First Half

Did you hear? Wisconsin is NOT INTIMIDATED BY OHIO STATE.

Not sure if you heard.

Wisconsin defenders are Pee-You-Enn-Kays. All of them.

Second Half

Randle-El tries to cheap shot Gholston at the knees, a-la Ken Dorsey. Two problems here: Randle-El is not a 300 pound lineman. Vernon Gholstons legs are tree trunks with steel cables for tendons. Not a good idea. I don’t think Gholston even noticed.

Ohio State’s secondary has apparently forgotten how to tackle. Come on Jenkins!

I’m not one to complain about the refs, but Holey Moley is this egregious. The amount of calls going uncalled is ridiculous. Ohio State currently down a touchdown.

BEANIE! BEANIE! BEANIE! Tied game, 17-17.

Now let’s go D! Vernon can’t do it alone.

BEANIE! BEANIE! BEANIE! OSU up, 24-17. This is fun again.

They’re still doing it! They’re about to be down by two touchdowns and the defense is still jumping in Buckeye faces as if they were up winning. Even the horrible BTN commentators are calling them on it. The Wisconsin coaches need to put a stop to that.

Bielema gambles on fourth and loses. Robiskie makes a beautiful catch and wins. Or at least is winning. OSU up 31-17.

BEANIE! BEANIE! BEANIE!

You know what to do. More to follow, if we have time tomorrow.

el Kaiser’s wisdom
I guess if I start the actual thread, I should at least throw in a prediction: OSU 34-13

sportsMonkey’s $.02
OSU 37-6
Much has been made of Tressel’s losing record to Wisco, but it’s a bit overblown. Two of his three losses came with his two weakest, unranked Buckeye teams (including one from his first season). The remaining loss occurred during a rainstorm so intense that the student section was actually photographed building an ark. Mix some heavy rain with Alvarez retirement plans, add a dash of Chris Gamble making his only mistake of the season & letting Lee Evans score, and throw in two tablespoons of conspiring-for-back-to-back-years-at-Camp-Randall unfairness, and you’ve got the recipe for three losses. None of those conditions will exist this Saturday.

The Vest is eager. No way are the Bucks looking ahead to Illinois.

Okay, we’ve had enough Penn State negativity and Big Ten bashing. Time for some feel-good, pick-me-up stories. We’ve got a couple for Wisconsin week.

The first story is about a couple Wisconsin walk-ons. Both earned scholarships, but there are no guarantees…

“There was no guarantee that walk-ons like Strickland and Johnson would keep their scholarships throughout their careers.

When Johnson found out earlier this fall that his wasn’t being renewed this season, Strickland sprung into action. After thinking it over and talking to his parents, Strickland decided to give up his scholarship so his best friend could have it.”

Stories like this definitely do wonders to restore faith in humanity after incidents like last week.

The other story is the Ryan Pretorius story. There is so much to like about this guy. It’s not every day you can say one of the players on your college football team is from a different country. But the likability doesn’t end there. I’ve been a fan of the game of rugby since I lived in Spain and my high school buddy was one of the captains of OSU’s rugby team in the late nineties. Anyone who’s played rugby is okay in my book. I was also listening to Herbstreit and Hooley when his wife called in, talking about his frustration of not starting last year, but he kept at it and look at him now. Another one of those stories to make your day.

Okay, that’s enough touchy-feely. Let’s get back to some football.

MotSaG reader George sent us the link to this article in USA Today today. (I hate saying that). Titled “Big Ten has alarming lack of championship results,” you know where this is going. You’re probably fighting back the tears of boredom before you even read it.

Let me summarize for you: “Ohio State sucks and are only #1 because they’re Ohio State.” Then the author looks at the championship results since 1968, and how little the Big Ten has produced. Yeah, the truth sort of hurts. Sort of. Funny thing is, if you count Penn State’s championships (yeah, I know, they weren’t in the Big Ten back then, but stick with me) you’d have seven National Championships for the Big 10. Nine for the big old bad SEC. You know, the conference of Superheroes. If you go back eight years, to 1960, you’d have 11 championships for the Big 10, 13 for the SEC. I’ll take a national championship ever four years or so for the Big Ten.

Yeah, so the article isn’t worth your time. Funny thing is, that’s not the worse part of the article. This throw-away quote from Mark May is:

“Do you think the kid growing up in California or Florida really cares about ‘dotting the I’ in late November in the Horseshoe?” May asked, referring to the Ohio State band’s traditional rendition of “Script Ohio.”

Uhmmm, I guess not? What the hell does this have to do with playing football at Ohio State? My guess is, if the kid plays the sousaphone and really into marching band, then yeah! He probably does care and would love to dot the I in late November. But this makes no sense. Mark May makes no sense. I wish he was an analyst for NASCAR with Brad Daugherty. Then I’d never have to listen to his crap.

