Thoughts on OSU vs. Michigan State | Week 11 (2014)

I wanted to watch the game a 2nd time before I wrote this week's edition (especially for the hype again), but unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to do so, so much of this is going to be going off of memory/recall.  Usually I like to put these together Sunday night / Monday morning and get them out Monday night / Tuesday morning, but unfortunately I'm just now (i.e., Tuesday morning) piecing this one together.  So let's get started...

Normally I like to start with the Offense (especially the skilled players), but this week I think we have to start with the Coaching staff.  For the longest time, we've been hearing about how everyone (Meyer, Herman, Buckeye players, Fans, etc.) had this one (i.e., Michigan State) circled on the calendar.  Going into this game, I was asked by an avid Michigan fan, "So does OSU win this weekend?"  My answer...?  I said I thought "Both teams will play hard... Both teams have 2 great coaches... Both [coaches] will have their respective teams ready for battle."  I was blasted for saying "general fluff", but after watching the game, I'm not sure I could have said anything truer.

Both teams did play hard.  Playing hard won't show up in the numbers, but if you watched the game, you heard the cracking of the shoulder pads and you saw guys like Ezekiel Elliott (225 lbs) making some of the biggest hits/blocks and running people over, and Buckeyes flying to the football.

Both teams were well prepared (a byproduct of great coaches/coaching).

• Ohio State (J.T. Barrett) racked up 300 passing yards & 3 TDs (386 total yards; tying Troy Smith's 2004 performance vs. Michigan for the 4th highest single-game total in OSU history)... Rushed for 268 yards (Ezekiel Elliott ran for 154), and had (obviously) 300 receiving yards (Devin Smith 129 on 6 receptions and Michael Thomas 91 yards on 3 receptions).

• Barrett was responsible for 5 TDs on Saturday (on his way to becoming Athlon Sports National Player of the Week), and he has now been responsible for 34 touchdowns on the season and only needs 3 more to break Braxton Miller's school record of 36 [which was set just last season under Urban Meyer].

• The Buckeyes improved to 32-3 (.914) under Meyer and have the 2nd highest winning percentage among FBS teams since the start of the 2012 season.

• Urban Meyer is now 36-3 in the month of November (since the start of the 2003 season) and is now 27-12 in his career against Top 25 teams, and 12-5 against the Top 10 (6-2 against Top 25 teams at Ohio State).

• Barrett has been responsible for at least 4 TD's in 5 of 9 games this season.

• Michigan State (Connor Cook) threw for 358 passing yards & 2 TDs... Rushed for 178 yards (Jeremy Langford ran for 137), and had (obviously) 358 receiving yards (Kings, Mumphrey, & Price all had 70-some receiving yards, and Ohio State's Doran Grant managed to hold MSU's stud receiver Tony Lippett to a mere 64 receiving yards).

• If you don't think those numbers indicate/show/represent teams that were "prepared" by excellent coaches, then watch this montage and you'll see what horrible 'preparation' is.

• When a team (Ohio State) scores (and not just scores, but scores TOUCHDOWNS) on 7 of it's 10 drives (and let's not forget, OSU's K Sean Nuernberger missed a 47 yd FG on OSU's opening drive) against a team (Michigan State) that gave up 20 points and 279 yards a game (and moved the ball offensively to the tune of 46 points, 515 total yards a game).

• OSU put up nearly 300 more total yards than MSU had allowed per game coming in (OSU's 568 vs MSU's 279.4 average yards given up).

• Michigan State's defense came into the game ranked as the 5th best defense in the country.

I'm sorry, but you can't put up 49 points (7 touchdowns) against a team that averages giving up 20 points a game without being prepared.  The simple fact is... the general college football fan (and even many Buckeye fans) had been blasting Meyer & Herman for 'Where's your big Win?  Where's your signature Win since coaching the Buckeyes?  Since taking over the Buckeyes, you have nothing to show / hang your hat on.'  Well... I think it's safe to say now... Meyer & Herman coached a magnificent game and had this team ready & prepared for the battle.  Props to Meyer & Herman for calling an aggressive game (but let's not forget it was Barrett making only his 9th career start and delivering teardrop passes).

