THE GAME: Penn St. 13 - Ohio St. 6
"When you have a running back as good as Beanie Wells and all he can come up with for the entire night is 55 yards of rushing on 22 carries you have a little line problem like Custer had a little Indian problem."
Not a lot can be said about the game, if you watched it you saw a defensive struggle and Tresselball at its very worst. Great defense, great special teams and no offense whatsoever. Keep it close until the fourth quarter and hope the other team makes a mistake before you do. Usually it works, sometimes it doesn't. It was working until Pryor tried to beat the safety on a third and one and the safety just punched the ball out of his hand. Game over, check and mate.
What I really want to talk about this week is the offense in general and the offensive line in particular. Our offense sucks, truly sucks. As a matter of fact, the only time our offense hasn't sucked in the last seven years was in 2006 when Troy Smith was so good at escaping the grasp of defensive linemen that our horrible offensive line was kind of a secondary point of discussion. I understand that Bollman and Tressel go back a lot of years and are best friends but I am beginning to wonder if it might not be time for him to choose another career path.
Our offensive line is flat out mediocre. We had four starters returning on that line and it should have been the best line in the Tressel era. And believe me, it would not have taken much to accomplish that as we haven't had a good line in seven years. It's not recruiting and it's not talent, it's just that they never get better. Every other position on the football team has players that get better every year, they get coached up. Why not the offensive line? When you have a running back as good as Beanie Wells and all he can come up with for the entire night is 55 yards of rushing on 22 carries you have a little line problem like Custer had a little Indian problem.
Of course, when the defensive line knows every play you're going to run before you snap the ball, it's kind of hard to fill the gaps. But play calling is a whole other discussion. If Tressel doesn't shake up the assistant coaches at the end of this year we are doomed to more of the same. We have a defense that year in and year out is championship caliber. Our special teams bail us out more often then Congress bails out bankers. But our offense is no better than any team in the MAC. Nine starters returning on an offense that went 11-2 and made it to the National Championship Game and the best we can do is a third of our games without an offensive touchdown? Don't get me wrong, I still think Tressel is the best football coach Ohio State has had in my lifetime but just think of how good we would be if we had anything better than a mediocre offense.
So, the team has a week off to think about how they let a Big Ten Championship slip away and then it has trips to Northwestern and Illinois and then home against meeeshitagin. And then it is probably off to some sunny place like Orlando or San Antonio where hopefully we will play a team from the Big 12 so Tressel will see what offenses have evolved into in this millennium.
One other thought about the game. Woody used to say that you will lose a game for every freshman you start. We are starting two and we are 7-2. As Woody was never wrong about anything I say we win out and win our bowl game to go 11-2 again.
THAT WHICH WAS:
Tennessee got pounded for the fifth time this year, it happened to be Alabama this time putting a 29-9 pasting on Phat Phil. I think Jim Bollman, our offensive line coach is from Tennesse and is looking to move on. A perfect fit if you ask me.
USC outlasted Arizona 17-10. There are only four teams in the PAC 10 with a winning record and they don't have a conference championship game so look for USC to play for the crystal football in Miami.
West By God Virginia beat Auburn 34-17 in Morgantown. Auburn hasn't left the southeast United States since Sherman's march through Georgia and I don't see them making another trip up north until another major historical event like the dedication of the George W. Bush library which could happen in a couple of hundred years.
Boise State took sole possession of first place in the Western Athletic Conference with a rousing win over San Jose State. Yes, they knew the way to San Jose.
Boston College went to North Carolina where "barbeque" is a noun and got barbequed (a verb) by the Tar Heels 45-24. Ya'll with me on this one?
Cal beat UCLA 41-20. UCLA is bad. But hey, they beat Tennessee. Is Tennessee looking for a good home grown coach? Jim Bollman might be interested.
Duke beat Vanderbilt. At one point Vanderbilt was 5-0 and sitting atop the SEC. Since then they've fallen further than my stock portfolio. Losing to Duke is like, well....., losing to Duke.
Florida punished Kentucky 63-5. I can't imagine why any school would run up 63 points on another school but, oh wait, maybe their coach is just an asshole.
Florida State beat Virginia Tech but Bobby Bowden kept glancing up at the scoreboard to see how Penn State was doing. Meanwhile, JoePa was asleep in the press box occasionally waking up and glancing down at the Ohio State offensive line being dismantled. Sorry Bobby, JoePa is still two up.
Georgia waltzed into Cajun country and gave them good old boys in the Bayou a 52-38 whoopin'. After losing in a big way to both Florida and Georgia we may just see LSU in the Cap One Bowl. I wouldn't mind another shot at them, even without an offense.
Wisconsin crawled back up from the Big 10 cellar with a nice little home win over the unfighting Illini.
Last year Mike Hart, of big mouth fame at meeeshitagin, referred to Michigan State as their "little brothers." Mark Dantonio used that all year long and went into the big toilet bowl and showed meeshitagin why Mom liked them best. I always root for the Big Ten teams unless meeeshitagin is involved and I just loved watching The Spartans put it to Rich-Rod.
