As always, presented without comment. (Now with 4th Down Conversions!)
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Stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.
Iowa: By The Numbers
October 16, 2013 by 1 Comment
MotSaG Top 25 – Week 7
October 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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This week’s edition of the Top 25 is the “which teams scare el Kaiser the most in a hypothetical BCS Title (or Rose Bowl) Game.” If they’re ranked higher than OSU, I’m genuinely frightened to play them at the end of the season.
First off, Oregon is terrifying. I have had this discussion before with fellow football fans and I don’t think I’ve talked to many (if any) that think Ohio State can hang with Oregon. I think our offense would be able to put up points and I think our defense could land some body blows, but the Oregon offense never lets up, never gets away from its game plan and just does what it came to do — run, run and run some more.
Alabama is a team that Ohio State is set up to beat — a straight ahead, pro-style smash mouth football team. They don’t look invincible, but they look pretty dang good.
But those are the only two teams I would worry that they would lay the wood to Ohio State. I’m not saying the Buckeyes would beat the rest of the top ten, but I like our chances.
This week some of the top teams were exposed as first class. Clemson struggled for a half against a feisty, but ultimately not really great Boston College, Georgia went down at home, Baylor looked human and Texas A&M looked very beatable against a young Ole Miss team. Texas A&M is the only other team that scares me, because I think Johnny Manziel would keep them in the game, but that defense is too porous to make me too nervous.
Stanford disappointed, Oklahoma got a Texas-sized whupping (which I know had to be cathartic for Texas fans) and Michigan. Goodness gracious Michigan. That was, I just don’t know. I don’t have words.
Actually, I do. This is what I said two weeks ago:
Speaking of “maybe not good teams”, Michigan fans better be worried. By the simple transitive property (which I think went out of fashion a few years ago, but bear with me), you have Michigan team that struggled mightily to beat a UConn team that got manhandled by Buffalo, 41-12. That was the same Buffalo team that Ohio State manhandled 40-20. If you take those three outcomes, carry the three and solve for X, you realize that Michigan could be in for a lot of pain come November 30th.
Forget November 30th. The pain started early. October 12th, to be exact.
Week Seven Open Thread
October 12, 2013 by 1 Comment
Here’s an open thread to chat about the football played while the Buckeyes rest on their SIX AND OH laurels.
You can refer to Jason’s TV Guide, but here’s a smattering of today’s football spread:
Noon
Missouri @ Georgia (ESPN)
Oklahoma vs. Texas (ABC)
3:30pm
Florida @ LSU (CBS)
Northwestern @ Wisconsin (ABC)
4:00pm
Oregon @ Washington (FS1)
7:30pm
NASCAR (ABC)
Friday Open Thread – Bye Week
October 11, 2013 by 11 Comments
It’s bye week time here in Buckeyeland, so we’ve decided to present a couple polls to gauge how Buckeye Nation is feeling about a couple of the issues facing the coaching staff going into the second half of the season.
The first is: What would you do if you were in charge of who started at QB, Braxton Miller or Kenny Guiton
[poll id=”65″]
The other question is about the poor play of the Ohio State defensive backfield. For some reason, blame has to be placed somewhere, so where would you place the blame with? The head coach? The Defensive Coordinator? The actual players?
[poll id=”66″]
In the comments, let us know why.
As with any other open thread, feel free to discuss anything Buckeye, sports, or MotSaG related. Heck anything on your mind is fine!
MotSaG’s 2013 Pick ’em Contest Update
October 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It’s your weekly reminder to get your picks in for the Pick ’em Contest.
Here are the updated top five standings:
| Rank | Pick Set Name | Total Pts | W-L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | buckeye lad | 70 | 70-52 |
| 2 | Phil my nuts Go Bucks | 67 | 67-55 |
| 3 | Urban Meyer Wieners | 65 | 65-57 |
| 4 | buckeye nation | 63 | 63-59 |
| 5 | Josh | 62 | 62-60 |
Buckeyelad has overtaken Phil my nuts Go Bucks for the top spot after being tied for the top spot last week.
It’s not too late to join, but time is definitely running out (Seriously, like really running out). (I believe) you can still join the league:
Yahoo’s Fantasy College Pick’em:
Group ID: 11226
Password: buckeyes
The prize package includes:
$25 Amazon.com gift certificate
An 11×14″ Framed Copy of Braxton Miller’s SI cover from SICovers.com.
… and more…
Hyde, Bosa, Roby Honored with B1G Player of the Week Awards
October 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Congratulations to Carlos Hyde, Bradley Roby and Joey Bosa for being recognized as Offensive Co-Player, Special Teams Player and Freshman of the Week (respectively).
Carlos Hyde had a game for the ages at Northwestern, rushing for a career-high 168 yards (in addition to 38 yards of four catches), scoring three second-half touchdowns and was pretty much unbringdownable (yes that’s a word, look it up. There’s a picture of Carlos Hyde next to it)
While Bradley Roby and the rest of the secondary had their struggles against Northwestern’s passing attack, Roby had himself a great day on special teams. His block of Northwestern’s punt in the endzone was Ohio State’s only touchdown of the first half. He also managed to other tackles on Special Teams. He may not have had the best night overall, but he was instrumental in Saturday Night’s victory.