Not many souls were predicting a Win for the Buckeyes going into East Lansing. According to Vegas, Mark Dantonio, Lee Corso, and many of the "national experts"... The Buckeyes were supposed to lose.  But quite the contrary, actually, took place.  Instead, OSU dominated a very good Michigan State team (Let's not forget... MSU was the #8 College Football Playoff team going into the weekend).  Think about it... if it wasn't for...

• A missed 47 yd FG (by literally 1 ft...) [That's 3 pts...]

• And let's not forget... the biggest reason OSU's opening drive stalled was a False Start penalty on Pat Elflein that put OSU into a 1st & 15...

• A 'fumbled' (I can't even call it a fumble because it was really just bad luck as Jeff Greene had no clue where the football even was... Jalin Marshall needs to Fair Catch that punt...) which gave the ball right back to Michigan State @ OSU's 33 yard line [Leading to -7 pts for Sparty and who knows - perhaps taking 7 pts off the board for OSU - how many possible points off the board for OSU.  When OSU moved the ball pretty much at will all night, what's to stop you from thinking they wouldn't have scored another 3-7 points?!]

• A questionable 'illegal use of hands' penalty on Taylor Decker that put OSU in a 2nd & 30. [Again, when OSU was literally moving the ball & scoring at will pretty much the entire rest of the game, who knows how many points that questionable call kept off the board].  OSU was at MSU's 27, so you figure they either go in for 7 or likely come out with 3.  [There's another 3-7 pts...]

• A fumbled kick return by Dontre Wilson that turned the ball over to Michigan State. [Fortunately this only lead to a missed FG for Sparty; so really it didn't even end up mattering in the end.]

• The last drive of the game for OSU was simply just OSU trying to run out the clock.  That drive consisted of 10 plays (not counting the actual punt on 4th Down), and of those 10 plays, OSU ran the ball 8x.  You gotta figure if OSU wasn't playing conservative here & trying to run out the clock, they probably could have scored another 3-7 pots (as they had scored on just about every other drive of the night).

So... as we know... the game finished Ohio State 49, Michigan State 37; but really... this game could have very easily ended up / been more like Ohio State 55/59/62/66, Michigan State 30.  Somewhere in that range.

I think this pretty much sums it up...

I think Ohio State came off as very impressive.  Even Uncle Colin seemed to think so too.  He said it best... Ohio State has clearly grown, and maybe even more so than any other team in college football.  Ohio State's loss to Virginia Tech is terrible & inexcusable, but let's not forget that that was J.T. Barrett's 1st big game & he was a freshman.  Barrett has matured & grown immensely in the 8 weeks since that game.  Barrett now looks like a legitimate Heisman contender (No, he probably won't win and sure there's better players out there, but Barrett is certainly in the upper echelon of college quarterbacks right now).

Even Colin Cowherd has come around... Colin has Ohio State in the Final Four now after OSU's dominant win over Sparty.  And while I don't have OSU in the Final Four [yet], I do think they have a legitimate argument to be considered!  The Buckeyes have been on a roll since the Virginia Tech game, and they've been steamrolling everyone. 66, 50, 52, 56, 31, 55, and now 49 pts the Buckeyes have put up since Virginia Tech.  That's 49+ pts in 6 of their last 7 games!  The Buckeyes have the 16th most Total Yards, the 7th best 3rd Down %, the 14th most Rushing Yards, and J.T. Barrett is the 5th ranked TOTAL QBR in the country.  If that's not steamrolling & growth, then I don't know what is.

That Virginia Tech game was Barrett's 1st game as a starter in a stadium of more than 60,000 people.  (OSU vs Navy attendance was 57,579.)  The attendance for the Va Tech game was 107,517!  That's nearly double the crowd of the Navy game!  You'd crap your pants to if you had to play infront of that environment.  But since the Va Tech game, Barrett has looked nothing short of stellar.  And even the haters can't deny Barrett's on-the-field performance, as Barrett was recently named a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award (an award given each season to the most outstanding QB in the country).

