Dear Wisconsin,

[Cody]

As a fellow OSU fan we just got our ass handed to use by John Clay and the other running back from Wisconsin. Pryor played horrid in the first half and we payed for it. Tressell has never been able to win the big game.

 

[packersfan4eva]

John Clay + James White = jizz

 

[Maize]

As a Michigan fan, please fire Tressel. This win really should help MSU, makes their win over Wisconsin look even better. That Iowa-MSU game could be for the Big Ten title.

I liked Wisconsin from the start of the season, thought they could be a BCS sleeper team, and they still could depending on how the rest of the Big Ten shakes out.

 

[1ke]

Its all on MSU now. With MSU doing what they did to Wisco, they are in total control.

@ NU
@ Iowa
Vs Minn
Vs Purdue
@ PSU

Iowa away obviously, and then avoid the let down. I was seriously saddened by tOSU today. I thought if MSU handled Wisco, although at home, I fully expected tOSU to win not easily but win. Ive seen this year in and year out from Wisco. They can never make it over the hump, stuck in the same spot every year. A decent 2 loss team, but good for them today.

 

[Colonel Angus]

LOL @ so much attention being given to Clay in this win. Did you see the lanes he was running through? There's a very good reason he had the numbers of his offensive linemen shaved in the side of his head. White actually showed some moves and juked his way to the game winning TD.

Tolzien made the big throws when he had to. And I still can't believe how well the defense played. JJ Watt is the only good player on that defense.

I still can't believe that game.

 

[1ke]

Camp Randall had alot to do with it IMO....They were jacked from the University to Johnson and everything in between the two parallel streets. The KO return didnt hurt either.

 

[nflman2033]

LOL @ so much attention being given to Clay in this win. Did you see the lanes he was running through? There's a very good reason he had the numbers of his offensive linemen shaved in the side of his head. White actually showed some moves and juked his way to the game winning TD.

Tolzien made the big throws when he had to. And I still can't believe how well the defense played. JJ Watt is the only good player on that defense.

I still can't believe that game.

yeah the win goes to the Wisconsin OLine which manhandled the Buckeyes front 7 all game. DLine have consistently been a staple of great OSU teams for decades and they got beat up bad. I can not be mad about the loss I fully expected it this week.

as far as fire Tressel until he stops winning the Michigan game its going to be real hard for me to jump on that bandwagon.

 

[Cornelius]

And Tressel doesn't need to be fired. What he does need, IMO, is an offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach who knows what the hell he's doing.

People have been saying this for years. And yet things are still the same.

 

[Sportsbuck]

We need an offensive coordinator/QB coach who knows what he's doing? I don't see it that way at all. Bollman had a good gameplan last night but the players just didn't execute, we started off well on the first drive and then Pryor fucked it up with that option pitch. For the most part last night was on the players... with how bad Watts was killing us it didn't really matter what we had called. We left Shugarts out there at RT with a foot injury and paid the price. At some point, it comes down to the players executing.

We are the only school in the nation without a special teams coach. Any coincidence that our special teams have been absolutely horrendous this year?

The defensive line got dominated for the majority of the game, outside of Heyward. The back 7 was slow to react to bubbles and fly sweeps and really didn't seem well prepared.

Dane Sanzenbacher had a fantastic game... kid balled out, made a lot of tough catches and moved the chains when we needed it.

If there's a positive to take away from this game it's that we didn't quit... the 07 or 08 teams probably pack it in down 21-0 on the road, this team fought back to 21-18. Big Ten title still possible, BCS bowl still possible, probably out of the NC race but oh well.

 

[Woy]

We are the only school in the nation without a special teams coach. Any coincidence that our special teams have been absolutely horrendous this year?

Penn State's in the same boat and that's always been the weak spot on our team the last few years.

 

[Goober]

Last year Cameron Heyward and company dominated Wisconsin's offensive line. This year, Heyward looked average and we ran shit.

 

[Tailback U]

Was anyone surprised by the outcome of this game?

Seemed like everyone had picked Wisconsin to win this one.

 

[Hasselbeck]

A BTG sighting? Nice.

 

[nflman2033]

Was anyone surprised by the outcome of this game?

Seemed like everyone had picked Wisconsin to win this one.

so far I have not talked to anyone who was surprised. Only thing that surprised me was how bad OSU got beat up.

 

[Sportsbuck]

Troy Smith? Ohio State just can't develop quarterbacks, IMO. I think Smith was good mainly because he was a running threat.