Yeah, it’s from the Michigan State game. Who cares? Everyone loves a picture of VGholston abusing opposing offensive linemen.

I heard a rumor that Vernon asked if the Ohio State athletic department if we could substitute Pitt instead of Penn State on the schedule next year. Not sure why.

Wow, looky here, a performance evaluation on Monday! The Buckeyes looked great in just about all aspects of this game. Let’s get right to some evaluations:

The White-Out: 1.5 Sweatervests

I hate to say this, because I think the white-out is an impressive sight, but I think it has lost its mystique. In 2005, it was an awesome thing to behold. It’s effect on the game can’t be understated. That being said, it’s lost some of its bite since then. Maybe they’re doing it too often, maybe they got deflated quickly in this game, but it just didn’t seem to really have any effect on the outcome of the game. Which is too bad, because it was pretty cool while it lasted.

The Defense: 4.5 Sweatervests

The only thing holding the defense from getting the mythical 5 stars was the first Penn State drive of the game. I didn’t like how Kinlaw was pounding the defense and Morelli getting off to a good start. It didn’t look like a good start giving up 78 yards right off the bat. Funny thing is, they only gained 185 yards after that. The defense would give up a few more big plays to Penn State, but it was never in doubt who was controlling the flow of this game.

The run defense wasn’t perfect. Penn State’s O line was getting into our linebackers and pushing them around. Little Animal didn’t seem to be as aggressive as he normally is and seemed to be reacting to plays, not attacking. Freeman got pushed around a bit, too, especially on Penn State’s TD. The appropriate adjustments were made and the situations dictated that Penn State had to throw the ball, taking some pressure off of OSU’s run defense. Now the run defense needs to be shored up as we face three good running backs over the next three weeks.

I though Kurt Coleman played a great game in the defensive backfield. Jenkins and Washington have been solid all season and now Russell and Coleman are really rounding out that back four. Throw Chekwa in there and you’ve got a nasty secondary.

Offensive Line: 4.5 Sweatervests

Penn State came in to this game leading the nation with 35 sacks. The pressure didn’t get to Todd Boeckman until the fourth quarter. That is serious pass protection. It should be noted that Boeckman did a great job of getting his passes of quickly, but still. One sack is dominating a defensive line. The O-line also opened up huge holes for the running backs. Maurice Wells was racking up yards between the tackles, which doesn’t happen very often. They punished everyone in a white helmet. I mentioned Boone out of the Hartline screen, pushing little DBs around like the bully he is. Then he goes and plays leap frog with Hartline. As SYR mentioned, these guys are playing well and are playing loose. That’s good to see as we hit the tough portion of the schedule.

Special Teams: 3.5 Sweatervests

The kicking game is doing just fine and Pretorius is looking great — 50 yarder, 30 yarder, it doesn’t matter. Trapasso kicks the stuffing out of the ball on kick offs, but he never had to punt! That’s my favorite kind of punting!

I still can’t abide with giving up another kick-off return for a touchdown. I hope the kick-cover team has to do extra gassers all week long. They earned it.

Vernon Gholston: mol of Sweatervests  6.02×10²³

VG was everywhere. He came up with a nice sack and pressured Morelli a number of times. He was also in Morelli’s face when he heaved that duck that landed in Jenkins hands. The man is a beast and was disruptive as usual.

Overall Performance: 5 Sweatervests

I’m giving Ohio State the full five Sweatervests for this weeks game. They looked great, they dominated and just smacked Penn State around all night long.

Baseline: 3 Sweatervests. +1.5 for making a statement in front of a prime time National TV audience and shutting up the critics. -0.5 for giving up a meaningless touchdown on a kick-off. +0.5 for the emergence of other contributors (Mo Wells on offense, Coleman on defense). +0.5 for Tressel opening up the playbook and shaking things up.

In a bid to make the half-time break go faster, I figured a quick update would eat up some clock.

First off, I’ll admit to being a little nervous watching Penn State move the ball with ease during their first drive. The defense didn’t seem to be attacking and Kinlaw was running the ball well. After that, however, the defense has tightened its grip and denied Penn State any more.

The offense, however, has been a revelation. I love that Tressel is mixing things up — different formations, different calls and they have been executing very well. Minus that bad throw from Boeckman, the offense has been unstoppable. Beanie looks great, Maurice is running well and the two Brians look very hungry. Throw in a sprinkling of Ray Small? Awesome. That screen to Hartline was beautiful. Did you see Boone push little Lydell Sargeant (#10) to the ground like a rag-doll? That was beautiful.

Here’s to continued success in the second half. Go Bucks!!