I was happy to see our Offensive Line step up.  Previously, against the two best defenses Ohio State had seen prior to Saturday night - Virginia Tech and Penn State - the offensive line had struggled.  Barrett was sacked 7x vs. the Hokies and 3x + constant harrassment vs. the Nittany Lions.  But on Saturday vs. MSU, the offensive line faired much better and gave Barrett enough time to rack up 586 yards of total offense.

I loved seeing the adversity of this team.  Even tho things were rolling for the Buckeyes, the team still managed to fall behind three times in the 1st Half, and yet they still overcame mistakes and took a 28-21 halftime lead.  That's fighting hard.

The play of the game was easily at the beginning of the 2nd Quarter, when the Buckeyes were down 7 to 14, and facing a 3rd & 23 on their own 36.  Barrett managed to drop back and connect with Devin Smith on a PERFECT over-the-shoulder pass to Smith.

The thing that was most impressive, however, was how the Buckeyes OWNED 3rd Down.  The Buckeyes went 10/14 on the most critical down in football, but Barrett himself was even slightly better as he either ran for, or was the trigger man, on 9 successful conversions in 12 tries (Elliott accounted for 1/2).  This takes me perfectly to my next point... MSU had ZERO answer for our 5-wide spread formation where we motioned in our TE (I think it was mostly Jeff Heuerman) and ran an empty back-field QB draw/read with J.T. Barrett.  This happened at least 5x on 3rd Down, and I think another couple times throughout the game.  I wish I could find a video/gif of this play (because it was so on point), but unfortunately I haven't stumbled upon any material regarding this yet.  Ughh... it was a thing of beauty.  As for Barrett's two "failures" on 3rd Down... one of them was when he faced a 3rd & 15 and only found Smith for a 9 yard gain (before Nuernberger missed his 47-yard FG attempt), and the other was on 3rd & 29 when Barrett was sacked.

Devin Smith.  I said previously that I thought this guy would be a better NFL talent than his college numbers show.  While he's not racking up the targets, catches/receptions, and yards... he is doing one thing... ALL HE DOES IS CATCH TOUCHDOWNS.  I'm telling you... if Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles can someone find a way to get a hold of Devin Smith in the NFL Draft... WATCH OUT.

The Buckeye defense wasn't exactly stellar (giving up 536 total yards of offense), but they did for the most part shut down MSU's big guns.  Yeah Jeremy Langford rushed for 137 yards (7.6 ypc), but to be honest, he didn't do anything memorable.  Those yards were mostly a byproduct of Langford getting the work-horse share of the carries.  And Yeah Cook threw for 358 yards (which is impressive), but watching the game it truly felt like Grant was shutting down Lippett and the majority of those passing/receiving yards were coming on our 2nd corner.  And I've said all along... if there's one weak-spot on this defense, it's the 2nd corner position.  Apple was questionable with a hammy and didn't start the game, but Conley was so terrible at the beginning that the coaches turned to Apple and asked him to give it a go / step up.  While Apple didn't have the greatest night, I did think he battled admirably (netting 4 stops, a tackle-for-loss, and 2 pass breakups). ... Bosa was mostly a non-factor (which was a little disappointing, but maybe MSU's Jack Conklin might be the real deal)

Bonus Material

• The College GameDay Signs were pretty good.
• Ohio State has not lost in East Lansing (i.e., @ MSU) since 1999, and has a 15-5 edge all-time vs. the Spartans in East Lansing.
• ESecPN already attempting to undermine Ohio State's win...
• O-H-I-O rolls around Spartan Stadium
• Darron Lee putting ESPN troll lord Skip Bayless in check...

