Archives for November 2015

Yes ladies and gentleman it is Monday morning after the first Ohio State loss in over a year. As if Monday’s aren’t hard enough, we now have to go a whole week thinking about the disaster that was this past Saturday, and pray to God that we are able to turn it around for this coming Saturday when we play TTUN at the Big House.

Lets be honest though, all year long the buckeye coaching staff has tried to convince us that everything is fine, the offense is running smoothly and that they were in control of about every game they were in even though our eyes were telling us that was not the case. Well unfortunately for everyone involved the theory that everything was fine came crashing down Saturday against Michigan State when the Buckeyes lost 17-14 in a game where the offense literally looked completely helpless. Only achieving 5 first downs the whole game, being held to under 200 yards of total offense and ,worst of all, only giving our Heisman Trophy candidate running back 2 carries in the second half, 11 total in the game.

The question at the end of all of those disgusting numbers is, how on God’s green earth can a team with the likes of JT Barrett, Braxton Miller, Zeke Elliot and Michael Thomas be completely shut down? Bottom line is the coaching. All year long fans have clambered about the vanilla play calling and lack of explosive plays from a team that could be considered the most talented and explosive team in Ohio State history, but week after week, game after game, all we were seeing was the same thing over and over. I ,as I’m sure most fans, kept telling myself “we are just playing down to our competition and the coaching staff will have us ready to play when it matters” but unfortunately that was not the case. Before I go any further though I want to be clear, Urban Meyer is the best coach in College football, hands down no questions asked in my opinion. This loss is obviously on his shoulders because he is their head coach, but the blame lies squarely on Tim Beck and Ed Warinner the co -offensive coordinators. Once Tom Herman left to take the head coaching job at the University of Huston Ed was promoted and Tim was brought in from Nebraska to fill the void. Well that void was too big and too full apparently because things have looked awful since.

The real question  is this, where do we go from here? Well like I said earlier, we have to find a way to go to Ann Arbor and win a game just to see where we stand when the dust settles. If MSU beats Penn State next week then they are in the Big Ten Championship Game. If they get beat then we still have a glimmer of hope. Bottom line is if we lose another game this year and the offense looked anything like it did this Saturday then there is a good chance that Tim Beck will be looking for a new job and Ed will simply be worried about his offensive linemen and not the play calling. Let’s all just make sure we say our Hail Mary’s to the Football Gods and pray that we beat TTUN next week or it’s going to be a LONG 12 months till we see them again! Buckeye Pride!

The next two weeks are essentially a playoff for the Big Ten East division crown. All of the top four teams are still technically in the running, although it’s going to take a lot of good fortune for Penn State to make the trip to Indy. It is possible for Ohio State to lock up the title today, with a win over Michigan State and a Penn State win over Michigan. If the Buckeyes lose, they’ll need a win over the Wolverines and a Penn State win over Sparty next week to secure the top spot. If both Ohio State and Michigan win today, next week’s game will be for the East title, and the Meyer-Harbaugh era of The Game will have truly begun.

Making things interesting will be the conference’s top two running backs in terms of yards per carry (Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott and Penn State’s Saquon Barkley) facing off against two of the conference’s top three rushing defenses in that statistic (Michigan and Michigan State).

Today, Ohio State takes its shot at the Spartans, and even though Michigan State has been solid against the run all year, the cracks have been showing lately. Two of the last three primary running backs the Spartans have faced bested their average yards per carry by about a full yard, and the third (Maryland’s Wes Brown) only missed his by less than five inches per attempt. This is not a good trend for a team that needs to stop a legit Heisman candidate possibly playing in his final home game this afternoon.

Michigan has been having some issues with running backs themselves, with defensive line injuries disrupting the lineup at the worst possible time. Last week, Indiana’s Jordan Howard carved the Wolverines up with 238 yards on 35 carries, over half a yard better than his season average. In the previous two weeks, Rutgers’ Robert Martin and Minnesota’s Rodney Smith each topped their average by over two yards a carry. Much like their in-state rivals, this is a bad sign with two of the Big Ten’s best backs on the horizon.

On the other side of the ball, Michigan State’s rushing offense has been dismal all year. They rank 97th in the nation (tied with 6-loss Rice) in yards per carry and have only topped 200 yards on the ground once this year (against Purdue). As a team, the Spartans have only rushed for 99 more yards and 3 more touchdowns than Ezekiel Elliott has alone. And it took them 171 more carries to do it.

Michigan State will instead hope to lean on quarterback Connor Cook for their offensive production, although it remains to be seen how effective Cook will be after injuring his throwing shoulder against Maryland last week. I’ll give Cook a pass for that terrible game since he was hurt for most of it, but the last time the Spartans faced a passing defense comparable to Ohio State’s was their miracle win at Michigan. Cook completed less than half of his passes in that game with just one touchdown. He has a tough task ahead of him even if his shoulder is fine. If it’s not as “good to go” as he says it is, Michigan State could be in trouble.

