Photo Credit - Getty Images
Though not in the most exciting fashion, the Buckeyes did their thing in Ann Arbor yesterday, defeating Coach Rich Rodriguez’ squad 21-10. It was the sixth straight win for Ohio State in the long-standing rivalry, the longest winning streak in the history of The Game.
I spent my afternoon hosting a party and didn’t catch all of the game because of being a fabulous host (I also didn’t remember to DVR the game to watch through it again because I’m a fabulous moron). Rather than putting up a full game recap, I thought I’d give some bullet points from the game.
- The offense is officially here, and has been since the Purdue loss. Though decidedly vanilla, the offense has become efficient and productive. Nobody is going to mistake this team for any Big 12 offense, but the ground game is extremely good, and Pryor has minimized mistakes in the throwing game.
- The defensive line came up big again this game, setting the tone early with a tackle for loss then the forced fumble that was recovered for a TD. As much as Cam Heyward says he’ll be back, I wouldn’t blame him one bit if he goes to the NFL.
- Can we get off of the Tate Forcier = phenom/genius/footballjesus2.0 talk now, please? More specifically, can we go back and flagellate anyone who was actually talking this garbage? After Week 2, the only hotter commodity in the college football world was Matt Barkley. Seems like a lot of people got ahead of themselves with that one. I’m not saying the kid doesn’t have the potential to be good, but I’d like nothing more than to see Pat Forde own up to missing the mark on this one.
- Terrelle Pryor has slowly evolved this season, with pronounced changes in his play after the Purdue loss. Hopefully we see him take this momentum by the reins and he works to improve himself even more.
- Buckeye fans are the best. (H/T @Ramzyn via 11W)
- Oregon scares the crap out of me. They can put up points seemingly at will, as the Arizona game last night demonstrated. Our secondary has proven to be a bit suspect and I can’t help but think that the Ducks might shred it up. That being said, their defense isn’t all that great (but then again neither is our offense).
- Enjoy it kids, we’ve got another year of gloating to do – because next year, Michigan will be much, much better.
Author: DennyMayo
Denny Mayo is a Northern Ohio native and Ohio State alumnus who currently lives in (and therefore blogs from) Washington, DC. Because he lives in the District, he clearly does not understand anything about Cleveland sports. Contact Denny via email: denny(at)waitingfornextyear(dot)com or on TwitterDenny Mayo has written 204 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Basically yes all-around. Forcier was the MVP of that game. This defense epitomizes “opportunistic.” I’m too lazy to look it up, but it’s highly possible/likely that OSU now leads 1-A in takeaways.
Oregon is scary, but it’s a better matchup than the last couple years. OSU’s front 7 is one of the best in the country this year, easily, and I want to see what happens to Masoli with Gibson in his face. Plus, seriously, it’s been forever since OSU’s been to the Rose Bowl, even including 3 NC games and a ton of BCS games in between. This is one matchup/year where tradition should be fun.
Great game. Hey, how did you guys feel about the new uniforms? I Thought they were pretty sweet.
Love the new uni’s. I’d like to see them with the traditional helmet, and maybe a home version in red.
They might be a bit better next year, but so will we. 7 in a row. Book it.
I wasn’t all that impressed with Oregon’s offense, yes they are very good but I wouldn’t say they can score at will. Masoli is a good passer but their running game is really what makes them go, and as long as OSU doesn’t miss as many tackles as Arizona did they should be ok
Oregon’s great strength on offense is hiding the ball so the defense doesn’t know where it is. If OSU can manage to stop the run game with only 7 players, then Oregon’s offense won’t work. Masoli isn’t a very good passer (he overthrew a receiver by about 30 yards once in last night’s game; the refs of course decided to help him by calling pass interference).
Anyway, Oregon’s defense is legit, though; Arizona just brought its good offense to this game. Plus a couple overtimes will tend to run up the score and make the D look bad. The defense is small and fast, so a power running team can really get to them (see Stanford). I don’t know if that’s OSU or not.
Keep in mind Oregon State also has a chance to go to the Rose Bowl. But if Ohio State can’t beat them…
As the site’s lone Michigan fan writer, I’m here to take my lumps like a man. As I texted a couple of the guys yesterday post game, Tate Forcier had trouble completing his passes with both hands around his neck. Some of that is the fact that he’s a freshman who put too much pressure on himself and tried to do too much. Where I disagree with this write up is here:
The offense is officially here, and has been since the Purdue loss. Though decidedly vanilla, the offense has become efficient and productive.
No disrespect, as OSU won the game. But, you scored 14 points on offense against by far the worst defense in the conference. I wouldn’t say that qualifies as an offense that was “here” for the game.
As for Oregon, Arizona let Masoli just sit back there. OSU wouldn’t do that. Howevaaaa, Michigan moved the ball well enough between the 20’s to win the game; they just gagged in the red zone (missed FG, forced INT).
In short, OSU didn’t have to play perfectly to beat Michigan; even I can see that. But, they have to play a lot better than they did against Michigan to beat Oregon, I would say.
Worried bout Oregon, but I think we are overstating their ability to score on our defense. We’ve always been criticized that we don’t cover the spread well, but the defense played extraordinarily well against Texas (better than almost any other defense that played Texas that year.) Granted, Oregon’s spread offense does have distinct variations from Texas’, but I just don’t say any team scoring more than 20-28 points on this defense.
It will come down to our offense (as per usual). Last year’s bowl game showed us that Tressel is willing to mix it up for bowl games, so I don’t expect to see the typical TresselBall we’ve been seeing the last 4-5 weeks.
@ VN – great points. I too expect the offense to open up a little for the bowl game. Give Tressel a few more weeks to work with Pryor too on passing plays and it’s even more likely. Nice defense driven win yesterday. O-H!
Denny – great video post. Michigan should be embarrassed to allow that in their house.
Everyone said how that Texas offense that was light years ahead of this Oregon offense was going to ROLL the buckeyes. Well that didn’t happen, we lost the game but it wasn’t cause they hung 45 on us.
@ VN – good points. I know Tress tends to mix it up in bowl games, but the results have been mixed (Texas good, LSU bad).
@ AMC – the best part was their band trying to drown it out, to no avail. The aerial shots of the stadium showed a LOT of scarlet in the stands. Woo!
Inventing history? The longest win streak in the rivalry’s history is still owned by Michigan, at nine games.
Wait, the offense is “here”?!
21 total points w/ a defensive TD on 5 turnovers is anything but “here” for the offense. It was great to see the Buckeyes win but I think they were a far cry from what they should have been on offense. They need to come out strong in the Rose Bowl and win a bowl game to show that they are in the top 10 in the nation.