Archives for October 2008

Perfect Disharmony

October 16, 2008 by 7 Comments

The mental state of the Buckeyes, re: the current state of Team Unity seems like it is at an all-time low. I read articles like this on the ESPN, and I don’t like what I see.

A rift could be developing in the locker room between older players — particularly wide receivers and tight ends — who remain loyal to Todd Boeckman, and those who side with freshman Terrelle Pryor.

Those who side with Terrelle Pryor? I thought these were the Ohio State University Buckeyes, not the Ohio State Pryors or the University of Boeckmans. This is a team. But it’s naive to think this isn’t going on. For one thing, it’s obvious that the Brians are not happy with the current state of the passing game. But is the QB “controversy” the reason?

Maybe. But it sure helps when receivers a) get open and b) catch the ball.

This is more a case of players getting frustrated with their own decreased roles. Thing is, Ohio State’s wide receivers and tight ends had a chance to make an impact before Tressel made the switch.

What’s this? Someone making sense of the situation? And they work for the ESPN? I don’t believe it! Rittenberg nails it. The offensive woes did not start when Terrelle took the reins. It just hasn’t dramatically improved yet, that’s all. He’s a freshman and needs time. (Ha! Asking college football fans to have patience makes me laugh (see: Michigan fans))

This is a theme going back to the 2007 title game. Fights breaking out in the locker room at halftime, players blaming each other. This does not foster trust. When your teammates come up to you and tell you “we owe you one,” it does not instill confidence.

All these distractions aren’t helping with a tough game coming up in three days.

Filed Under: Ohio State Football

The more things change the more they stay the same…

October 14, 2008 by 2 Comments

This was an echoing statement during the course of my entire trip back to old Columbus town this past weekend.

After the standard Northwest Airlines red-eye from Seattle to Columbus (via 4-fricken-hour layover in Detroit), I spent most of the day recovering from sleep deprivation, which is odd as I slept on both flights and generally gained more sleepy time than I would in a typical evening back in the Jet City. Some red-eyes are good and some are decidedly “no bueno.”

Friday marked the arrival of one of my buddies from Washington that decided he wanted to experience the finer points of Columbus, Ohio. Believe it or not there are plenty of things to do in this city…just that most of them revolve around a combination of sports and alcohol/food consumption.

Ohio State Ice Hockey

My “ladyfriend” (she loves it when I call her this…really) my buddy, and I headed down to Value City Arena for some OSU Ice Hockey. Whoa…what a way to start off the sporting weekend. The OSU Ice Hockey (sprinkled with a bunch of youngsters) took on the #8 team in the country and fierce rival, the Miami Redhawks. It was a game of momentum swings as OSU was up on Miami most of the game, but a late call on OSU gave Miami a 5-on-3 advantage and it was able to capitalize on the power play to tie the game to go into overtime. The game ended tied through overtime at 3-3. The game went to a shootout (new rule for this year), which OSU was able to win 3-1. Good times…an exciting game and things look on the up-and-up for the Hockey Buckeyes. For Markell’s sake, I hope this a good season (regardless of the team age factor…or where they were picked to finish in the CCHA this year), as his coaching future at OSU likely depends on a good season this year. By the way, Miami hockey fans…learn some original cheers. There is a reason OSU fans don’t do them, and that is because we don’t want to copy from Michigan, which copied them from Cornell. You guys sound like idiots. At least do something cool besides the “It’s all your fault.. It’s all your fault.” Maybe pull out a Wisconsin-esque that’s debatable and go across conferences. Maybe you guys can start the O-H-I-O around the football stadium on Big Ben Appreciation Day with that capacity crowd of 2,500.

Next topic…

Saturday was the standard trip to Northstar Café for yummy breakfast goodness (Did you ever notice they never make enough Ham-and-Cheese scones at that place?). Skull Session Entrance for the band. Over to Hineygate for some liquid libations and onward to the stadium for the “band” stuff. It was interesting to bring someone out here that had no idea what a gameday was like in Columbus and the utter chaos of pre-gaming and Hineygate and the crazy fanaticism involved with the OSU Marching Band. I kept mentioning the activities that we needed to see and that involved the band, which brought the looks of ‘seriously?’ I guess some of may take for granted the greatness of the OSU Marching Band at that a lot of schools don’t have the type of love for it’s band (ahem…Washington).