• Lou Holtz gets it...
• OSU points vs MSU on Saturday night... 49.  Michigan points vs MSU during Brady Hoke era... 43.  #Ouch
• We all should listen to Ezekiel Elliott perhaps a little more...
• Quotebook: 'This is one for the ages...'
• Statagram: Ohio State 49, Michigan State 37
• Let's watch it again:  Buckeye swag and Carmen Ohio following Ohio State's win over Michigan State

Thoughts on OSU vs. Illinois | Week 10 (2014)

Going to try to keep this one short & sweet.  There really isn't a lot to write home about... It pretty much went as expected - total domination by the Buckeyes.  Couple interesting points:

• I was really surprised Curtis Samuel received the starting nod at tailback.  I looked around feverishly to try to find out why, and so far I haven't had much luck coming up with any plausible explanations as to why.  The speculation floating around the Twitterverse & Message Boards was that obviously Ezekiel Elliott must have done something the coaches didn't like, and this was his 'punishment'.
• OSU's 1st drive lasted 3 plays; there was only 1 run - Curtis Samuel on a 23 yd rush for a TD.
• OSU's 2nd drive saw 9 plays; 3 of them were runs - Curtis Samuel 2 runs for 6 yds, J.T. Barrett 1 run for 14 yds
• The closest thing I could find was Meyer said RB coach Stan Drayton went to Meyer in the middle of the week and said he wanted to start Curtis Samuel because "he's doing everything right, and practices at an extremely high level."
• Ezekiel Elliott didn't see his 1st action until the start of OSU's 3rd drive (which started with just over 5 minutes remaining in the 1st Q).
• This is very alarming to me.  Had Elliott started and saw the few attempts he had (9 car, 1 rec) I would have said 'Oh, this was just OSU resting Elliott & trying to make sure he doesn't get dinged up before arguably their most important game of the season - Michigan State.'  But because Elliott didn't start, this leads me to believe there was some 'punishment' going on and that is NOT a good thing.  If OSU is going to stand any chance of knocking off the Spartans, they're going to need their full compliment of weapons, and that BEGINS with Elliott.

• I thought Barrett took another step backwards on Saturday.  Time & time again we saw him missing wide open receivers (the most glaring one was when he had Heuerman wide open for a touchdown but overthrew him).  It was so bad/obvious that even the announcers chimed in and noted how Barrett's passes were not on point and how he looked uncomfortable.  Now, the obvious speculation is that his knee was bothering him, due to the MCL sprain he suffered last on his left knee week, but I would expect that to effect his running / mobility in the pocket; not his touch on passes.  And it looked like Barrett was able to scramble fairly well on Saturday, but he was not able to hit wide open targets.  This is VERY alarming, because Barrett can't hit his targets this upcoming Saturday, then the Buckeyes will be in for a looong night.

• I thought Cardale Jones looked very solid, and I almost even wish he started (not to stir up a QB controversy, but rather to protect/rest-up Barrett and make sure he's good for East Lansing).  Jones ran the ball for 47 yds (6.7 avg) and passed for 82 yds (9.1 avg, QBR 94.6).  I'm not sure Jones is a guy that's capable of defeating the likes of Nebraska, Wisconsin, Maryland or Minnesota this season... but Illinois is absolutely AWFUL and Jones could have beaten then with one arm tied behind his back.  I was very pleased to see the staff pull Barrett at the beginning of the 2nd Half and let Jones handle the rest.
• Which brings me to my next point... Jones isn't a "freak athlete", but he is somewhat of a 'freak' athlete.  I would love to see the staff move Jones to TE; especially with all the noise about how depleted we supposedly are at TE are and all the recent struggles at recruiting a solid TE.  In no way are they even remotely close, but Jones reminds me a bit of Michigan's Devin Funchess.  Yes, Funchcess is more of a pure receiver than Jones is, but Jones has the size (like Funchess) and the speed to be a nice TE I believe.  I'd like to see Funchess make the switch next season (not this season, because we need a viable QB backup should something happen to Barrett).
• Also... how bout that hit stick Jones put on his fellow Glenville Tarblooder V'Angelo Bentley... #Wrecked

• The guy who is really starting to come along & impress is #17 Jalin Marshall.  Marshall is slowly starting to warrant more & more touches.  I love the kid's versatility - you can line him up in the slot, at H-back, or even a direct-snap.  I didn't think I would end up saying this... but Marshall might be a better H-back than Dontre Wilson.  Let that sink in for a moment...
• Don't be surprised if we see Marshall airing it out a time or 2 vs. Sparty; and if not Sparty, then I'll guarantee it against either Indiana or Michigan.

