First, I'll start with general impressions...
I thought the until about the tail-end of the 2nd Quarter, this was the Buckeyes team that I've been longing for this season. The tempo was fast... the play-calling was quick (i.e., Barrett and the offense weren't stuck waiting around for the play to come in from the sidelines)... and if you've been reading up on all of my posts this year, then you'll know that the the Buckeyes did exactly what I've been preaching they needed to do (i.e., they finally got away from spreading the ball around to their abundant resources of weapons, and finally started concentrating on 2-3 weapons; namely J.T. Barrett, Ezekiel Elliott, Dontre Wilson, Devin Smith, and Michael Thomas. Until Curtis Samuel fumbled late in the 2nd Quarter (and really that was a crucial turning point in the game that halted the Buckeyes' machine), Barrett had 9 passes for 141 yards (including 2 TD passes) and 76 rushing yards, Elliott had 57 total yards (important note: Elliott didn't touch the ball in the 2nd Q until Samuel fumbled... that blows my mind), Wilson had 46 total yards, and Devin Smith and Michael Thomas each had 33 yards receiving. That needs to be OSU's offense. That should be how OSU's offense looks every week (with an exception for a pass or two to a TE). Rod Smith should only be used in the short yardage situations (i.e., 3rd and 2) and Curtis Samuel and Jalin Marshall (while they've looked good the times they've been in there) should only be used when the game is in hand (which, I suppose an argument could be made for this is exactly what happened, because by the time Curtis Samuel got in there and saw his 1st touches of the game, the score was already OSU 30 CIN 7... so I suppose this is actually exactly what the game plan was).
While I think Samuel will turn into a fine player, I was thrilled to see Meyer bench him after his fumble. Teach the young star athlete a lesson... You're not going to play for me if you're not going to take care of the football. Yes Samuel is a star in the waiting... and yes there's going to be a time where Meyer is going to need to lean on him, but for right now... let the freshman ride the bench and give it to your workhorse Elliott. The Bearcats couldn't stop Elliott all night.
Time to get into the individual players...
I'm really starting to enjoy J.T. Barrett. I think this kid is going to be just fine. He's reads, progressions, and throws are all so advanced for his level. You look at where Barrett's at verses where Florida State's Jameis Winston (most talked about player in college football) and Michigan's Shane Morris (same recruiting class as Barrett) are at... and go ahead and call it scarlet glasses all you want, but I would honestly take Barrett over both of those guys. Next time you watch Jameis Winston, look for how many times he's throwing curl-route passes. It seems like every time he throws the ball, he's throwing to where the WR was/is; not where the WR is going to be (i.e., he doesn't lead his receivers). As for Morris... Morris looks like he's just out there trying to win a pitching competition of who-can-throw-the-ball-the-hardest. Morris has yet to demonstrate zero touch on his passes (and no... I'm not just talking about this past weekend's game, I'm talking about throughout his entire collegiate career, so including last year's bowl game vs Kansas State), and he's just out there launching the ball wherever (hence all the interceptions - 5 INTs in 7 games). Barrett on the hand looks poised, hes matured from game-to-game, and I'm watching him learn from his past game mistakes. I'm beginning to feel far more confident in him managing the game, and starting to see potential for him to take games over. Very exciting.
