In Depth Hawaii Recap

With a game where the spread was 42 points, most people thought this game would over quicker than that segway took out Usain Bolt. I even saw one prediction that was 70-0. My personal prediction was 56-10 with the only touchdown coming in garbage time. However, for most of the first half, this game was way too close for Ohio State fans. With quotes like “We didn’t execute well” from Urban Meyer and “It wasn’t the performance that I wanted” from Cardale Jones, you can imagine this game did not play out to the predictions. Especially with the Auburn game just ending and them barely escaping an FCS team, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t on the edge of my seat at all.

The first drive for Ohio State was a good way to describe the first half, with Cardale fumbling a hand off and then a bizarre fake/fumbled field goal attempt that ultimately resulted in a turnover on downs. This was followed by a three and out for the warriors and then, after a couple Michael Thomas completions and a lot of running plays, Zeke punched through the Hawaii defense for his first touchdown of the game.

Then there was a stretch of 4 drives that resulted in 4 punts and a lot of confusion for Ohio State fans trying to wonder why they still had to be watching the game. Hawaii was attempting to punt for their third drive in a row when the normally cool headed Darron Lee drove the Hawaii punter into the ground for some reason and gave them the ball back. All this did was give Gareon Conley the chance to snag his first interception of the game and season and Ohio State capitalized with another Elliot touchdown at the goal line and it became 14-0. This drive just added to some confusion however, when JT Barrett came out for his first drive of the game in what can only be described as a strange attempt at a 2 QB system.

After a deja vu type moment and another interception for Ohio State, this time Vonn Bell, Ohio State’s drive stalled and they punted away to Hawaii that would begin a back and forth punting match until halftime came and for Ohio State fans, it could not have come at a better time. This concluded a bad and confusing first half for the Scarlet and Gray.

Even though it was a not so great first half, halftime brought a great show for everyone, with the annual alumni band script Ohio, where the alumni band and the current band do script Ohio four times on the field, in place of the normal one. No matter how old you are or how much you love Ohio State, this tradition is always very fun to watch and is a cool thing to experience. Then halftime ended and it was time for the second half.

The second half started just like the first half went, with 3 drives and 3 punts and virtually no movement on offense, with Ohio State having 2 drives, 6 plays, and whopping 0 yards and Hawaii just having one drive with 17 yards. Then finally came the play that sparked an offense run for Ohio State, a fumble forced by Darron Lee and recovered by Darron Lee even though I think every player with a uniform on touched it at least once.

The aforementioned offensive spark came after this fumble recovery, with a field goal by Jack Willoughby off the turnover. then Hawaii got the ball back and shockingly punted it back to Ohio State, who took advantage of the opportunity with a touchdown by Ezekiel Elliot and what I felt was their most complete drive of the game, with the offense going 91 yards in 13 plays and taking 8 minutes off the clock. It is to be mentioned that this was Elliot 3 rushing touchdown of the game.

That offensive drive was followed by the fourth Hawaii turnover of the game and a fumble recovery touchdown for Vonn Bell, who also had himself a nice game. Hawaii punted again and then Ohio State gave the ball to Bri’onte Dunn,who scored his first ever collegiate touchdown and made the score 38-0, which would end up being the final score of this match up.

I think it is to be mentioned that Ohio State played what I think was a below average performance and still won 38-0, which goes to show how lopsided this game was to begin with. They struggled a little early but found their groove and thankfully pulled away and blew Hawaii out. I am going to chalk the early struggles up to early season rust but if they play like that against Michigan State or any decent team for that matter, I can promise you the final score will not be a 38-0 victory.  It will be interesting to see how the first half goes next Saturday against a better Northern Illinois team and, since I will be in Columbus for the day and at the game, hopefully there are some more offensive fireworks early. 2 down, 13 to go.

 

 

Comments

  1. It’s a wonderful Buckeye World we live in where “disappointing performance” is a 38 point blow-out.

    Better to get the yips out now, against Hawai’i. It’s still going to be a cake walk for another couple of months, but in a week of upsets and bizarro-world endings, I’ll take 38-0 everyday.

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