Minni-so-so moved to 7-1 with a 17-6 win at Purdon't. Wow, they were 1-11 last year. I think Brewster might get Big 10 Coach of the Year. Well, him or Rich Rodriguez, its a toss up.
$Notre Dame put it to Willingham once again. They hired him and then they fired him and now they've caused him to resign. Washington will definitely be looking for a new coach at the end of the year. I hear Jim Bollman is from Washington and might be interested in returning home.
Syracuse had a bye week and therefore didn't get beat. I hear Jim Bollman is from New York.
Texas beat Oklahoma State in a close one, 28-24. Man, how would you like to play Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech back to back to back to back? Four top ten teams in four weeks. Texas deserves to be #1. All of that offense just floating around out there and we can't even get a sniff.
Mount Union beat Willmington 55-0. It was 49-0 at the half and would have been 100-0 if Urban Meyer or Pete Carroll were coaching at Mount. Nate Kmic only had 94 yards and three touchdowns and didn't see the end of the second quarter. My dream, before I die, is to see Larry Kehres as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State for just one year. That's all I ask. He has been the head coach at Mount Union for 23 seasons, has won nine national championships within a playoff system, has the two longest winning streaks in college football history at 54 and 55 games and has an overall record of 267-21-3 or 93%. Knute Rockney was the winningest coach by percent at 88%, so that puts it in perspective. Just one year! The year Kerhes retires he should agree to go to Ohio State for one year for one million dollars. I mean, what's a national championship worth?
THAT WHICH WILL BE:
Tulsa at Arkansas. Tulsa at Arkansas you say? Yes, Tulsa is undefeated and has outscored their opponents 445-207 while Arkansas is dead last in the SEC. Would I like to see a school from Conference USA beat an SEC school? Hell yes. Tulsa is 7-0 and the third best team in Oklahoma. All of that offense.....
Clems-son at Boston College. Since BC entered the ACC a few teams from the south have to occasionally play in Boston in November. After last week we know BC can't play in the south, can Clems-son play in the north? I think not. Clems-son needs a new coach and I heard Jim Bollman is from South Carolina and when interviewed said "Ya'll kiddin'? I'd love to be a Game Cock."
Oregon at Cal. These two teams are ranked second and third in the PAC 10 and are fighting for second place in case USC gets to Miami and then they could sneak into the Rose Bowl to play Ohio State who would also be sneaking into the Rose Bowl.
Duke at Wake Forest. Reputations are on the line. Both teams come into the game with 4-3 records. No matter who wins between these two academic powers the loser's cheer will be "That's alright, that's okay, you're going to work for us someday."
East Carolina at Central Florida. Another clash of directional schools. Ponce de Leone explored central Florida looking for a fountain of youth. The Pirates are just looking for some booty. Arrrrrrrrrr.
In one of the top games of the week Florida travels to Georgia. Remember last year when Georgia scored first and the entire team charged on the field? Well, Pope Urban of Meyer never got over that one. Should be one hell-of-a-slugfest between the hedges.
Kansas State at Kansas. "I want to go back to Kansas, I want to go back to Kansas." said Dorothy to Toto. She's about the only person I know who wants to go to Kansas, even for the first time.
Tulane at LSU. Les Miles finally gets to pound on someone.
Wisconsin at Michigan State. This will be a good, hard fought, physical game. Whiskey is coming off of a big win over Illinois and MSU beat up their big brother and both want to keep the momentum moving.
Northwestern at Mini-soso. Again, both teams are in new territory being bowl eligible and all and are now fighting for a better bowl.
Ole Miss at Auburn. I only put this in because you just never tire of watching Auburn get beat.
Nebraska at Oklahoma. This used to be THE game in the Big 12 before Nebraska fell on hard times. It still promises to be a head banger worthy of tornado alley destruction.
Pitt at $Notre Dame. $ND must win the next four games before facing USC and should be favored in every one of them. Of course, there is the Charlie Weis schematic execution and planning thingy that is always a wild card.
Texas at Texas Tech is the game of the week no matter what the SEC says. Its a bye week for Ohio State and I am praying that Tressel watches this game just to see how it could be with an offense. We need to root for Texas Tech to get Penn State into the championship game so we can sneak into the Rose Bowl.
Washington at USC. Can you imagine? You have the worst team in the country and you have to travel to The City of Angles to play The Men of Troy who like to run up scores like Kenyan's like to run up mountains. And Petey just fell in the polls by one spot after not scoring enough points against Arizona. Look for 70 in this one.
John Carroll at Mount Union. John Carroll is 5-2 and has actually beaten Mount Union once in the last ten years. Look for Nate Kmic to stay in the whole game and crank out some yards and touchdowns.
The Coach
Tags:
chris wells,
jim tressel,
ohio state football,
terrelle pryor
Add a Comment
Please be civil.