Archives for October 2010

As Purdue players walk by and pet the brown, pulsating and warm to the touch mole of Drew Brees they realize that not even the California shaped blob that gloms onto the badly balding quarterbacks head can give them enough luck to beat the Buckeyes this week.

Oh by the way Drew, here is a bit of advice for you good sir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-NI-b6tIE&feature=related

Ohio State has been busy this week picking themselves off the canvas after getting beaten up in Madison, Wisconsin last week. The injury riddled defense got a reality check last week as did the rest of the team.

Last year against this very same Purdue team, the Buckeyes let their guard down and let one get away from them. After having their tail between their legs the Buckeyes ran the table winning the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl. How will the Buckeyes answer the bell this time? Purdue is Ohio State’s first test.

Terrelle Pryor will have to regroup as he is what makes the Buckeye offense tick. He struggled with his accuracy and will look to rectify that come Saturday. But the Wisconsin defense will be a blueprint on how to stop Terrelle Pryor. For the life of me I can’t fathom why more teams haven’t played OSU like this more. For some reason most of the teams that have lined up to play defense vs. OSU have sold out to take away the run, time and time again. It lead to Pryor being a 10 QB in the nation statistically. Wisconsin took that away, but in the process OSU and Boom were able to run the ball with some consistent success from the tailback position. Something Ohio State has struggled with this year.

Look for Purdue to mimic what the Badgers did last week and take away Pryor’s passing game by dropping 7 and rushing 4. OSU will counter with Boom and Pryor getting more carries along with Dane making catches while getting thoroughly concussed in the process. Last week was a step back for the Buckeye passing game. No completions to any tightends or a 3^rd WR.

Purdue is hurting a bit themselves with their starting QB, RB and #1 WR all out for the year. They have been relying on freshman Robert Henry who has transformed Purdue’s pass happy spread attack to more of a read option zone look to take advantage of his athletic ability. Last week Henry was the Big Ten freshman of the week with his 4 TD’s vs. Minnesota.

This is an odd game to call simply because no one knows how OSU will react to the loss last week. This game was supposed to be a “revenge” game for last year, but now Purdue is just another road block to a Big Ten Championship. Since 2002 Ohio State is 4-2 with an average score of 16 to 13. For some reason the outmanned Purdue squad has played the far better Buckeyes pretty close. It’s at home, OSU is pissed, Purdue is outmanned and injured, OSU wins this one but its closer than it should be.

Predict the score of the mole:

Total Moles rushing/passing/receiving for Pryor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc5G04nJecI

Mole.

Presented without comment.

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.

So it stinks craptastic donkey farts that OSU lost.

But answer honestly… is it really that big of a deal? Let’s step away from the ledge for a moment and remember how rare it is that ANY team from a competitive conference goes undefeated.

Alabama lost last week, to a team that took it on the chin this week against an unranked opponent. Same with Nebraska, to an unranked Texas team with one of the worst offenses in its history.

At least OSU had a litany of reasons (not excuses) for its loss. There were no misconceptions about this Buckeye team heading into Madison:

• Tough, ranked opponent
• OSU’s injury-ridden defense – filled with players that were listed as second- or third-string at the beginning of the season
• Worst special teams of the Tressel era
• Hobbled star quarterback, playing on what is obviously a very injured leg
• Excellently talented, deep, and senior-heavy Wisconsin team; playing at home, at night, with nothing much to lose
• Jim Bollman is still an offensive coach (zing)

Buckeye fans: would you rather be a Nebraska fan this week? It could be worse.

In all seriousness, at the beginning of the season el Kaiser and I examined the schedule and had a discussion on what was “fair” to expect out of this year’s OSU squad. I argued that nine (regular season) wins were a lock – in other words, fewer than nine wins weren’t acceptable without a coaching change or major reason why. Ten wins were considered “expected.” Eleven wins… if the team was better than usual or if the Big 10 ended up terrible (see 2006). And, of course, twelve wins for a team was historically exceptional and beat the odds.

So it’s really not that big of a deal for OSU to lose a game like this. Losing last year, to Purdue – that was unacceptable, and I’m still shocked that Gene Smith didn’t come down heavier on Tressel to make assistant changes after that game. But losing to a very good, ranked, Wisco team, on the road at night, with a banged up team – that’s gonna happen from time to time, folks. It’s perfectly acceptable to root against such a thing happening, but it’s completely unreasonable to expect for it not to happen. Not in a competitive conference.