Troy barely even ran his senior year, and for his career had a 54/13 TD/INT ratio. Tressel developed Troy from an athlete who was originally going to be moved to WR (Troy was an Elite 11 QB though) into a great passer and a Heisman Trophy winner. From Day 1 Troy was a pass first kind of player anyways, the only time he really ran was on designed run plays.

Zwick and Boeckman were pocket passers and they were terrible.

Zwick and Boeckman were horrible no doubt. But if you really think about it, outside of the year we won a national title, and 2005/2006 with Troy, our offensive line has been horrendous. Pocket passers need time and protection in order to have success, and no QB outside of Troy and Krenzel at times has ever had that.

Pryor may have the worst throwing fundamentals I've seen from a so-called "elite" QB. His footwork is awful and his ability to read a defense is nearly non-existant...just like Zwick and Boeckman. Remember their drops and happy feet when their 1st/2nd reads were not there? That's coaching.

Re: the offense as a whole - Tressel comes up with these gameplans that are sort of effective, but really, they're only effective because the players they have on offense are so talented. There's no real innovation. Their formations are interesting, but the plays they run are vanilla and show no real thought, but the biggest issue I have is there's no real identity.

Look at teams like Oregon, Nevada, Texas Tech, Wisconsin...all of those teams have an identity. They run their offense and they run it well, regardless of the personnel they have in place. Ohio State's offense always looks like it was drawn up in the dirt between plays to me. It never looks fluid, especially against good teams.

I can agree with the fact that we have no identity, but for the most part it comes down to the players. You said that the offense is effective because the players are so talented? That in a nutshell is why virtually any offense is successful. With Troy running the show and the talented squad we had, we could march up and down the field at will. For example, Urban Meyer's offense was humming with Tebow, Harvin & Co back there, but struggled under Chris Leak before and are struggling under Brantley now. The fact that Tressel tailors his offensive scheme and gameplan around his players rather than recruiting guys to fit a certain system reinforces this point.

For the most part, I place a lot of the blame of the offense on Pryor. He misses so many open guys, he forces the ball and makes bad decisions, and his footwork is terrible for the most part. But then, this year more than ever, you see the plays and the drives where you see just how good he can be... he finds and hits open receivers, he steps into his throws and shows good footwork, and he makes a big play. As well, to be blunt, he's ran like a pussy for most of the year. He's so tentative running the ball, he doesn't hit it hard when he needs to and on speed options he tries to go horizontally which makes it so much easier on the defense which can string him out to the sidelines, he needs to attack the man he's reading and force a decision, otherwise we'll keep losing yardage inside the 5 trying to run a speed option.

Another thing related to Pryor's running, outside of Dane, our receivers blocking downfield is horrendous. If you watch VY's old tapes from Texas, you'll see WR's manhandling their guys downfield, just straight driving them 10-15 yards and opening up lanes for VY to run through. You watch Pryor, however, and he can't make it 10 yards without taking on 2-3 defenders at a time. I'm convinced Posey has no idea how to block whatsoever. Duron Carter would've been great for his blocking ability alone, but he had to be a dumbass and somehow fail academically and have to go to a JUCO for a year. You must be truly stupid if you can't make the grades as a football player, at Ohio State.

The running backs. Boom should start. No doubt in my mind, he needs to be our #1 back, he's running hard this year and his vision is outstanding, he reminds me of Mike Hart in a lot of respects. Saine is a solid 3rd down back. He can block, he has outstanding hands, and obviously has some wheels. But I want to see more Jamaal Berry, more Jordan Hall, more Carlos Hyde. We have so much talent in the backfield but are so focused on only playing Boom and Saine and I have no idea why. The best teams maximize their talent, put Berry back there and run the zone read with him and Pryor, or even Hall and let them relive their HS days.

DeVier Posey needs to wake the fuck up. He has had a horrible season, he needs to get his shit together and stop dropping so many easy balls like he did last year, he should be one of the better WR's in America but he's sure as hell not playing like it. We have no 3rd WR that I can count on... Taurian Washington has been fighting the dropsies for 3 years now, and the other guys are so green that they've barely touched the field outside of Corey Brown. Stoneburner needs to get the ball more at TE... he is a great player, and the kind of guy we've needed there for so long to give us even more ability to stretch the defense and we aren't utilizing him.

