Archives for September 2010

Time for the Numbers! I love it. Your father loves it. Your Aunt Neda watches it every night in the VCR.

Presented without comment. Just for clarification: Illinois’ 100% red zone is based on NINE trips to the red zone. Ohio State has 18 touchdowns scored in the red zone.

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.

For the first four weeks of the season I have heard, week after week, from my fellow Buckeye fans the same questions and concerns. What is wrong with the run game? Why doesn’t Berry get more carries? What is wrong with Saine and Herron?

My answer to my fellow Buckeyes is complex lol no it isn’t it is simple. Here goes nothing:

This is nuts. We are 14th in the nation in rushing offense — ahead of MSU, which is a rush first offense. We average 240 yards a game rushing. This is not a RB issue. We are a team and we use a stable of RBs to get the job done. We have a feature back in the Eddie George/Beanie Wells type players in Terrell Pryor. We have scat backs and power backs and receiving backs. Who cares if it isn’t the same person doing all that. As a TEAM the rushing game is just peachy keen, better than most in the Big 10 and Country. If and when we get in a tough game where we need a big running game to help us win there is no doubt we will see a heavy load of Saine and Herron. We just haven’t needed to do that and hopefully never will. We are a pass first offense this year but the rushing game isn’t being ignored. A well balanced team is the best you can hope for — 266 yards a game passing and 240 a game rushing seems pretty awesome to me.

This brings up the point of the day for me — OSU fans nitpicking and never being happy and expecting the worse to always happen. Most OSU fans are glass half empty people. Smile, OSU fans, enjoy the season be happy. The problems that people seem to have with the team are mostly unfounded blown up small situations. Yet some of you week after week act like this team is as bad as Minnesota or Purdue. Step back and look at the big picture of this team and maybe you will find your happy place.

The last time Ron English was inside Ohio Stadium the results were very similar. In 2006 he was the defensive coordinator for the Michigan Wolverines. It was a matchup of 1 versus 2 and the winner would go to the National Championship. Back then English’s defense gave up over 500 hundred yards and 42 points and propelled Troy Smith to a Heisman trophy.

On September 26^th, 2010 Ron English was spotted giving that famous old fashioned Michigan Try.

Ohio State in their game against Eastern Michigan amassed 645 yards of total offense and 73 points and quarterback Terrelle Pryor accounted for 6 touchdowns, 4 threw the air, 1 on the ground and 1 receiving touchdown thrown by his old high school team mate Jordan Hall.

Ohio State’s offense is not what it used to be. At the end of last year, they were a run first power football team that averaged over 200 yards per game and threw the ball under twenty times per game. Terrelle Pryor then had a huge pre bowl practice and the “light” went on. We all saw what he did in the Rose Bowl.

Since then, Ohio State has turned into a pass first offense. The offensive priority is as follows:

1. Pryor pass/run option
2. His #1 priority is to throw the football
3. His #2 priority is to run the football if no one is open
4. Running game with tailbacks

This may or may not be popular with Buckeye fans, but the results are stunning:

Ohio State has also implemented a hurry-up offense, which puts even more pressure on a defense. It also allows Terrelle Pryor’s instinct to take over. The results have been impressive. Personally this is what I’ve been waiting for ever since Pryor came to town. I thought he would be most effective given the pass/run option and because Ohio State has taken off the Pryor cuffs this offense has been nearly unstoppable.

Okay, that is the good from the Ohio State offense, let’s take a look at the bad, the running back situation.

Boom Herron isn’t “bad,” he’s just REALLY average. Brandon Saine is a weapon out of the backfield, but he is an inconsistent runner at best. Let’s take a look at the production of each back yesterday and see what sticks out:

We have established the change in Ohio State’s offensive philosophy, but with the Big Ten schedule a week away Ohio State needs to find someone other than Superman to run the ball.