• Devin Smith had a nice night... connecting on 2 bombs (both ending in touchdowns -- tying him for 3rd-most in Ohio State history with Santonio Holmes) for a total of 3 rec for 72 yds.

• I didn't get to catch who it was, but on OSU's 1st scoring play, there was a massive crack-back block by an OSU wide receiver.  I rewound it several times, but unfortunately I was never able to quite make out who it was.  I even tried searching the Message Boards and Twitter, but no one else seemed to be talking about it.  I really wanted to give props to this unsung hero, but unfortunately it apepars he'll have to remain nameless unless someone else can chime in & help me. [Edit: per Jason White, it was Noah Brown on the crack-back block]
• Looks like ElevenWarriors did a nice write-up on this play...

• I thought the Buckeye defense looked great.  They held the Fighting Illini offense to a measly 243 total yards (Illinois had been averaging 390.5 yards/game), netted 11 tackles for loss & 3 sacks, and forced 4 turnovers that ultimately let to 17 points.

• Ohio State has now scored 50-plus points 5x this season... Most among FBS teams.

• True freshmen making impacts... Jalyn Holmes netted 4 tackles, Raekwon McMillan netted 4 tackles, and Erick Smith netted 3 tackles.

• Was I the only one who noticed/caught James Crawford Jr taking a leak on the sideline?!

• It's becoming glaringly obvious [to me at least] as as each week passes, that Buckeye fans were widely mistaken.  This was NEVER going to be "our year"; "our year" HAS ALWAYS BEEN meant to be next season.  You look at this team across the board, and all you see is youth.  I know it's going to sound absolutely crazy, but the best thing that could have ever happened to this team, happened... and that was Braxton Miller going down.  If Braxton didn't go down, we'd likely be breaking in a new QB next season, and there would be a TON of question marks.  But now... having a year of experience under Barrett's belt, the Buckeyes know what they have at QB (with or without Miller).  Barrett will have the year of experience... there won't be a "Virginia Tech" game next season (largely because we won't have an inexperienced QB making his 1st big collegiate start).  Next year should have always been 'the year'.
• On Offense...
• OL = This year you have a Jr, Fr, Jr, So, Sr. (i.e., the OL will likely return 4 starters next season, as opposed to breaking in 4 new starts this season)  Next year you'll have Sr, So, Sr, Jr, ??.
• WR = we lose our 'not-that-productive' guys like Evan Spencer and Devin Smith, and gain another year of experience for our playmakers like Michael Thomas (will be a Jr), Jalin Marshall (will be a So), & Dontre Wilson (will be a Jr).
• RB = after breaking in a brand new starter after arguably our greatest RB since Eddie George (i.e., Mr. El Guapo himself), next season we'll have a JR Eze Elliott and SO Curtis Samuel / JR Dontre Wilson.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY... QB = instead of breaking in a brand new QB next season, we'll either have a SO J.T. Barrett (now with a full year of experience under his belt) or the return of our Heisman Hopefully XBrax360 (aka Braxton Miller).
• On Defense...
• We'll still have our monster Joey Bosa (as he'll only be a Jr & therefore unable to enter the Draft), and hopefully Adolphus Washington (and maybe even Noah Spence back, tho I HIGHLY doubt it).
• Our LB core (i.e., Jr Darron Lee, So Raekwon mcMillan, Sr Joshua Perry) will easily be the strongest it's been since 2008 (i.e., Laurinaitis, Freeman, Terry, Homan/Rolle/Hines), maybe even the best since 2005 (i.e., Hawk, Carpenter, Schlegel).
• Next season, our secondary should be the only question mark, and technically it should only be 2 of the 4 positions (as we know guys like Jr Tyvis Powell, Jr Vonn Bell will lock down the safety positions; so really the only question is who will man the corner positions, and it's starting to shape up like Eli Apple and Conley/Reeves).
• Special Teams...
• K = SO Sean Nuernberger
• P = JR Cameron Johnston
• Oh the future is bright...