OSU Football

Oh yeah..that’s right there was a little event that took place on Saturday, as well. OSU and Purdue played a game of who’s offense was more inept for 4 quarters. Purdue won, but not for a lack of OSU trying it’s best. The defense and the special teams were fantastic for the Buckeyes. The offense seemed to have a Ro-Shambo session with itself every time it got inside of the 20-yard line and field goals seemed to be the main course of the day. I would be remiss if I did not mention the blocked punt by Mr Jenkins and resulting touchdown by Etienne Sabino in the first quarter. Outside of the offense (sounds like the entire team has the flu right now…especially on the offense) and pretty solid defense, the only disappointment that I had with the game was the fake field goal that stopped by a whistle in the second quarter. From our seats, it looked like AJ had so much room to run, he probably could have “speed-walked” for a first down. Terelle Pryor looked meh on this day. You can tell that he wants to throw the ball, but the defenses are starting to take away the quick slant or at least minimizing it’s effectiveness, as there were a few times that the Purdue linebackers and D-Backs were waiting for the receiver to catch it and not allowing the OSU wide receivers to make a play. Terelle’s play is a double-edged sword right now. We all want him to become an actual Quarterback, but if he sees a lane that he can exploit from any formation…he needs to take it sometimes. The designed QB runs are awkward (even the option looked decidedly worse this week, which should improve when Beanie gets rid of the sniffles and Herron gets the cobwebs cleaned out of his head).and you just wish that a little 2005 Troy Smith would crawl into TP’s head. 2005 Troy Smith’s ad-hoc running ability is what opened up the intermediate passing routes and allowed to him exploit both the underneath and 12-17 yard route with more regularity as the season progressed. Michigan State will be a challenge…especially if this weekend’s offense shows up next weekend.

Postgame activities included a “long” stop at one of the few remaining bars that actually stills existed from my times in Columbus…The Stube. Same bathrooms…Same 12-15 songs on the jukebox….Same beer prices. Same smell…and of course…same Stube magic.

Good to be back in cowtown with family and friends…even on a limited basis…

Other weekend observations:

  • The Columbus Bluejackets started off the weekend right by spoiling the season opener for the Dallas Stars (who are pretty good…but Marty Turco is still a bag of douche) on Friday and showed signs of being on a back-to-back on Saturday when they lost to the Coyotes (who are teh suck).
  • Michigan…moving on…Amstutz was given a lifetime supply of Tony Packo’s for this accomplishment.
  • A big shout out to Wisconsin for mailing in it’s season after losing a tough one to the Buckeyes last weekend. I am not even sure why they bothered showing up for this one. At least put up a fight on your home turf…gutless.Penn State is a good team, but they are not that good..imo.
  • Talk about paper-champions. Mizzou had that deer-in-headlights look (Us Buckeye fans are familiar with that look, see BCS Championship game film from 2006 and 2007) against Okie State on Saturday evening. They got punched in the face and the plan went straight out the window. I may be the only person that thinks this way, but as soon as Mizzou was behind in the game I pretty much knew that Okie State was going to win. Call it body language…call it Chase Daniels waiting for someone to spit on him…whatevah…
  • Looks like dreams can come true. Washington State lost to Oregon State eleventy-billion to three. The “0-fer” Apple Cup to decide the Pac-10 basement is one step closer to becoming a reality.
  • It has been a few years since OSU and Texas squared off in Austin, but it was nice to see Colt McCoy get a much deserved win against Oklahoma. Cant help but feel good for that team, which was getting no press leading up until this game.
  • Finally, there have been a few articles about some of the players wanting to see Boeckman in there from time to time. I’m not against it, but not sure if it sends the right message to Pryor at this point in his development.

~YNBA~

Filed Under: Blogging, Ohio State Football, Ohio State Hockey

Purdue Game Cheers and Jeers

October 14, 2008 by 7 Comments

I’m going to be straight with you — I really didn’t pay much attention to the Purdue game. Sure, I watched the game, but I wasn’t really watching it. It all started when the renobs at ABC muffed the punt and exposed us all to the Horror that is Notre Dame football. Keep that trash over on NBC. So thanks to ABC, I missed Michael Jenkins special teams punt block and consequently the only TD of the day.

