MSU offense is a step down in quality from the Bucks.’

  8. To all,
    I will be at the game this Saturday w/ all my loser “JoePa” friends.
    I was there in 2005 during the last “white out”. There’s something about the acoustics there. I gaurantee this will be the loudest thing these kids will ever deal with. I was on an aircraft carrier when F-4’s took off and it wasn’t that loud.
    Regardless of the 1st 8 weeks this will determine if we are B10 and Nat’l champ material. Go Bucks!

  9. Andy Feyen says

    From Forde’s recent column:

    “The Buckeyes probably just need to win out to stay on top, but that doesn’t mean America would relish the sight of another sketchy Big Ten champ back in a game where it was humiliated last season.”

    Another implies that Pat Forde finds one of or both of the 2002 and 2006 Buckeyes to be “sketchy Big Ten champs.” Anybody want to take a shot at that one?

Trackbacks

  1. […] of the nation will be rooting for Ohio State to get “exposed”. Of course, if they win, the chatter will quickly turn to how bad of a team Penn State is, but what are you going to […]

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