Nebraska Game Review
Offense
- We’ve found our quarterback. For 3 and a half quarters, outside of an untimely ball being ripped away from him, Braxton Miller looked as good as advertised. He was throwing the ball well, and his dangerous running ability was keeping the offense moving, and he finished with 10 carries for 91 yards, and also went 5/8 for 95 yards and a TD as well. The way the team performed offensively when he went down just shows how valuable he is. He’s still got a ways to go, but overall I came away very impressed.
- Carlos Hyde is a baller. 13 carries for 104 yards and 2 TD’s? Awesome stats. Awesome play as well. He showed some speed I don’t think anyone knew he had during his 63 yard touchdown run that was reminiscent of Beanie Wells against LSU in the NCG. He pounded the ball old-school style and picked up first downs with the box stacked. Overall great performance, I came away very impressed. He deserves to get the ball even with Boom coming back. His last 3 games combined, he has 24 carries for 177 (7.3 YPC) yards and 3 TD’s.
- Philly Brown is a difference maker at receiver. He was able to separate from DB’s, and made some plays when he got the ball in his hands. His big catch and run at the start of the game was crucial to Braxton’s confidence, and he also had his man beat deep late in the game when Joe Bauserman underthrew him.
- Stoneburner showed some great speed on the throwback TE screen. Sure doesn’t move like a TE.
- Mike Adams had, perhaps the best offensive line performance I’ve ever seen at Ohio State. He played like a man possessed. His return also allowed us to get our best 5 OL out there, with Andrew Norwell sliding to LG and Jack Mewhort moving to RG. If there’s a better offensive lineman in the country, I haven’t them.
- False starts continue to be a problem. Shugarts had his usual one, but Mewhort picked up another one as well. Don’t see what’s so hard about not moving until the ball is snapped.
- Chris Fields did a great job getting open. If Braxton could’ve put one of his passes about 6 inches lower, then Chris is in the endzone celebrating a TD.
- Was not impressed with Jordan Hall today. Didn’t do much in the return game, and struggled on the ground. Everybody has down games, and Hyde did play great to off-set this, but we needed a big game from Hall.
- Bauserman… just wow. 1/10. 13 yards. 1 INT. One of the worst performances I’ve ever seen. I’m sure you’ve already seen the Joe Bauserman passing chart by now, and the sad part is that it actually gives him credit for more passes completed than he has on the road all year (He is 3/24 on the road). I understand he’s worked hard, he’s a true Buckeye, yada yada yada, but the point is with his play he should not be playing quarterback at Ohio State, ever again.
- Kenny Guiton was warming up at the end of the game, before the defense let Nebraska run the last 4 minutes of clock off, but he should’ve been in earlier. Joe couldn’t do anything, you gotta at least put in Kenny and let him do something with his legs because Nebraska was just pinning their ears back without a running threat at QB to account for.
- I have regularly railed against Jim Bollman, but I am here to give the man props. His gameplan and play-calling for 3 and a half quarters was nothing short of incredible. The throwback TE screen was brilliantly run, called, and executed. He put Braxton in situations where he could succeed, and running to the weakside of formations away from the safety support for the entirety of the game was a very good call as well.
- At the same time though, he did an awful job once Braxton went out. When Braxton was in (3.5 quarters), we ran the ball 33 times, passed 8 of them. When Bauserman was in (1.5 quarters), we passed 10 times, and ran 8. Given how ineffective Bauserman was through the air, that’s just inexcusable.
- Hated the decision to punt from the 32 yard line. See, that was the situation where Jim Tressel wins us this game. On 3rd and 13 from the 32, rather than dropping Joe back to pass again, Tress would’ve ran the ball, picked up a couple of yards and centered it, kicked the FG, and gone up 30-20 and put all of the pressure back on Nebraska. Instead, Fickell passes it, doesn’t get it, takes a delay of game to give Buchanon some room, and punts the ball away. It would be the closest we got to anything the rest of the game.
Grade: C+. If Braxton had been able to keep playing, this probably ends up as an A. But I just can’t let the final quarter and a half and the blown FG opportunity out of my head. Bauserman’s poor performance also drags it down. Gave it a + just because of the first 3 and a half quarters.
Defense
- Bradley Roby, once again, continues to play great. He made a lot of plays, and I feel very confident in saying he’s going to be the next NFL corner to come out of Ohio State.
- Travis Howard, once again, continues to struggle. Dominic Clarke has got to be given an opportunity… I sat there blatantly pointing out all of the times Howard messed up because they were so obvious.