The Wolverines have spent the last two weeks carving up the Big Ten’s two worst defenses for their most productive performances of the season. Penn State has a much better defense than Rutgers or Indiana, and Michigan needed double overtime to beat the Hoosiers. The most interesting thing to watch in today’s game—and probably the determining factor in the outcome—will be whether or not Jake Rudock’s recent explosion is actual improvement or just a result of playing some pretty horrible defenses.

The time has come for Braxton Miller. After 5 years of breaking records and winning games, Braxton will play his last game in Ohio Stadium this Saturday against Michigan State.

For true, long-time Ohio State fans you will never forget what Braxton Miller has done for this team. Younger fans, on the other hand, may have forgotten. After leading this team to a 24-2 record under Urban Meyer, Braxton tore his labrum and was sidelined for a full season. Braxton’s replacement, J.T. Barrett, came in breaking B1G records and finishing 5th in the Heisman race. Then, J.T. was sidelined for the rest of the season with a broken ankle, so Cardale Jones came in leading this team to a national championship. It was the J.T. and Cardale show.

Because of that, many forget just how spectacular Braxton was in the scarlet and gray. “(There’s) immense feelings we all have for him because how average we were, especially on offense, that first year,” Urban Meyer said. “If you don’t have that kid, you start you’re coaching career here at Ohio State .500, 8-5, or (8-4), whatever it is.” That should say a lot to his ability, because Urban admits the plays were like “Braxton right, Braxton right, and to change it up Braxton left.”

Like I wrote about this summer, Braxton has had a long road to get to this point. It started in 2011 when Braxton was prematurely thrown into the fire of being the starting QB. You can’t really blame the then Interim Head Coach, Luke Fickell, because he really had no other option. Terrelle Pryor was there throughout spring camp, but went into the Supplemental Draft due to the punishments he was facing. People within the program will tell you that Braxton was not ready to be starter. He didn’t have that “monster” in front of him to teach him how to study, play, or even act. He ended that season with 20 total TDs, and mostly led that bad team to a 6-7 record, but ultimately it hurt his progression as a true QB.

Next year Urban and his staff, including new QB coach, Tom Herman came to town. It was tough for Braxton to build that trust with Tom Herman initially. He hardly knew him. Braxton was used to Jim Tressel, Luke Fickell, Jim Bollman, and Nick Siciliano, not Tom Herman. As time and familiarity went on, Braxton proved the high-expectations to be correct. Still, he was young, and he didn’t do the “extra stuff” to put him over the top. He cared, but he used his ability to make up for many lackings. Still, he finished the season 12-0 and had 27 total TDs.

2013, his second year in the system, expectations were sky high. Expectations were Heisman and a Championship. Coming out of the gates, he looked like more of a pure QB, especially since he had visited QB “guru,” George Whitfield. He missed several games with a sprained MCL, but when he came back, he looked like the athletic freak we knew. Crazy, long running plays, and now the element of accuracy along with his cannon of an arm. Everybody remembers the electric runs, but he was an ace with deep balls. He threw some of the hardest throws I’ve ever seen. In games against Penn State, Wisconsin, and TTUN to name a few, he had throws that were certainly NFL caliber. He ended that year with 36 total TDs, over 3,000 total yards again, but the end of the season is what people remember. Two straight losses to Michigan State and Clemson, respectively, and the devastation of the torn labrum against Clemson.

Now, in 2015, Braxton is a totally different player. He might not put up the same numbers as he did in previous years at QB, but that’s impossible to do once you move to WR. He’s gone from a guy that cares, but didn’t go the whole distance, and now he’s a “film junky,” and has worked ridiculously hard to try to perfect the WR craft in an incredibly short period of time. According to a person within the program, on Monday’s the QBs (more specifically Cardale and J.T.) are in watching film by their own. He said that yesterday, he walked by and saw Braxton, Cardale, and J.T. in the film room eating wings and watching tape on Michigan State.

Braxton has fully embraced his new position at WR. For many, they simply wouldn’t be able to make the move from QB to WR for many reasons. In 3 months (plus some more unofficial), Braxton is a starting WR for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and is a trusted player to do whatever is needed. This start wasn’t just given to him. It was earned. Although Urban Meyer does love Braxton Miller, he will not just give away a position for someone who doesn’t deserve it.