Cincinnati fans want to point to their "stud" QB Gunner Kiel... Barrett had a higher QBR (85.7) than Kiel did (76.7). As I already discussed with many of my Bearcat friends... you take just THREE pass completions away from Kiel (all of which were to Chris Moore), and the Buckeyes limited Kiel to a measly 131 passing yards! Now... let's exam all three of those passes to C.Moore... the 1st one was essentially a 'jump ball' pass. Vonn Bell (#11) was in decent position (yeah, you could argue he was a little beat, but all he has to do is turn his head around and look back for the football and he probably has an INT; heck... Bell even had his arm in-between Moore's hands and could have ripped the ball out!) So the first catch was very lucky on Kiel's part, and quite a bit of skill on Moore's part. As for the touchdown pass to Moore that was called back... the rule (Ineligible Receiver Downfield) clearly states... "No originally ineligible receiver shall be or have been more than three yards beyond the neutral zone until a legal forward pass that crosses the neutral zone has been thrown (A.R. 7-3-10-I and II). It's tough to make it out, but if you look closely, there's about 3 Bearcat OL who are 3-4 yards past the original LOS (the original LOS was about the 45... the 3 OL were at about the 41-42). REGARDLESS... this wasn't even a GUNNER KIEL PLAY! It was Jarred Evans! (not to be confused with Cincy Bearcat alum Jared Fawley). Cincy fans... ask yourself... who was Jarred Evans in the game at this point if Gunner Kiel was doing such a fantastic job?! Could it be because they were down 7-30 and Kiel wasn't doing anything great?!?! Hmmm... Now let's look at the 3rd play... first & foremost, what in the world Chris Ash (OSU's co-defensive coordinator) is doing with our DBs playing 7-10 yards off the Bearcat wide receivers on 1st and 10 is beyond me. That's just terrible coaching to begin with, and pisses me off even more because Ash vowed that we would play more press-coverage at the beginning of the season! Where the press coverage has been, I don't know. Still waiting... But back to the play at hand, Moore essentially toasts Eli Apple (#13) and blows right by him. I suppose we can give props to Kiel for hitting Moore in stride, but then again, Moore had Apple by a good 2-3 yards, so again I think this is more the talent of Moore than it was anything Kiel really did. It was a deep ball. They connected. Terrible coverage. Terrible scheming. You really want to own that one? Ok. Now... finally on to the 3rd and final big play.... Doran Grant (#12) gets the weakest bump-and-run coverage I have ever seen (perhaps this is why Ash isn't playing press coverage?). He basically love-taps Moore and essentially gives Moore a free release. Then, to compound matters, my boy Tyvis Powell (#23)... Lord knows where he's going (running to the sideline). He bit hard on the screen, and for the life of me I don't know why because you have Moore streaking downfield and while Kiel did pump the screen route, Kiel then recollects himself and even pumps again on Moore's route, yet Powell is still sprinting to the sideline! So... you can sit there Cincinnati fans and you can toot your horn about how Gunner Kiel had a "phenomenal day"... but at the end of the day, OSU's secondary play was ATROCIOUS on 3 plays, and then they held Kiel in check the rest of the game for 131 passing yards! OSU's woefully secondary play has been well documented. So... it's not like Cincy blasted some well-oiled Alabama-like secondary.
OSU found their pony -- Ezekiel Elliott. I say "pony" because as impressive as Elliott was on Saturday, he's still no Carlos Hyde ("horse"... again, not to be confused with Jared Fawley). Elliott had somewhat of a coming out party, amassing 182 yards on the ground (6.5 avg) and 51 receiving yards. But what the numbers don't show is truly how impressive Elliott looked running the ball. He ran as hard as I've ever seen him run (noise down, lowering the shoulder, diving for every last yard, etc.). I was thoroughly impressed. Barrett ran the ball well too (amassing 79 yards on the ground, channeling his inner Braxton Miller). I thought Rod Smith looked great grinding out the "tough" short yardage plays.
The receiving group put forth probably their best performance to date, and yet still they had several key drops (3 consecutive drops, if I remember correctly). Devin Smith's drop is the key one that sticks out to me. He literally had a first down, and with no one even remotely near him, he turns and drops the ball. Dontre Wilson looked absolutely fantastic in the receiving game (6 receptions for 71 yards). As I've been saying all season long throughout every single one of these Game Reviews... OSU needs to focus on getting the ball into Wilson, Smith, and Thomas's hands more (and a TE here or there). I'm done with Evan Spencer. I'm done with Corey Smith. These guys are simply taking targets away from guys who could be our big playmakers.
The offensive line looked GREAT. By far their best performance all season. Barrett had HOURS to sit in the pocket and throw. I don't recall Cincinnati blitzing that much (which was slightly surprising considering all the luck Va Tech had blitzing; my only thought regarding this is perhaps the Bearcats coaching staff saw the Kent State game tape, and Kent State tried blitzing a bunch but OSu was able to handle it pretty well; so perhaps the Bearcats coaching staff thought OSU was good at picking up the blitz? Idk.).
