Buckeye 12 Pack- Minnesota Edition

On Saturday Ohio State beat Minnesota 52-10. What follows are my take aways from the game.

No. 1– A solid W. Once again the Buckeyes took care of business and did it early. Minnesota doesn’t have a Big Ten victory yet, but I think they are better than Purdue right now.

No. 2– We’ll start with offense. And this time I’m going to praise DeVier Posey. Yes, his 6 catches for 115 yards and a score led the team, but it was what he did without the ball that caught my attention. Start with Pryor’s long run. Posey added another 10 yards to that run easy with his down field blocking. There were two other plays- a screen pass and run by Jordan Hall, in which Posey sprang the back for big gains. When the receivers block, these plays turn from 4 yard gains to 15+ yard gains.

No. 3– Let’s go the less obvious route again. Reid Fragel did a nice job filling in for Stoneburner while he was injured, and earned himself some playing time. He is a nice big target across the middle for Pryor to find, as he did on a third and short deep in Ohio State’s own territory. At 6-8 he reached up and grabbed the ball just a hair over his helmet, which was a foot taller than the defensive back covering him. Add to this Pryor’s tendency to throw high and I like this combination on third down.

No. 4– Dan Herron. Finally got his 100 yard game, and it only took him a half to do it. In fact, none of his 17 carries or 114 yards came in the second half. I’ll get to that in a minute. I am so impressed with Herron’s progress this season. He is really seeing the field well, and allowing the play to develop in front of him. He knows when to hit the hole hard. Very impressed.

No. 5– I don’t completely understand Tressel’s substitution patterns this season. Herron played about 4 snaps after halftime, all out of the double back set with Brandon Saine, with Saine getting the carries. He did not get into the game after that first series of the second half. Now, the Bucks were leading 31-7, so I get that. Sort of. I know you don’t want someone getting hurt in a blowout, but if that is the excuse, why was Pryor in the game in the fourth quarter up 38-10? Herron should still be plenty fresh for the rest of the season, as he averages only 14 attempts a game.

No. 6– Pryor managed the game very well, and aside from the bonehead interception in the end zone found his receivers in stride and on target. The few scrambles he made should ease a little of the discussion that Pryor isn’t healthy enough to be a weapon running the ball right now. He looked good to me, and has the bye week to heal even more.

No. 7– Defensively, the secondary struggled a bit. The young safeties did not have a great game, but hopefully will learn from this one. too much cushion was given and that led to a number of deep passes completed. On the plus side, they didn’t let anyone get behind them.

No. 8– Tough game for Jermale Hines. The senior gave up a 35 yard reception on the first play for the Gophers when he misjudged the ball and got turned around. He missed the tackle on Minnesota’s touchdown on the same drive. Later he had the facemask penalty that gave Minnesota a first down on their FG drive, and he ‘broke-up’ an interception which would have prevented the FG as well.

No. 9– Chimdi Chekwa doen’t get much ink here, mostly because teams aren’t really trying to challenge him. I suppose with as many injuries as the Bucks have had in the secondary, it doesn’t make sense for other teams to target Chekwa. He’s done a good job taking on each team’s best WR. He made a nice play to pick off his third pass of the season.

No. 10– I thought we could be in huge trouble when Torrence went out of the game. That sure looked like a possible concussion to me, and it appears the training staff was pulling the hidden helmet trick to keep Torrence off the field in the first half. If you watch the game again, you can see Devon looking for his helmet as the team goes into the locker room at halftime. Torrence would come back into the game in the second half, and so it would appear that he is going to be fine. I said it in last week’s 12 pack- losing Torrence or Chekwa would be devastating to this defense down the road.

No. 11– Cam Heyward made some nice plays in the screen game this week. He also had one heck of a block on Jordan Hall’s long punt return. It was a running pancake block. Very nice.

No. 12– The special teams were fortunate this week. Yes, there was a nice blocked punt for a TD, and of course Hall’s punt return. There were also 2 or 3 kick-offs that quite easily could have been returned for scores. 3 times Minnesota started on their own 40 or better because of long kick returns. Twice it was the kicker that saved a score.

The Buckeyes have a week off to get healthy for the stretch run. Next week in the place of the 12 pack we’ll have a mid-season grades/awards extravaganza.

AP Photo/Paul Battaglia