Nevertheless, some nuggets can be gleaned from Saturday’s non-performance. Time to pass out the Cheers and Jeers.

Before we get started, let me start out with a couple disclaimers: I am an optimist. I love the way Brian chastised his fellow fans: “Sports suck sometimes, especially when you care so much about something you control not at all.” And Massey’s little phrase “Become unnecessarily upset because of amateur athletics if…” Both of these encapsulate the way I feel. I am an eternal optimist and find it hard to criticize young men that are really just as frustrated as we, as fans, are. That being said, I am still able to recognize areas that are lacking and can benefit from improvement. Let’s start with the Jeers:

Jeers

Offensive line – Let’s get this one out of the way. Something drastic needs to happen (and may be happening). It’s clear the unit as now constituted is not gelling and getting no push. This line is not cutting it against anyone. Now would be the time to give the younger kids their chance, but injuries are preventing that right now.

Coordinators – I’m not a fan of placing a large portion of the blame on coaches, because in the end, it’s all about execution. But I can only beat that drum for so long. After a while, I’m left convincing nobody but myself. These guys up in the booth are not amateurs. They are the ones being paid. They are the ones that deserve the scorn and blame when things stagnate. And right now, the offense is quickly becoming overrun with algae and pond scum.

Creativity – And here’s the crux. Get these guys a craft table. Seriously, where is the creativity? The imagination? Watching the Texas/OU game, I was jealous seeing defenses attack, offenses consitently have success and actual excitement. Something currently lacking right now on our sidelines.

Cheers

Defensive line – We’ve been harsh on the front four this year, and it’s warranted. They haven’t been playing very inspired thus far. You lose a guy like Vernon and there’s going to be a drop-off. But we don’t have run-cloggers up the middle which causes problems for the LBs. We need push up front and we really haven’t been getting it. We finally got pressure on a QB this week and it was good to see Silver bullets in the backfield.

(Again, broken record and all, but we sure could go for some creativity with the d-line play. Some twists, some stunts, SOMETHING)

Malcolm Jenkins – Of all the seniors that came back, Jenkins has had the biggest impact, and has become The Man the last couple of games. Good on #2.

Etienne Sabino – Of all the freshmen this year (besides you-know-who), I was most excited to see what Etienne Sabino could do. While he’s seeing limited time on D, he’s been making a name for himself on special teams. A TD doesn’t hurt. Keep it coming.

Who are you passing the cheers and jeers out to?

Filed Under: Ohio State Football Tagged With: ,

Stiff Arm of the Week

October 13, 2008 by 5 Comments

Silly Beanie, stiff-arms are for faces!

Filed Under: Ohio State Football Tagged With:

Peca update

October 13, 2008 by Leave a Comment

cbjlogonew.jpgIn the Jackets’ opener against the Dallas Stars, center Michael Peca was tossed out of the game. The NHL has suspended Peca indefinitely for violation of Rule 41, Physical Abuse of the Officials, category 2.

So what’s Peca’s side of the story? Via the Dog-patch:

“The only contact was me grabbing his arm to slow him down,” Peca said, “because he was skating away and I wanted to plead my case.

“They’ve claiming I hit (a) linesman with my stick after I hit the glass with it, which is completely false.”

Peca was apoplectic at the fact that the officials not only saw him get slew-footed by Morrow on a 5-on-3 (video here, the event occurs at the 04:15 mark), but that they continued to ignore the infraction even though Morrow was the one who scored the goal immediately after, while Peca was scrambling to get up and back into position.

The FSN coverage did not capture Peca’s confrontation with the officials, but a Dallas fan’s video did:

You can see Peca arguing his case starting at the 1:15 mark (right after the vid goes blurry and comes back into focus again). The video is a bit blurry and jumpy after the goal, but if you watch Peca, you can clearly see him skate around behind the net and tug on the official’s jersey to get his attention. Only someone using his wildest imagination would perceive this as a violent act against the official.

Here’s the best frame grab I could pull off (again, you can see this better in the video at ~1:16):

Not as clear as FSN high-def, that’s for sure, but clear enough to see that Peca did not “hit a linesman with his stick.”