Defensive line. What was once the strength of the team is now becoming just another 'group', in my opinion. Joey Bosa is without question NFL ready. Scary to think that this kid has 1 more year (technically 2, but let's face it... this kid is as good as gone after his Junior season) year/season. My fear tho is starting to come true... the OSU defensive line is essentially Joey Bosa, Michael Bennett, and Adolphus Washington. The 4th guy (Frazier or Miller) is essentially worthless. Definitely starting to feel the loss of Spence (sidenote: When is an official ruling/statement going to be levied re: Spence?!?! I haven't heard squat after the news broke re: his 2nd failed drug test). I'm all for kicking Frazier and Miller to the side and testing our Jalyn Holmes, Tyquan Lewis, or Dante Booker at the 2nd DE spot.
LBs. Was thrilled to see Raekwon McMillan receiving so much PT. The writing is on the wall... Curtis Grant is just absolutely a non-factor when it comes to the passing defense. I think the reason we saw McMillan receiving so many minutes on Saturday was because Cincinnati was throwing the ball 63% of the time. (sidenote: for as much as I've dogged Cincinnati, I think they have 3 helluva good LBs in Leviticus Payne (best name award), Nick Temple, and Jeff Luc. Payne to me looked like NFL potential, and Temple and Luc looked pretty solid as well. Can't believe I'm going to say this, but I would prefer to have those 3 over Curtis Grant, Josh Perry, and Darron Lee as a group).
Secondary. The secondary was atrocious. This group gets an F. Yeah they only gave up 131 yards (minus 3 big plays), but I'm tired of seeing the big plays. When is this group going to buckle down and play Silver Bullet Buckeye defense? It's time. Enough is enough. I'm tired of seeing our guys chasing after other guys, and I'm tired of seeing our guys being unable to CATCH the other guys when they ARE chasing them! Where's our speed!?!?! Chris Moore made our secondary look like Swiss cheese. It was embarrassing.
All-in-all... I think this was the Buckeyes best game yet, which is actually encouraging because they didn't really even play to their fullest capability (significant dropped passes and terrible pass D). So there's still plenty of room for the team to improve. I have zero idea how anyone can come to the conclusion that the Buckeyes did not dominate this game. They were up 30-7 late in the 2nd Quarter, until Curtis Samuel fumbled and the momentum quickly shifted to Cincinnati's favor. But if you look at the numbers, the Buckeyes nearly doubled the Bearcats output (710 Total Yards vs 422), throttled the Bearcats in # of 1st downs (45 vs 15), and killed them in rushing yards (380 vs 70). Not to mention, the final score was 50-28 (almost double'd em up). (I think the final game line was 17 points, no? So the Buckeyes even beat the spread). IMO, this was a thorough domination in almost every regard. Hopefully this will shut all the 'Nati fans up for another 5-10 years until inevitably we have to listen to them bitch & moan about how "you're afraid to play us" and "The Buckeyes don't play anyone... you should play us", etc. Just STOP. It's been over 100+years since you were even "in a game" against Ohio State (1911 OSU 11 CIN 6) So STOP IT already.
On the brightside Cincinnati fans... hey, at least you're not Michigan and your program isn't releasing statements at 1 a.m. ET ;-)
Finally my Buckeye brethern... I leave you with this gem...
For those of you who didn't notice/hear about it... an idiot fan ran out onto the field on Saturday. Unfortunately for that idiot, he ran into former OSU LB and now current strength coach, Anthony Schlegel.
Looks like this twit was guilty of multiple violations (notice the concealed drinking bag)
And one more glorious link.
I lied... one more link... ElevenWarriors had a nice 'Five Things' wrap up the game vs. the Bearcats..
I lied... one more link... ElevenWarriors had a nice 'Five Things' wrap up the game vs. the Bearcats..
No comments:
Post a Comment