Update: 37-17!! Fricken kick cover team! Otherwise, this was a statement game. OSU came out and punched Penn State in the mouth. They played more physical, more aggresive and made more plays.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Some quick shots for tomorrow’s 8 PM kick-off:

Gameday will be in State College, the first time in a while.
Forecast: Partly cloudy and cool. Looks like it will be windy.
Spread: Ohio State is currently a 3.5 point favorite
Your Defensive captain? Captain Pythons, of course.

Rivals has a preview of the game, along with a look at “Who has the edge“. The Buckeyes have the edge, if you’re wondering. The indefatigable guys at Eleven Warriors have their preview up, along with Buckeye Planet. Not sure anyone gets more thorough the BP guys. Gerdeman gives his dos centavos at The Ozone.

The Wizard of Odds is calling it the Game of the Week and had a couple Big 10 bloggers, 11 Warriors and We are Penn State talk about the game. I got a chuckle out of this line from Kevin at WaPS:

“… and — shockingly — Morelli may be the best quarterback they’ve faced so far this year.”

Certainly he didn’t type that with a straight face.

QBs Ohio State has faced, with their numbers:

Tom Zetts (YSU) 112/192, 1191 yards, 4 TD/5 INT, 112.1 rating
Chris Jacquemain (Akron) 86/144, 915, 8/4, 125.9
Jake Locker (Washington) 95/200, 1193, 11/9, 106.8
CJ Bacher (Northwestern) 216/346, 2598, 14/8, 134.2
Adam Weber (Minnesota) 181/310, 2046. 19/15, 124.4
Curtis Painter (Purdue) 213/339, 2238, 22/6, 136.2
Julian Edelman (Kent State) 98/189, 1318, 7/9, 133.1
Brian Hoyer (Michigan State) 127/211, 1602, 11/4 137.4

Penn State’s #14:
Anthony Morelli: 147/247, 1739. 13/7 130.4

You decide. I’d say he looks middle-of-the-road to me.

My thoughts? I’ve been going back and forth on this one. On paper, Ohio State should win without breaking a sweat. Penn State’s resume isn’t impressive and Ohio State’s talent is clearly bigger, stronger, faster. That’s on paper. In my head, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s an ambush waiting for the Buckeyes. How is it going to go? This hasn’t been good for my digestive system. As of right now, I’m not planning on eating tomorrow. I have gone from thinking this will be a tough game (after Week 1) to thinking we’ll plow the Nittany Lions like everyone else (after Week 5) to not knowing what’s going to happen (today, right now). One thing I’m not worried about: Our Defense. One thing I am worried about: mistakes. If the game is close and the crowd is into it, I’m going to be nervous. If we’re winning by nine or ten points half way through the third quarter and Beanie’s Stiff Arm has been meting out Justice™, I will be relaxed.

Please, fellow MotSaG’ers, calm my nerves and help me get some rest tonight.

Your test questions are:

• Final Score?
• Who has a bigger game, Dan Connor or James Laurinaitis?
• Between the QBs, who throws more INTs? The good QB in a hostile environment or the bad one?
• Which defense gives up more yardage?

el Kaiser says:
OSU: 27 PSU: 16 (NB: I do not feel good about this prediction. Seems too high)
#40 or #33: Laurinaitis comes away with two turnovers and 12 tackles. Connor plays well, but is overshadowed by the Little Animal.
QBs: Morelli is going to have nightmares of Jenkins and Washington. He throws 3 picks to Boeckman’s 1.
Defense: Penn State. Beanie & Co. show they can rack up yards against a good D. OSU holds Penn State to under 300 yards total offense.

sportsMonkey says:
OSU: 20 PSU: 6
#40 or #33: Connor’s carrying the heavy load for PSU. Laurinaitis is a better LB, but he has help (and OSU’s defense is much deeper). My guess is you’ll hear Connor’s name called more often.
QBs: Morelli, like any QB who is about to face a good defense, is hoping that Joe Pa will let him open things up so that he can avoid some pressure. Not gonna happen.
Defense: PSU will give up 100 more yards than OSU.

Sylvester Yon-Rambo says:
OSU: 33 PSU: 12 I truly believe it will not be a close game at all if we score first like we have a lot this year.
#40 or #33:Connor should have a bigger day but it based on his defense being on the field a lot.
QBs: I think Boeckman will play a clean game and Morrelli will lose it for his team 4 INTs for Morelli and 0 for boeckman
Defense: OSU gets 425 yards of offense and gives up 184 yards on defense.

I am praying that all my predictions are correct…… PLEASE FOOTBALL GODS allow me one more week at least of BUCKEYE GLORY. more prayers to come next week.

Zeke says:
OSU: 25 PSU: 13
#40 or #33: Connor will probably have more tackles; however, Little Animal will make more of an impact. LA gets an INT and a couple of sacks.
QBs: Morelli, I feel like Boeckman is improving each week on timing the deep throw. Most of his interceptions early in the season were due to an under thrown deep ball.
Defense: PSU gives up more yardage.