Finally, Joey Bosa, the defensive end freshman out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida had a Simon-esque night. He seemed to be in Northwestern’s backfield at will, disrupting the pocket and getting to the quarterback. He notched two sacks, five tackles and the fumble recovery in the endzone that sealed the deal.
The Buckeyes have had a player recognized the Offensive Player of the Week four of the six weeks of the season (Guiton x 2, Miller and now Hyde)
Northwestern Live In Game Chat
October 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
We’ve had another great day of watching some football (and hopefully go some things crossed off your honey-do list) and now it’s time for the Prime Time Showdown of your Ohio State Buckeyes taking on Northwestern University.
Hit the jump to join the fun in the Live In Game Chat.
Week Six Open Thread
October 5, 2013 by 12 Comments
We haven’t done one of these in a while, but here’s an open thread to chat about the football played up until the game of the century of the week.
You can refer to Jason’s TV Guide, but here’s a smattering of today’s football spread:
Saturday
Noon – Maryland at Florida State
3:30pm – Georgia Tech at Miami (FL)
8:00pm -Ohio State at Northwestern
10:30pm – Washington at Stanford
MotSaG’s 2013 Pick ’em Contest Update
October 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
If you are like me, it’s easy to forget that the MotSaG College Football Pick ’em Contest in full swing. I forgot to make my picks last week but that’s not going happen again!
I’ll be updating the standings on a weekly basis and remind you to make your picks!
The top five standings are:
| Rank | Pick Set Name | Total Pts | W-L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phil my nuts Go Bucks | 58 | 58-44 |
| 2 | buckeye lad | 58 | 58-44 |
| 3 | Urban Meyer Wieners | 57 | 57-45 |
| 4 | enderbuck | 55 | 55-47 |
| 5 | Josh | 54 | 54-48 |
Congrats to Phil my nuts Go Bucks and buckeye lad for taking the stop spot through five weeks.
It’s not too late to join, but time is definitely running out. (I believe) you can still join the league:
Yahoo’s Fantasy College Pick’em:
Group ID: 11226
Password: buckeyes
The prize package includes:
$25 Amazon.com gift certificate
An 11×14″ Framed Copy of Braxton Miller’s SI cover from SICovers.com.
… and more…
Three Yards and a Cloud of Links
October 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Three Yards and a Cloud of Links is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s newly renamed, semi-regular curated look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan. These include news items, interesting blog posts and the occasional meme you’ve probably already seen. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next TYAACOL? Drop us a line at motsag@gmail.com or through our Contact Page.
STYLE POINTS — WHO NEEDS ‘EM? Urban Meyer certainly doesn’t care about them. This isn’t Dancing with the stars. Tom Herman doesn’t care for them, either:
Do the fans want to see everything they saw in the first quarter in the fourth quarter? Absolutely. Good for them. But it’s not going to happen. We have a responsibility to win the game. We don’t have a resposibility to put up ‘x’ number of points or ‘x’ number of yards. There were certainly very justifiable reasons for approaching the game the way we did there in the fourth quarter
Good for them, indeed. Let’s let the coaches do their and we do our job: support our team and be happy with SEVENTEEN FREAKING STRAIGHT WINS.
WERE THEY WATCHING THE SAME GAME? Football Outsiders ranks Ohio State #5, which is fine, they’re a top five team and all that. They’re also right that Braxton Miller reasserted his position as the starting quarterback of the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes. They were even on-point highlighting Chris Borland’s outstanding 16-tackle performance. But I’m not in total agreement with their review of Roby’s performance:
With slightly higher stakes on the line Saturday, Roby was back to All-American form against Wisconsin, accounting for eight tackles (one for loss), three passes defended and the only takeaway of the game, a third-quarter interception that set up Ohio State’s final touchdown.
Roby wasn’t the only reason that Jared Abbrederis ran wild to the tune of 200 yards. But he certainly isn’t blameless, either. Am I missing something?
BRAXTON NOT THROWING IN THE HEISMAN TOWEL: This is the kind of thing you have to love to read from a player of Braxton Miller’s caliber, going through what he’s gone through so far this season:
“The way we keep playing as a team as a whole, I feel like there’s all types of awards guys can get during that time,†Miller said. “I’m just going to play my game, keep leading the guys, and hopefully I’ll be looking forward to it after the season.â€
I sometimes wonder if Ohio State fans would be okay with Braxton Miller not winning the Heisman as long as Johnny Manziel doesn’t win it and become the second two-time Heisman Trophy Winner. I think we all wanted to see Braxton take home the bronze statue, both because he’s a great Buckeye but also because Archie Griffin’s record needs to stand alone (at least until another Buckeye matches it).
JOHNSTON: AUSTRALIAN FOR PUNTER I have often lamented to Jeremiah that I sure wish Ohio State would look out West (WAY OUT WEST) and recruit some Pacific Islander football players, getting the guys that USC and Utah and the like always seem to find. Give the Buckeyes a little international flair. But let’s not forget Ryan Pretorius, the South African place kicker. And hey, you never know how hard Ohio State will pursue Hjalte Froholdt. But for now, Cameron Johnston will just have to give us our international representation:
Johnston’s grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to American soil. They attended Ohio State’s season opener against Buffalo.
“It was great having them for the first game and they loved it,” Johnston said. “They thought it was a great experience. They’ve never really seen anything like it before.”
AND WHAT NOT: Yeah, you’ll be seeing this in your nightmares.