With an Ohio State record 88 TDs, and many other stats that would have been broken had he been able to stay at QB, Braxton obviously, and rightfully, earned national attention. With that, you have to wonder where this team would be without him. Would they really have gone 8-4 that first season? Would the 2013 and 2014 recruiting classes have been that great without the success he partially caused, and the fame that people wanted to play with? Would Ohio State have gotten it’s 8th national championship last year? It’s hard to say for sure on any of them, but I do know he’s been a difference maker. If the first question proved to be true, then Ohio State certainly would not be where it is now. If the second question’s answer was no, then Ohio State would not have had the skill to win the National Championship. Braxton has truly been a, if not the, main factor in all this success.

48-3 is no joke. Even though Braxton wasn’t directly involved in 14 (actually 16 if you count injuries) of the wins, he was an indirect influence in those, and started in the others. Then, moving to WR was as selfless of a move as you could make. He could have transferred and tried to live his dream of continuing to play QB, or stay and help his team in whatever way possible. Obviously he chose to stay.

We haven’t exactly seen the Braxton Miller we’ve been used to, but as is the life of a WR instead of a QB. You don’t touch the ball every play, and you don’t decide when you will get a touch. The QB controls that. When he does get his chances, though, he makes a play; like the famous spin move against VA Tech, or the jumping mid-field catch against Maryland, or the incredible juggling catch against Rutgers. “It just felt good to be involved in the offense,” Miller said, “and making plays for the guys and being electrifying for the fans and getting back to my old self.”

As Braxton wraps up his Ohio State career, you can only be thankful for everything he’s done. He’s made plays upon plays for the team since 2011. He made it through the rough times under Fickell, and help lead the team back to the top of the nation. Enjoy these last couple of games, because Braxton will be gone soon. People like him don’t come around very often. He’s a very special player that will do anything for the team. It’s going to be a tough one to see Braxton suit up one last time in the Shoe, but knowing Braxton, he’ll have something special for us.

By: Phil Schoch, Twitter me @osuphil95

Each week Pick ’em & Tidbits risks public humiliation and mockery by predicting each B1G game, as well as a few national spotlight games, versus the Vegas spread.

I’m back, bay-bayee!!! Week 11 was the bounce-back I needed, as I soared to a record of 7-2 versus the spread and 8-1 straight up. My PM Stukenborg Fearless Prediction of Oklahoma (+3) over Baylor won convincingly.

My season tally stands at 62-62 (50%!!!) ATS and 92-32 (74.2%) SU. The goals of 50% and 75% and the subsequent fake fame and glory are at my fingertips!

But…

There are still a multitude of fake wagers to be placed. Still countless opportunities to choke (and drop to 45%) and bring fake shame upon my family. The merciless taunts my kindergarten son would suffer on the bus and the playground. No three year-old is going to share blocks with my pre-school daughter. Kids can be ruthless! Oh and the sideways looks, whispers and jeers my wife would endure in the cubicle thunder dome of the accounting department. The fake stakes are high in the world of a fake public gambler.

Disclaimer: Warning! I’m celebrating being .500. My picks are fake. Your money is real. Do not try this at home.

Saturday, November 21

Around the B1G…

Michigan is a magician with a drinking problem and a nervous twitch. Against Sparty, he sawed his assistant in half, then stood and watched as she bled-out. Against Minnesota, the rabbit went in motion for 12 seconds, then – presto – he was still able to pull the victory out of his helmet. Against Indiana, he made his own defense disappear, then – abracadabra – reappear on the final play.

Could this be Christian Hackenberg’s final home game for the Nittany Lions? Will the fans chant, “One more year!” or “Hey, it’s been nice, but you wouldn’t want to pass up an opportunity like the NFL, would you?” A word-y chant, sure, but it seems more likely than the first chant.

Pure Michigan tourism note: Colon, Michigan is the self proclaimed Magic Capital of the World. Is anyone surprised that Michigan would claim to have a magical Colon? With the massive amount of excrement percolating in Ann Arbor and Detroit, I’d think a magic Colon would be a necessity.

Pick ‘em says… Wolverines saw there assistant in two, but avoid major arteries. Michigan 28-17.

Iowa is 10-0 for the first time in program history! Kirk Ferentz agent has been burning up the phones trying to get an extension and raise for the legendary Hawkeye coach.

Pick ’em says… Purdue will scrap. Iowa will nap – but still win handily. Herky, 34-17.

A pair of limp-sworded Knights (Scarlet & Black) who have combined for an un-cavalier 5 wins this season.  

Pick ’em says… Do you have any B1G or Jersey pride, Rutgers? Enough to get the W, 27-17.

A salute to the creepiness of Tom Crean face.

Pick ’em says… Hoosiers are 4-6 with with winnable games left against Maryland & Purdue. They know that sweet Motor City Bowl swag is within their grasp – their very own city block in Detroit!