Offensive line... when they want to play, they are one of the best in America. You saw how easily they flipped the switch in the second half and all of a sudden they are blowing Wisconsin off the ball and opening up holes a mile wide, and giving Pryor plenty of time to throw. They've dominated for the most part this year in the run game, and they don't get enough credit for how much time they give Pryor in the pocket. Obviously Watt ate Shugarts shit on Saturday night, but it needs to be noted that Shugarts has a foot injury (Not that it would've helped).

Defensively, it was just a bad game, and when that happens against the best offensive line in the nation it doesn't make for a pretty night. This same group of guys has shut down power running games before (Wisky last year, Iowa last year), they've shut down spread attacks, and everything in between. Overall they didn't seem very prepared or motivated, either. We got blown off the ball and thoroughly manhandled, make no mistake about it though.

I would go on but I've got 3 papers I need to write.

 

[Senser81]

Name the last quarterback Ohio State's had that has had any sort of idea what he was doing. Troy Smith? Ohio State just can't develop quarterbacks, IMO. I think Smith was good mainly because he was a running threat. Zwick and Boeckman were pocket passers and they were terrible. Pryor may have the worst throwing fundamentals I've seen from a so-called "elite" QB. His footwork is awful and his ability to read a defense is nearly non-existant...just like Zwick and Boeckman. Remember their drops and happy feet when their 1st/2nd reads were not there? That's coaching.

Re: the offense as a whole - Tressel comes up with these gameplans that are sort of effective, but really, they're only effective because the players they have on offense are so talented. There's no real innovation. Their formations are interesting, but the plays they run are vanilla and show no real thought, but the biggest issue I have is there's no real identity.

I've never been a big fan of Pryor's and I agree that his fundamentals are non-existent, but I think OSU doesn't ask/allow Pryor to do as much as he should.

I think Troy Smith was able to look good because he had such a great team around him. Pryor doesn't have that luxury. OSU is pretty weak in both the offensive and defensive lines this year, which puts more pressure on Pryor to do well and score points. It seems that he can be effective when given the chance, but Tressel never really opens up on offense. I think OSU would do better if more of the offense ran through Pryor, not less.

 

[Senser81]

Are they? They looked like it for the most part against Wisconsin. To my shame, that was only the second game I was able to watch all year, so I really don't know much more than what I've seen in those two games. I'll take your word for it.

It sucks living so far away from my team.

I watched OSU play Illinois, and Illinois was able to run the ball on OSU and their D-line was in the OSU backfield for most of the game.

 

[Sportsbuck]

I watched OSU play Illinois, and Illinois was able to run the ball on OSU and their D-line was in the OSU backfield for most of the game.

We gave up 119 yards on the ground, with 26 of them coming on one play. Gave up 3.3 yards per carry and when you take out the 26 yard gain we only averaged to give up 2.6 yards per carry.

Our offensive line is very good IMO, and people are making way too big of a deal about the Wisconsin game with our defensive line. This is the same core group that dominated people last year and has been this year up to this point (Although a lack of sacks to show for it since teams have tried to get the ball out quick to neutralize our pass rush), yes we got dominated by Wisconsin, but they are probably the best offensive line in America. Give it a couple more games before you start calling our strength a weakness.

 

[nflman2033]

We gave up 119 yards on the ground, with 26 of them coming on one play. Gave up 3.3 yards per carry and when you take out the 26 yard gain we only averaged to give up 2.6 yards per carry.

Our offensive line is very good IMO, and people are making way too big of a deal about the Wisconsin game with our defensive line. This is the same core group that dominated people last year and has been this year up to this point (Although a lack of sacks to show for it since teams have tried to get the ball out quick to neutralize our pass rush), yes we got dominated by Wisconsin, but they are probably the best offensive line in America. Give it a couple more games before you start calling our strength a weakness.

what I see is a defense geared to stopping spread attacks and not equipped to line up against a smash mouth offense.

 

[Senser81]

We gave up 119 yards on the ground, with 26 of them coming on one play. Gave up 3.3 yards per carry and when you take out the 26 yard gain we only averaged to give up 2.6 yards per carry.

I love taking out plays as if they never happened. If we are going to play that game, then it would make zero sense to take out a 26-yard rushing play when we are talking about the effectiveness of the rushing game. It would make more sense to take out the 3 sacks for -17 yards, which would give you 136 yards on 33 carries for a 4.1 yards per carry, which is amazing for a poor Illinois team against Ohio State.