Here’s a frame from a moment later, when he had skated in front of the officials:

It’s blurry, but you can see from this picture that:

  • Peca is not near the glass, so his stick could not have “bounced” off the glass and into an official.
  • Peca’s stick is being held in his left hand, with the blade on the ice by his right foot. He also appears to be be pointing up with his right hand (perhaps as if to say, “check the replay!!”)
  • It actually appears that the official’s hand is making contact with Peca. FWIW.

I suddenly feel like I’ve gone all Zapruder on you, and I don’t want to come off as if I condone violence against officials (well, officials not named Kowal, anyway). But it’s a shame that this is the situation that the league is using to exemplify the ref-protection rules. It’s the definition of “ticky-tac.”

Had this been a minor penalty, or even a game misconduct, it wouldn’t have been that big a deal. But to accuse a player of hitting you with his stick — when it didn’t happen — just because you were irritated when he tugged on your shirt sleeve is dishonest at best and malicious at worst. Furthermore, attempting to enforce a 10 game suspension on him just wrong.

Peca has appealed the ruling, which will be heard this week. Here’s hoping he comes back soon – the Jackets have suffered a bit in his absence (especially on PK duty).

Filed Under: Blue Jackets Hockey

2008 Blogpoll Ballot, Week #7

October 13, 2008 by 3 Comments

Rank Team Delta
1 Texas 4
2 Alabama 1
3 Penn State 3
4 Oklahoma 3
5 Florida 9
6 Southern Cal 3
7 Oklahoma State 9
8 Texas Tech —
9 Georgia 2
10 Brigham Young 3
11 Missouri 9
12 LSU 8
13 Ohio State 3
14 Michigan State 3
15 Utah 2
16 North Carolina 5
17 Kansas 1
18 Virginia Tech 1
19 Boise State 4
20 Pittsburgh 4
21 California 5
22 South Florida 3
23 Wake Forest 3
24 Ball State 2
25 Vanderbilt 13

Dropped Out: Georgia Tech (#20), Northwestern (#22), Florida State (#23).

We’re Bullish on: Texas, Oklahoma State, and Florida.

We’re Bearish on: Vandy, LSU, and Missouri.

We can’t make up our mind on: BYU (seriously, SYR who have they beat?), Ohio State (SO FRUSTRATING to be a fan right now), and Cal (one week there off our radar, all of a sudden they’re #21?)

Let us know what you think. Even though we do our own little mini-poll before we submit our ballot, we are always open to constructive criticism. (Just note that I’m never wrong)

Oh, and I wanted Minnesota. If you think they belong, let everyone know how right you and I are!

Filed Under: Blogpoll

Week #7 Open Thread

October 11, 2008 by 12 Comments

We’re getting this one going early, there are a lot of great games going on today, so I figured we’d fire the engines up right as College Gameday on ESPN (sponsored by the GMC On-Star Drink by Drink Navigation System powered by Dr. Pepper on the EA Sports Screen presented by Frank Caliendo) gets started.

Let’s have a great day of football!

Update: Why is there Notre Dame football on my ABC station?!

I am so canceling my subscription to ABC. (Actually, I think something is up with ESPN)

Anyway, as sportsMonkey mentioned, Ohio State scored on a blocked punt none of us got to see, and now we’re back in business. I’ll be doing my semi-live updates from here.

But before we go any further, good on Texas for making Oklahoma play all four quarters, something they haven’t done all season long.

Who is this Minnesota team, and what have they done with the Real Gophers?

And once again, it’s time to LOL at the LOLverines. Can they beat anyone from Ohio?

Halftime

OSU: 13
Purdue: 0

This is a boring game. I hope things change in the second half.

Third Quarter

OSU: 13
Purdue: 3

Someone has got to register Beanie’s arms as lethal stiff-arming devices.

Final

OSU: 16
Purdue: 3

An ugly win is still a win, but that was not pretty. There’s a lot to be gleaned from this game, but I don’t feel like doing it right now. I’m going to have a nice dinner with the missus and pretend we won 36-3.