IU! PM! 34-30.

The winners of this battle of padded 8-2 squads wins $20 gift cards to The Mousehouse Cheesehaus for Wisconsin’s Finest Cheese, Sausage & Homemade Fudge! Located in lovely Windsor, Wisconsin.

Pick ’em says… The Wisconsin Curds, 24-18.

All season long, Ohio State and its fans have dined on a Michelina’s frozen entree-caliber schedule. At long last, Buckeye fans thought they were finally going to go to Bravo (I’m pretty sure they serve swell Italian food), but no, Sparty went and messed up that meal by losing to Nebraska and now were going to Fazoli’s. Sure I’ll eat a dozen greezy garlic breadsticks dipped in alfredo sauce and pay for it at 3 Am, but we all wanted more. Oh crap, next week is Michigan and I’m sure Harbaugh is going to want to go to the Olive Garden where, I’m pretty sure, the breadsticks are made from expandable foam insulation. I have completely lost track of this metaphor, cue the pick…

Pick ’em says… Once you get past the Michigan State defensive front four, it is a very average unit. Sparty’s offense does not have the playmakers and consistent running game of year’s past. Buckeyes, 38-20. 

National Spotlight games…

Just two weeks ago, both LSU and Ole Miss sported the all-important label – controls its own destiny to the college football playoff. Then stuff got real. LSU got pants’d the past two weeks by Bama and Arkansas. Ole Miss, slayer of Bama, lost to Memphis and Arkansas and now sits at 3 losses. I just want to watch to see which team completely quits on Saturday. I wish this was a night game, so I could drink celebratory Great Lakes Christmas Ale’s with a shots of Spartan tears and take in the sadness of these one-time destiny controllers. 

Pick ’em says… Don’t know. Don’t care. But there will be plenty of sad fan closeups. Ole Miss, 27-17.

Baylor finally played a decent team last week and lost. I know, without their starting QB, but it’s not like he was coming back for the playoff run. Okie State and Forever 40, Mike Gundy, avoided the mega-letdown last week at Iowa State. I’m surprised by the slim point spread.

Pick ’em says… Come after me! I’m a mam! I’m 40! Cowboys, 45-38. 

If TCU QB Trevone Boykin and WR Josh Doctson are not healthy enough to play against Oklahoma, the Sooner Schooner hype-wagon will roll on. TCU coach Gary Patterson said their status was “possibly questionable.”

Pick ’em says… Possible blowout. Sooners, 45-24.

Another week, another win for Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes, and this past week that came to the defeat of the Fighting Illini, who fought valiantly but came up just a bit short – 25 points short.

Despite the 28-3 victory, the same old frustrating offensive questions remain. JT Barrett reclaimed the starting role from Cardale Jones after serving his one-week suspension, but Barrett churned out a pretty average performance for his standards, but thanks to Heisman candidate Ezekiel Elliott, the Bucks rolled to another sloppy looking win.

The hero in a half shirt bulldozed his way for 181 yards and two touchdowns while recording his 15th straight game with 100 or more yards as well as passing Tim Spencer for third place on the all-time rushing leaders list in Ohio State history. Who are numbers one and two on that list? None other than Heisman winners Archie Griffin and Eddie George. That’s pretty good company to be in.

Urban said – “We’re certainly not in this situation without Zeke. There is some issues, back-and-forth at quarterback, then we had another issue, and he’s the one constant. Zeke will be the first one to tell you he can’t do it by himself. The offensive line is nailing them pretty good so that’s our strength, that’s our most consistent. But we also know that to win the big, big one you need to be balanced and we’re not quite there yet.”

• The Fans – Just feed Zeke, and forget the rest.
• The Media – Could we possibly be seeing another switch at quarterback against Michigan State, given Barrett’s average performance?
• The Opponent – You guys probably wouldn’t be anything at all without him. Rely on him while it lasts.

As strange as it is, former Buckeye quarterback and now ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit had a different take from Meyer’s on Ohio State’s offensive line performance against Illinois:

Despite the differing perspectives here, we’ll see how the offensive line plays against arguably the best defensive line and best team they’ve faced all year in *ichigan State.

Even though the Buckeyes won their game by the largest margin of any of the other ranked teams in the top ten this past weekend, the scarlet and gray continue to be pounded by the media for their lackluster offensive performances.

https://twitter.com/RDonnellyBG/status/666299452991385600

Urban said – “My goodness.”

• The Fans – My goodness is right. We’re the only team that could post the highest winning margin of the week and still get knocked for it.
• The Media – Are we not being fair? No, you’re right – we aren’t. We hate cause we ain’t you.
• The Opponent – You sure got by us. Hopefully you can get by Sparty next week. Good luck!