Enough Said…… for now
(1) Ohio State versus (24) Penn State Half-time update (Updated)
October 27, 2007 by 3 Comments
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.
Penn State Open Thread
October 26, 2007 by 3 Comments
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.
Link Round-up is the Calm and the Storm (Week #9)
October 25, 2007 by 1 Comment
So first off, we’ve been wondering how we should be doing the “link round-up”. As readers, do you prefer the once-a-week linkage or would you prefer the links one at a time, spread out as they come? Let us know how you like your Buckeye Blogging.
What kind of fan of Gholston would I be if I didn’t lead with today’s Dispatch article on your and my favorite Buckeye?
“Vernon Gholston is both the calm and the storm. He is the strong, silent type.”
The guys at the M Zone asked the question on every Big Ten fan’s mind. Is the SEC really that good?
Beanie’s got ankle problems. Real bad ones. Okay, maybe not that bad. Would the real Beanie’s ankle please stand up?
Buckeye Commentary has a good look at the current state of the Big Ten.
Bruce Hooley has a preview of the Penn State game over at ESPN. How effective will that crowd be this year? Hasn’t the “White Out” run its course? It is kinda cool to see and rather impressive, I just wonder if the mystique has worn off. What if it’s raining Saturday night? Kinda hard to have a white out with yellow ponchos.
SMQ looks at Ohio State, your current front runner for the BCS Championship game. My favorite part? That table he has with best defenses of the past decade which puts the current OSU defense as the best in the past decade. Impressive.
Data on Common Opponents – Penn State
October 25, 2007 by 1 Comment
Ohio State plays its third away-game-at-night of the season this weekend (*cough*unfair*cough*), and it’s against one of the top defenses in the country.
As of week 9, OSU and PSU have no common opponents. So, this week, we’re presenting the numbers from Penn State’s home games and Ohio State’s away games.
The tables list the opponent(s) in chronological order down the first column, and include the following ‘important’ stats: total points (Pts), total yards (Yds), total first downs (Dwns), and turnovers (TOs); for each team and its opponent (Opp).
Table 1: Penn State Home Games
| Pts | Pts (opp) | Yds | Yds (opp) | Frst Dwns | Dwns (opp) | TOs | TOs (opp) | |
| Florida International | 59 | 0 | 549 | 114 | 27 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Notre Dame | 31 | 10 | 295 | 144 | 19 | 9 | 3 | 1 |
| Buffalo | 45 | 24 | 393 | 395 | 22 | 20 | 2 | 2 |
| Iowa | 27 | 7 | 489 | 194 | 26 | 8 | 3 | 0 |
| AVERAGE | 40.5 | 10.3 | 431.5 | 211.8 | 23.5 | 11 | 2.5 | 2 |
Table 2: Ohio State Away Games
| Pts | Pts (opp) | Yds | Yds (opp) | Frst Dwns | Dwns (opp) | TOs | TOs (opp) | |
| Washington | 33 | 14 | 481 | 346 | 21 | 20 | 0 | 4 |
| Minnesota | 30 | 7 | 459 | 277 | 24 | 15 | 1 | 2 |
| Purdue | 23 | 7 | 381 | 272 | 20 | 15 | 3 | 1 |
| AVERAGE | 28.7 | 9.3 | 440.3 | 298.3 | 21.7 | 16.7 | 1.3 | 2.3 |
Notes:
Ooohhh… a juicy comparison. Here are some points for argument:
- Penn State’s numbers are better overall… BUT Penn State’s home opponents rank 118, 119, 85, and 109 (respectively) in total offense (out of 119 teams overall). Put simply, the worst of the worst.
- PSU’s home opponents’ combined average yards per game (ypg) is 268.4. Note that the Lions are allowing 211.8 ypg. In other words, Penn State is holding home opponents to 57 fewer yards than their average.
- OSU’s away opponents’ combined average ypg is 403.8. OSU is holding these opponents to 106 fewer yards per game. (And remember, they’re doing so in away-at-night environments).
What say you? Personally, the more I look at the numbers, it seems clear that the Nittany Lions’ offense will hardly challenge the Buckeyes at all. Like last week, Penn State’s best chance for an upset is to hope for multiple defensive scores. Joe Pa needs turnovers to have a chance to win this game.
Weekly Vernon Gholston Shot
October 25, 2007 by 3 Comments
Is he getting ready for lift-off? Or playing Car Wash? Or is he a Transformer, mid-transform?