- Etienne Sabino is probably the most physically gifted LB in the Big Ten, but mentally he’s nowhere near as strong. He takes poor angles, is slow to react, and struggles in coverage. He does make some pretty good hits when he gets there (Just ask Taylor Martinez), but his deficiencies more than outway his good play. I would like to see Ryan Shazier get a shot at the WLB.
- Christian Bryant had his worst game as a Buckeye. He had the blown coverage that led to the TD off of the option stepback pass, and he also missed a tackle in the open field that sprung Rex Burkhead for 6. He’s still young, hopefully he can learn from this, but he did not play well. On the bright side though, he did destroy Taylor Martinez’ soul.
- Flat out, our LB’s just aren’t very good this year. Sweat is a hard worker, but he’s too slow and misses too many tackles, Sabino is an amazing physical specimen but can’t put it all together, and Klein is probably our best of the bunch, but he just hasn’t been that great either. Shazier and Curtis Grant both look good, would love to see them get some time down the stretch since both of their redshirts have been burned. I’m wondering if it’s because of the players, or if Mike Vrabel simply isn’t cut out to coach yet.
- The defensive line was pretty average. For most of the first half, they clogged up running lanes, but once again the lack of a pass rush was killer. With the news that Nathan Williams won’t be back this year, they had better find a pass rusher soon or Wisconsin could indeed get quite ugly. Broke down in the second half and just got mauled.
- Heacock and Fickell did a good job in the first half shutting Nebraska down on the ground and holding them to 6 points, but the 2nd half was just atrocious. Looked like our defense had never seen a zone read before. The touchdown drives were long yardage wise but short time wise, we missed tackles and blew assignments, and overall played one of the worst halves of defense I’ve seen in a decade.
Grade: F. Completely and thoroughly dominated in the second half, gave up 100 yards to 2 different guys, and also let Taylor Martinez throw for 191 yards and 2 TD’s. Poor tackling, poor pursuit, blown assignments, and physical domination. All add up, to one of the most historic collapses in Buckeye history.
Special Teams
- Ben Buchanon was good once again. Had two key punts drop inside the 20 yard line, and helped out enormously.
- Drew Basil did what he was asked, just like last week. Hit 2 FG’s, and perfect on extra points. Damn shame he didn’t get the chance to try for a 3rd FG, like I mentioned before.
- Jordan Hall was adequate in the return game. He has solid numbers, but we didn’t have that great of a starting field position for most of the game
- Kick coverage did a pretty good job overall, outside of one return against one of the nation’s best returnmen.
Grade: B. Did what they were asked to do. Not spectacular, but not bad either.
So, the Buckeyes sit at 0-2 during this crucial 4 game stretch, and 3-3 overall. The Big Ten title streak is over. The BCS bowl streak is over. We’ve got a young team, who went through an emotional roller coaster en route to the biggest collapse in Ohio State football history. We’ve still got to travel to Illinois to take on the #16, undefeated Illini. We’ve still got the superpower-like Wisconsin Badgers coming to Columbus in 2 weeks.
All is not lost though, my friends.
We can still turn this season around and finish strongly. There’s a very real chance that we go 5-1 to cap off the year and have a possibility of 9 wins including the bowl game. I think Fickell has zero chance of being retained as HC right now, and expect the Urban Meyer-for-head-coach train to be kicked into high gear.
We’ve got to build around Braxton Miller, and improve every week. We’ve got a very young roster, and a lot of those guys are seeing the field right now. It’s crucial to the future success of this program that they continue to get better and get reps.
Also, think about this, how many times in the past decade has Ohio State had the chance to be a spoiler? I count twice, 2001, and 2004. We’re used to being the big dog on the block, fending off upset attempts, but now we get to attempt to upset people, with more talent than a typical 3-3 team. We get to play spoiler. Last time we sat at 3-3, 2004, we finished 4-1 and beat a Rose Bowl bound Michigan team by 2 touchdowns thanks to the development of Troy Smith, and his development along with other young guys helped to set the stage for back-to-back BCS bowls and a run at a National Championship in 2006 and 2007.
I’m not sure who will be coaching Ohio State next year, but I can tell you this, how we perform next year will be determined in large part by how our young guys play over the next 6 games.
We’re 3-3, .500 right now. Let’s see if this season pans out like 2004, where we finished 4-1 with a bowl win and a big-time win over Michigan, or if the team crumbles and falls apart like in 1999 and 2000, resulting in John Cooper’s firing. Regardless, I’ll be supporting this team, and watching every damn minute of every damn game.