So… “relieved”…? In a way, yes. Maybe it’s just me, but I have to admit at times I miss just enjoying college football, rather than worrying week to week whether my favorite team will perform well enough to keep or raise its ranking.

Today’s loss means OSU will have a narrower focus, a smaller list of likely scenarios with which to concern itself. As of now, the Big 10 championship is within reach, and that more modest goal suits the circumstances of this 2010 squad a bit better.

And silver-lining wise, the Big 10 now has three or four solid, tough teams that are positioning themselves nicely to represent the conference well in the postseason. And maybe Michigan, too.

So, after all this discussion, let’s talk about a team that we should REALLY feel bad for: Purdue. As if they weren’t already doomed enough for their role in last year’s fiasco, tonight’s loss just assured them of yet more unfathomable pain next week. Condolences and apologies in advance for the upcoming annihilation.

Well, that stunk. Kinda hard to get back into a game when you spot a team a 21-point lead, but that’s exactly what happened. SportsMonkey will be along with a game recap, but if you feel like venting, feel free in the comments.

So I was sitting here thinking about what I want to write to be objective in this preview and not be a homer. I have watched both teams play a few games already this year and both teams returned a lot of last years teams that played each other in Columbus. I have thought about it all all week and I can’t do it.

I look at the strengths and weaknesses of both teams and weigh them out and no matter how I do it the result is the same in my mind. A big win for the Buckeyes.

First, lets talk about the Wisky offense vs. the OSU defense. The Badgers run the ball and then they run it again and again and again and maybe they will let Tolzien throw the ball a few times to the TE and one or two deep balls. Wisky has two good RB’s in Clay and White. Before the season John Clay got a ton of Heisman talk but since James White started getting carries (about 40% of them per game) he has disappeared from the discussion. To the point that most Badger fans say White is the teams best RB. The Badgers are 11th in the country in rush offense. Now no matter which RB carries the ball tomorrow they have one big problem. OSU has the 4th best rushing defense in the country. They also have the 6th best scoring defense and the 3rd best Total Defense in the country. Our weakest part of the defense is the passing game and it is hardly a weakness (1st in the Big Ten and 13th nationally). No player has got 100 yards rushing on OSU in 29 games almost 3 years. There is nothing to suggest it will be any different this year.

Bottom Line: OSU defense is better than Wisky offense.

Next, the Wisky defense vs. the OSU offense. Let me just say this OSU is a pass first offense this year and they have the weapons to support a powerful passing attack. TP has great targets in Posey, Sanz, Saine, Stoneburner, and the back ups. Why is this important? Because the Badgers weakest part of their defense is Pass Defense. The Badgers are 54th in the country in pass defense. They are 22nd on rush defense and 32nd in the country in scoring defense. The Buckeyes should have no issues throwing the ball which is our main dish at the supper table. I am not sure if our RB’s will get many yards but it isn’t out of the question either. Rumor has it Pryor is 100% healthy and will have all plays available to him in the game. Which means we may see a healthy dose of TP rushes tomorrow as well.

Bottom Line: OSU offense is better than Wisky defense.

Lastly, Special Teams and the intangibles. I think the special teams is a push. OSU has gotten better and Wisky has gotten worse with injuries. The HOME CROWD is the only possible advantage I can see in this game. Turnovers, OSU defense are ball hawks and have a top 5 TO margin in the country because of it. TP hasn’t been making many mistakes and has done well under pressure. Wisky on the other doesn’t get many TOs on defense but doesn’t give up many either on offense. Jim Tressel vs Bret Bielema I won’t even debate this, it isn’t even close one uses his knowledge and experience to coach the game and Bielema uses the coaches for dummies cliff notes he has on a card in his back pocket.

Bottom Line: OSU coaching and TO battle is better than the Wisky home field advantage.

So lets open the debate and see if I am just way off or if people agree with me and this game won’t even be close. Question portion of the preview time now.

1.) Will Wisconsin get a 100 yard rusher this week against OSU and if yes who White or Clay?
2.) Pryor over/under 300 total yards on the day?
3.) Will Coach Tressel pull out a card and go for 2 points at any point during the game and point and laugh at Bielema?
4.) How Many TO’s does OSU get and give up?
5.) What is your Final score prediction?

Presented with one comment. That sack statistic (1.33 sacks per game) bothers me, but Vico looked at “Where Have All the Sacks Gone?” and that made me feel a little better about it. A little

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.