Link round-up and more to follow…
Michigan State Performance Evaluations
October 24, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I’m still surprised how the Ohio State/Michigan State result has been perceived. Not just nationally, either. The headline on the sports page of the Columbus Dispatch was “Quite a fright.” Are you kidding me? I know the writers don’t pick their headlines, but that is ridiculous. A fright? Seriously? Hardly. Michigan State came into Columbus with a vaunted rush game and something to prove. Ohio State’s defense put them in their place. Let’s start there:
The Defense: 4.5 Sweatervests
Michigan State and its one-two punch of Ringer and Caulcrick came into this game running other defenses over. They were averaging over 450 yards of offense a game. These are not insignificant numbers. Michigan State may not be a great team, but they are good. You don’t rack up that kind of yardage without some talented players.
That being said, Ohio State’s defense absolutely dominated the Spartans. Gholston & Company held the double-J’s to 59 yards on the ground, 2.1 yards per carry. That’s stout. Nine first downs, total. Solid tackling, good adjustments, everything. Laurinaitis continues to be a leader by example, racking up 12 tackles and really seems to be everywhere on the field. Everyone is flying to the ball. This is a fun defense to watch.
The Opponent: 3.5 Sweatervests
As I mentioned above, Michigan State is not a bad team. They laid the wood to a good Indiana team (the same team that played Penn State tough last Saturday) and matched Wisconsin stride for stride for 3+ quarters. They also beat Pitt (even though it wasn’t pretty) who just beat a good Cincinnati team. They were averaging almost 37 points a game and gobs of yards coming into the Horseshoe.
They’re also a well coached team. Give Dantonio a couple years and he’ll have Michigan State in the thick of the Big Ten again. Don’t be fooled. Ohio State beat a pretty good Michigan State team.
Beanie’s Stiff Arm: 4 Sweatervests
It’s unfair, actually, how easily Beanie pushes around defenders. You know as soon as you see him switch the ball to his other hand that the Stiff Arm of Justice™ is coming, halting all in its path.
My only concern is that he relies on it just a little too much. It also leaves him vulnerable for arm/shoulder injuries. But for now, he seems to be doing just fine. Stiffing people is Beanie’s business, and business is good.
Vernon Gholston: 5 Sweatervests
Gholston decided to descend from his throne atop Mount Olympus to play as a mere mortal this week. Can’t let anyone get too suspicious. We’ll give him the decidedly mortal five Sweatervests.
Overall Performance: 4 Sweatervests
Baseline: 3 Sweatervests. +1 for Ballard’s catch. Thing of beauty. +1 BIG D. That’s a D with 72 point font. +1 for Beanie’s 221 yards. More of that, please. -1 for Boeckman’s INT, -0.5 for his lost fumble (not entirely his fault) and -0.5 for Beanie’s almost lost fumble. Less of that, please!
Freudian slip
October 21, 2007 by 10 Comments
Want more proof that ESPN is the source of the “SEC superiority” myth? Watch Chris Fowler as he calls the BCS poll the “SEC poll” without realizing it (slip-up is at the 1:15 mark):
A few of our commenters have noticed a trend occurring… OSU is playing a team with a lot of “talent,” that should “test” the Buckeyes. When that happens, “we’ll know what kind of team the Buckeyes have.” After dispatching said team, the ESPN folks say “Ohio State survived the test, but we won’t know until next week what kind of team they have.”
Obviously, it’s an canned line of reasoning, because the same things have been said each week for the past few weeks… again and again and again – it’s been said about Washington, Purdue, Michigan State, etc. How many weeks are we going to be told “we’ll see how good they are next week,” then watch OSU handily dispatch an opponent, only to cast doubt on the quality of the team’s dominance afterwards?
Herbie does it again at the end of the above video. “The OSU defense is playing like a #1 team, but we won’t know anything about the offense until next week.” Kirk, MSU came to Columbus with the 15th best offense in the country. Everyone agrees that MSU has a good offense, correct? Some ESPN analysts even predicted an upset, due to the strength of players like Ringer and Thomas. So, if OSU were to offensively outperform a team that everyone agrees is one of the best, wouldn’t it make sense to say that OSU’s offense one of the best as well?
And how did the Buckeyes do last Saturday? OSU goes out and has two players that individually outperform the entire MSU offense – Wells with 221 yards and Boeckman with 193 (compared to MSU’s 185 total). Yet, “we still don’t know how good OSU’s offense is.”