Filed Under: College Football

Jackets start the season with an OT victory

October 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

cbjlogonew.jpgCBJ 5, Dallas 4

Great way to start the season, folks. The Jackets totally owned the first period; the Stars the second; both teams shared the third. With 20 seconds left in OT, Nash takes a perfect pass from Chimmy and executes a mach 1 snapshot to get the two points.

Nail biter? Yes. But overall, it was a very positive performance from everyone, especially the new faces. Voracek got the first goal of the season, and Commodore was an absolute force on the blueline, with a couple of all-star hits (the worst of which was laid on that scumbucket Avery). I like Commodore… he’s deceptively big (6’5″, 228 lbs.). I’m looking forward to watching him this year.

Now, the bad news: the Jackets again struggled, going 0-fer on power plays again. Peca was given a 10 minute and a game misconduct for arguing with a (blind) official, who did not call a penalty when Peca was slew footed in front of the net on a Dallas 5 on 3. Peca attempted to get re-set, but was unable to get back into the defense before the puck went into the net.

But hey, the Jackets beat the Stars for only the second time in the last 19 tries, and did it in front of a hostile 100% capacity Stars crowd. The only reason the game was close was due to the Jackets’ mistakes of the second period, with three PKs back-to-back (including two 5 on 3s) and losing Peca. Those types of discipline issues are coachable, though. And while the new faces were establishing their identities, it was the veterans who stepped in when the team needed it most (OT).

Tomorrow Hitch will take a tired team to Phoenix, and hopefully to another road victory.

Filed Under: Blue Jackets Hockey

Week #7: Purdue University – Open Thread

October 10, 2008 by 22 Comments

Separation Saturday. Veritable college football mana, sent from the Lord on High Himself, to sate his unworthy children on this great Saturday in Febtober.

That’s great and all, but this is a Buckeye Blog. We will keep a watchful eye on those teams above us. And that’s all. It’s all about the Purdue Boilermakers and that really big bass drum. Seriously. That thing is huge.

So what is there to look for in this game? Youth. After the carnage from OSU’s helmet-to-helmet collision with Wisconsin last week, it looks like we’ll be seeing more freshmen this game. This season was supposed to be the Year of the Senior. Turns out, we were all a few years early.

So what about those Boilermakers? How about some data? Buckeye Planet has their thorough preview up, as does The O-Zone.

Do the Boilermakers have a chance? Their fans don’t seem to think so, looking at what they think the keys to their victory are. Jeff at the BBC warns of a trap game.

The line sits at 19 (at least last time I checked). What say you?

Your prediction could win you a copy of Woody Hayes’ Ohio State Buckeyes on DVD (Available to the losers non-winners at Amazon.comand A&E TV). If your prediction is the closest to the final score, you win! Deadline for entry will be Saturday at 3:30 PM EDT. Former contest winners are not eligible. Lo siento.

(In the case of a tie-breaker, pick a winner of the OU/Texas game)

el Kaiser’s prediction:
I’ve been predicting offensive explosions lately, so I’m playing this one close to the vest. I still think OSU wins big, but they don’t cover.

OSU: 27
Purdue: 13

sportsMonkey’s predictions:
I have two: one that assumes Tresselball will continue in C-bus for the remainder of the year; and one that speculates that the reason for the vanilla schemes over the past month is temporary, and only due to Beanie’s injury and Pryor’s inexperience.

If it’s “I’m playing Tresselball”:
OSU: 27
Purdue: 13 (late TD in garbage time)

If it’s “Pryor has developed ahead of schedule and we should get him more practice with a wider playbook”:
OSU: 44
Purdue: 3

Filed Under: Ohio State Football

Birth of a Stiff Arm

October 9, 2008 by Leave a Comment

This first person to receive punishment from the Stiff Arm of Justice®? Beanie’s older brother:

He was a 6-year-old playing on his first pee-wee team, and the stiff arm came to him as naturally as running. That was bad news for his 7-year-old brother, Joey, the first recipient.

Want a tip on how to avoid the SAoJ? Attack, attack, attack. This, unfortunately, was something Shane Carter did not do:

“He didn’t attack me, so I attacked him,” Wells said.

Attacked him with a deadly weapon.

Filed Under: Ohio State Football Tagged With:
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