Draw your own conclussions from the above data. I come away thinking that Hall and Berry need far more touches every game and Saine needs less. Discuss…

The defense was gashed by playaction… badly. On the first drive for Eastern Michigan they had a dropped bomb off playaction and as the game went on, all three of their touchdown drives came off devastating playaction passes. Something I’m sure offensive coordinators around the Big Ten will be looking at. And something Ohio State better get corrected before Wisconsin. They live off Playaction and they can actually run the ball, unlike Eastern Michigan.

It wasn’t all bad for the defense:

Big Johnathan Hankins recorded his first sack of his career, hopefully the first of many.

I don’t know about you, but I’m having trouble believing the season is already almost a third of the way over. I guess my dad was right – the older you get, the faster time goes by.

Of course, my dad probably can’t believe it’s already 2010 – for him he just saw Back to the Future in theaters.

A brief digression – can you believe that Back to the Future is already 25 years old? Put it another way – when I was born, The Godfather was only 15 years old. I’m depressed. Moving on…

This weekend marks the return of former TTUN defensive coordinator Ron English to the Horseshoe. He was last seen getting canned by the Wolverines after the 2007 campaign. Or “the year they lost to App State. AHHHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!” in the parlance I prefer.

EMU's coach gives you his evaluation of his 1-4 record against the Buckeyes as a defensive coach at TTUN

As el Kaiser made very clear the other day, this is a game that the Buckeyes should dominate. Personally, I’m thinking they actually might. Normally, this kind of game is one where the Buckeyes come out flat, looking hung over and disinterested, and the game usually ends up being more exciting than it should be for a while.

Of course, normally last week would have been a week like that, not to mention the opener against Marshall. We know how that turned out. Cam Heyward,  Tyler Moeller, et al proceeded to pour pudding on the opposing offenses’ heads much like O’Doyle in Billy Madison. Also they beat the ever-loving crap out of them. I don’t enjoy dipping into hyperbole – mainly for jinx avoidance reasons, but this defense is as mean and dominating as any I can remember. I’ve gone out of my way over the last few weeks trying to come up with a group of Silver Bullets past that I can remember being so nasty.

The offense? We’re not doing so badly there either. It would be nice if Brandon Saine would go ahead and finish testifying against the mob boss, though. That’s the only logical explanation I can think of for his absence the last few weeks – he must be in witness protection. Somewhere in Idaho there’s a 6′ 1″, 220 lb man cleaning floors in an elementary school, talking about how he used to run by opposing defenses so fast one might think he was flying. In Columbus – I mean, Kansas.

The special teams.

Ugh.

rewg;noedrjeoij;go;erjier;oje;rgeartg43TY6AQ6Q356TYAQ ZEH DWB6WUH JWA dtf yh5g4r

Sorry, I blacked out for a minute there. The point is, until they get their crap together I’m referring to them as “special” teams, if you know what I mean. I would continue along these lines but it’s a family site and I don’t want to push the boundaries too far. Just picture me writing 2000 words about Corky Thatcher from Life Goes On and my opinion of the job he’s done on kick coverage so far and you’ll get the gist of it.

Here’s what I want to see tomorrow:

1. No turnovers.
2. Fewer than five penalties. At least in the first three quarters, or while the score is within 35 points.
3. No EMU kick returns over 25 yards.
4. No EMU punt returns over 10 yards.
5. Heyward should literally eat someone on EMU’s offense. Or their coach.
6. Ron English walking off the field, head held low in shame and seeing his coaching record against the Buckeyes fall to 1-5.

Final score prediction: Buckeyes 52, EMU 6

*all predictions subject to change after the fact. The opinions of Bacon Ninja regarding the outcome of Ohio State games are purely hypothetical and do not necessarily represent his true feelings on the matter. In fact, for the purposes of supersition and jinx avoidance Bacon Ninja offers a generic prediction of Opponents 72, Ohio State 0 for every game this season, unless they are playing an SEC school in which case the prediction will change to Opponents 347, Ohio State negative 30.

Now that we’ve got three games under our belt, we can start looking at some numbers

Presented, always, without comment. But this bears stating: Ohio State has allowed opponents into the red zone five times in three games.

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.