Put simply, the Buckeyes are perfectly capable of beating any team in the country, and probably would on a neutral field. The only question is whether or not the offense is mature enough to not beat itself, like was almost allowed to happen last Saturday.
Michigan State Open Thread
October 19, 2007 by 2 Comments
I’ve been very busy today pushing electrons for The Man, the sportsMonkey is on vacation and no one knows what happened to Zeke or Sylvester Yon-Rambo (they’re probably playing Halo 3 or something fun.) so this week’s Open Thread will be a little thin. In other words, I’m here to make a prediction and then getting back to work.
Don’t let that stop you from posting your thoughts on tomorrow’s 3:30 match-up on ABC. Should OSU be on upset-alert?
I don’t think so. I think they’re going to flex their considerable muscle and continue their stingy streak on defense. Michigan State only records one TD. My prediction:
OSU: 34
MSU: 16
What do you think?
Sylvester Yon-Rambo here…… I am still trying to figure out how I could go to a Penn St vs Wisconsin game and come away disgusted with OSU fans at the ‘shoe. I will openly admit that PSU fans and satadium is crazy and very fan friendly and LOUDER than a whole season worth of games at the shoe…… The Student section at PSU is insane and large and VERY VERY VOCAL….. and the crowd manages to be loud for an entire game and not just 3rd down in the 1st qtr. OSU needs to stop selling so many tickets to BLUE HAIRS and relocate the Student section and some how get the fans involved more…… I will give more of my perspective next week during PSU week.
As for my prediction……
OSU: 45
MSU: 9
I sincerely believe this may be the best defense top to bottum I have ever seen in football. And I am a Chicago Bears fan from birth which includes the vaunted 1985 Bears…… As long as we control our TOs we will go undefeated and avenge our only loss in the last 2 years.
Link Round-up, Week #8
October 19, 2007 by 1 Comment
Before we get started with this week’s round-up, I just wanted to make sure I understood the ramifications of Rutgers resounding defeat of South Florida. As USF was ascending in the polls, their victory over Auburn “looked more and more impressive” as Auburn beat Florida and squeaked by Arkansas. The victory over Auburn was one of USF’s feathers in its cap, something the pundits used to justify why their 7-0 was more impressive than OSU’s. Now that USF has been defeated (no surprise here at MotSaG), does that cheapen the victory over Auburn? Does that cascade its way down the chain? I could go on, but it’s probably pointless. Either way, OSU still controls its own destiny.
Now to the round-up:
Our first link, this piece of written vomit is just more Big Ten bashing. Look everyone! Ohio State hasn’t beat anyone of merit! Am I the first writer to write that! I bet I am! (via Buckeye Commentary)
Did that get your blood pressure up? Now you can cool down a little with this piece from a Fox Sports blog by “MrPressbox,” whoever that is. I like the cut of his jib.
“But when it comes to talking about conference powerhouses, the SEC is king, but the Big 10(11) is a close second. No conference is more talented from top to bottom and the reason the records don’t look stellar is because the teams are so tough they beat each other up each week.
Why do you think other conferences like the Big 12, Pac 10 and ACC almost never schedule a Big 10(11) team on their regular season schedule?”
But enough of the “my conference is better than yours!” jibba jabba. That’s what bowl season is for. Let’s talk Buckeyes football.
I love that the Ohio State coaches are using last season’s championship debacle to motivate the team this year. Boeckman was on the radio today with Hooley and they talked about how the coaches are using little subtle reminders of the game against Florida. Things like using “4114” as the code on the doors to the practice facility. Hopefully that keeps them focused.
Anderson Russell, he of iron ankles, should be playing Saturday, along with James Lauranaitis, who left the game with a hip pointer.
AR’s return is amazing after considering what happened to him, a nominee for The Wizard of Odds’ Cheapest Shot of the Year.
Speaking of come-backs, here’s the feel good story for the season: Nader Abadallah’s brother whipping him into playing shape.
As it should be, the Ohio State/Michigan game will be Noon on ABC. And again, it will have National Championship implications. The BTN, however, will not get its chance to air it. It will never get that chance.
A little blog linkage: Simon at SimonOnSports asks “What do we know about the Buckeyes?”
As always, don’t hesistate to send us your tips, your stories, your gameday pictures, anything. You can always contact us via the Contact Form. Thanks for reading!
